BakerAunt
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On Monday I baked my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from dough I had in the refrigerator.
Monday was also a bread baking day. I used the King Arthur Rustic Sourdough Bread as my starting point, but I used 3 cups whole wheat flour, ½ cup dark rye flour, 1 ½ cup bread flour, and added ¼ cup flax meal. I replaced the sugar with honey, reduced the salt and the yeast to 1 ¾ tsp. each, and added 1 Tbs. olive oil. I baked it in the hearth bread pan for 35 minutes to 202F. We will slice some of it for lunch tomorrow.
November 30, 2020 at 6:01 pm in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of November 29, 2020? #27572We had leftover turkey, microwaved fresh broccoli, and a Queen squash, halved, roasted in the oven, then filled with bulgur and roasted a little longer.
Some of our Queen squashes were sweet, and we liked those a lot. However, we have also had some bitter ones. Does anyone know why there might be a difference? While these are getting old (we have one left), we had an older one that was sweet.
November 29, 2020 at 6:58 pm in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of November 29, 2020? #27563I also made a third batch of applesauce on Sunday and froze two containers. There are enough of the seconds apples for a fourth batch.
November 29, 2020 at 6:01 pm in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of November 29, 2020? #27560Sunday dinner was leftover turkey, microwaved frozen peas, and Queen squash that I halved and roasted, then filled with cooked red bulgur and baked another ten minutes.
Note: Those spiced rye ginger cookies are delicious. The recipe makes a chewy cookie, and the spice is just right. The cardamom blends in--my husband did not notice it, and he is not fond of that spice. The surprise ingredient was 3/4 tsp. black pepper. I ground my own, and I pounded my own cardamom seeds.
Thanks for the tip, Len. And thank you to Italian Cook for starting this discussion. Sometimes the simple things--a pastry brush to brush off excess flour--is the very thing we overlook. I once remarked to Cass that it is hard to turn over stamped buns. Use a spatula, he told me. Oh. Of, course.
I recall a thread from the now defunct King Arthur Backing Circle (another KABC) in which a member--was it Karen Noll?--commented on a snowman bread that she makes and sprinkles before baking with flour in order to give the look of snow.
It's great that Violet is so interested in baking, Aaron. The best way to learn baking is by working with a baker. I've often wished that I had someone I could teach.
I baked a new KABC recipe on Saturday: “Spiced Rye Ginger Cookies.” I used the Zeroll #40 scoop, and the recipe made 24 cookies. Next time, I would drop the dough from the scoop directly into the sugar before putting it on the parchment-lined sheet, as I had to use a scraper to get them up to then roll in the sugar. I baked the cookies on the third rack up for 14 minutes, one sheet at a time, turning the sheet around halfway.
These cookies use 1/2 cup of oil--no butter, so I was pleased to find the recipe in one of KABC's emails. Medium rye flour has some health benefits, although it is not a whole grain.
They smell delicious, but I will let them rest overnight so that the flavors can develop. I look forward to having some tomorrow with afternoon tea.
November 28, 2020 at 11:33 am in reply to: What are you Baking the week of November 22, 2020? #27531I've become a pumpkin pie snob in that the only pumpkin pie I like is the one that I bake.
My Spiced Pumpkin bread is really great for turkey sandwiches. I worried about the extra 3 Tbs. of flour that I added, but the texture is fine, and I can slice it thinly. I may add the two additional 2-3 Tbs. whole wheat flour when I bake it again.
November 27, 2020 at 6:33 pm in reply to: What are you Cooking the week of November 22, 2020? #27527The only thing I cooked today was my usual morning oatmeal. Ah, how I love having leftover Thanksgiving food!
November 25, 2020 at 7:40 pm in reply to: What are you Cooking the week of November 22, 2020? #27516My cranberry sauce is not cooked. I used to make an uncooked one with cranberries, sugar, and orange, but once I found this one, it became my favorite. I've also made a very good cooked one from The Frugal Gourmet's American food cookbook.
My husband will roast the 14 lb. turkey tomorrow. I will make the Pepperidge Farm (blue bag!) dressing with broth, celery, and either dried or green onions (in deference to my husband who has trouble with regular onion). We will likely have steamed broccoli as the side, and I will make gravy. I'll have my cranberry-cherry relish, and we will have the Spiced Rye Bread. Dessert is pumpkin pie.
On Wednesday, I baked Spiced Pumpkin Bread from Stanley Ginsberg’s The Rye Baker blog (not in his rye baking book). I have baked it four times previously, so I had some notes to follow, including mixing with the paddle rather than the dough hook initially, holding back the oil until after the first rest, and adding a bit more flour (3 Tbs. this time). I may have added a bit too much flour, as the dough was not as slack as usual. That did make shaping easier, and it held its shape nicely when baked. I will see how the texture is tomorrow. I have not ruled out using the bread machine for it next time, as my 7-qt. mixer has trouble kneading this particular dough. It sticks to the bowl and the kneading spiral just makes an indentation in it, so that I have to keep stopping the mixer and re-positioning the dough, which for 8-10 minutes of kneading is a pain, and probably not great for the mixer. I also did not knock the dough down with the mixer after the first rise but kneaded it a bit by hand. I found that it baked in 55 minutes, not an hour.
I baked my signature pumpkin pie, which is my variation on my Mom’s, using my oil crust.
November 25, 2020 at 3:23 pm in reply to: What are you Cooking the week of November 22, 2020? #27510I'm always amazed at people who don't know what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers. The answer is easy: eat them!
I made another batch of yogurt on Wednesday.
I also made my favorite cranberry sauce, using cranberries, dried cherries, light brown sugar, and cardamom. My husband does not like cranberries, so it is all mine, and I will happily eat it until Christmas--as an accompaniment to some meals, stirred into yogurt, spread on toast.
While I didn't have a box that looked as if the NFL had tackled it, the syrup I ordered from another source (before I knew of Chocomouse's sales) also arrived with one of the plastic lids damaged, although it did have a seal inside the cap, so no spilling. Clearly it's rough out there in the mailroom.
Ah, yes, Aaron--chocolate cookie wafers! I have a favorite recipe, from a small Hershey's cookbook that was my go-to for the crust on my chocolate cheesecake. (I really long for the day when I can have a lot of people over, and so can bake those kind of recipes again, knowing that I will only need to eat a little bit.)
Chocolate tart and pumpkin pie--sounds like a balanced Thanksgiving to me! I'd miss the turkey, however. Even when I was single and celebrating Thanksgiving alone, I always made a turkey. Usually, I'd freeze some of it and also freeze some casseroles from it for quick dinners.
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