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Today I baked Christmas Crispbread (Julknackebrod) from the recipe in Beatrice Ojakangas' The Great Scandinavian Baking Book (pp. 59-60). I substitute in buttermilk (the first jar of my newly cultured batch) for the regular milk, It's the third time I have baked this recipe (first time was last Christmas Eve), which has become my husband's favorite cracker. As an experiment, I reduced the yeast by 1/4 tsp.. The recipe calls for two packets, so I used 4 1/4 tsp.; it may be that 4 tsp. would be sufficient. It was a good project for a cold afternoon with plenty of snow on the ground outside and a frozen lake.
I used some of my first jar of buttermilk today--about half the jar. I added milk to replace what I took out, and I'm now letting it warm for a couple of hours next to the wood stove. I shook the buttermilk before I used it, and it was nice and thick. I'm using it to bake another batch of Juhlknackebrod, which has become my husband's favorite, instead of crackers.
Today I baked my first recipe from Stanley Ginsberg's The Rye Baker, which I bought late last year. I baked Salty Rye Rolls (Sigteboller), a Danish bread. I chose this recipe in part because it does not require a rye starter. I weighed all the ingredients. It was kneaded on speed 2 (he uses a KA, but I have a Cuisinart) for almost 8 minutes. It was a very nice dough with which to work. As I shaped the rolls after the first rise, I understood why people refer to rye dough's "clay-like" texture. The bottom of the rolls are dipped in rolled oats. I found that the oats were not sticking, so I rubbed a bit of water on the bottom of each, before dipping in the oats. (I think 3/4 cup oats is too much, as I have at least half the oats left over.) When I went to slash them, I had some difficulty because they are so lightweight, they were moving when I tried to slash, and they had a bit of a "skin" on them. Perhaps a knife would have worked better than the razor blade for a 1/4 to 1/2 inch slash. Most of mine do not have good slashes. Instead of brushing them generously with water, I spritzed them well before sprinkling on the caraway and salt. Each was to be sprinkled with 1/4 tsp caraway and 1/4 tsp. salt, but I used about 1/8 tsp. for each. They baked well, and the aroma was wonderful. We will have them with leftover stew tonight, and I'll post an update about taste and texture.
Addendum: I will definitely bake these rolls again. They have a chewy outer crust and soft interior. I think that cutting the salt and the caraway in half in the topping was a good idea. I had one as a tuna sandwich today, and it was great.
For Thursday breakfast, I baked Cherry Almond Muffins this morning, from The Baking Shet 20.4 (Summer 2009), p. 13. I've not baked this recipe in a while. I substituted in 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour for a cup of the white flour, I reduced the sugar from 1/2 to 1/3 cup, and the salt from 1/2 to 1/4 tsp. I added 1/3 cup powdered milk ( to increase the calcium) and 1 Tbs. flax meal. It calls for an 8-10 oz. jar of "high-quality" cherry preserves. I use Kozlowski Farms Old Fashioned Cherry Jam (10.5 oz.), which Tuesday Morning and T.J. Maxx carry (part of the baking stash I brought with me to Indiana). I sprinkle them with the KAF sparkling white sugar. The recipe makes 14 muffins, so I had to grease two custard cups in addition to the muffin pan. I baked for 20 minutes--the recipe says 22-24 minutes--but probably 18-19 would be better.
