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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.
