BakerAunt
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Your bread sounds so good, Joan.
Aaron--in case you want the homemade fig newton recipe as well, here is Deb Perelman's adaptation of Stella Parks' recipe:
For me, the butter in the recipe is prohibitive, but I am tempted to make the filling and to try it on the oat bar recipe.
Here you go Arron:
Usually, with my jam, the bar cookies are too soft to be picked up by hand, but this time, we could do it, maybe due to the thickness of the preserves.
I bake it in a glass baking dish, just below the oven center for 30 minutes or so. Be sure to spray the pan. It is best to use the quick oats rather than the old fashioned for this recipe.
We had more of the leftover beef stew and rye rolls. No complaints!
Most of the lake has frozen, as it finally got cold enough, and it was calm enough, but it is not thick enough for any winter activities. We are supposed to get snow tonight and into tomorrow and Tuesday, but the weather people have had a difficult time forecasting the weather this year, so I'll wait to see what it looks like tomorrow. We did do some local grocery shopping today, just in case.
On Sunday, I baked the Apricot Oatmeal Bars recipe found at Nebraska Kitchen, but I used fig preserves, as the fruit spread. The jar held about 12 oz., and it was thick, so I used it all. It is from Italy, and I had bought it at T. J. Maxx a long time ago, intending to use it as a spread for a walnut scone recipe I planned to try, back before I had to give up most butter. As usual, I cut the brown sugar in the oat-flour recipe to ½ cup and halved the salt. I used up the rest of my white whole wheat flour in place of most of the AP flour. I used some of the cherry fruit juice my husband drinks instead of cranberry juice in the oat-flour mixture. These are delicious, rather like an upscale fig newton but without as much sugar and with better crust.
I am forever grateful to S. Wirth for calling our attention to that recipe for Apricot Oatmeal Bars. I have baked it so many times with various kinds of jams, and it always hits the spot.
On Saturday, I made another batch of Maple Granola, adapted slightly from King Arthur’s Whole Grain Baking.
I also baked two loaves of Dark Grains Bread, adapted from the second edition of Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads. I have been working with this recipe for a couple of years.
I also think that grocery prices have been climbing over the past few years. Of course, I'm also living in a more rural area where the shopping choices are limited.
To go with beef stew on Friday, I baked, with some changes, the Buttermilk-Rye Rolls from the King Arthur’s Whole Grain Baking. I changed the flour to increase the whole wheat by ¼ cup and the pumpernickel by ¼ cup. I reduced the AP flour by ½ cup. I reduced the potato flour from 3 to 2 Tbs., the yeast to 2 tsp., and the salt to 1 tsp. I used 1 cup of buttermilk rather than 1 ¼, and I proofed the yeast in ¼ cup water. I replaced 4 Tbs. butter with 3 Tbs. olive oil. I let the Zo do the kneading; the dough needed an additional 2 tsp. buttermilk. Both rises were an hour and fifteen minutes. The rolls are very good, but next time I would decrease the caraway from 2 tsp. to 1 tsp., as it overpowers the rolls. I might also bake them in a 10x10 pan next time, rather than the 11x11.
I'm making beef stew for Friday's dinner. As usual, I'm more than doubling everything except for the beef.
Somewhere I have a supposedly vegan recipe (would depend on the chocolate) for fudge that uses avocado. My husband said, "Don't go there!" Supposedly, avocado has a neutral flavor, but as I like the taste of avocados, I would disagree. I confess to buying and eating whole avocados--hey, I have to eat the whole one at a time because they don't keep. 🙂
I'm bemused by the avocado toast craze. Just eat the avocado! I do like it in some of the sandwiches I've ordered in the past, and I adore guacamole, although, as the chips that go with it are not a health food, I stick to the pure avocado.
I made another batch of yogurt on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, I baked the Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread. The levain took a long time to develop; at twelve hours, it did not have that many bubbles, but four hours later, it was ready to use. The first rise took 90 minutes, and after 90 minutes, I thought that I was not going to get much more rise, so I slashed and baked. However, the top really burst open (slashing job could have been better), so it probably needed to be left to rise for another 30 minutes. I like this bread a lot, but I struggle to get it to turn out consistently. I bake it in the Emile Henry long baker, and I like how well it bakes. My issue seems to be with judging the rising times, which are much longer than the recipe states, but that may be the cold house. I made two changes to the recipe in that I used Bob’s Red Mill artisan bread flour for the cup of King Arthur AP, cut the salt from 1 1/4 to 1 tsp., and added 3 Tbs. special dry milk. I’m sure it will taste good when I cut into it for lunches tomorrow, but I would like to get a prettier loaf.
In addition, I baked cornbread to go with some of the leftover soup. I used my regular recipe, but I used half medium and half fine ground cornmeal, as I want to stretch out what I have left of the fine grind, as Bob’s Red Mill is not selling it anymore.
Compliments to Will on a lovely loaf. Oh, to have a taste!
With Len, now three of us have made pizza in less than a week. That reminds me of the time when we were all baking cinnamon rolls.
On Monday, I made dough for another batch of my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. Although I only baked the last batch a week ago, it is diminishing rapidly.
I also mixed the levain for Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread (King Arthur recipe) that I will bake tomorrow.
I hope your recovery is progressing, CWCdesign.
Has Will always been such an adventurous chef/baker, or is this a development over the past months?
We had a lightly snowy day, with temperatures just above freezing, the kind of day when it is cozy to be inside. I made a large pot of soup for Sunday dinner and beyond. I used Bob’s Red Mill Vegi-Soup Mix (a combination of brown and red lentils, split green peas, and bits of barley). I always start by sauteing the carrots and celery in olive oil. I brown a package of ground turkey, then add sliced mushrooms, followed by a bit o chopped garlic. Then the carrots and celery go back in. This time I added 8 cups broth and 2 cups of the lentil mixture. I rehydrated 1 Tbs. dried onion, added chopped parsley, and 1 Tbs. Penzey’s Ozark seasoning. I had leftover cooked freekeh from the other night, so I added it as well, brought the soup to a boil, then simmered for an hour. I had discovered this past year, that my husband likes and does fine with that Ozark seasoning, which previously, I could not figure out how to use. However, I also really liked what the freekeh added to the soup’s flavor profile. I’m making a note to use it again..
I found a 1938 Newspaper Clipping:
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/27728870/1938-may-cookie-recipes/
It looks about the same but uses shortening, which may be more of a depression era cookie than using butter. It also includes an egg and 1 Tbs. milk. It doesn't say to double sift.
They bake at 400F for 15 minutes.
I'd guess that the original cookies used bleached flour, as that was what was available?
It's been a while since I baked sugar cookies, but I recall that those with Crisco spread less than those with butter. I also started rolling out the dough to the thickness I wanted BEFORE refrigerating, and refrigerating it on parchment on a cookie sheet. That way, the dough is colder. You could even cut out the cookies directly on the sheet, remove the excess dough from around them, and bake them directly. Any leftover dough could be rolled out, briefly refrigerated, then repeat.
All of this is to make your life easier, Italian Cook, when you use your leverage to get Aerogarden research....
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