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On Saturday, I baked Buttermilk Grape Nuts Bread (recipe on this site). It's my husband's favorite. He says it reminds him of "Monk's Bread" that his family used to buy. I checked out Monk's Bread through google and found that it is made by an order of monks in New York. I think that it must be the combination of the malted milk powder and Grape Nuts.
I also baked Pumpkin Cinnamon Bars, which is the KAF Apple Cinnamon Bars, only made with apple butter rather than pumpkin butter. I substitute in 1/2 cup of white whole wheat flour, and because the bars are much too sweet, I cut the sugar to 1/2 cup and reduce the cinnamon chips to 1/3 cup. I'll put the glaze on tomorrow, but I will only make a half recipe.
On Friday I made pizza, using our favorite KAF Thin Crust Pizza recipe. I think that semolina and durum flour it includes make a difference. I mixed all the ingredients together, except for the olive oil, which I drizzled in as the ingredients mixed, before switching to the dough hook. The dough is a bit oily at the start of the rise. The baked crust has a buttery texture. The first time I did it this way, it was a mistake (forgot to add the oil at the start). The crust is drier if I do it the other way.
This afternoon, I made clam chowder, based on a recipe from an old Betty Crocker cookbook, with my college roommate's change of adding celery seed. In the evening, I made a Four Bean Salad for a church potluck tomorrow.
On Wednesday, I made Shepherd's Pie, using a recipe I adapted from Martha Stewart's site. I use ground beef, not lamb, and I use frozen peas and carrots, not fresh carrots. I had half a cup of beef broth frozen from some pot roasts, so I used that as half the liquid and Penzey's beef stock with water for the other half. My husband does not care for regular onion but green onion is fine with him. I added parsley and rosemary. I served it with steamed broccoli.
Addendum: Instead of using a 9-inch pie plate, I used a 7x7 inch square ceramic dish that is 3 inches deep. I didn't have to worry about the broth dripping out onto the oven, and the square is easier for servings.
Today, I made a soup with mild Italian Sausage, garlic, onion, chopped carrot and chopped celery, red bell pepper, mushrooms, 1/2 cup of pearl barley, about 3 cups of white beans I'd cooked and frozen, and 4 cups of chicken stock from my freezer. I froze half of it (trying to get ahead for the semester) and had some for lunch. For dinner, I used the leftover pork chop from the dinner my husband cooked yesterday. Using the drippings saved from the pan, I sautéed celery, red bell pepper, and sliced mushrooms, then added the diced pork, a bit of grapeseed oil, and the broccoli. I mixed it with soba (buckwheat) noodles, and added about 1/2 cup of the noodle cooking water, then added sliced green onion and minced parsley
Luvpyrpom: The lemon muffins were not supposed to be super runny. I think that buttermilk does work better than making sour milk, as it is thicker. I also used dried blueberries. I measure flour by spooning it into the cup, then leveling it. Given the liquid in the recipe, I'm not sure why your batter was soupy. Did you include the cornmeal? I also let the batter sit, as the original recipe recommended, for 15 minutes.
The main lemon flavor comes from the grated zest. You could certainly add some of the Lemon Powder, or a 1/4 tsp. of lemon oil to increase the lemon flavor.
When I'm at home, I use my "pastry wands" and a long, non-tapered pin. I can get good consistent pressure along its length. I have a long pin that is set for 1/4 inch (that's what happens when one spent too much time at the KAF site). I also have a heavy maple one with handles that I use for sweet roll dough. I stopped using if for bread because I think that rolling it out with it was contributing to the blow-outs in the finished loaves. I also have a glass one that a friend gave me, where one can fill it with ice water. (It was her Mom's, so she wanted it to go to a baker.) I've not used it yet.
Here, I have that Joseph Joseph one, and I have the little one with the handles that was my mother-in-law's. What I did was roll out to 1/16th the best I could with the JJ one, then used the other to roll it out a little flatter. One side was a bit uneven on the second bake.
I want to get the special Swedish style pin that docks the dough.
