[BakerAunt]

My husband, the plant physiologist, keeps telling me that people call items seeds that are not. I got this one wrong, so like the rest of you, I learned something. I also can now impress my husband with my new knowledge.

[BakerAunt]

I got it, too. I like barbecue, but my husband does not particularly care for it, so we do not have it often.

[BakerAunt]

For Saturday night’s dessert, I baked another new recipe, Deb Perelman’s Strawberry Granola Crisp, from a Bon Appetit email.

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/strawberry-granola-crisp

I only had 1 ½ pounds of strawberries, so I reduced the recipe by 25% and baked it in a round 8-inch Fire King dish. I forgot to add the two pinches of salt, and I omitted the coconut. We let it rest for 30 minutes, as the recipe states, then had it for dessert with frozen low-fat vanilla yogurt. It was good, but it had a lot of juice. Next time, I would use Clearjel instead of cornstarch.

[BakerAunt]

Saturday is another rainy, cool day. I baked a new recipe, Granola Bars with Dried Fruit and Seeds,” by Katherine Sacks, which appeared on Epicurious on Sept. 2017:

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/granola-bars-with-dried-fruit-and-seeds

I made a few changes: I reduced the honey to ½ cup, the salt to ¼ tsp., the coconut to ¼ cup, deleted the vanilla, and added 1 tsp. of chia seed in order to empty a container in the refrigerator. I used peanut butter (the kind that is only peanuts and minimal salt). I don’t know why the recipe says to spray the pan AND line it with parchment. I did not spray the pan. I used metal clips to arrange the parchment in the pan. I used dried fruit mix from KAF, as I had it on hand, along with a few dried cranberries.

I'll add a note after we sample them. I hope that they will work out. One of my nieces seems to have an allergy to tree nuts, so I wanted a dessert/snack bar that she could eat. It's also vegan, and two of my nephews follow that diet.

Promised Note: The granola bars are excellent. They are chewy. The recipe says that if you want them crisp, cut them into bars and put them back into the oven.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I missed it too.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I baked Sub[marine] rolls, using a recipe that came with a 5-well perforated pan that I bought from KAF years ago. I played with the recipe a bit. I substituted in 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour. I substituted in an additional ½ cup of white rye flour. I added ¼ cup special dried milk, and I substituted ½ cup of buttermilk for that much water. I used 2 Tbs. olive oil in place of 2 Tbs. butter, and I reduced the salt form 1 Tbs. to 2 tsp. I replaced the 1 Tbs. of sugar with 1 Tbs. of honey. I needed to add an additional ½ cup plus 2 Tbs. of flour to the dough. It was a slack dough, but then the recipe works best if not too much additional flour is added. A little oil on my silpat mat helped me form the rolls. We will eat two or three of them, and I’ll freeze the rest.

[BakerAunt]

Yesterday was cool with a high in the 50s. My husband roasted a turkey breast, and I used new potatoes from the farmers' market to boil the little potatoes, then coat them in olive oil and grated Parmesan with some pepper. We had microwaved peas on the side.

[BakerAunt]

I got it because I remember Italian Cook asking about this once and either Aaron or Mike mentioned this tip.

[BakerAunt]

Happy Birthday, Cass!

[BakerAunt]

Got it!

[BakerAunt]

There are no good doughnuts in my town either, but then I should not be eating them anyway. Sigh.

[BakerAunt]

Yesterday (Wednesday) I baked a strawberry snacking cake from a Bon Appetit email. (Details are in the Baking--Dessert category.) It's not overly sweet, and we liked it as a good alternative when dietary restraints rule out strawberry shortcake.

Today I baked my lower-fat sourdough whole wheat cheese crackers from the dough I made earlier this week.

[BakerAunt]

Here is the post:

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/voluntaryrecall/?utm_medium=email

[BakerAunt]

Cass told me that for bread, adding the oil at the end prevents it from coating the gluten strands and weakening its strength during the kneading process. I've been using that technique with my yeast breads and pizza crusts with good results. However, I'm less certain as to why it would be used when baking a cake. I'll have to ask Cass.

[BakerAunt]

I guessed correctly.

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