[BakerAunt]

I hope that your garden is ok, Mike.

With more normal temperatures on Wednesday, I made a pot of soup, using about 10 cups of the broth I made earlier this week. I used 1 ½ cups of the Bob’s Vegi-Soup mix of red and brown lentils, split peas, and barley, as well as sliced carrots, chopped celery, a red bell pepper from our garden, about 1 Tbs. dried onion, some dried parsley, and 2 tsp. of Penzey’s Ozark seasoning. When I tasted it after an hour, it seemed to be missing something, so I added a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, and that fixed it.

[BakerAunt]

The comment about American yeast interests me. I have a bread book from a Swedish baker, and I noted early on that it uses a LOT of yeast. He does say in the introduction that he likes to use fresh yeast, but it is not clear from one recipe to another what he is using. I'm curious as to whether the Albanian baker was referring to fresh yeast or the freeze dried yeast.

[BakerAunt]

I've been holding back the oil and salt until most of the flour is incorporated. I usually have about 1-2 cups of flour that I mix with the salt and hold back until after a 15-20 minute rest, then I mix in the oil, then the reserved flour and salt. I agree that it makes a difference in the dough. Cass gave me that hint about holding back the oil until the yeast could get working.

[BakerAunt]

As a retired English professor, I agree with him on inexact word usage.

[BakerAunt]

What a great opportunity, Aaron! I look forward to hearing about further adventures in the bakery.

[BakerAunt]

I understand what you are saying about price, Aaron. If I get a chance to buy flour from a specialty mill, it would only be a small quantity with which I would experiment. What struck me, however, was that I prefer the Bob's Red Mill whole wheat over the King Arthur whole wheat, and I can usually buy it for less than a bag of the KABC whole wheat, especially if I can buy a case of it from Bob's--something that I hope will again be possible when the pandemic flour flurry finally settles down.

I'd be curious as to what KABC would have to say about this article. The article did not give us the numbers.

[BakerAunt]

In another slight tweak to how I bake these crackers, I've started baking them using the convection setting on my oven and baking for 12 minutes, turning half-way through. I bake them three racks up, which is above center. These changes seem to help the crackers bake more evenly.

After I remove the pan from the oven, I make sure all the crackers are separated from each other, then pull out the parchment and allow the crackers to rest on the hot baking sheet while I bake the next batch. The crackers should have space between them on the hot baking sheet, which will promote crunchiness. When the next batch is ready to exit the oven, I move the ones from the baking sheet to a rack to finish cooling.

[BakerAunt]

Earlier this summer, I used the Bob’s Red Mill “Oregon Trail Cookies” recipe as the basis to develop my own version using olive oil and a bit of buttermilk in place of butter. I deleted the flax seeds but used 1 Tbs. flax meal and added 2 Tbs. sunflower seeds. I baked the recipe again on Tuesday, but we are low on honey, and I wanted to save it for my husband to use on his oatmeal, and so I used molasses in its place and added ¼ tsp. ginger to the cinnamon. I like the combination and would use this variation again.

[BakerAunt]

I made another batch of yogurt on Tuesday.

[BakerAunt]

Removed. I put it in the wrong thread.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I baked my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from dough I made last week.

Yesterday was pleasantly cool. Today was warmer, around 81F. The rain keeps missing us. Our area desperately needs a good rain. My husband says it is one of the most sustained droughts the area has seen.

[BakerAunt]

For Monday dinner, I thawed gravy left over from when we had turkey. I cut up the rest of the leftover chicken and added it to the gravy, along with some dried parsley and chives. I cooked half a package of spinach noodles, then combined them with the gravy and chicken. It made enough that we can have it for dinner tomorrow night as well. We had it with microwaved frozen peas.

[BakerAunt]

I spent much of Sunday cross stitching a particularly challenging section of my current project, so Monday is the day to be back in the kitchen. I made broth using the bones frozen from our last turkey, along with those of the chicken we had this week. (Does that make it Churkey Broth?) I also made another batch of tomato sauce, which I hope to use in a recipe tomorrow if I can get spaghetti squash at the grocery. I skipped the Farmers Market this week, as there are so many weekend and summer people here for the holiday—most coming from virus hot spots.

[BakerAunt]

It seems to have been a quiet day in the kitchen for most people.

We ate the last of the bread for lunch on Saturday. I selected another recipe that makes three loaves; we are eating it quickly, baking three and freezing two saves time. I used “Marilyn’s Sourdough Oatmeal Bread,” from The Baking Sheet (Autumn 1998). It is a long-time favorite of mine, but as it calls for ½ cup of butter, I have not made it for several years. I decided to play with the recipe and use 1/3 cup oil and more sourdough starter and wholegrains. I also used maple syrup rather than honey, as we are low on honey, and I added 2 Tbs. maple sugar. The dough had a nice rise both times and excellent oven spring. I look forward to cutting into one at lunch tomorrow

[BakerAunt]

It's a lovely pie, Mike.

Back in the July 12, 2020 baking thread, I wrote about my attempt to bake “Buttermilk Blueberry Coffee Cake,” a recipe from the King Arthur 200th Anniversary baking book using oil rather than butter. Although it had good flavor, the blueberries sank, and it stuck to the pan. On Friday evening, I baked the Buttermilk Blueberry Coffee Cake again, using my oil substitute and whole wheat pastry substitution, and addition of 2 Tbs. flax meal. I followed Cass’s revisions and used just ¾ cup buttermilk and ½ tsp. baking soda. I also prepared the pan as he instructed me. The cake baked well in the same Bundt pan—no sinking berries at the bottom. I did follow Skeptic’s suggestion as well to put some batter without blueberries in the bottom of the pan before I mixed in the blueberries. I only had a little bit of sticking, and I think that was because I missed two small places. The cake came out beautifully and is cooling. I look forward to slicing into it tomorrow. I made it with the last of our fresh blueberries. All the rest have been frozen.

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