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

[BakerAunt]

I agree with Chocomouse and Joan: meatloaf sandwiches are delicious. I've also made salmon loaf sandwiches.

Dinner on Friday night will feature Salmon and Couscous, using Penzey's Greek seasoning rather than dill.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I baked a new recipe, Honey, Halva and Cardamom Biscotti, which I had printed from a Tasting Table email. According to the article, the recipe is from Black Girl Baking, by Jerrelle Guy:

https://www.tastingtable.com/cook/recipes/cardamom-honey-biscotti-halva-recipe

It is designed to be vegan, but I changed it by using ¼ cup buttermilk in place of the nut or grain milk. I also cut each log into 13 pieces (that is, ¾-inch or about 2 cm. wide), which gave me a total of 26 rather than 12. I do not plan to glaze them, which 1) seems to me to be a lot of work, and 2) calls for coconut butter, which is decidedly not for a low-saturated fat diet. The tahini in the coolies themselves, of course, is not without saturated fat, but the whole recipe has 16.5 g or so, and when cut into 26—and only one is eaten at a time—falls into my parameters. I will try them as a “breakfast cookie” to have with my coffee after my oatmeal.

Although the recipe says to allow them to cool, uncovered, at room temperature overnight, I have tasted a few of the crumbs, and I'm pleased with the flavor. My husband asked if he could have one with his afternoon snack, and I said yes. He liked the flavor, which is good, since he is NOT a cardamom fan.

I'll report again tomorrow after the flavors have further time to meld.

[BakerAunt]

Your bread looks great, Mike!

On Thursday evening, I baked my Cinnamon-Apple Barley Bread. I’m satisfied with how I altered the recipe, which I now claim as mine and have written into my recipe book. I will post it here at Nebraska Kitchen.

[BakerAunt]

I look forward to your report on the FP whole wheat bread, Mike.

The bread that I baked yesterday has great flavor--in my opinion. My husband claims the flavor is not as "robust" as my other breads, while I would say the opposite. It is not as heavy of a bread as some of my others, and I think he prefers the firmer texture, and perhaps the rolled grains.

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

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I fed my sourdough starter and used the 2 cups I removed to make the dough for my lower-saturated fat version of Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I’ll bake them later this week.

My sourdough starter was nice and strong on Tuesday morning, so I made my version of King Arthur’s Rustic Sourdough bread, and I made it in my Emile Henry long baker. My changes to the recipe are to use 2 cups Irish Wholemeal flour, ¾ cup dark rye flour, 2 Tbs. flax. Meal, and additional 2 Tbs. special dried milk, honey in place of sugar, salt reduced to 1 ¾ tsp., and 2 ½ cup KAF AP flour. I use my milk-based sourdough starter. I always begin with the wholegrains, mix them in, then let them sit for 20 minutes before proceeding. The bread baked very nicely. I’m still working out how to use the EH baker effectively. This time I baked for 15 min. at 425F, then reduced it to 400F for 10 minutes. I removed the cover, and let it go for 15 minutes longer, checking every 5 minutes, until the interior measured 198F. Other than a tiny bit of sinking in the center from when I slashed it before baking, it’s a lovely loaf. I look forward to cutting into it tomorrow and will post about taste and texture after doing so.

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