[BakerAunt]

I spent the afternoon shelling some of our pecans, and on Wednesday evening, I baked "Cherry Granola," a favorite recipe of mine for many years, although I have not made it in a while, that originally appeared in Bon Appetit (June 1993). I always cut the sugar in half. I will post it.

[BakerAunt]

Tuesday afternoon I baked a half recipe of my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, I made a sheet pan dinner using whole chicken legs, cut-up Yukon Gold potatoes and carrots, all drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with rosemary, sage, thyme, salt, and pepper. We will have steamed green beans from our garden as a side.

[BakerAunt]

Welcome back to baking, Rascals. You have been missed.

[BakerAunt]

KAF is also now selling 4-inch and 6-inch round pans. I actually found a nice set of each at T.J. Maxx when we lived in Texas. I've made some sets of 4-inch versions of 8-inch cakes.

[BakerAunt]

I think the curved design is for the shape. It makes the longer loaves that look like the ones you find in the store, pre-cut and sold as sandwich rye. I have two (which I cannot find among the moving boxes; I suspect that my husband probably closed up and labeled the box, and he only wrote general labels or what he saw on the top--sigh). I use mine for the KAF sandwich rye and for some "hearth" breads. I also use them for my Swedish Limpa Bread. I find the shape helps give me a higher rise than when I was doing them on a baking sheet, but my shaping technique was not that good back then. It has improved due to tips I've picked up here at Nebraska Kitchen, but I would still use the pans--when I finally find them!

[BakerAunt]

Saturday night dinner was one of my "grain bowls." I sautéed red bell pepper and mushrooms in grapeseed oil, then added a lot of broccoli florets. I cut up the leftover roast from earlier this week and added it and the leftover broth. I combined that with the cooked brown rice and sliced green onion over it before serving.

[BakerAunt]

We only let the pie cool for a little more than an hour before we cut into it. Because of the Beauty Apples, it is not overly juicy, the slices hold their shape, and the filling did not run all over the pan when slices were removed. We really liked the combination of mostly Beauty apples and a large and a small Cortland. I also used an entire cup of sugar rather than 3/4 cup, and of course the streusel had 1/4 cup brown sugar. I liked the addition of a tablespoon of sugar to the buttermilk pie crust.

[BakerAunt]

The apple pie in Baking Illustrated is pretty good. KAF has a recipe as well, but it does call for boiled cider.

[BakerAunt]

I'm baking French Apple Pie from Bernard Clayton's The Complete book of Pastry: Sweet and Savory (pp. 88-89). Fortunately, I have this one copied into one of my recipe books, since somehow my husband managed to bury the boxes with most of my cookbooks. (I have some that I kept separate, but unfortunately, that was not the pie baking books.) It is an apple pie with a streusel topping. I'm using Beauty apples, the ones I bought a half-bushel of a few weeks ago, that made a tart pie. I will put a large Cortland apple (bought some at farmers' market today) to add some additional sweetness to the filling. For the crust, I'm using my buttermilk crust recipe, but I added 1 Tbs. of sugar. I also am using some Hudson Mill bleached flour, since Kid Pizza's remarks made me realize I should use it up as it has been setting out.

My husband has begged off of our going to the covered bridge festival. After all the moving, he is tired of travel for now. We will do a day trip for some hiking in Indiana Dunes, so I'll see if there is any place along the way to score the ideal baking apples. I envy Mike Nolan his Winesaps!

[BakerAunt]

For slicing layers, I use a cake cutter with a fine wire that is adjustable for different heights. Mine is a German one I bought through KAF, but I recall the Mike Nolan uses a Wilton one, which you could probably get with a coupon at Michael's, if there is a Michael's near you. (It's not a store I visited frequently, but I do miss having one close to where I live.)

I also have used a cake knife and followed Susan Purdy's technique in The Perfect Cake.

[BakerAunt]

On Thursday, I baked a Pumpkin Pecan Coffee Cake, using as my base recipe the "Glazed Pumpkin-Pecan Cakes" recipe in Better Homes and Gardens 100 Pumpkin Recipes, p. 12. I had made it before as 12 Bundlettes, but this time I used a 10 cup star Bundt pan. I did not sprinkle the pecans in the bottom of the Bundt pan, because I feared they would scratch it. instead, I put 1/2 cup diced pecans into the batter. The cake baked well. I will glaze it tomorrow--but not with the orange glaze the recipe uses. I think a maple glaze would be nicer.

Joan--I'm glad my pie crust rolling technique was helpful. I usually put parchment paper on the bottom--simply because it is wider than waxed paper--and saran on the top. I hope the pie will taste ok.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Your dinner menu sounds delicious, Italian Cook!

We are having a cool, rainy day, the first one in a very long time. I'm making a beef rump roast in the crockpot with Yukon Gold potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms. I'm experimenting by cooking it for longer on low.

I also baked two pie pumpkins, removed the peel, and processed the pumpkin. I'll freeze it in portions later tonight.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I always have good intentions of doing decorative piping on cakes, but I rarely had the time when I was working. I was just glad to get the cake baked and iced! However, for my lemon cake, piping a dam before putting in the lemon curd is essential. I'm not baking many cakes these days, and I was sad that National Cake Week came and went last week with no cake from me, but with my husband's family reunion, at which there was pumpkin pie and apple pie, not to mention an apple Bundt cake, there was no need for another dessert, other than my Maple-Walnut Biscotti. I miss doing the birthday cakes for the office staff. I may branch out to cookies.

[BakerAunt]

For breakfast Wednesday morning, I baked my usual bran muffin recipe but used dried cranberries rather than raisins.

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