[BakerAunt]

Happy belated birthday, Joan! It sounds like a great day!

Italian Cook: I used Land o' Lakes light butter-canola spread. It comes in a tub. It gives me the flavor with less of the saturated fat. I also wanted to avoid the palm oil that is in most other spreads.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook, it's hard to tell without seeing the recipe, but I'm guessing that the curds of cottage cheese darkened during the baking. I've had that happen with regular cheese. If that is the case, you might want to tent them with foil at some point in the baking process to prevent the over-browning.

I had a similar experience with that sunflower-sesame seed that I baked, even though I covered the bread early on, as the recipe specified.

[BakerAunt]

I roasted some sweet potatoes with olive oil and maple syrup on Tuesday, and we had it with sliced turkey breast that my husband had roasted, with steamed broccoli on the side. On Thursday, I used some of the cut-up turkey, combined with celery, carrots, onion, the drippings from the turkey breast, Parmesan cheese, and spinach noodles to make a one-dish dinner. I seasoned it with ½ cup poultry seasoning. (Thyme or sage would also have been nice.)

My family ate only Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and we were never impressed with any baked macaroni and cheese. The Kraft was also cheap and quick when I was in graduate school, and sometimes I would mix it with hamburger for a main dish. My husband would buy cheaper brands--yuk. I then started making my own, using KAF's Vermont Cheese Powder, a bit of Land o' Lakes light-butter canola spread, and 1% milk, on whole wheat macaroni. It's good, but it will never be Kraft. However, this lower-saturated fat version, works better for my current dietary needs.

I wish that I knew more about what spices go with what. My husband is not a fan of assertive spices, and so I tread carefully there. However, for the black bean chili I made earlier this week, I used 2 tsp. chili powder, 1/4 tsp. cayenne (older), and 1/4 tsp. ground cumin. I like the flavor combination and will use it again.

[BakerAunt]

I baked my version of that Seeded Crispbread recipe again on Friday morning. This time, I used my fingers at the end to spread the batter as evenly as possible on a large baking sheet lined with a large piece of parchment. I baked for an additional 8 minutes over the stated time, which seems necessary with my heavy baking sheets for this recipe.

[BakerAunt]

I baked a new recipe on Thursday morning: “Apple-Maple Snack Cake,” from Better Homes and Gardens Cut the Sugar, the third re-issue of a special interest magazine first published in 2017. I looked at the magazine carefully before buying it, and most of the recipes are also low in saturated fat, or can be made with an oil substitution, as was the case with this one (p. 85).

Like Wonky, my baking sister, I can never leave a recipe alone. I replaced the 4 Tbs. butter with 3 Tbs. canola oil; I added 1 Tbs. flax meal and 2 Tbs. Bob’s Red Mill powdered milk. I deleted 2 tsp. vanilla and replaced it with ¼ tsp. maple extract. (Why would I want to cover up the maple syrup in the cake with an expensive 2 tsp. vanilla?) I used two unpeeled Winesaps; I deleted the almonds used to top it and used Swedish Pearl Sugar instead, and it baked up very prettily.

I'll add a note to this post after we have it for dessert tonight.

Note: We like the cake! It has a definite maple flavor that pairs nicely with the apple. I will bake it again.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt. Reason: added follow-up

[BakerAunt]

I like to add freshly ground black pepper on top of my macaroni and cheese, something to which my college roommate introduced me!

[BakerAunt]

It's so nice to see you posting again, Italian Cook.

Riverside Len is the once who introduced us to the jennycancook.com site. It's great.

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday evening, I baked another version of that bread recipe with which I've been experimenting. This tie I made Rolled Barley-Whole Wheat-Buttermilk Bread, and I used the bread machine. I decided to decrease the honey by 1 Tbs. and add 2 Tbs. malted milk powder, along with 2 Tbs. special dried milk. It was a more compact loaf than I expected, but the taste is good, and my husband particularly liked it. I will be glad when I have the freezer space again to be able to bake two loaves and freeze one.

I spent Wednesday afternoon baking the Lower-Fat, Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers, using the dough I made up a week ago. I cut the baking time by one minute, which works better for the oven we have in the apartment. These have particularly good flavor, so perhaps it is good to let this dough sit longer.

