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Our black raspberries on the terrace are ripening, but not enough at one time to have enough for jam, unless my husband can locate some in his woodlands. Maybe I should combine them with any more strawberries I can find at the farmers market.
Our Blue Lake Bush Beans are looking suspiciously like Pole beans. As our garden area is very small, that is not so great for the row planted next to them. The bean plants are flowering.
On Thursday afternoon, as it continued to rain and I contemplated the lack of desserts in the house, I pulled out the KAF recipe for Crazy Blonde Brownies, which is on their site, reprinted from The Baker’s Catalogue (Spring through Summer 2001). I’ve previously baked this recipe, using the included lower sugar, and all white whole wheat variation. I was not completely satisfied, so I set out to re-work the recipe.
This time, I again used the lower amount of brown sugar. I used white whole wheat flour, but I substituted in ½ Cup quick oats for ½ cup of that flour. I reduced the vanilla from 2 tsp. to 1 ½ tsp. Instead of the optional butterscotch or vanilla-butternut flavor, I used the same amount of butter rum flavor (as I did last time I made the recipe). I also added 2 Tbs. flax meal. Instead of pecans, I used 1/3 cup pecan meal. I used 5.5 oz. each of butterscotch and semi-sweet chocolate chips. I baked in a 13x9-inch pan, lined with parchment for 28 minutes.
I'll add a note to this post, after we have them for dessert this evening, about taste and texture.
Promised Note: Next time, I'll cut the butter rum flavoring to 1/4 or even 1/8 tsp. It's strong. I'm hoping it will "fade" a bit by tomorrow, as it overwhelms the other ingredients. Otherwise, these bars came out well.Darn! My last post disappeared when the site had a glitch. This time, I re-wrote it in my Baking and Cooking Log and will cut and paste it in.
On Thursday, I was back in the kitchen baking. In the morning, I baked Knackebrod med Fron (imagine umlauts over the “a” and the “o” in the first word and over the “o” in the second word). Today is June 21, the longest day of the year, or Midsommar, a national holiday in Sweden. In tribute to the Swedish grandmother I never knew, I tried this recipe from Saveur (May 2014), which I found through a Google search on the internet.
https://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/knackebrod-med-fron-seeded-crispbread
I did make two changes. As humans cannot break down flax seeds to access their nutritional value, I replaced ¼ Cup of flax seed with 2 Tbs. of flax meal. I also reduced the Kosher salt in the cracker dough to 1 tsp. and sprinkled only about ½ tsp. on top. Instead of measuring the oil in a cup measure, I used 4 Tbs. I’m aware that there could be a rounding error difference, but the recipe turned out fine. I mixed in the oil with a pastry fork (any regular serving fork with four or so prongs would do), and I used it to mix in the boiling water as well.
I used a heavy 14x18-inch baking sheet covered and a piece of parchment that covered the whole sheet. I used a silicone spatula (no need to grease) to spread it over most of the pan, leaving just a bit of space on all four sides. I was careful to press it into a rectangular shape. Before sprinkling with the ½ tsp. kosher salt, I used a pizza cutter to cut it into rectangles 8x4 cm., which made 48 crackers. (I use metric because it is so much easier, when trying to cut even sections.)
Baking was 40 minutes at 350F, switching the pan around halfway through the time, but I did not think that they had crisped enough, so I baked an additional 10 minutes. [Note: I have a heavy metal baking sheet. It takes longer to bake most items, but it does so without overbrowning the bottoms of what I’m baking.]
My husband finds them rather plain, which is good, as that lowers the temptation to scarf them down mindlessly, an all too common problem with my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I like the taste of the roasted sesame seed. These would be great with thinly sliced cheese or with cream cheese. Although I did not search for a vegan or gluten-free cracker, these crackers fit both categories. These are faster and easier than the three rolled crackers that I make, so it is good to have an additional recipe that widens my repertoire.
Chocomouse--I've been trying to do some additional internet research on the topic. It's hard because terpenes seem to have a role in marijuana, or at least in its commercial use--and I have to wade through those results to get to the ones on blueberries and cooking.
