BakerAunt
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Ah, yes, I knew this one, too!
A number of baking books these days tell you how the flour is measured. I don't like the "dip and level" because there can be so much variation. A friend of my stepdaughter, who majored in nutrition, had a class where they measured the flour in all these ways, then weighed it, in order to make the point about accuracy.
Skeptic--I know that Rose Birnbaum says that sifting (I can't recall if before or after measuring), helps separate the particles so that they combine more readily.
Brown sugar is more of a problem when the author says "lightly pack."
I have been diligently picking blackberries on our terrace ever since they started ripening. A single red one remains, but I picked the last ripe one on Monday morning. I had hoped that with these, and some from my husband’s woods, that I would have enough for a single recipe of seedless blackberry jam, but my husband discovered that the trees in his woodland have now shaded out most of the wild blackberries, so I had to make do with the additional few he found. After I’d removed the seeds, I only had a scant 2 cups, and the recipe calls for 3 ¼ cups of crushed fruit. I was going to buy frozen strawberries to make up the difference, but the store only had an off brand. However, the fresh strawberries looked surprisingly good, so I bought a pound, and that gave me enough fruit. I made jam this evening, using my Ball Jam Maker—the one that does the stirring for me—then filled 3 one-cup jars but only had enough to fill an additional half-cup jar, with a bit of jam left over that went into the refrigerator. I processed the jars, and I heard four pings, so the seals should be good. The jam has great flavor, so I’m happy with this batch, even if it is not an all blackberry jam
I baked my variation on the KAF Wheat-Oat Flax Buns on Sunday afternoon. As usual, I used water not orange juice and buttermilk for the remaining liquid. I cut the yeast to 2 tsp. and use just 1 1/8 tsp. salt. I reduced the honey to 2 ½ Tbs. I added 2 Tbs. special dry milk (to increase calcium). I reduced the AP flour by 2 Tbs., because the last few times I’ve made these, the dough was too dry and harder to shape into smooth balls. That seemed to work well. I did the dough in the bread machine. I decided to make ten rather than twelve buns, because they otherwise seem a bit small. We will use them for Sloppy Josephines for dinner.
Note: I was tempted to make Len's buns, but since I just made them as a bread, I decided some variety is in order.
