[BakerAunt]

It's good to hear from you, again, Italian Cook. You have been missed.

I've not used cake yeast and doubt that I ever will. However, I have a similar recipe for Swedish Cinnamon Butterhorns. It's in Beatrice Ojakangas' The Great Scandinavian Baking Book. These are also spread with butter before rolling them up, but they are also sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

This recipe uses 6 cups of flour and one package of yeast (2 1/4 tsp.). You didn't mention how much flour your recipe uses or how much liquid. Ojakangas refrigerates the dough after mixing, for 2-24 hours. She divides the dough into four parts and rolls each to a 12-inch circle. She cuts each circle into 8 wedges. I've baked the recipe once, and it was a VERY sticky dough with 1 1/2 cups milk, 1/2 cup butter, 3 eggs, and 1/4 cup water. (Some swearing may have occurred while shaping 🙁 ) She baked at 375F for 13-15 minutes.

You didn't say how much flour was in your recipe, but I'm thinking that 5 1/2 tsp. may have been too much, which is why there was such a fast rise. However, if the recipe has a higher sugar content (this one has 1/2 cup sugar), the higher amount of yeast would allow it to rise faster than it might otherwise, hence the refrigerator rest. Another possibility would be to use the special Gold yeast.

One reason for not using too much yeast is that it seems to contribute to the baked product drying out faster. (I have a hazy memory of a Cook's Illustrated discussion on this point.) A lot of older recipes use higher amounts of yeast than we would today because our modern yeast works more efficiently. I find that I can cut back on yeast from recipes from the 19870s and 1980s and they work fine.

One other suggestion--You might want to post questions like these in their own thread under baking. That would make it easier for the community to refer back to them. Discussions in the "What are You Baking" threads tend to be hard to locate. On a couple of occasions now, I've thought, "I KNOW we discussed this matter," but I could not find it easily, and sometimes not at all.

Kudos to your husband for eating that first batch!

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

A Note on the Chocolate Icebox Pie:
I make a few changes, based on what other reviewers had to say. I add 1 tsp. of espresso powder with the cocoa and water. (I'm surprised KAF missed the chance to push a product!) The original recipe used all bittersweet chocolate. That would be a bit strong for me, especially as I do not plan to use the whipped cream topping. (You have to cut back SOMEWHERE 🙂 ) I used one 4 oz. bar Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate and one 4 oz. bar Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate, which is the same proportion I use when I make fudge. (One of my sister's suggested that to me for the fudge recipe.) I increase the sugar from 1 Tbs. to 3 Tbs., again based on a comment in the recipe reviews.

Further Note: I did not use cinnamon in the graham cracker crust.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

On Sunday afternoon, in spite of the heat (we turned on the air conditioning), I baked my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from the dough I made up last Monday evening. They really are best when the dough has 5-6 days in the refrigerator. They also rolled out easily in the warmer weather. If my husband will pace himself, the crackers will last about two weeks.

I am also making KAF’s Chocolate Icebox Pie—and I planned to do that before I saw their email suggesting it for Memorial Day weekend. It will be for dessert on Monday and into the week. Originally, I had planned to do red/white/blue cookies, but since I had to do the crackers today, I did not feel like a cookie project.

[BakerAunt]

I still have pizza dough to use, so I'll make a pizza with topping that includes the rest of the rotisserie chicken, along with mushrooms, orange bell pepper, mozzarella, green onion--and black olives and Penzey's Tuscan Seasoning on my half! I'm going to try baking it in the garage apartment kitchen, so as not to heat up the house.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks for commenting, Mike. Now that I think about it, two of the recipes that I make that use celery seed--sloppy Josephines and four bean salad--also have sugar in them, so that may be why I never thought of celery seed as being bitter.

I also use it in my clam chowder, which has no sugar, but I don't use a lot.

While exploring the topic on the internet, I found a recipe for Celery Seed Bread--it seems to be made like garlic bread, only it does not use garlic.

I also found some anecdotal comments that celery seed can help lower blood pressure, but I did not see any scientific study to back up the assertion.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

We are having hot weather in northern Indiana as well. I've been very glad the past two days to have cold chicken and potato salad, and a cooked a side vegetable in the microwave.

I will cut back on the celery seed in the potato salad next time. It seemed somewhat bitter. However, my celery seed is quiet old (as in, I-don't-recall-when-I-bought-it-old), and there is only a bit left. I just ordered some more from Penzey's, so I will do a sniff test when it arrives, before throwing out the old stuff. I did some internet sleuthing, but I could not find any suggestion that celery seed can go bad.

