BakerAunt
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Learning a new oven, alas, takes time, Chocomouse. Yes, that is a great bread.
I love baking with Bosc pears, but my favorite recipes involved lots of butter. I bought some Bosc pears and thought about trying to alter the recipes, but given how the butter works in those recipes, I decided it would be best to seek out new ones. On Friday, I baked Pear Ginger Bundt Cake, from the Imperial Sugar site:
http://www.imperialsugar.com/recipes/pear-ginger-bundt-cake
I tweaked the recipe by replacing a third of the AP flour with barley flour, adding 3 Tbs. Bob’s Red Mill milk powder, replacing ¼ of the 1 cup of vegetable oil (I use canola) with buttermilk, and replacing the ½ cup of sour cream with nonfat Greek yogurt. I processed regular sugar in my small food processor to get the extrafine sugar specified. I used the Nordic Ware Chiffon Bundt pan (recipe calls for a 10-12 cup) because I have not used that one in a while and coated it with the pan grease. I checked it after an hour and decided, based on the tester to allow another 5 minutes. It’s cooling, so I will not be glazing it until tomorrow. I'll report back on the taste and flavor.
To accompany leftover roasted chicken thigh for Thursday’s dinner, I thawed a brown and wild rice mix that I froze a couple of weeks ago and added it to carrots and celery sauteed in olive oil, then mixed in minced parsley at the end. We also had microwaved fresh broccoli
My husband has some spinach growing in a planter on the enclosed porch. He worked out that if he opens one window, and puts a frame he made over it with clear sheet plastic, he can get light and heat on it for a few hours when the sun is shining. He also started pepper plants this winter. Those will be transplanted to the garden. We have figured out that bell peppers do not have enough time to grow here if started from seed in the ground.
He also has some green onions, and we've cut some of the green part off and let it grow back.
He will be thinking of starting some tomato plants soon.
I made another batch of yogurt on Wednesday.
Today the ice went off the lake after a couple days of warm weather and strong winds. It won't be back again this season.
On Wednesday, I baked “Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies No Butter,” a recipe from Jenny Can Cook. (I am grateful to Len for directing us to her website.) I made a double recipe and used white whole wheat flour in place of the AP and added 2 Tbs. milk powder and 1 Tbs. flax meal. I used the Zeroll #16 scoop to make 15 large cookies. I used regular (old-fashioned) oats, as the recipe did not specify. I found that I needed to flatten the dough somewhat before baking. I baked them on the third rack up in my oven (a little above halfway) and found that they needed 18 minutes, and I turned them around after 9 minutes. I taste tested a slightly warm one—yummy. These are big cookies, so a single cookie is satisfactory.
Good news, CWCdesign! Slow and steady gets the wrist healed!
We will finish the leftover pizza tomorrow. For dinner on Tuesday, I roasted chicken thighs, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with Penzey’s poultry seasoning and sweet curry in the big oven. In the countertop oven, I roasted potato wedges tossed in olive oil with Penzey’s Mural Seasoning. Microwaved fresh broccoli finished out the meal.
I made sourdough pan pizza for dinner on Monday. I used homemade tomato sauce with our home grown tomatoes that I froze in the fall and topped it with the usual Canadian bacon, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, red bell pepper, green onions, and grated Parmesan.
I ordered a 6 lb. bag of barley flour at Walmart.com on Friday afternoon. To my surprise it arrived Sunday afternoon by FedEx.
The company is Food to Live, which is located in New York. The shipping was free, and the price about what I would have paid for the Bob's Red Mill. Although the description said stone ground, that is not on the package, but it looks the same. I'll stash it in the second refrigerator for now, as I still have some of the Bob's Red Mill barley flour to finish.
I'll check out the company's website FoodToLive.com to see what else they carry.
Thanks for the lead, S. Wirth!
We will finish up the turkey-lentil-vegetable soup and the rolls I baked on Friday.
I spent Sunday afternoon in the kitchen. I used my Nordic Ware Quartet Bundt pan to make four Apple, Barley, and Olive Oil small cakes. Two will be wrapped and frozen, and two will be desserts for the next few dinners. The cakes used five of the old-fashioned Winesaps. I have seven left.
