BakerAunt
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I have two baking project this Sunday morning. I used the bread machine to knead dough for a single loaf of a Five-Grain Buttermilk-Wheat-Rye Bread, which I hope will get us through Thanksgiving, when there will be rolls. I don’t want to bake two, since freezer space is a bit limited at the moment. I tried adding 2 Tbs. oat bran just to see what happens, along with the usual 2 tbs. flax meal.
While the bread was rising, I baked a new recipe, “Apple-Maple Snack Cake,” from Better Homes & Gardens Fall Baking (p. 29). I made a few changes in that I replaced ¼ cup melted butter with 3 Tbs. canola oil, and I cut the vanilla from 2 tsp to 1 tsp. I used two Jonathan (they say Braeburn or other cooking apples) and did not peel them. I probably had about 2 cups rather than 1 ½ cups diced apple. I added 1 Tbs. milk powder and 2 tsp. flax meal to increase nutrition. We will have it for dessert tonight.
Chocomouse--a lot of companies are changing their packaging because there are new nutritional guidelines about what should be listed as of January 2020. Vitamins A and C are out, but Vitamin D and potassium are in. The thinking is that few people have a deficiency of A and C, but a lot of people are low on D and potassium. New packaging will also list "added sugars" as separate from naturally occurring sugars. The other change has something to do about how fats are listed, since we now know that some fats are good for us.
I think that the Deli Rye Rolls might have been ok if the recipe had not specified 3 Tbs. dried mixed onion and 2 tsp. onion powder. In looking at the Autumn Sift magazine, there seems to be a shift toward putting in onion powder in recipes that would have specified deli rye flavor. Maybe that was because the magazine was supposed to be aimed at people who might not have the specialty ingredients? However, onion powder will never be deli rye flavor. I like your idea of using pickle juice. If I make it again, I'll use that rather than buttermilk.
On Saturday afternoon, I tried the Deli Rye Rolls recipe from the Holiday 2019 issue of Sift, using the Zo bread machine for the kneading. The recipe is also on the KAF website, although it uses vital wheat gluten and the one in the magazine does not. Also, the recipe online says deli rye flavor OR onion powder. I wish that I had looked before I baked:
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/deli-rye-rolls-recipe
I made a couple of changes to the recipe. I wanted to use up some First Clear Flour, so I used about 2 cups of it, and finished off the 2 ½ cups with AP flour. I also substituted in ¾ cup buttermilk and reduced the salt from 1 ½ to 1 tsp.. The Zo did a good job with the slightly sticky dough. I moved it to a 2-quart oiled dough bucket for the first rise. I shaped the dough as 12 rolls and baked in a 9x9-inch square pan. The recipe said 15-20 minutes. The rolls needed 20 minutes to get to 195 (recipe said 190), and I baked them an additional two minutes.
We sampled them for dinner tonight. The recipe had called for 3 Tbs. dried minced onion and 2 tsp. onion powder. I used Penzey’s roasted onion powder. My husband and I both concluded that the onion taste in the rolls is so strong that it overwhelms the rye, which is disappointing. If I were to bake this recipe again, I would, at the least, omit the onion powder, and I would replace it with the deli rye flavor.
I did omit the topping, and I did make changes to the recipe, but I doubt that in the end my changes altered it significantly. I have a couple better rye roll recipes, so I will not bake this one again.
The place where I bought my lovely wooden pastry wands appears to be out of business. I went to pastrywands.com and it said "shop closed. I bought them around 2014, and I recall that it was a family company. If you google pastry wands, you can see pictures of the wooden ones I bought. I have four thicknesses: 1/16, 1/8, 3/16, and 1/4. I think that for a while KAF was selling its own with an imprint. There are also plastic ones available from Rose LB of baking book fame. In 2014, I found the reference to the company that made my wooden ones on her blog, and that was how I came to buy them. You can just find wood strips that are the thicknesses you use most often.
Could it also be that there was too much leavening? If a recipe already contains baking soda, I usually don't add extra if I'm subbing in buttermilk. I remember Cass discussing baking powder and baking soda on the KAF baking circle, but that particular thread of baking wisdom probably didn't make it to this site, as we were so focused on saving as much information and as many recipes as we could, and we couldn't get it all in the short time that King Arthur allowed us before shutting it down.
On Friday afternoon, I baked my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from the dough I made up last week. I’m getting quick at rolling the dough into a rectangle, brushing it with grapeseed oil, using a pizza cutter to make squares roughly 3x3 cm, pricking the squares, sprinkling with salt, then baking. I started at 3:50 and took the last tray out of the oven about 70 minutes later. It’s a good thing that I’m getting faster, based on the rate at which my husband consumes them. 😊
I don't have Clayton's Breads of France, but I have both editions of his Complete Book of Breads, as well as his book on little breads, his pie baking book (where my streusel apple pie recipe came from), AND his soup cookbook. I initially bought them because 1) I was interested in baking, and 2 I had joined a book club in order to get a good price on the Oxford English Dictionary with magnifying glass (remember those? I still have mine), and I needed to buy four or five additional books before I could resign from the club.
With the bread books, the amount of yeast must be reduced at bit, and mixers are now more powerful, but Clayton has some excellent recipes.
I always rolled my tortilla by hand. I've made some flat breads as well from KAF recipes. I found that the little rolling pin that came with a ravioli pan I bought is perfect for rolling out the small circles for tortillas and flatbreads. Note: I've yet to use the ravioli pan that came with it!
