BakerAunt
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This one by GIR is close, although mine has a removable head:
I also cannot tell from the pictures how thick the "bristles" are.
I looked at the Zyliss site and did not see anything like the one I bought. Perhaps they do not make it anymore? The bristles are all the same size, with no angle, and they are close together. Now I really wish that I had bought a second one. No other silicone brush I've had has worked as well.
Skeptic--I had a little of the porridge the first time I made the bread. I found it very sticky--almost gooey. It could have been my cooking. This time I simmered it uncovered for the five minutes. It was still goopy, but since I was using it only for bread, I stirred in the buttermilk (thus bringing down the porridge temperature before combining it with the other ingredients), and that took care of any sticking in the pan.
I plan to stick with my steel-cut oats and use the porridge strictly for bread, especially as it is more expensive.
I haven't started any Christmas baking either, although I baked pumpkin muffins last week in Christmas muffin cups. I'm thinking of baking a half recipe of Pfeffernusse and limiting myself to one or two per day. Shortbread, alas is out of the question. I'm planning Lucia Buns for Dec. 13.
Here's a little Cathy comedy about baking holiday cookies in advance:
I have a small silicone brush made by Zyliss that I bought from King Arthur a couple years ago. It works better than any silicone brush I have tried, maybe because it has a lot of "bristles," and it's easy to wash. (I put soap directly on it and rub it on, then rinse well.) I use it for egg washes and for brushing on oil. If KABC still sold it, I would buy a spare.
Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads was recently reissued in a 30th Anniversary edition. It was my first real bread book, and he gives directions for mixing by hand, mixer, or food processor. The only issue is that the yeast in some of the recipes can be reduced a bit since yeast has become increasingly dependable.
I do not have a good sourdough bread baking book to recommend. I started out with Sunset Magazine's article and recipes on sourdough, then began playing around with King Arthur's recipe. I have ordered Daniel Leader's new and award winning bread book. I expect it will take a while to arrive, but I'll let you know what I think when it does. I had stopped buying cooking and baking books that I haven't seen, but 25% off at Barnes and Noble online was too good to pass up.
Tuesday night’s dinner was sourdough pan pizza topped with my own sauce from the freezer, Canadian bacon, low-fat mozzarella; mushrooms, green onion tops from the container my husband is growing in a pot on the enclosed porch, and grated Parmesan.
The Pompanusuc Porridge bread is an excellent soft bread. I was eating slices plain at lunch--that's how good it is. One change I forgot to mention is that I used whole wheat flour rather than white whole wheat. I'm glad that I have enough of the uncooked porridge to make more loaves of bread, as KABC has it listed as "sold out for the season."
I'm glad that the second pan came out better, Italian Cook. Higher heat can encourage a faster oven spring. I discovered that my sourdough breads do better if the oven is initially at a higher heat, even if I then lower it after the loaves go in.
I promised my husband an apple pie, so I baked one early Monday afternoon, using Bernard Clayton’s streusel top recipe. I used my part whole wheat oil crust. The filling was 10 Jonathan apples, which I bought at the store before I knew we would be going to the apple place. (At least they are from Michigan.) I tried something new with the streusel topping. I made the regular amount, but I used 1 Tbs. melted butter and 3 Tbs. grapeseed oil.
We were also out of bread on Monday, so I baked my version of the KABC Pompanoosuc Porridge Bread. I have figured out that cooking ½ cup of the porridge in 1 cup of water gives the right amount of porridge for the recipe. I replaced 1 cup water with buttermilk and 2 Tbs. sugar with 1 ½ Tbs. maple syrup. I reduced the salt from 2 ½ tsps. (!) to 1 1/2 tsp. and reduced the yeast from 2 tsp. to 1 ¾ tsp. I replaced 2 Tbs. of butter with 1 ½ Tbs. olive oil, which I added after the initial mixing of the other ingredients. I use the Zo to do the mixing and kneading. I had baked this bread last spring, using my baking bowl (original recipe gives it as an option), but it is a lot of dough for the bowl, even if it made a high loaf. This time, I substituted my Emile Henry long baker without the lid. The long baker handles the amount of dough nicely, and the shape is better for sandwiches. I slashed it horizontally and baked for 40 minutes to 200F. I look forward to slicing it tomorrow at lunch.
I made another batch of yogurt on Monday.
For dinner, I made Salmon and Couscous with Penzey’s Mural Seasoning. We had it with microwaved fresh broccoli.
For an 8 1/2 inch tart, in an Emile Henry ceramic tart dish, a 75% recipe makes a perfect crust.
Skeptic--I was able to get a red onion at the farmers' market a while back, so I did indeed use part of it. I probably could have used more. It's hard to know what "a small red onion" means in terms of quantity.
The oil crust recipe, from the 200th KAF Anniversary baking book was my starting point for the oil crust that I developed. I found that instead of pressing it into the dish, I could indeed roll it out, immediately after mixing, then fit it into the dish. I refrigerate it for an hour, then line it, fill with dried beans, and pre-bake. I do not recall if I posted my partly whole wheat pastry flour oil crust here. I'll have to look.
I prefer the overnight soak for beans, and I follow Kenji Alt-Lopez's technique of soaking them in salted water, then cooking them separately in salted water.
I baked cornbread on Friday to go with beef stew. For the cornmeal, I used ¾ cup fine grind and ¼ cup medium grind cornmeal, which makes for a nice contrast with just a bit of chewiness.
I made beef stew for Friday dinner with the last of the potatoes from the farmers’ market and some excellent large carrots from the store. The carrots surprised me, as so many of the large ones are not sweet but these were. I also added chunky mushroom slices and frozen peas.
I had a late lunch on Friday because I decided to bake Butternut Squash, Kale, and Cheddar Savory Tart, a recipe that I developed from an ATK recipe for a galette, when I needed to replace the heavily butter crust with my much lower in saturated fat oil crust. I bake mine in an Emile Henry 8 ½-inch ceramic tart pan after par-baking the crust. I also replace the spinach with kale since spinach hangs onto its calcium. I also replace the luscious gruyere cheese with 2% pre-grated (only low-fat I can find) cheddar. I had three cute little honey nut butternut squash that I bought earlier this fall at the farmers’ market; the total weight of 1.4 lbs. was enough. I will have lunches from it for the next few days.
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