[BakerAunt]

Thank you, S. Wirth for the good wishes.

On Tuesday, I baked the Sourdough-Cheese Cracker dough I made last week. My husband is thrilled to have crackers again. Next time, I'll do a double batch, but I wanted to let my sourdough starter recover a bit after the move.

[BakerAunt]

Here is what the nutrition label says:

Serving size: 1 Tbsp
Servings per container: 22

I already see a problem, since it is a pint, which should be 2 cups, and there are 16 Tbs. in a cup.

Calories: 50
Calories from Fat: 50
Total Fat: 8%
Saturated Fat 3.5 g: 17% (percentages are % Daily Value)
Trans Fat: 0%

Cholesterol: 20 mg 7%
Sodium 5 mg 0%
Total Carbohydrate: 1 g 0%
Dietary Fiber 0g 0%
Sugars 0%
Protein 0 g

Vitanin A 4%
Calcium 0%
Vitamin C 0%
Iron 0%

Yes--completely unhelpful.

When people can drive to Walmart, small town grocery stores close. There were once three grocery stores here, according to my husband, and there were two in the 1950s. There are two gas stations still going strong (both also convenience stores, and one has a Subway), probably because of the summer people and the private high school, with mostly boarding students, on the edge of town. I am grateful that an Ace Hardware opened after the independent one closed when the elderly owner retired, and no one wanted to buy the business. There is a CVS. A handful of restaurants, a seasonal Root Beer stand (food not as good as it once was), an excellent independent coffee shop, an ice cream shop, and a Dollar store, and two independent clothing/other stuff stores, and two "shabby chic"/antique places.

We were in Champaign-Urbana last weekend, so I stocked up on our favorite German honey at T.J. Maxx, as well as imported orange marmalade and my favorite German pickles at Tuesday Morning.

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

[BakerAunt]

I only had the choice of two brands (ah, welcome to life in a small town with one grocery store), and neither stated butterfat amounts. The other numbers were the same. It says 5 grams of fat per Tablespoon or 5% of daily fat allowance. I bought Deans--which has the "dairy pure" on its label, which means they don't use hormones, and thus have to include an asterisk that there are no studies linking hormones given to cows with any health issues. I might look at the Dean's website.

https://www.dairypure.com/products/creamers/heavy-whipping

Hmm. It seems that they sell heavy cream and heavy whipping cream, and I bought the latter after seeing "heavy." That will teach me to read the entire label. However, the fat content was identical to the other brand available, as were the numbers.

I decided to submit a question. I'll report back on the answer I receive.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I bought heavy whipping cream at the store. However, nowhere on the carton does it say what the butterfat content is. Maybe it is the same as the fat content?

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you, Joan and Italian Cook, for your good wishes.

Italian Cook, I've noticed when I use the Old-fashioned (regular?) oats in place of the Quick oats, in a recipe designed for quick oats, my cookies come out dry, and the oats are chewy in all the wrong ways. Perhaps when quick oats are used in place of regular, the opposite happens, and the cookies come out too greasy. So, your plan to reduce the butter should help you get the results you want.

[BakerAunt]

I tried another experiment with a pork roast in the crock pot. The vegetables turned out well, but half of the pork roast (the upper part I think) did not cook through. We ended up putting the sliced meat and the vegetables into the microwave to finish. I am not going to do pork roasts in my crock pot anymore, since I cannot figure out how to keep them from either being overdone or undercooked. Maybe it is the age of my crock pot (about 30 years old). I'll stick to doing the occasional beef roast when it is hot. Otherwise, I'll use the oven.

[BakerAunt]

I baked my blueberry pie this morning. Instead of cutting slits in the top crust, I used a small heart cutter and cut out three hearts. I put those on the pie. It will be our only blueberry pie of the season, since we were late getting to Indiana, and so we ended up picking the smaller, less juicy blueberries (the ones that were still green when the first ripe batch was picked). Even though we picked for two and a half hours, we only got 8 1/4 pounds. Except for the pie, and the blueberry hot cross buns I made, the rest will be frozen for my husband to use on his oatmeal (unless I steal some for blueberry muffins).

