[BakerAunt]

Your pie looks delicious, Len.

To go with leftover soup on Sunday, I baked my Scottish Style Scones (Barley).

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--also, depending on the size of the pan and your microwave, you can heat up a cup of water in the microwave, then put the pan inside and close it. That makes a good rising chamber. Just don't let anyone hit the controls while the rolls rise.

[BakerAunt]

I was relieved that Bob's Red Mill has its milk powder back in stock (or did when I ordered it). It is vital for my yogurt, so I've had to hold back on adding as much or any to granola, muffins, quick breads.

Cases in my state are rising, since our governor, in his not so great wisdom, moved us on to stage five from stage 4.5. We should probably still be in stage 2 or 3. My state is one where vote-by-mail is only allowed for about five reasons, so I have to vote in person. There is also a shortage of poll workers. (By the way, the primary did allow vote-by-mail without incident.) I will take advantage of early voting, put my license in a baggy, take my own pen, and consider wearing disposable gloves.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--I usually slice my bread the next day because we mostly eat bread at lunch. This particular bread is not meant to be a soft bread but a chewy one. I let breads cool for about four hours, then wrap them or put them in Tupperware.

I ran into the same cold kitchen issue when I made my sourdough pan pizza this week. I was lucky in that I had started early enough that I could wait it out. In the case of the spelt bread, the cold was a blessing, given the electrical disruption.

You could put the pan of rolls on a rack over a pan of hot water next time. You would still have to wait on the second rise, but they would rise. Another option might be to just refrigerate them and let them rise overnight, then bake the next day.

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I baked Pumpkin Espresso Bundt Cake from the KAF site. I had to forgo the espresso in the cinnamon filling because my espresso powder was caked and cemented to the bottom of the jar. I could not pry it out or make a dent into it. Last time, I had been able to put the caked espresso in my grinder and pulverize it but not this time. It went into the trash still in the jar. I bake this cake with white whole wheat flour, and I add 1/4 cup of powdered milk. I replace ¼ cup of the oil with buttermilk. I also reduced the granulated sugar in the cake from 1 cup to ¾ cup and the brown sugar from ¾ to 2/3 cup. There is an additional 1/3 cup brown sugar in the filling. I baked it in my Nordic Ware autumn wreath Bundt pan rather than a deep Bundt pan, so I put half the batter into the pan, then all of the filling on top, then the rest of the batter. I baked for 50 minutes on the third shelf up in my oven.

[BakerAunt]

My bread is a delicious, chewy bread. I'll keep the changes I made to the recipe.

On Friday afternoon, I baked another batch of Maple Granola. My husband, who daily snacks on raisins, had eaten all the raisins in the house, so I used 2 cups of a bag of KAF’s Bakers Blend of dried fruit that I had on hand. I have made a note to hide a package of raisins after we go shopping again.

[BakerAunt]

Here's a take on using a lower protein flour for biscuits:

https://www.foodandwine.com/bread-dough/rolls-buns/biscuits/kelly-fields-biscuits-trick

I don't know where the author of the article shops, but I've NEVER seen 00 flour in a grocery store.

[BakerAunt]

Friday afternoon I'm making another batch of yogurt.

[BakerAunt]

We have a frost warning. We did get some rain yesterday, along with thunder. (Of course we did: there was an all day electrical project going on outside our house and in the garage and shed.)

I have been reading about an eggplant dip that sounds interesting.

I wish that I could make ratatouille, but my husband is not on board with eating it. I love it with brown rice and chicken.

[BakerAunt]

I find Subway bread squshy and not particularly satisfying. However, when we are traveling (back when we could!), Subway is our fast food choice when we do not have our own with us. Although we both get the whole grain, I'm somewhat dubious about the whole grain content.

[BakerAunt]

Time for ratatouille?

[BakerAunt]

My baking plans were disrupted on Thursday because the electricity was off from 9 a.m. until almost 4 p.m. The work was related to repairing the storm damage from a tree to the line to the large storage shed/workplace we have across the road, but they also needed to do some upgrading, so the electricity to the house was also shut off. I worried about the levain that I had started early yesterday evening, but it was cold enough in the house that it went slowly.

I was able to proceed with the bread in the late afternoon. The recipe is from KAF, Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread, and when it works it is excellent. I mostly follow the recipe, but I use ¼ cup of my sourdough starter, rather than the 1 Tbs. in the recipe, as I have a more liquid starter than KAF uses. I replace the 2 Tbs. butter with 2 Tbs. olive oil. I decided to use ½ cup BRM artisan bread flour and ½ cup KAF AP for the white flour. The spelt is a combination of BRM, and enough of a bag of Arrowhead Mills spelt to make the full four cups. I bought that bag at Kroger in May when flour was disappearing fast, but people were ignoring some of the specialty ones.

The bread has a first rise of an hour and a second rise of 90 minutes. I bake it in my Emile Henry long baker. It did have good oven spring, but I did not manage to do a good job at the slashing, so it is a bit rustic. I look forward to cutting into it tomorrow

[BakerAunt]

We are out of crackers. Like Aaron, I have a problem with crackers disappearing fast. I made another batch of dough on Wednesday for the Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I will bake them next week.

I also baked cornbread to go with soup for dinner. I put the batter into a Nordic Ware Autumn Muffin pan (two leaves, two pumpkins, two acorns). It was slightly too much, but they still came out well. I reduced the temperature to 375F and baked on the third shelf up, which seems to work better with the Nordic Ware pans.

My last project was to make a levain for Honey-Spelt Sourdough Bread, which I plan to bake tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

That sounds delicious, Navlys.

It is soup weather, so on Wednesday, I made a pot of soup, using a mixture of beans and some barley from a company called Pereg. They pride themselves on gourmet beans, grains, and various mixtures. I bought this package a while ago at T.J. Maxx and needed to use it. I did a long soak overnight in salted water, following Kenji Lopez-Alt’s technique. I rinsed them this afternoon, then cooked them in fresh salted water. In a larger pot, I sauteed chopped celery and carrots in olive oil, then added a package of ground turkey and browned it. I added about 6 cups of turkey broth from the freezer, along with 2 tsp. of re-hydrated dried onion and 1 Tbs. Penzey’s Ozark Seasoning. I added the beans to this mixture, then simmered on low. We will have several more meals from this pot of soup.

[BakerAunt]

Why we garden:

https://www.gocomics.com/luann/2020/09/30

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