[BakerAunt]

I roasted a small chicken, not quite 4 pounds. I used a 9x13 ceramic dish (sprayed with Pam) and put a layer of small potatoes, cut in half, and baby carrots in the bottom. I rubbed them with a bit of olive oil and sprinkled a bit of salt and pepper, as well as some thyme and rosemary on them. I put the chicken on top. Following some internet recipes, I roasted it at 475F for 25 minutes, then 400F for 45. Next time, I'll start the chicken upside down, then turn it over so that the bottom gets browned. This time, I turned it over at the end for 5 minutes or so. The chicken tested done, so I put it on a platter to rest, covered, for 15 minutes. I stirred the vegetables and put them back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes. They were delicious. We had steamed green beans on the side, as the market had them for $1.29 a pound--much cheaper than broccoli, which was $1.05 more per pound.

My husband usually does the chickens, and he does it at a lower temperature for longer. It just does not get the browning, and IMHO the taste. The chicken I roasted did, but he worried about a little pinkness, (It tested done.) The meat was falling off the drumsticks. I told him he could do the next chicken, but I'm going to keep looking at recipes--especially those that let me cook a side vegetable or two at the same time.

This particular chicken was not one of those vacu-sealed in a tight wrapper, but was a flatter one wrapped on a meat tray. It did not seem to have as much liquid as the ones in those tight wrappers, but then those have been frozen.

So, how do other posters roast their chicken?

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I baked the Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread, from the KAF website, in my Emile Henry long baker. I had some issues with rising, probably because the house was cool today but not cool enough to start a fire in the woodstove before evening. I don't think that I got as much rise as when I first baked it last fall. (I am now threatening to buy a bread proofer.) It should still make nice sandwiches.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I have been busy in the kitchen. I fed my sourdough starter and used the discard to make a double recipe of the dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers (recipe on this site). I'll bake them in a couple of days, since I think that they are better when the dough rests in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

I also baked Butterscotch Apple Sweet Rolls, a recipe from Sift (Fall 2015), p. 40, which is also on the KAF website. I first baked it at the end of November. I still had enough Jonathan apples in the refrigerator from fall to make the recipe again. This time, I used half white whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup of flax meal. As before, I used the special gold yeast. I'll glaze them tomorrow morning, and we will have several mornings of nice breakfasts. [Note: This recipe kneads beautifully on the dough cycle in the bread machine, which gives you a chance to start making the filling, so that it will be cool by the time the first rise is finished.]

My final project was to make the levain for the recipe for Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread, another recipe that I first tried last fall. It's on the KAF website and was also in one of their fall catalogs. I'll bake it tomorrow.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 8 years ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Happy belated birthday, Joan! Be sure to spend at least a week celebrating!

Tonight I made one of my stir-together dinners using a leftover pork chop from the three my husband cooked last night. I sautéed chopped yellow bell pepper and sliced mushrooms in a little grapeseed oil, then added the chopped pork, then the leftover mixed rice from last night, then the drippings from deglazing the pork skillet last night (used a bit of white wine and water). I added some frozen broccoli that I had briefly microwaved and a few dashes of low-sodium soy sauce. After removing from the heat, I sprinkled it with sliced green onion.

[BakerAunt]

For Wednesday's dinner, I made salmon with dill and couscous, paired with green beans (from frozen packet in freezer).

[BakerAunt]

A spectacular save, Navlys! I'll also start paying more attention to how beef is labeled.

[BakerAunt]

Ginsberg says part of it was practical--a way to "recycle" unsold bread. He says that some countries have laws limiting the amount of old bread that bakers can use in dough. He does say that "chemically the gelatinized starches that make up the bulk of stale bread bind water far more effectively than raw flour, tightening the crumb of the finished loaves and reducing the notorious tendency of some rye breads to crumple at the slightest touch" (p. 46). He seems to suggest that any type of bread can be used, since the amount (no more than 10%) is small enough not to affect taste.

[BakerAunt]

I've checked Ginsberg's book, and he does not use coffee. He does have some recipes that call for stale rye bread.

