[BakerAunt]

Yesterday the dog seems to have been curious about the Sourdough Whole Wheat Cheese Cracker dough that I had warming a bit and had pushed far back on the counter. Again, I was in the next room when I heard a clattering of falling items. She had pushed on the corner cabinet, which is one of those revolving ones, so it twirled, plastic ware flew, and she ran. She did not get anywhere near the dough, which I'm sure she found delightfully smelly.

[BakerAunt]

Late Wednesday afternoon, I made the dough for a full recipe of the No Fail Sugar Cookies from the Fancy Flours website. I'll bake the cookies tomorrow.

In the evening, I baked Easy Holiday Eggnog Muffins, from the KAF website.

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/easy-holiday-eggnog-muffins-recipe

I made some changes by using 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour, 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour, and a cup of Pillsbury unbleached flour. (The pastry flour was deliberate; the white whole wheat was a bit of an accident.) I reduced the sugar in the batter from 3/4 to 1/2 cup, as the topping includes an additional 1/2 cup of sugar. For the crumb topping, I used KAF flour. I used the Loran eggnog flavoring in addition to the 1 1/4 cups eggnog. I've concluded that eggnog by itself does not have a strong enough flavor in baked goods.

I'll add a note to this post tomorrow about how the sugar reduction worked.

Note: The sugar reduction works. The original recipe has 20 Tbs. (60 tsps.) of sugar, or 5 tsps. per muffin for 12 muffins. The reduction has 16 Tbs. or (48 tsps.), for 4 tsps. per muffin. While that is better, perhaps we should just call this recipe a cupcake.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

You might look at some of the recipes that KAF has that use starter. That would give you an idea of proportions.

I have a homemade starter (at least 25 years old) that I use in some of their recipes, but I usually need to increase the flour by 1/4 cup for each cup of starter for which the recipe calls. I'm not sure, but I think the KAF starter is less liquidy than mine.

[BakerAunt]

Well, I'm maybe not that obsessed, as I usually only make chicken or turkey stock, using the remains of turkey or chicken. However, when we moved, I did have to gift two large yogurt containers of it to my stepson. He reported recently that it made an excellent soup in his crock pot.

Besides, if there is a power failure, all those containers of frozen stock will help keep the freezer cold until the electricity comes back on. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

[BakerAunt]

Aaron--I get a better rise when I use my stand mixer or a bread machine that I got at an estate sale for $20 and only use for kneading. I was a hold out on using a mixer for a long time, but it does give me a higher rise.

I also recently baked the Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread from KAF. Although it uses 4 cups spelt flour and a mere 1 to 1/2 cups KAF AP, it made a wonderfully light bread. Two factors that help: it used an overnight levain, and I used an Emile Henry long covered baker. I have read that if you do not have the covered baker, you can put a large aluminum foil pan over the bread as it bakes in order to get something of the same results. I think ATK did this with some baguettes, but I saw another reference to that technique in another article as well.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Rottiedogs! I note that this recipe for Speculaas does not include egg, which may be one reason it would hold the design when baked. I'll have to do some experimenting over the next year.

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, I baked the Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from the dough I made up last week. I also baked my version of Rye Crisps from a recipe that appeared in KAF's now defunct The Baking Sheet. I have posted my versions here at Nebraska Kitchen. The sourdough crackers are put of a food gift I'll be sending to my twin nieces and their parents. The rye crackers are to go with a Hickory Farms gift we received that includes a couple kinds of cheeses.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Mike. I reminded my husband that we already have plenty of paper on which to print. We only needed about 20 letters, so we used the printer.

[BakerAunt]

I'm making a ground turkey-vegetable soup on top of the wood stove. I will add Christmas design shaped pasta to it at the end. That should give us lunches until Christmas.

For dinner, I made my version of my mother's hamburger stroganoff recipe using ground turkey and served it over brown rice.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse: It sounds like the baking stars just did not align for you today. At least the chex mix is ok. 🙂

The crust on the pecan bars may soften in a day or two. When I baked the ones that Jel posted here (Lahotfoot's recipe), I discovered that they were better the second day. I think that Cwcdesign also found that to be true.

[BakerAunt]

My recipe does not produce a hard cookie. It's initially of a softer texture, and they get crisper as they age. (I've kept them for over two months.) I don't think that I've posted the recipe here, so I will be sure to do so.

[BakerAunt]

Mike--You will have to be EXTREMELY good if you want Santa to bring you those toys!

My husband won't let me print the Christmas letter except for one copy, since he is convinced that Xeroxing it is cheaper. However, when there is no Xerox place in town, that means waiting to drive to the larger town this week. Sigh.

[BakerAunt]

Hi, Rascals! It's good to have you posting again. I have posted in recipes a Raisin Bran Muffin recipe for you. It is my favorite, and I bake it again, and again, and again. Enjoy!

[BakerAunt]

Re: Sheet Pan recipes. I find it easiest to do sheet pan recipes with chicken and either cut-up potatoes or cut up sweet potatoes. I've seen some with sausage I'd like to try, but my husband is a no-sausage person, so that's out.

When I did a pot roast in the oven, my husband finally realize why I prefer to do them there rather than in the crock pot: the answer is that I can add the vegetables later and not have them turn to mush.

When we were preparing to move, the toner went out in the printer, and I suspect that after we got here my husband took a long time to replace it in order to deter my recipe copying. I have tried to cut back on what I print, and I'm a lot more particular these days.

[BakerAunt]

Navylys--Once you are addicted to recipes, you cannot become unaddicted. The internet, as with many addictions, has only multiplied the problem. Here are my coping mechanisms:

I do not save quite as many when I make it a point to try an average of one or two new ones per week. Somehow that lets me know that I already have a lot. Now that I'm retired, I can make a dent in the pile.

I have become more selective. A recipe with a specialty ingredient that I will not use for anything else, or that requires expensive ingredients, gets left unclipped (whether digitally or manually). I do not bother with recipes that my husband is unlikely to eat, unless it is a soup or something I would make for just me. On the other hand, he has ended up liking foods he never thought that he would. He was convinced that the speculaas I recently made would be too spicy, but he has now eaten three and loves them.

Sometimes I look at the techniques and think: The recipe authors have got to be kidding. If it is too time-consuming, and I'm unsure of what the result would be, I do not save the recipe.

If the recipe will require a significant investment in new equipment that might not be used very much, that is a red flag, and I bypass the recipe.

I avoid most trendy recipes--which is all I see these days in the online Bon Appetit; it appears to be aimed at either brand new cooks or people who want to be making the latest food fad.

I still have a lot of recipes that I want to bake, but that is what makes it so exciting and purposeful whenever I go into the kitchen. Right now, I'm working on both my favorite Christmas recipes and trying some new ones. At the moment, Beatrice Ojakangas' Danish Sugar Pretzels (the original, not the KAF re-working) is calling me, and the notched rolling pin that arrived in the mail today is waiting for me to try Swedish Knakkebrod. I figure that it can be used for more than one recipe, and it beats repeatedly stabbing the dough with a fork.

Bake and Cook on, Fellow Recipe Addicts!

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