[BakerAunt]

I’m trying an experiment with my husband's and my beloved Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers (recipe posted here at Nebraska Kitchen). The recipe calls for 4 Tbs. of butter, and I always make a double recipe. The recipe makes a lot of crackers, but I am mindful, with the low saturated fat diet that I’m now following, that in a doubled recipe a stick of butter is 56 grams saturated fat, and the cheese powder adds another 18g. The main flavor is from the cheese powder, so I do not want to delete it, but I wondered about substituting canola oil for the butter. I did some online research, and the suggestion was that ½ cup butter can be replaced with 1/3 cup canola oil. I have a rye cracker recipe I like that is oil based, so I decided to try converting the sourdough crackers. Tonight, I mixed up a double batch and used the canola oil in place of the butter. The dough feels about the same, but is not quite as tacky. I’ve formed it into small rectangles, wrapped, and refrigerated them. I’ll bake the crackers in a few days and report on the results.

[BakerAunt]

For dinner on Friday, I made Salmon with Dill and Couscous—and added ½ tsp. chives. We had it with the first harvest of the second planting of green beans from our garden.

[BakerAunt]

We are out of bread, and it was terribly hot and muggy today, so I started my adaptation of Bernard Clayton, Jr.'s Dark Grains Bread after dinner. I'll probably be up until midnight. I'm keeping careful notes, and I hope to be putting my version of the bread on this site soon.

Added Note: The bread came out well, although there is the usual "speckled" top with a bit of wrinkles. The first rise took less than 50 minutes, and the second was almost over risen after 30 minutes. It was warm in the house, but this bread has always had a fast rise. I've been using 4 tsp. yeast, since it's a lot of whole grain. Clayton used 4 1/2 tsp. When I cut it back before, the structure seemed to suffer, but I'm also using a different method to mix it and kneading it longer. I might try 3 3/4 tsp. next time and see if that helps control the rise.

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

[BakerAunt]

I'm glad you have the canning method on which to fall back, Mike. I hope that the repair person can get the freezer fixed for you next week.

Our second crop of green beans should be ready to pick early next week. Two of the bell peppers are turning red. The tomatoes continue coming, although my husband has found some tomato worms. He has also found some that have been parasitized by neighborhood wasps. I'm not sure from where the wasps originate, but I am glad their actions are defending the garden. My husband's carrots seem to be doing well. Of course, sometimes you cannot tell until you pull them out.

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

[BakerAunt]

I'm sorry about your garden woes, Chocomouse. At least you have the tomatoes and winter squash--both of which are featured in the Spaghetti Squash Casserole recipe.

On Thursday afternoon, I made another batch of my tomato sauce with tomatoes from our garden and again left the peel. I did put in some onion, garlic, and celery. I froze this batch, perhaps for another Spaghetti-Turkey "Lasagna" in the future.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you, Skeptic, for putting the pumpkin biscotti in the recipe section. I will certainly try baking them. I might use white whole wheat flour.

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

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--We liked the tomato sauce with the skins. These are thin-skinned tomatoes. (I'll have to ask my husband what they are.) I tried this after making ratatouille, where the recipe did not call for skinning them, and it was fine. With the sauce I made last week, most of it was used for the spaghetti squash-turkey casserole (like a lasagna without pasta). With the spaghetti squash, the texture of the skins was not noticeable.

If you are looking for a smooth sauce, for a recipe where that is central, then you will need to skin the tomatoes.

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

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--Yes, I would love a low-fat pumpkin biscotti recipe.

I have two of Susan Purdy's cookbooks, and her recipes are great. I do not have the one you mention here. It would certainly be worth looking over. I may see if I can get it from the library. A lot will depend on how she went about cutting fat and whether she differentiated between healthy and unhealthy ones.

I'm actually pursuing a low-saturated fat diet, which is different from what a lot of the low-fat cookbooks take as their approach. I recall in Beatrice Ojakangas' low-fat baking book (which I have in one of the unpacked boxes that will remain unpacked until the renovation starts--I hope in November--then completed in a timely fashion) that she cut eggs, which were thought to be bad in those days, as well as nuts. While I would not go crazy over eggs, each has only 2 grams saturated fat and has vital nutrients, so they have an acceptable place in diet these days. The same is true of nuts, which while we cannot scarf them indiscriminately, they have vital nutrients. (I'm bemused when I see low-fat peanut butter, as they have taken out what actually makes it healthy.) I'm not eliminating saturated fat, but I am keeping it at 11g per day or less. I still used a light butter-canola oil spread on my sweet corn last week!

The challenge is to bake foods where I don't feel when I eat them that something is missing.

[BakerAunt]

I remember that Dachshundlady, from the KAF Baking Circle, bought a cake pan that would fit in her crock pot. I don't recall if she ever shared on the site that she did use it to bake in the crock pot.