I know what you mean, Chocomouse about resisting baking bagels. However, I did buy some barley malt syrup (like you, I don't know WHY, but it must have seemed a good idea at the time). I'll be interested in your bagel experiments, and I'll come back here to read Mike's advice. I will not be making the bagel attempt, however, until I have my new kitchen in which to bake. It's a little too snug in the garage apt. kitchen.

Italian Cook--I like the jennycancook.com site also. I'll have to look at that recipe.

[BakerAunt]

Yes, my date sugar came from Bob's Red Mill. I added it to an order, especially for trying this recipe. I may have another recipe for it in my stash as well. Although the package says that date sugar can be substituted in recipes for date sugar, Ellie Krieger says it behaves more like flour (it isn't really "sugar") and suggests increasing the flour in her recipe by 1/2 cup and decreasing the applesauce by 1/2 cup if replacing it with an equal amount of brown sugar.

Bob's Red Mill has discounts for purchases by the case. I usually order their flours, grains, seeds, beans, powdered milk by the case. They have various email promotions with discounts as well. Orders over $59 ship free. (You don't want to know what regular shipping would cost!)

Joan--I find that King Arthur tends to overdo the streusel, so I usually cut back, especially now that I have to watch saturated fat intake.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I cooked a package of black beans on Monday after soaking them overnight. They took a long time to soften while cooking. I later realized the package stated: “Best Before Aug. 2013.” However, the beans did eventually soften.

On Tuesday, I made a big batch of black-bean chili, using leftover cooked ground turkey and leftover crushed tomatoes from the pizza I made last week, orange bell peppers that were a good price at the store, broth I made last week from a rotisserie chicken, a bit of tomato paste, onion, 4 cloves garlic, part of a package of frozen corn kernels in the freezer, 2 tsp. chili powder, ¼ tsp. cayenne, ¼ tsp. ground cumin, and black pepper. I ended up with about 5 ½ quarts. I froze some of it. I also froze 3 cups of the black beans. The remaining chili will provide lunch for the rest of the week.

[BakerAunt]

I baked a new recipe on Monday morning: "Pear Spice Muffins," by Ellie Krieger. It appeared in The Washington Post. I’d post the link, except that it would count against any free views that I might have left. These muffins use date sugar and whole wheat pastry flour. I chose the walnut option for nuts. My only change was not to peel the Bosc pear that I used. The batter, which uses buttermilk and applesauce, was very puffy. It filled the muffin cups, but that was fine, as the muffins have a lower dome. We each had one at lunch, and again as dessert at dinner. They have a somewhat spongy texture. I like the cinnamon, ginger, and clove spice mixture. Saturated fat is less than 1g per muffin. Although I’m glad that I tried the recipe, I don’t think that I would go to the trouble of getting date sugar to bake them again, as I like a muffin with a firmer texture.

[BakerAunt]

I fed my sourdough starter again this morning. I'm making my sourdough crust pizza for dinner tonight.

[BakerAunt]

We have not had that amount of snow in northern Indiana. We get a few inches here and there, which are usually gone within a week or so. We were in Florida when the sub-zero temperatures hit.The lake is frozen, and the ice fishermen are loving it, as are the ice boaters. We did make a run to the grocery in the next town on Thursday because next week is supposed to have snow, rain, ice.

I would mind the winter weather less if we were not crammed into our garage apt. waiting for the work on the house to be finished. I miss curling up in a chair next to the wood stove, preferably with a pot of soup cooking atop it.

[BakerAunt]

Kids--Don't try this at home! These were professional scientists in the lab. 🙂

[BakerAunt]

The Honey, Halva, and Cardamom Biscotti make a nice breakfast cookie with a cup of coffee (after steel-cut oats, of course). I think that the cardamom needs the coffee taste so as not to be overpowering. These biscotti are likely quite nice with the glaze, which would also play well off the cardamom. I did grind my own cardamom by hand, so it may be fresher than what is used in the recipe, and thus more potent. I may try this recipe with another spice or combination, but I'm not sure what would go well with the tahini--which is very much a background taste with the cardamom.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.

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