[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I roasted a small “peanut” pumpkin—the only one I was able to buy at the farmers market this fall. The growers’ field was attacked by mice, and their pumpkin of choice was the peanut pumpkin. It needed to sit for a while to get its orange color. It was small enough that I cut it horizontally rather than vertically and roasted it in my larger Calphalon roaster.

On Friday, I also made chicken broth with the remains of the rotisserie chicken we ate earlier in the week.

[BakerAunt]

I wonder if it would work with an oil-based cake.

[BakerAunt]

Aaron--Few things are as sad as burnt brownies.

It takes a while to get used to a different oven. I'm still learning about my new one and where to put the rack for different items. I've not tried the convection feature yet. My small countertop oven is a convection, so I check much earlier than I otherwise would.

In my family, rye bread was a treat that my Mom would buy around the holidays. We looked forward to it. Of course, once I began baking my own rye bread, it was a revelation how much better it was than the commercial store breads.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you S. Wirth. I have heard about the browning issue and know that newer machines have the top element. I don't know if I will ever bake bread in the machine--although a hot summer might well change my mind!--but I will tuck away that foil idea for if I ever do so.

Skeptic--With my current Welbilt bread machine, I proof the yeast in the water, add any additional wet ingredients (except oil), then add the dry ingredients and start. After 5 minutes, the machine has a 5- minute rest period, and I add any oil at the end of that. I've never had a problem--in spite of the instructions stating that the yeast goes on top of the dry ingredients.

With the Zo, my understanding is that it has a "pre-heat," and that might be too warm for the yeast. From what I read, however, I think it is possible to turn off that function. Your thinking is along the lines of mine: try it with proofed yeast on the bottom, then see what happens.

[BakerAunt]

I missed it too.

[BakerAunt]

I didn't explain it very well. What I meant is that my oven will bake at a lower temperature than 250F, but that the oven fans don't bother cooling the oven down, once it is turned off, when it was used for low temperature baking.

[BakerAunt]

Oh, no! Mike, what is the rationale for the ban?

[BakerAunt]

When I turn my oven off, if it is over a certain temperature, the fans come on to cool it down. It would work with 250, however, since the oven doesn't bother with a temperature that low. (I had to explain that to my husband when I cooked granola, turned off the oven, and he didn't hear the fan.)

[BakerAunt]

Now I'm craving a sandwich made with Aaron's rye bread! Ah, the testing parties and potlucks we would have if we all lived close to each other....

After lunch on Thursday, I baked Apple-Cider Doughnut Cake, a recipe from Martha Stewart’s A New Way to Bake, which, is also available on the internet. I made some minor changes in that I used white whole wheat flour rather than whole wheat. I also increased the cinnamon in the batter to 1 ½ tsp and added ¼ tsp. nutmeg. I don’t use kosher salt in baking, so I used ½ tsp. salt in place of the ¾ tsp. After reading some comments, I reduced the olive oil to ¼ cup and made up the difference with ½ cup canola oil. I also added ¼ cup Bob’s Red Mill milk powder and 2 Tbs. flax meal. I used cider we bought at a local orchard. I decided to try it in my 10-cup Nordic Ware Autumn Wreath pan, instead of a 12-cup Bundt pan, and it fit well. I used The Grease, and the cake easily came out of the pan. The pattern shows up pretty well, but I am concluding that it will never be as sharp as it can be with a butter cake. Nonetheless, I’m opting not to do the cinnamon sugar “coating,” as I don’t want to obscure the pattern that is there.

Here is a link to the recipe: https://www.marthastewart.com/1513135/apple-cider-doughnut-cake

Update: We like the cake a lot and don't think it would need the sugar coating. I will bake it again, with the same changes I made this time.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I think at one point, in a discussion on this site (or was it the old KAF site?), we concluded that Sugar-in-the-Raw is the same as demerara sugar, except for the name and the cheaper price, not to mention easy availability. Unless a recipe specifically calls for it, then I mostly use it to sprinkle on top of breads and muffins. It makes a nice finish, and I like the taste.

I did once use it in a cake and had some issues. Cass suggested at that time I might grind it in a blender if I were to bake the recipe again.

[BakerAunt]

I found this site:
https://www.whatsugar.com/post/unrefined-vs-raw-vs-refined-cane-sugar

I'm going to go with the idea that Martha's "natural cane sugar" is the same as sugar in the raw or demerara sugar.

[BakerAunt]

I selected the correct answer.

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday, I baked my lower-saturated fat, whole wheat, sourdough cheese crackers from dough I made up last week.

[BakerAunt]

Wednesday’s dinner was panko coated chicken breast, accompanied by spinach noodles that I mixed with some leftover frozen broccoli from the freezer, along with some olive oil, a little milk, and Parmesan cheese.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--It might be that the bread needed more yeast and/or more water. A few weeks ago, I tried some changes to a bread I'd not made in a long time, and it came out dense after both rises took longer, and it too did not have the oven spring it should have had. I recalled this bread having a good rise previously. I realized that I'd cut the yeast too much, and that with some additional whole grains, it needed more water.

I'm also finding, now that the weather has cooled down, that my kitchen is not the best place for dough rising. The kitchen countertops are cold, so it does help to put a pad under the dough bucket, so heat is not lost there. The adjacent dining area is warmer when our wood stove is in use.

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