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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.On Wednesday, I baked my version of my Mom's pumpkin pie. As I was making the crust, I realized that I had accidentally used 1 cup of butter instead of 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 half cup Crisco. (I'm glad that I realized that before adding the Crisco!) Once again, the open concept kitchen allows for too much distraction. I forged ahead. After the dough had rested in the refrigerator, I rolled it the usual 1/8-inch thick. I had made a two-crust recipe, so I could do leaf and acorn cut outs around the edge. I decided instead to use more dough for the crust and made sure that I had a thick fold around the perimeter where I would crimp it. I was relieved that the blind-bake was excellent. The pie baked very well. I then rolled out the remaining dough 1/4-inch thick and cut out little turkeys, pumpkins, and acorns, using some of those plastic cutters with the springs that let you make a cookie with a design and then eject it. I baked those at 375F for 16 minutes, until they were lightly brown. I will serve a couple alongside slices of pie.
I used 5 parts pastry flour to 1 part whole wheat pastry flour in my favorite buttermilk pie crust recipe. Maybe the pastry flour helped the all-butter crust hold.For Tuesday dinner, I thawed a boneless chicken breast (yes, from a sale) and cut it in half. I rubbed it with mayonnaise, and dredged them in a mixture of panko, onion powder, garlic powder, chives, pepper, and freshly grated Parmesan. I roasted them at 375F for 30 minutes. To go with it, I sautéed chopped onion, chopped celery, coarsely chopped carrot, and mushrooms in grapeseed oil. I stirred in the leftover rice from last night and added a bit of the leftover broth. I also microwaved some frozen peas.
Ole Lady,
This would be an easier way to get the squash peeled:
Saturday evening, I tried an experiment with my springerle pumpkin mold. I had made springerle once years ago, and maybe it was the recipe, or maybe it was my technique, but I did not care for them and have not tried baking them again. I did try the KAF Springerle Shortbread recipe a couple of years ago, but the taste and texture made them a so-so cookie for me.
I decided to try making a brown sugar shortbread. I looked at the KAF recipe, then I googled brown sugar shortbread recipes. I ended up using 1 Cup of salted butter, 1/2 Cup light brown sugar, 2 Tbs. regular sugar, and 2 1/4 cups bleached flour. After making a smooth dough, I rolled it to 1/4 inch, but that was not deep enough, so I added another 1/8 inch. Once the mold is pushed down, the cookie is probably about 1/4-inch thick. I also used a copper pumpkin cut-out cookie cutter that is designed to go around the pumpkin springerle mold, so that the cookie has crisp edges.
I baked these on parchment at 325F for 35 minutes--checking at 25 minutes and 30 minutes. The design came out pretty well on about half of them, as I got better at it as I went along. I would still like a little more clarity on the design. Taste and texture is good (as of next morning.) However, I think that they might need 1/2 tsp. of vanilla next time.
I shopped Chefs back when they were out of the Midwest (Illinois?). Then Nieman-Marcus got a hold of them, and I had to pay sales tax in Texas. They also stopped carrying some of the really useful stuff, such as wide saran. (Not everyone has access to Sam's, Cosco, or a local restaurant store.) I do not recall if there was an additional owner before Target bought them to cannibalize for their customer data base and recipes. Much of the Cook's unsold inventory has ended up at Tuesday Morning on "close-out."
I'll have to look online. They were my favorite place to kitchen shop.
OK: Here's the scoop: https://www.chefscatalog.com/about-us/
