[BakerAunt]

Friday is cooler but muggy. We had one small rain, and with the clouds hope to get more, but nothing yet. I pulled out that recipe for All-Purpose Maple Buttermilk Bread that I posted about in its own thread and decided to bake it today. The loaf looks good. I've posted about it on the thread with the recipe link.

[BakerAunt]

Ok, the bread is out of the oven. Here are my notes:

I used the bread machine, and the Zo handled the ingredients with no problem. As always, I let all the ingredients, except the oil, mix together, then drizzled in the oil near the end of the mixing period.

I made some changes—3 ½ cups whole wheat flour and 1 ½ cup bread flour. I ended up needing to add an additional ¼ cup AP flour and ¼ cup whole wheat flour plus a Tablespoon more while the machine was mixing and kneading. I added 2 Tbs. flax meal. I reduced the 2 tsp. yeast to 1 ¾ tsp and halved the salt from 1 tsp to ½ tsp. I replaced the 3 Tbs. butter with 2 Tbs. canola oil. I used 5 Tbs. maple syrup, a bit less than the 1/3 cup, but I proofed my yeast in water that I’d used to clean out the maple syrup jar.

The first rise was on schedule. The dough was very gassy, and even after turning it out, pre-shaping, and letting rest 5 minutes, I ended up banging it down on the counter a couple of times before final shaping. There is a lot of dough, and I chose to use my 10x5-inch loaf pan, greased with Crisco, which was a good decision. I think it would work in the “hearth” pan as well, but that one tends to let the bottom overbrown. (I need to see if USA pans now makes one in the shiny material.) I think it would also work in two 8x4 inch loaf pans.

After 43 minutes of the second rise and almost doubled, I put it into the oven and baked for 40 minutes. (Note: I did not do the egg glaze and sprinkle with flaky salt.) It registered at 194F after 40 minutes. I went ahead and removed it from the pan, as I had to turn it over to get the temperature at the bottom where it would not show. It’s cooling, and has just a faint wrinkling on top.

The oven spring was very good. It's a large loaf of bread. It should work fine in two 8x4 pans for smaller loaves, and it would nicely fill out the hearth bread pan.

I'll post back tomorrow on taste and texture.

[BakerAunt]

Friday July 10, 2020 I finally got around to trying this recipe. It's in the oven right now, and I will give a report once it comes out of the oven and then again tomorrow after we cut into it.

[BakerAunt]

I have no experience with frying, so I'm also unable to offer help.

I think that KAF has fried doughnut recipes, so perhaps check there?

[BakerAunt]

OK, I've had time to read and look at the pictures in the second article on shaped sourdough breads. It's a fun read. I also found myself giggling, as most of us struggle to get our sourdough shaped into basic loaves. 🙂

I particularly like that pull-apart turkey. What a show stopper bread that would be for Thanksgiving.

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover stir-fry.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks for the tip about Bob's Red Mill Baking Powder Skeptic. I'll compare prices, some day, when BRM also gets baking powder back in stock.

[BakerAunt]

Your dinner sounds delicious, Navlys.

[BakerAunt]

I'd settle for King Arthur getting baking powder back in stock!

Facebook trendiness has not done King Arthur any good.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I had no idea and guessed incorrectly.

[BakerAunt]

It used to be that a visit to a Sur La Table, Williams-Sonoma, or the arrival of the Old Chef's Catalog (when they were out of Illinois), were so exciting for me. All three, however, began to focus more on the trendy and the expensive, or so it seems to me, rather than on the practical needs of cooks and home bakers. I've been trying to find replacement wire screens for my French Press. No one seems to sell them anymore; they want you to buy the entire French Press.

Williams-Sonoma does not even send emails anymore but is bundled into "The Key," yet sister brand Pottery Barn inundates my in-box.

Chef's Catalog was once a good practical place for cooks and bakers. Then the mail-order company was bought by Nieman-Marcus, then either someone else, and finally Target, which cannibalized and liquidated it. There was an attempt to bring Chef's back, but the offerings were the same narrow range as the other cooking and baking places.

And this is why I'm still looking for a dough docker without buying on Amazon.

[BakerAunt]

And we cannot imagine life without any of these!

[BakerAunt]

Thanks for posting these, Aaron. I read the one on chocolate. I'm saving the other one to read later. While the chocolate history is fascinating, I do not understand the author calling it cultural appropriation. Societies come into contact with other societies and information is passed on. It is we moderns who came up with the idea of owning information, which has its upsides and its downsides.

[BakerAunt]

Can you fit a full sheet pan into your oven, Mike?

I enjoyed reading about the Seattle store, Aaron.

Italian Cook reminded me that I also use waxed paper for making up salmon patties.

When I was at Gordon Food Services, I looked for large rolls of parchment but did not find any. When I want the 18" long piece, I'm stuck buying the Reynolds in the store. I'd like a less expensive source. For the half-sheet pan, I usually use KAF Baker's Bucks to bring down the price when I need to order it.

[BakerAunt]

I made another batch of yogurt on Wednesday.

Dinner on Wednesday night was a stir-fry with soba noodles using the leftover pork and the drippings I deglazed from the pan. In addition to mushrooms, green onion, and half a yellow bell pepper, the stir-fry included snow peas from our garden and two small red bell peppers. These bell peppers were on the plant last fall when my husband dug it up before the frost (we had only had two peppers off of it—we like them red). It sat on the enclosed sun porch all winter, and the plant looked terrible, as it is not warm out there, although not too cold. My husband re-planted it this spring. We expected the two little peppers to fall off, but instead they grew then turned red. Thus, we had our first harvest. The plant is now a good size and has four or five peppers on it, some of which are large, with more forming.

[Author]

Posts