[BakerAunt]

Tuesday morning I made a batch of my Cherry Granola (recipe on this site). Most of the last batch that I made for our Florida trip was eaten by my (I don't eat coconut) husband. Go figure.

In the afternoon, I again baked the Salty Rye Rolls (Sigteboller) from Stanley Ginsberg's The Rye Baker, which I first tried a couple of weeks ago. Mine do not seem as dark as the ones in the picture, and I don't think that it is a matter of baking them longer. I'm wondering if KAF's medium rye flour is not quite the same as the medium rye flour he has. I was able to slash these with my lame, but I'm still having trouble getting a deep enough slash of 1/4 to 1/2 inch. They still smell delicious and will go well with leftover soup tonight and as small sandwich buns.

[BakerAunt]

Wow, Mike! That was a marathon kitchen session!

I have a new recipe baking in the oven, Applesauce Oatmeal Bread, from the KAF website. It's a quick bread. I decided to try reducing the sugar by 2 Tbs. I also cut the salt in half. I added 1 Tbs. flax meal, and I used regular whole wheat rather than white whole wheat flour. I chose to use the boiled cider instead of vanilla. I used pecans instead of walnuts, and I added 1/2 cup of Bob's Red Mill dried apple pieces. I'll report tomorrow on its taste, as quick breads are always better the day after they have baked.

Added Note: The Applesauce Oatmeal Bread, with the changes I made, is delicious.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I also got into canning jams and blueberry pie filling a few years back. No canning happened this summer, as we arrived too late for most of the fruits, and my canning supplies were buried. I've since found them, and I am looking forward to jams this summer--as long as the weather does not yo-yo and a freeze kill the developing fruit.

In the meantime, we are still finishing the last jars of jam from 2016.

Wonky, you are so fortunate to have kitchen time with your sister! My sisters live too far away for that. Your story also makes me think that perhaps I should consider trying to can some fruit this year.

Once canning season starts for 2018 (maybe it already has for Wonky!), let's start a dedicated canning thread.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I've always used non-iodized salt, in part because my mother, due to a thyroid issue, needed to avoid iodized salt. I use what is sold as "sea-salt."

My understanding has been that if one eats fish a couple of times a week, extra iodine is not necessary.

[BakerAunt]

Beans--specifically brown lentils from Bob's Red Mill--are on our menu for this evening. Here's a link to the recipe:

Jane Brody’s Favorite Lentil Soup

Jane Brody's cookbooks are favorites of mine, although right now they are still somewhere among the boxes. I followed this recipe except that I added a stalk of chopped celery, I used sliced carrots, since I only have baby carrots and did not want to bother grating them, and I added 1/2 cup of pearl barley. I also only used one, not two onions. (I've only recently been able to get my husband to eat onions in soup; it works as long as I saute them first.) I do not have parsley, so I could not add it. I used homemade turkey stock from the freezer.

As always, I started the soup on my regular stove, then moved it to the wood stove. I'll add a note after dinner about how we like it.

Note: It's delicious. I will definitely make it again.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

For Saturday night's dessert, I baked "Cinnamon-Apple Bars with Peanut Butter Glaze," from KAF's Whole Grain Baking (345-346). I reduced the brown sugar from 1 1/3 cups to 1 1/8 cups, and I reduced the salt from 1 1/2 tsp. to 1/2 tsp. The top glaze is made of peanut butter and honey and is really more a frosting than a glaze. I used Jiff Peanut Butter. For eating, we always use the old-fashioned peanut butter--the kind you stir the oil back into--but most recipes do not work well with the healthy peanut butter.

My husband and I had the same reaction: the peanut butter-honey frosting needs to be deleted. The issue with this recipe is that the peanut butter is so strong it overwhelms the applesauce-spice bars it covers. I will probably make this recipe again, and maybe even reduce the sugar to 1 cup, but instead of the peanut butter-honey frosting, I would use a light vanilla glaze that would let the applesauce and spices come to the fore.

That peanut butter frosting might go well on assertive dark chocolate brownies.

[BakerAunt]

Wonky--I'm following in your floury footsteps!

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