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I made pumpkin butter on Saturday afternoon, using a recipe from Kelsey Youngman on the Food & Wine website. I began by roasting a pumpkin that is slightly less than 3 lbs. I followed the directions, except that I had no apple cider, so I substituted 1 Tbs. of boiled cider and 3 Tbs. water. The pumpkin butter is not too sweet, which is what I like. Here's the link:
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/pumpkin-butter
For Saturday dinner, I made Salmon and Couscous, but this time, instead of dill, I used ½ tsp. of Penzey’s Greek seasoning, which I’d not used before. I like the taste and will use it again.
Thanks for digging into the story, Mike. I remember when I split the half breast in half, I was having trouble cutting it, but I figured that was because a fresh one is harder to cut than one that is mostly defrosted. The cooked one was also hard to slice, likely because of the membranes. What Joan noticed went right past me, because I had not seen it before. It makes me angry that I paid more for what is supposed to be a more healthy part of the chicken ($1.79 on sale), and what I bought is actually not flavorful and may not even be that good for me. Worst of all, I have another three halves in the freezer. I'll follow Joan's method and try to cut it out.
I wonder if this is why Navlys said, "I'm done with Perdue," in an earlier post about cooking a chicken breast.
I'm not surprised that two restaurant chains are not going to buy these chickens--it would degrade the food they serve. No company is listed on the package that I bought, which is typical of chicken available at the one grocery store in town. I've also had issues with beef that I've bought at that store.
Maybe sticking with the small chicken thighs is not such a bad idea.
For Thursday night's dinner, I made my panko-oat bran coating to roast a boneless half chicken breast with potatoes. I rub the chicken with mayonnaise, then roll it in the coating, which includes parmesan and various spices. As usual, I roasted the potatoes that accompany it for the first 40 minutes, then added the chicken. However, the chicken came out oddly, even though I've made this recipe many times before. It was "chewy," as if it had a lot of gristle, which is not supposed to be the case with a chicken breast. It was done, and it was not dry, but it was chewy. It was a particularly large half breast, and we only ate half. Has anyone else had this issue with a boneless, skinless breast? It is from a package of four, and I'm wondering if I should find another way of cooking the remaining ones, including the one that is the other half of this one.
I also roasted a "peanut" pumpkin, then scraped the pumpkin from the shell and pureed it in my food processor. I'll freeze most of it for later use.
We returned last night from a two day excursion. Our gardening covering had blown off, but the plants were ok. My husband covered it again after we got back, and the plants did well although it got down to 30F elsewhere in the area. We'll see if we get any more tomatoes.
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This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by
BakerAunt.
On Sunday afternoon, I baked Low-Fat Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from the dough I made on Friday evening. I think the taste is better, in this non-butter version, with only letting the dough rest two days in the refrigerator. The special dried milk that I added may have helped as well.
On Sunday evening, I baked a new recipe, “Bittersweet Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies,” from a magazine I saw at the store, “America’s Best Pumpkin Recipes, published by Centennial Kitchen (p. 34). I’ve never heard of this company, but what persuaded me to buy the magazine is the nice selection of pumpkin recipes that use oil rather than butter. These cookies are one of those. However, I had to substantially reduce the 2 cups of bittersweet chocolate chips specified. 15g of chips has 3g saturated fat. I used 60g—and that is approximately 1/3 cup. I also replaced half the oil with buttermilk (thanks Riverside Len for that tip!), and for good measure mixed in 1 cup of quick oats. I thought that the oats would stabilize the cookies, since I was deleting 5/6 of the chocolate chips. I also cut the salt from ½ to ¼ tsp. The cookies did not flatten as much as the ones in the picture, so probably ½ cup would have been enough, or next time, I could flatten them. I also used white whole wheat flour. I ended up with 40 cookies; each is .45825g saturated fat.
I have an oat-pumpkin-chocolate chip cookie recipe from KAF that makes large cookies that are then glazed, and which I often would bake in the fall. I’m avoiding them this year, so these cookies should provide some of the same flavor profile with much less saturated fat.
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This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by
BakerAunt.
Dinner on Friday night featured chunks of Purple Viking Potatoes (farmers’ market) rubbed with olive oil and roasted at 400F for 50 minutes, salmon patties, and peas.
My sourdough starter was punchy after being fed yesterday, so on Friday, I decided to use it. I chose “Rustic Sourdough,” from Sift (Spring 2016), p. 65. I’m sure it’s on the website, and I am also pretty sure that I’ve baked versions of this recipe before. It calls for 5 cups KAF AP flour in addition to the starter. I mixed together 2 cups Irish Wholemeal flour, ½ cup dark rye flour, and 2 Tbs. flax meal. I added that to the yeast, sugar, sourdough mixture, mixed, then let rest 15 minutes. I added 2 ½ cups KAF AP with 1 ¾ tsp. salt (reduced from 2 ½ tsp.). The dough was not quite right, so I added ¼ cup whole wheat flour. I kneaded on 3 (Cuisinart Stand Mixer) for 4 minutes, then for an additional minute. I put it into a dough bucket to rise.