[BakerAunt]

A note on the Lemon-Anise Biscotti: These are quite sweet, so I'm having them with tea without sugar. I mentioned to my husband perhaps reducing the sugar when I bake them again. He said that it is needed to offset the anise--a flavor he does not really like--although I notice that he is eating the biscotti (and keeps leaving the lid part-way open). The lemon flavor does not seem to come through; perhaps it supports the flavor profile in another way.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I do somewhere have a bone-shaped dog biscuit cutter. I used to bake dog biscuits for my sister's dog before he went on a special diet. It was a more complicated recipe, so I only made them twice.

I've been looking for a recipe for our current dog, but so far, I've not found an acceptable one that does not include stuff (like cinnamon) that I do not want to feed her.

[BakerAunt]

For dinner on Monday, I made a Spaghetti Squash-Turkey Casserole. It’s a variation on a lasagna (great minds think alike, Len), only without noodles. The base recipe came from the cooking blog “eatyourselfskinny.com, when I googled spaghetti squash casserole. I used 93% lean ground turkey, I used my homemade tomato sauce that I made on Saturday. I added more chopped onion and garlic (from farmers’ market). I did not use the chicken broth or the Stevia (cannot figure out why it was in there). I did add 1 Tbs. tomato paste to my meat sauce, and I used 2 tsp. Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset salt-free seasoning in place of her spices, since I know my husband likes it. I added 2 Tbs. flax meal to the sauce. I used 4 oz. Mozzarella, which I cut into pieces. To cook the spaghetti squash, I followed the directions in Ken Haedrich’s The Harvest Baker. It is not a quick recipe, but it makes a 13x9 inch pan, so we have plenty of leftovers for another three meals at least. We cooked up some frozen peas as the side dish.

If you are interested, here is the link:

Baked Spaghetti Squash Casserole

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

[BakerAunt]

This is a great base recipe, as Lemonpoppy notes, and I am glad she posted it at the Baking Circle, and grateful that Rottiedogs saved it and put it here on Nebraska Kitchen.

Here are my changes:
1. I reduced the sugar to 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2. I followed Lemonpoppy's suggestion and substituted half buttermilk for half the canola oil I used.
3. I used homemade pumpkin puree.
4. For the flour combination, I used 1 1/2 Gold Medal unbleached flour, 1 cup Bob's Red Mill barley flour, 3/4 cups quick oats. (I started with 1/2 cup oats, but my pumpkin was somewhat watery.)
5. I added 1/4 cup flax meal and 1/3 cup powdered milk to increase nutrition
6. For the spices, I used 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. ginger, and 1/4 tsp. cloves.

The recipe bakes well in six 3x6 inch pans. (I suggest using The Grease to coat the pans before adding the batter.) I baked the pans for 30 minutes at 350F.

[BakerAunt]

I was back in the kitchen Monday afternoon to try a pumpkin bread recipe I found at Nebraska Kitchen, which was submitted to the Baking Circle by Lemonpoppy on March 17, 2004. She got it from a friend, but she notes that it came from Bon Appetit (November 1995), submitted by Vera Bertagna of West Frankfort, Illinois. It also had been was on epicurious.com and there were reviews with suggestions.

My favorite pumpkin bread calls for 2/3 cup butter (makes two 9x5 or six 3x7), so I needed one with less saturated fat. Of course, when I decided to give the one posted by Lemonpoppy a try, like my always experimenting friend, Wonky, I made changes. Lemonpoppy had cut the sugar from 3 to 2 cups. After looking at my former recipe, I cut it to 1 3/4 cup. That is plenty sweet. I followed her suggestion to use half oil and half buttermilk. She said that a combination of flours could be used for the 3 cups, as long as one included enough wheat flour for the rise. I used 1 ½ cups AP flour, 1 cup barley flour, and ¾ cup quick oats. I had started with ½ cup, but the pumpkin I thawed was more watery than usual, so I threw in that additional ¼ cup after the batter was mixed. I also added ¼ cup flax meal and 1/3 cup powdered milk to increase nutritional value. For the spices, I used 2 tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. nutmeg, ¼ tsp. ginger, and ¼ tsp. cloves. I did not add nuts, fruit, or chips, as my husband and I are pumpkin bread purists. I baked in six 3x6 loaf pans (used The Grease to coat them) for 30 minutes, which was perfect. We ate one tonight, and while it will never have the texture of a butter-based quick bread, it still had great texture and taste. I froze three of them for later.

[BakerAunt]

Darn it, my husband really likes the flavor and wants me to try baking it again. (He and the dog consumed half of the second loaf today.) I might try it in three 7-inch pans I have.

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