The New York Times published a similar recipe for Blueberry-Lime jam to what is in West's book, but that recipe uses cinnamon not coriander. I also found this ice cream recipe at Serious Eats:
https://sweets.seriouseats.com/2013/08/scooped-blueberry-lime-ice-cream.html
The American Chemical Society has gotten into the act as well, although I don't have access to read the article. And then I found this article, which is more about breeding a blueberry that does not lose its flavor. I cannot follow the science, but I thought that the last part of the second paragraph of the discussion section--with its comment about the loss of flavor in strawberries, apples, and tomatoes with the creation of new varieties--connects to the difference I'm tasting in local strawberries and the big commercial ones. Here's a link to the article:
Because the weather was cooler today (something we could not be sure of until this morning), my husband, dog, and I went hiking in the Indiana Dunes State Park today--a three hour hike, after a picnic lunch, that included sand trails. Hiking in sand is twice the work. (It is called the Dunes.) When we returned to the car, I suggested that we needed to pick up something for dinner because neither of us was going to feel like cooking after an hour-plus drive home. As we would be going by Michigan City, we stopped and picked up a rotisserie chicken and container of potato salad. (We had our trusty picnic cooler with us.) I steamed green beans from yesterday's farmers' market in the microwave. Dessert was ice cream and more wonderful strawberries from the same farmers' market. (I shall never be satisfied again with supermarket strawberries.)
Thanks, Len, for the detailed recipe review. I think that one of the comments on the recipe also mentioned it puffing up in the oven.
The first pizza crust I ever made, and that I made for years, was from Fleischmann's Yeast. It called for an initial parbake of each of the two crusts after the dough rose. I used this recipe a lot, back in my single days, because I could parbake each pizza crust, then wrap and freeze one for use later. In those days I did not have a pizza stone, nor had I used parchment, so I did the first bake in a greased pizza pan to keep it from sticking. As I recall, sometimes I had that puffing up in the oven as well and had to deflate it as it parbaked. A big difference is that the parbake was at a lower temperature--maybe 350F--then the topped pizza baked at a higher one. I eventually incorporated some whole grain into the recipe. I've been thinking of trying it again, especially since my husband seems to care less and less for pizza. (Sigh.) I often used it for a vegetarian pizza topped with a mixture of red, yellow, orange bell pepper, and chopped red onion mixed with oil and spices. Feta cheese was sprinkled on top.
When I went to the Farmers Market on Saturday morning, one of the Amish stands had small baskets (pint) of strawberries for $3.50. These are the small strawberries, which taste so much better than the large ones sold commercially. We will likely eat them plain—they are that delicious--but with what?
I decided that a Sour-Cream Pound Cake is in order, but I did not want to bake the KAF recipe which always seems a bit dry to me. One of the cookbooks, which I made sure last summer I could quickly unpack once we got here, is Susan G. Purdy’s The Perfect Cake, which is my go-to baking book for any cake. I was not disappointed: there on pages 118-119 is “Sour-Cream Pound Cake,” which can be baked in an 8 1/2x 4 1/2 -inch loaf pan (or 9x5) or in a 6 ½ cup tube pan. I pulled out the Vintage Star Bundt pan I bought from KAF with the help of some Bakers Bucks and mixed up a batch of THE Grease to coat the pan.
I’ve probably not tried this recipe before because it requires separating the three eggs. I was tempted to forgo that step, but I decided to follow the recipe exactly, as Susan Purdy has never steered me wrong. I had a bit of trouble when I beat the egg whites. I had decided to use the whisk attachment for my hand mixer, but when the egg and sugar mixture looked like it was not firming up, I washed the regular beaters and used them instead. It took a while, but I got to what I think was “stiff but not dry” whites. The cake bakes at 325F, which is a hard temperature to set with my c. 1970s oven, which likes to be about 25-50F degrees hotter than the set temperature. KAF also had a note that their staff has found this Vintage Star Bundt pan tends to bake faster than usual, so I checked the cake ten minutes early, and it was done.
We had it for dessert tonight, with strawberries on the side. The cake has a light, melt in the mouth texture and a slightly crunchy bottom (which was the top in the Bundt pan). It was worth separating the eggs, and I will definitely bake this cake again. It can also be doubled and baked in a 12-cup Bundt pan.
We had two cooked boneless pork chops in the refrigerator left over from the four my husband cooked earlier this week. I made a stir fry with red bell pepper, snow peas from the farmers market, the diced pork, a brown rice blend, and sliced green onion. There's enough for tomorrow night as well.
