BakerAunt
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On Tuesday evening, I baked a new recipe, Lime Bundt Cake, which I found online, as I was searching for cake recipes to use my bounty of limes. I also needed to find ones that used oil rather than butter, since I am limiting saturated fat. I was pleased with the one I made a couple of weeks ago, but it only used lime juice in the glaze. This one uses it in the cake as well:
I made some changes. I used buttermilk instead of regular milk, and I changed 1 ½ tsp. baking powder to 1 tsp. baking powder and ¼ tsp. baking soda. I used canola oil rather than olive oil and substituted in 1 cup of barley flour for that much AP flour. The recipe specified a 9-inch Bundt pan. I correctly guessed that it would fit into a 10-cup Bundt pan, and I used my “Party” Bundt pan (the one where it can be cut into 20 even slices). I used THE grease to coat the pan. The cake baked well and released beautifully. It is a small cake and perhaps would work in a 6 cup pan. I'll glaze it tomorrow, and add a note on taste and texture.
Promised Note: I like this glaze much better than the one I used on my previous lime cake. It was just the right thickness and looked lovely on the cake, as well as tasting good. My husband liked the cake a lot; it has the texture of a pound cake. In terms of taste, I feel it needs something--but, of course, I made some changes, including using canola rather than olive oil. I might add 1/2 tsp. vanilla to the cake next time.
Thanks, Joan. That is interesting and makes sense for someone doing a number of pots at once. I wonder where he dumped the lye mixture when he was done. 🙁 At least I just have the one pan.
That is a good hint about the rust. My husband used vinegar to clean the rust off a used jointer he bought, and it worked well.
We had another rainy day, so I have not yet tried the oven cleaner, which according to my husband contains lye.
I will start with the Easy-Off Heavy Duty oven cleaner left behind by our former renters. That way I can use it up and get it out of the house. I'll then see where the pan is at. I now think that it may have more gunk than rust. I will also look locally for stainless steel scrubbers. I can always escalate if necessary.
Well, Joan, my husband nixed putting it in our wood stove, and in this rainy, windy weather, there will not be any outside fires.... 🙂
Some people put them in the oven on the self-clean cycle, but as we've discussed before, oven self-clean, especially the really hot ones, may contribute to stove failure. While I could try it with the old avocado green Frigidare that we will donate to Habitat for Humanity if they want it, when we first got the house, the previous people had run the self-clean, and the oven was locked. Someone who knew how to jiggle it got it unlocked for us, and we have never run it ourselves. The sales rep at the store where I will purchase my stove told me that there is an increase in service calls right before Thanksgiving and Christmas because people decide to clean the oven before the holiday baking, and some of the modern ovens get stuck in the locked position.
On Friday, I decided to bake Bernard Clayton's French Apple Pie, from The Complete Book of Pastry Sweet and Savory. It's an apple pie with a streusel topping. I decided to try an oil crust, only to discover that crust needed to be blind-baked. (I posted about it in a thread under desserts.)
I decided to change around the recipe to accommodate the blind-baked crust. After I cut up the apples, I mixed them with the sugar, spices, and tapioca and let them set, while I blind baked the crust, which I had refrigerated after making. I then cooked the apples over medium-high heat until they were softened and most of the juice thickened. I sprinkled Panko crumbs on the bottom of the pie crust before adding the apple filling to try to keep it crisp. I topped with the streusel and baked at 375F. Bernard Clayton’s recipe calls for 15 minutes at 425F, then 375F for 45 minutes. With the apples pre-cooked and the crust already browned, I baked at 375f for 30 minutes, then an additional five when I could see it bubbling. It smells good. I used 5 Winesaps and 2 Jonathans.
I'll add a note tomorrow after we try it.
Promised Note: The pie is delicious, and the crust works well. I did substitute 1/3 white whole wheat flour in the crust. I also used half white whole wheat flour in the topping. The pie is still 4.85g sat. fat per slice (1/8th of the pie), but the oil crust makes it come out much better than it otherwise would.
