[BakerAunt]

Wednesday afternoon, I baked Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers, using the dough I made up last week.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook:

The area of the 13x9 inch pan is 117 square inches.
The area of one 9x9 inch pan is 81, so two would be 162 square inches.

I do not think that you will get the depth of coffee cake you want with those pans.

If you have two 8x8 inch pans, then 64 + 64 = 128, which is closer to what the 13x9 pan would be.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Joan. Your reply gave me lots of great information!

[BakerAunt]

Hi, Mike. I actually was not expecting to find any of those fresh greens in the local grocery--and I was not going to do an hour's round trip to the next town, where I might have found them. I was hoping for frozen mustard greens, but I was glad that the collard greens were there.

I'm not that familiar with these greens, so I was hoping that someone who is would let me know if my speculation about their taste is accurate. I have used mustard greens in soups, and I once used Swiss chard in place of kale in a soup. I am wondering if the frozen collard greens are less assertive than the fresh, as they seemed a little bland to me, but my sense is that the Swiss chard would have had a slightly more assertive flavor.

I'm bemused that Cook's included a recipe in an Autumn collection that features an ingredient that is not seasonal in the northeast where their kitchen is located. It would help if recipe writers would include alternatives for some of their specialty ingredients.

[BakerAunt]

Hi, Cwcdesign:

I re-worked the recipe and posted it here, along with some suggestions about pan sizes:

Eggnog Cake

You are correct that the KAF recipe used cream and the eggnog flavoring KAF sells. (Surprise, surprise.) I replaced those with a cup of eggnog. I've added, in an additional post, my recent changes. The cake also freezes well when double-wrapped in saran. Enjoy!

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Recently I baked this cake again. I used Gold Medal AP flour. I used full-fat eggnog, and I beat in each egg individually. It gave the cake a softer texture, so I recommend these changes.

[BakerAunt]

Tuesday morning, I put the bones from the Thanksgiving turkey (they were in the freezer) into a large pot, along with savory spices, some chopped celery, and some parsley, and put it on the wood stove to simmer. Some broth was used in the dinner meal, some is for soup later this week, and some will be frozen.

On Tuesday evening, I tried a new recipe, "One-Pan Pork Loin Roast Dinner," from a recent special collector's edition of Cook's Fall Harvest Recipes, p. 22. The roast cooks in a heavy Dutch oven in the oven, then the meat sits covered while the rest of the vegetables and barley are finished stove top. I was forced to make some substitutions, since the only grocery store in town did not have pearl barley (?!) only quick barley. Less surprisingly, the store did not have Swiss chard--or any fresh slightly bitter greens. I found collard greens in the frozen food section, so that is what I used. I was uncertain about putting the pot on the very lowest oven rack, so I put it on the next lowest. That may have been a mistake, as it added about 40 minutes to the roast's cooking time, but since I did not have the pearl barley, I was worried about the grains sticking. It came out well, albeit perhaps slightly mushy due to using instant rather than pearl barley. I will make it again.

[BakerAunt]

Riverside Len--I have done pan chicken with both regular potatoes and sweet potatoes (not together). They do seem to roast in the same time as long as they are cut to the same size.

[BakerAunt]

I would guess that cooked cranberry sauce could be frozen. I always make one with raw cranberries, which might not work for freezing.

[BakerAunt]

Joan--oh, yes, we've all had that experience of somehow getting our hands on the wrong ingredient....

As I've said before, anyone who has not made a mistake in the kitchen either does not cook or bake or is fibbing.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you for telling us Jan. She is a dear member of our community. I will keep her and your family in my prayers.

[BakerAunt]

I baked Eggnog Cake in a Nordic Ware Christmas Wreath Bundt Pan. I think that I've posted that recipe here, along with details about the various-sized pans in which I've baked it. The original recipe was for some kind of silicone cakelet pan that KAF only sold briefly, but I found that I could adapt it to Nordic Ware pans. I decided this time to use Gold Medal flour rather than KAF and to beat each egg in individually. I also used full-fat egg nog, as that is the only kind available in the store here. It will be for dessert tomorrow and throughout the rest of the week.

[BakerAunt]

Saturday evening, I baked "Butterscotch Apple Sweet Rolls," from Sift (Fall 2015), p. 40.

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/butterscotch-apple-sweet-rolls-recipe

I used Jonathan apples, which I grated with my food processor. I made three changes: I replaced one of four cups of flour with a cup of white whole wheat flour, I added 2 Tbs. flax meal, and I used the gold yeast, since the rolls had 1/2 cup of sugar, not to mention the 3/4 cup brown sugar in the filling. I mixed the dough in my bread machine. I will add the glaze tomorrow morning.

Added Note: We had these for breakfast this morning. They are excellent. I recommend this recipe.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Saturday evening, I made spinach fettuccini with a light cream sauce, mushrooms, leftover rotisserie chicken and frozen broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

When I freeze breads or muffins, I thaw them wrapped on the counter overnight. I think it would be the same for a coffee cake in a glass dish.

I'm not sure about reheating, but it seems to be that those temperatures might be too low. Maybe someone else has some experience?

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