Instead of making slits in the pie crust, I used my smallest heart-shaped biscuit cutter and made three heart cut outs around the center. I put the cut-out pieces on top of the crust outside that circle. The pie is for our anniversary dinner, so hearts are appropriate.

[BakerAunt]

Aaron--for some reason, your link for the cream article goes to the last entry of "What are You Baking the Week of June 30?"

From the discussion, I now know to make sure any cream I hope to whip is at least 30% butterfat. I may go ahead and buy the heavy cream. If not, I will check the side of any whipping cream I might buy.

[BakerAunt]

Hi, Skeptic 7. Your recipe looks good. I'm in a lunch rut, so I've marked it as one that I want to try.

Some ideas for the filling: try substituting chopped broccoli. Perhaps try another kind of cheese? Maybe try adding some ground turkey or some ground beef, or maybe in some pieces of ham. I love red bell pepper, so a little of that would add some additional flavor, as would mushrooms. I've also seen pizzas that use black beans as topping.

You could also explore adding some spices. When I make omelets, I often use the Penzey's Forward seasoning (no salt). I've also used their southwest seasoning. It depends on what flavors you enjoy.

If you worry that the filling might be too liquidy, you could par-bake the crust at a higher temperature for about 5-10 minutes, then add the topping.

Let us know what variations you try, and when I get around to trying your recipe, I'll post my results.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Joan--when I use old-fashioned oats or Grape Nuts in a bread, I usually soak the grains in any liquid I'm using--except for what I use to proof the yeast. It's not a long soak--usually between 10 and 15 minutes.

[BakerAunt]

I baked my Oat-Cinnamon Scones Friday evening for breakfast over the next few days. I only remembered the cinnamon chips after the dough was together, so I mixed them in as best I could. As an experiment, I used 2/3 pastry flour and 1/3 whole wheat pastry flour.

[BakerAunt]

For Friday dinner, I made my mother's stroganoff recipe with a few substitutions: ground turkey for the ground beef and cream of mushroom soup for the cream of chicken soup (Campbell's Healthy Request). To keep it from being bland, I added 1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning. We eat it over brown rice.

[BakerAunt]

On Thursday morning, I tried a new recipe, "Snowdrop Brownies," a recipe by Stephanie Coon of Juneau, Alaska from the "Too Busy to Cook?" feature in Bon Appetit (March 1993), p. 126. It called for 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa. I used up some double-dutch and filled the rest of the measuring cup with Ghirardelli baking cocoa. I also added 1 tsp. espresso powder and walnuts. I baked it at the temperature given and used an 8-inch glass pan, as specified. At the end of the 25 minutes, the sides were done, but the center was clearly under baked, so I baked it another 5 minutes, and then the center looked done. However, it still sank a bit, and the sides looked a bit overdone. I'm thinking it might have baked more evenly in a 9-inch square pan. In looking closely at the picture, I now see that the center does appear to be slightly sunken. I missed it because they show some of the cut brownies on a platter--perhaps to hide the sinking. (Darn those food stylists.) We had them for dinner, and they are delicious and of a smooth consistency. I find them a bit less sweet than many brownies, and I like that. The white chocolate chips do get lost; I see them but do not really taste them.

[BakerAunt]

I used some pork chops left over from a meal my husband cooked to make one of my soba noodle dishes with sautéed carrots, mushrooms, half a package of frozen broccoli (fresh is very expensive here right now), the drippings from the pork, and sliced green onion. We ate it with sweet corn because almost anything goes with sweet corn. 🙂

[BakerAunt]

I'm glad that the buttermilk version came out well for you Bev. I'm planning on baking this bread again soon.

Tonight I fed my sourdough starter that I brought from Texas two weeks ago in its own little ice chest. I meant to do a feeding sooner, but it has been hectic. It perked right up. I used the discard to make dough for a single recipe of my Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I usually make a double recipe, but I worried that it might stress the starter by using too much of it at once. I did unpack my stand mixer and use it. I will bake the crackers on Friday. I think that that the dough benefits from a couple days rest in the refrigerator.

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