I also made the dough for another batch of my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I’ll bake those at the end of the week.
Joan--I have a 4-qt. Staub, a 5 1/2 -qt. Le Creuset, a 7 1/4-qt. Le Creuset (all of these are round), and an oval 8-qt Staub. Except for the 4-qt. (a good King Arthur sale), the rest came from Tuesday Morning years ago. I prefer them for all my soups, for cooking beans, and for braising roasts. I can even put them on the wood stove top to cook although now that I have my gas cooktop, I have not done so. I have never tried any of them for bread, although lots of people use them that way, and I replaced the Le Creuset lid knobs with metal ones, in case I ever decide to try it.
The Emile Henry Dutch oven is supposed to work over a flame as well, but I prefer to keep it for bread. I'm planning on trying some round loaves. Some people have reported sticking issues, but given my other ceramic bakers, greasing with Crisco and coating with farina does the trick for me. I won't be heating up the baker and dropping in the dough--too much risk/excitement for me. King Arthur reports that letting it rise in the baker and then baking works just as well. I'll start by following their recipes, then try it with the rustic sourdough.
Some years ago, I bought the Emile Henry ceramic Dutch oven from King Arthur. I had never used it, so I decided that it was time and brought it into the house about a month ago. While sorting through some recipes, I came upon a King Arthur one for Dutch Oven Dinner Rolls that uses this pot, so today I tried out both the recipe and the pot. I made some changes, as the recipe calls for ½ cup of butter. In the dough, I replaced the 4 Tbs. with 3 Tbs. olive oil and an additional tablespoon of buttermilk. I replaced ¾ cup of the water with buttermilk. I do not have non-diastatic malt powder, so I used 2 Tbs. Carnation malted milk. (I know, not the same.) I added 2 Tbs. flax meal and 1 Tbs. special dry milk. I deleted the buttermilk powder and used fresh buttermilk. I reduced the salt to 1 tsp. and the yeast to 1 ¾ tsp. I always proof my active yeast, and I did so in ¼ cup of water with ¼ tsp. honey. I let the bread machine do the kneading. The first rise took an hour. I greased the baking crock with Crisco instead of melting 3 Tbs. of butter in the bottom, and I also sprinkled it liberally with farina. I had some concerns, as the dough seemed a bit dry. After shaping the balls and placing them in the pot, I spritzed them with water. The second rise took 45 minutes (in the front room where the wood stove made it warmer). I spritzed again before baking with the lid on for 15 minutes, then removing it and baking another ten minutes. We had a couple of warm ones with dinner: delicious!
On Thursday, I baked my adaptation of Grandma A’s Ranch Hand Bread. (The recipe is posted here at Nebraska Kitchen, along with a recipe for a scaled down single loaf by Zen.) It makes three 8x4 loaves. I will freeze two. My adaptation includes adding ½ cup flax meal and 1/3 cup special dry milk, replacing 3 cups of the water with buttermilk, using 5 cups whole wheat flour and a mixture of bread and King Arthur AP, reducing the salt, replacing the 3 Tbs. of sugar with honey, and using 4 Tbs. olive oil in place of the butter.
I made another batch of yogurt on Thursday.
I also made soup, using Bob’s Red Mill Vegi soup Mix (a combination of split peas, brown and red lentils, and some barley), most of the chicken broth I made yesterday, and carrots and celery sauteed in olive oil with browned ground turkey. I rehydrated 1 Tbs. dried onion and seasoned with 1 Tbs. of Penzey’s Ozark seasoning and 1 Tbs. tomato paste. We had some soup with the leftover stir-fry for dinner.
Joan--If you can get some flat wood slats, about 1/16-inch thick, maybe about 14 inches long, you can put them on either side as you roll the dough (slats should be under ends of rolling pin), and that will help get the correct thickness throughout. I have a set of "pie wands" that I use for that, but it should be possible to find some thin wood slats of the proper size at either a craft store or maybe a home store.
I'm glad you liked the crackers!
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