[BakerAunt]

Riverside Len--I'll take taste over looks when it comes to raisin bread!

[BakerAunt]

I use panko when I roast chicken in the oven, I'm not sure how semolina would work for that.

[BakerAunt]

Back in February, I posted a link (in Desserts) to a recipe that is a twist on the usual lemon bar. On Friday morning, I finally got around to baking "Classic Lemon Bars," a new recipe from an email from Taste, an occasional online magazine. The recipe was adapted by Jessica Reed from one by Mrs. Eleanore Mickelson, that appeared in Chicago Daily Tribune, August 27, 1962 (Pt. 3, p. 12).

We will have some for dessert tonight, at which time, I will add a note to this post as to what we think of them.

Added Note: These bars are terrific! They have a lot of lemon flavor. I will definitely make them again.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Friday morning, I made a half recipe of Mike Nolan’s mother’s potato salad. I used two eggs, since I did not want half a hard-boiled egg left. I used 2 Tbs. of celery seed, which is the amount halved of the original posted recipe. I used green onions instead of regular, as my husband prefers them. I accidentally put in 2 Tbs. of red wine vinegar rather than 1 Tbs.; I was distracted because my husband was talking to me. I had to use yellow potatoes, as I did not want to go back to the store. I followed Mike’s cooking suggestion, and they came out well, although they tend to be slightly less firm than red potatoes. I reduced the salt in the half recipe from 1 tsp to ¾ tsp. While I know that it should rest overnight, we will start eating it tonight, along with a rotisserie chicken we picked up on the morning’s grocery run. (They mark down the ones that were left over from the day before.) I think that our menu, along with the dessert I baked this morning, are perfect for the start of the Memorial Day Weekend.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--I preheat the oven to 425F with the stone inside. For my large one, I preheat for an hour. For the small one, which is not as thick, I only preheated for 30 minutes. For a somewhat crispier crust, I could probably slide it off the parchment after the first 10 minutes or so, but I've not tried that.

I didn't realize that you are using parchment with your cloche, so my idea about the farina probably would not help, as I have not found it needed with parchment.

Clay bakers can be frustrating. I've not yet figured out the bread bowl I got from KAF--and apparently, I was not the only one, as there were some discussions about it on the Baking Circle as well as in the reviews of it. Your cloche, I take it, is intended to trap steam inside as the bread bakes, which is what my Emile Henry long baker does. Possibly, you would want to remove the cloche at some point before the bread is done, so that it can brown properly on top, and perhaps also on the sides.

[BakerAunt]

In the battle to combat lunch boredom, I decided to experiment with pizza for lunch on Thursday. I made the KAF Ultra-Thin Crust Pizza dough, but I reduced the salt to ¾ tsp. and the yeast to ¾ tsp. I divided it in half, and I have half in a covered bowl in the refrigerator, which I hope to use in a couple of days, at which time, I’ll report on how well the crust comes out after that long rest. I let the other half rise for two hours. I then put some canned artichokes on it, along with some halved black olives, sliced mushrooms, and green onion. I put chunks of mozzarella all over the pizza and grated Parmesan cheese over it. I baked it on my round Superstone baking stone, which is the one I always used before I got the large Emile Henry stone. It came out very well. The mozzarella that I used was on sale, as it was nearing its end date. It was sliced, for an appetizer platter. I cut it into chunks.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--Did you sprinkle anything on the bottom of the cloche? I've found that with my clay bakers it helps to grease them, then liberally dust with farina (cream of wheat). I tried semolina, but it tends to burn. It seems to me that it not only prevents some sticking but also overbrowning on the bottom.

I've not used a cloche. I have a bread bowl (no cover) and the Emile Henry long covered baker. I really like how the covered baker performs.

From the cloches that I've seen, I think that you are correct that 7 cups of flour was too much. I think that 5 cups would likely be the limit.

[BakerAunt]

Lunch on Wednesday was an improvised frittata. I used one egg, some leftover mixed rice, chopped onion, the last of the grated mozzarella, some torn spinach leaves, and ¼ tsp. of Penzey’s “Forward,” a salt-free seasoning. I poured it into a small, heated frying pan in which I had melted some canola-butter spread, and pressed it down flat. When the time came to flip it over, I didn’t quite achieve the perfect round, so it was bent on one side. However, it still tasted delicious!

[BakerAunt]

Tonight I'm making my salmon and couscous recipe but using Penzey's mural seasoning instead of dill. I'm only doing one piece of salmon; my husband will have the rest of the leftover hamburger stroganoff and rice.

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