The first rise was an hour. I de-gassed the dough, preshaped it, waited 5 minutes, then shaped into one loaf, which I put into my hearth pan (not sure if KAF still sells these, but others do). I let it rise 50 minutes, slashed it, sprayed it with water, and put it into a 400F oven. After 5 minutes, I sprayed it again, and I did that again after another 5 minutes. I then baked for 28 minutes, until it reached 201F.
I'll add a note to this post tomorrow about taste and texture.
Promised Note: The Irish Wholemeal flour gives this bread a great flavor. The hearth pan was just the right size for a nice sandwich loaf.
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This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by
BakerAunt.
Our garden was fine last night, but tonight may be a different story. My husband and I covered it the best we could after picking what was ready.
Thank you Nancy for letting us know. I'll be emailing you for the address.
Pmiker taught us all a lot about bread baking, mixers, and allergies (he had to avoid oats and eggs). If you do a search here, using "pmiker" you will find three of his recipes that I posted from the Baking Circle. I only wish that it had been possible to save the threads that he accompanied with pictures and great narration. I think that I saved his thread on mixers but I'm not sure.
Hey, Sis! I did find my list, and I emailed you this evening, so you should have my info. Let me know if you do not get it.
We had our first cold day of the autumn today. It is supposed to get close to freezing the next few nights. My husband covered the garden, after picking whatever was ripe or getting close to ripe. I'm hoping we can avoid the freeze a little longer.
I’ve been yearning for chocolate, so on Thursday afternoon, I baked Espresso Brownie Bites, a recipe that came with the Nordic Ware Bundt Brownie Baking Pan. I decided to try it with half oil and half buttermilk, and I reduced the espresso powder to 1 tsp. I used Double Dutch Cocoa. I used THE grease to coat the pan cavities. These came out very well; indeed, we like them better than the ones made only with oil, and I saved 3.625 g of saturated fat overall by making the substitution. Each of the twelve has about .833g saturated fat.
Thursday evening, I made up the dough for a double recipe of my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers, using the substitution of 1/3 cup oil for ½ cup butter. As an experiment, I added 2 Tbs. special dried milk to the dry ingredients before mixing them in. I’ll bake the crackers later this week.
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This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by
BakerAunt. Reason: clarity
For Thursday night’s dinner, I made stir fry, using two left over boneless pork slices from earlier in the week, celery, two red bell peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, the drippings from de-glazing the pork pan several nights ago, the leftover beans and tomato sauce, and green onion. I mixed it with soba noodles. The two red bell peppers and the green onion are from our garden.
Skeptic--your dinner sounds so good! I do miss having the occasional baked beans. My husband is just not a fan of them.
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This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by
BakerAunt.
Joan, thank you for letting us know you are ok.
A rainy, cool Wednesday afternoon was the perfect time to try a new recipe, Ginger Pumpkin Braid, that I pulled out of the KAF catalog last year. (Yes, I also bought the mat that shows how to do a six-strand braid.) I began by proofing the Gold yeast in the warmed 15 oz. pumpkin puree that I had defrosted, along with some of the sugar. I then mixed in the eggs, then nearly ½ cup of diced candied ginger. I had decided to add whole grain flour, and I like to add flour in two stages, with the whole grains first. I substituted 2 cups white whole wheat flour (Bob’s Red Mill Ivory flour) and added the rest of the sugar; I then added ¼ cup flax meal and 1/3 cup special dried milk (getting in the calcium!). I mixed those in, then let the dough sit for 15 minutes. I replaced the 4 Tbs. of butter with 4 Tbs. of canola oil, which I mixed in. Then I mixed in the remaining bread flour (from BRM) with the salt (reduced to 1 ¼ tsp. from 1 ½ tsp.) and spices. (I used 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. ginger, and ½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg, which is my pumpkin spice blend.) At that point, I switched to the dough hook. I had read the comments on the KAF site, which noted that a lot of people needed to add flour. I expected to do so, since I use homemade pumpkin puree. In the end, I needed an additional cup of bread flour. I kneaded for 5 minutes at speed 3 on my Cuisinart stand mixer. I let it rise in a greased dough bucket. It took about 50 minutes.
I decided to try the six-strand braid and make a large loaf. I have the KAF mat that includes directions for a six-strand braid. It took me four tries, but I did get it braided. It was a very thick loaf. I let it rise 45 minutes, then brushed it with the egg-water glaze and baked. It took about 33 minutes. My husband and I had a couple of slices this evening. It’s a lovely, barely sweet bread. I might use more crystalized ginger next time. (I omitted the optional raisins.) I might also use three instead of two cups of white whole wheat flour, since I’m likely to need to add a cup of flour anyway.
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This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by
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