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I wanted to try another bread with the Emile Henry Glazed Long Covered Baker. The KAF Golden Grains Bread seemed a good place to start, as I have Harvest Grains to use:
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/golden-grains-bread-recipe
However, I do not have whole-grain improver, and I do not have non-diastatic malt powder, nor do I wish to buy them. I compared the recipe to my version of the Grape Nuts bread recipe in terms of proportions. I decided to modify the KAF Golden Grains Bread by adding honey, using butter instead of oil, adding some malted milk powder and flax meal, substituting half bread flour for half of the AP flour, and reducing the salt by 1/4 tsp. I used a cup of buttermilk and pre-soaked the Harvest Grains Blend for 25 minutes. I made the dough in the bread machine and after 10 minutes, it seemed dry, so I added a tablespoon of water. At first, I worried that I'd added too much, but I ended up with a slightly sticky dough that rose nicely after 1 hour and 45 minutes.
After I had shaped it and let it rise the second time, for baking, I did not use the cold oven technique, but the one from the Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread recipe that I baked a couple of weeks ago:
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/honey-spelt-sourdough-bread-recipe
The bread was 200F when I took it out of the oven, and it is a beautiful loaf. I will try to get a picture and post it. I had splurged on the black walnut Lame that KAF sells, and this was my first time using it. Wow! Where has it been my whole life? 🙂 It is made by Zatoba (see zatoba.com), which KAF does not tell you, maybe because they charge $10 more for it. (Sigh.) Zatoba has a link to a YouTube video that shows how to insert the blade and to position it. (The KAF picture is misleading.) I was nervous about getting the razor blade inserted without cutting myself, but it was not hard at all.
I look forward to tasting it tomorrow.
Note: I posted this before I read Cass's previous comment.
I agree with S.Wirth in that I have also noticed that KAF overuses vanilla in some of their recipes. Although there is a time and a place for vanilla, it does not belong in almost every recipe. I had thought with the prices going up, there might be some backing off from their vanilla obsession.
Some of my recipes do require KAF specific ingredients. I am sorry that the cappuccino chips were discontinued, as they are key to the biscotti recipe and scone recipe KAF developed. Butterscotch chips --their suggested substitution--do not cut it. They now carry a different almond paste and a different "cinnamon chip," and I hope that those will work in my recipes.
Back to shortbread: I enjoy the taste of the butter and do not want it overshadowed. A good shortbread is an antidote to the abundance of chocolate this time of year.
My shortbread recipe comes from Scotland. I have improved it due to Kid Pizza's comments on shortbread: increasing the salt and using bleached flour (not KAF AP). I'll post it, as well as the maple sugar shortbread recipe I adapted from KAF. I'm not a fan of powdered sugar in shortbread, and I did not like using some rice flour when I tried that, as both seem to me to interfere with the taste and texture. The exception for me with powdered sugar is if I plan to use a large mold. Then I follow the recipe that came with the mold.
While KAF flour is wonderful for breads, I have moved away from using it in most cookies. I either use unbleached Gold Medal or Pillsbury, or if there is a high proportion of butter, I use bleached. Hudson Mill is my favorite bleached flour, but I do not seem to be able to find it here. My husband has been told that when we travel, we will be hitting the grocery stores in route.
I baked a lot on Tuesday. I made Red Velvet baked doughnuts with cream cheese frosting from Stonewall Kitchen mix that was marked down at T.J. Maxx. I had meant to use it as we got into the hectic moving time, but instead, I ended up moving it here. The cake-like doughnuts are very good; the cream cheese frosting is so-so, although it works with the cake.
I also baked Maple Shortbread. It's a KAF recipe that I tried five years ago (my review is still there) that I did not quite hit what I was looking for. I tried a different one the next year, but I could not roll that dough out and ended up with round stamped cookies. I wanted to use a small imprint maple leaf cutter I have (the kind with the spring). I really do love fall, so in this week before he Christmas season begins (I know: it began in the stores before Halloween was over), I wanted to bake this cookie again. I followed the recipe that I had used the first time:
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/maple-shortbread-cookies-recipe
I deleted the vanilla and the maple extract, and I used 2 1/4 cups bleached flour instead of 2 1/2 cups of KAF all-purpose. The recipe made 58 cookies (about 2-inches wide) and one blob from leftover dough. I baked them on heavy baking sheets for 15 minutes at 350F. I'm eager to test them tomorrow.
I baked Ellen's (Moomie's) Buns as twelve rolls, making my usual substitutions. We are going hiking tomorrow, and I needed some rolls for our sandwiches.
Hi, Aaron,
My pie crust (see earlier post) for my pumpkin pie was prebaked. I used my buttermilk pie crust recipe, with 2 Tbs. sugar, and accidentally used all butter rather than half butter and half Crisco. Except for one little side, there was no shrinkage.
