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Friday afternoon, I baked a version of the Vienna Bread that Antilope posted on the now defunct KAF site. I play around with it by adding whole grains and substituting in some honey and buttermilk. I'm not sure what I did today, but the dough was dry, and that was before I was to mix in the rest of the flour and the salt. I ended up adding more buttermilk and holding back some of the flour. I've tried baking this recipe in various pans. It's great for one of those 3-section baguette pans, which is the pan for which he developed his version. I've also baked it in an 8-inch round pan as a boule, and in a 10x5-inch pan. This time I baked it in the Kaiser 12x4-inch pan, so I have a long loaf. I'm hoping it will work for BLTs, as I was able to score some nitrate-free bacon when we went on a grocery run to the larger town north of us, and the farmers' market has lately had some wonderful tomatoes.
Wednesday afternoon, I tried another new recipe, "Dark Chocolate Brownies with White Chocolate Chunks," which appeared in Bon Appetit (August 1999). My only change was to line the pan with parchment paper. They are delicious--with great dark chocolate flavor--and would likely be even better with chunks of gourmet white chocolate, but I had some white chocolate Ghirardelli chips to use up. I'm saving the gourmet ones for another cookie recipe.
In the evening, I baked my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese crackers from the dough I put together last week. I found a container of frozen soup--Kid Pizza's mother's spinach and lentil soup--so the crackers will go well with them for tomorrow's lunch.
Thanks, Mike. That's good to know. I was happy with the least expensive of the Thermador stove hoods years ago when I bought the first range. It was not cheap (although prices have gone up), and it was powerful enough for any job I asked it to do (like venting out smoke when I burned something and the fire detector went off). After years of the conventional hoods they install in apartments, that Thermador hood was a revelation. I will likely go that way again.
Last week my husband and I were in Mishawaka, so we stopped by an appliance store with an excellent reputation. It also has a service department, so they service the appliances they sell. In fact, they will not sell an appliance that they are not allowed to service.
I looked at a DCS. The store only had a gas one on the floor and it was the 36-inch one. (It also was sold.) I also looked at the Thermador. The one they had out is a dual fuel. It, too, was a 36-inch. The sales representative was knowledgeable--very different from the surface oriented sales person at the store in Texas. I am now leaning toward the Thermador 30-inch dual-fuel Pro Harmony Range. I really like the star burners. It also has a larger oven capacity than the 30-inch DCS. I was happy to see that Thermador has gone back to knobs rather than the electronic readouts, which I suspect may have been a major issue in the earlier generation dual-fuel ranges they produced.
The salesperson told us that DCS and Thermador have the best record for not needing service calls. If I could, I would buy the 36-inch, but I know that 1) I'm dealing with a small kitchen area, and 2) I rarely need that much oven space. It would be nice when baking three cake layers or if I wanted to bake more than three loaves of bread at a time, but I do not do that often. I also have access to a second electric range in the apartment (now dubbed guest house) over our garage. It's just a short walk across the backyard if I ever have two different items that need baking at the same time. There is a third, biggest consideration: It would cost an additional $2000. While Thermador is offering a "buy 2, get dishwasher free" deal, that will not be of use to us, as my husband and I will not have a dishwasher. Most of my china is older and would not tolerate the caustic soaps, and I'd rather have the storage space for dishes and pans. (I will be able to store specialty pans in the guest house kitchen.)
I was shocked at how much range hoods cost. While I do not need the high powered one, as my range will not have a grill or griddle, even the least expensive Thermador hood still costs a lot. (I'm also not into designer hoods as focal points.)
Now I need to think about the refrigerator. I was going to get one with the French doors on top, but I've learned from friends that these have problems because of the closing mechanism on those top doors. The seal is likely to be better with the traditional wide door.
I will need to think about location in the kitchen area. I'll be starting a kitchen remodeling thread, so I will take up that subject when I do.
Wednesday morning was a perfect time to try a new scone recipe, as the weather was quite cool overnight. (The old c.1970s avocado-green stove works fine, as long as I set the temperature 25F degrees lower, but it does heat up the kitchen.) I baked Whole Wheat Scones, from a special Irish edition of Bon Appetit (March 1993), p. 113-1114. The recipe is from Parliament House. Instead of baking powder, it uses baking soda and cream of tartar. It is half whole wheat, and I decided to use the KAF Irish Whole Meal flour, since I discovered this summer how light it is in scones. These have no add-ins and use 1/4 cup of sugar. I followed the directions and cut the two rounds into quarters, so they made large scones. I had intended to put butter and jam on a large scone for breakfast, but it was so delicious, warm and plain, that I ate it without any additions.