My technique is an amalgamation of several sources. The pie recipe is adapted from the KAF 200th Anniversary Cookbook but I used 2 1/2 cups pastry flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour. When I add the liquid, after cutting in the butter, I follow Ken Haedrich's instructions and add all the liquid at once. I refrigerate for an hour. In this case, it was longer because, like you, I have others mucking around in my kitchen area. The dough really was too hard when I started to roll it out. I follow the technique in the Cooks Baking Illustrated and in The Dessert Bible, but I roll the dough out onto a wide piece of parchment paper (Reynolds), cover it with a wide piece of saran (cooking store), then roll it out to 1/8th inch, in part because I like crust. It could be rolled thinner, using pastry wands to get the height exact. I then flip the whole thing over and peel off the parchment. I put my hand between the saran and the counter, and pick up the crust and gently fit it over the pie plate, then carefully position it. When I'm satisfied, I peel off the saran, then finish tucking it into the pie plate. I fold over the edges and crimp them so that they rest on the pie rim. I then lightly cover with the saran wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill for 40 minutes. Usually, I then move it to the freezer for 20 minutes, but his time I put it outside on the cement, where it was below freezing and put a plastic cover over it to ward off inquisitive animals. I left it there for 30 minutes. I preheat the oven for at least 30 minutes at 375F.
Note: I like Emile Henry ceramic pie plates for my pumpkin and apple pies. (I use a metal one for blueberry, cherry, or pecan.)
When I am ready to bake, I put an industrial coffee filter in the pie plate That was a hint from KAF, but instead of selling them, they now sell these fancy liners from England. Coffee filters are cheaper (office store online; restaurant store), and I've discovered can be used for other things, such as draining pumpkin puree. The two Cooks books used double layer aluminum foil. I've also used parchment.
I think that it is silly that the Serious Eats author uses sugar. What a waste. Buy cheap beans and use them over and over and over. I've been using one set for over 25 years. I don't think that I've used enough, hence the one spot of shrinkage, so I'm going to make sure that next time it is full. Don't use ceramic pie weights--they get too hot and melt the butter in the crust. I would think metal pie chains would be equally as bad.
Once the beans are in, the pie plate goes into the middle of the oven to bake at 375F for 21 minutes until the sides are set. Remove pie plate from oven. Carefully lift out the liner with beans. (I move it to a heat-safe plate to cool.) Return the pie plate to the oven. If filling will require 20 minutes or less of baking time, bake 7 minutes more. If it will require more than 20 minutes, bake only 4 minutes more. If filling requires no baking, then bake 15-20 minutes more.
However, I like to go by whether the bottom looks sufficiently cooked to me on time. For my pumpkin pies, and additional 5-6 minutes will do it. (Note: my pumpkin pie filling is hot when I put it into the hot crust.) Once the filling is in, I bake at 425F for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350F. I check the pie for doneness starting 8 minutes after that. This time it took 10 minutes after I turned down the heat. Next time, I will likely put a pie shield over the crust, because my husband would prefer that it be more lightly baked.
I cannot at the moment remember if I put the pecan pie filling into a hot crust; my husband buried the box with that cookbook, and I don't expect to see it until next summer. It's Bernard Clayton's Pecan Pie recipe form The Complete Book of Pastry: Sweet and Savory.
I hope that some of this information might help you to tweak what you do. I expect that Mike Nolan, who has more experience than I, will also weigh in.
As for turkey roasting--my husband has taken over that, but this year, I actually got the rack moved down lower, and he was amazed that it cooked faster and the top did not dry out. When I roast turkeys, I follow Rick Rogers methods in Thanksgiving 101.
Friday evening, I baked Nelson's Choice Rye Bread--a recipe from KAF on the back of a bag of First Clear Flour (although they have now changed the recipe and its title after complaints that it did not bake well). The recipe is originally from Secrets of a Jewish Baker. Usually it works well for me, although not always, as it is a wetter dough and hard to get just right. However, it is the bread that I dream about with turkey sandwiches. Now that I'm retired, I have time to make it after Thanksgiving.
I decided to try mixing and kneading it in the bread machine--but only after the initial step of letting the mixture of yeast, sugar, and rye flours sit for 20 minutes. I then stirred in the sour cream, put that mixture into the pan of the bread machine, and added the flour. As usual with this recipe, I had to add some additional flour--3 Tbs. (I need to remember to hold back some of the water.), but I did omit 2 Tbs. vital wheat gluten. I do not have it, and I do not intend to buy it again, as I seem to get the same results without it. It was a sticky dough. After a first rise of 50 minutes, I pre-shaped it as a boule, let it rest for 10 minutes, and I shaped it again. I let it rise in an 8-inch cake pan, slashing it after 30 minutes, and letting it rise an additional 7 minutes to recover a bit from the slashing. I was not expecting to get a great rise, but I was wrong, as it was the best rise I've had with this recipe. It is not "pretty, in that it follows the 2-inch high sides of the pan before doming. It also stuck a bit on the sides, but I was able to run a spatula around the circumference, and it came out without any damage. The recipe should work very nicely in my bread bowl--once I find it!
Why did it rise better? I think that the bread machine may have helped knead it more effectively. The only other changes are that I used full-fat sour cream, not low fat, and I did not use vital wheat gluten. I'm looking forward to turkey sandwiches tomorrow.
