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Riverside Len: Those doughnuts pass my health food test!
I decided in the afternoon that I'd like a special bread to go with the leftover roast beef we would be eating, and I had 4 oz. of asiago cheese to use up. I grabbed my copy of the King Arthur Wholegrain Baking Book, and found "Rosemary-Asiago Chop Bread" on pp. 240-241.It uses whole wheat and barley flour, and only a small proportion of bread flour. The instructions are mostly clear, although when it said to form the dough into a 9 x 12 inch oval, then spread the cubes of cheese on half of it, I was not sure whether that meant lengthwise or widthwise. I decided to spread it widthwise, and I then folded the other half over it, then worked it into a 7-inch circle. The dough seemed a bit dry, so I used some water to help seal cracks. It goes into an 8-inch round pan, then the baker uses one corner of a bench knife to make cuts all over the top, down to the bottom but not through the bottom. It baked as a round flat loaf with chunks of cheese in every slice. I didn't have cheese oozing out the top, so maybe my cuts were not deep enough. However, it was great with the leftover roast and should be excellent with soup.
We were out of bread, so on Saturday, I baked three loaves of "Grandma A's Ranch Hand Bread" (recipe posted on this site). In addition to my usual substitutions of 3 1/4 cups of buttermilk for that much milk, 3 Tbs. of honey rather than sugar, and the addition of 1/3 cup ground flax meal, I substituted in 2 cups of Irish Wholemeal Flour (I was amazed at how much I have in the freezer!) and used up 1 3/4 cups of Sir Lancelot flour as part of the bread flour.
I printed this recipe back when KAF hosted the Baking Circle. I found it while sorting my stacks of printed recipes and discovered that it had not been posted to this site, so I have typed it in. I also baked the recipe using a 1 Tbs. scoop and got 45 cookies that needed to bake for 12 minutes.
Update on my second baking of the Mocha Chocolate Chip Cake to which Cwcdesign introduced us last year.
I used 3/4 cups of mini-chocolate chips this time and dredged them with flour. They still sank to the bottom, but it is less messy with the mini chips. I stacked the layers so that each had the chips on the top. I also used 1/2 tsp. salt in the cake rather than the specified 1 tsp. kosher salt. I omitted the kosher salt from the frosting, since it uses salted butter. I used just 2 Tbs. of the King Arthur Espresso powder (recipe calls for 2 Tbs. and 1 tsp.). I like the frosting much better this time, perhaps because I used less and because I had freshly opened espresso powder.
However, the cake does not slice nicely but crumbles a lot. I'm not sure if that is the chocolate chips or if the recipe could use some tweaking.
I have written to Cass/Kid Pizza to see if he has any suggestions about how to address that issue and the sinking chocolate chip issue. If he does, I'll be sure to post his answer here.
On Saturday evening, I baked the Brown Sugar Sour Cream Pound Cake from the KAF website. I used a Wilton Bundt pan from my mother that has 5 little hearts around the top. I also baked No Fail Sugar Cookies from the Fancy Flours website, rolled 3/8-inch thick, cut with a small heart cookie cutter and sprinkled with red jimmies. For the cookies, I increase the salt by a half teaspoon. As an experiment, this time I used Hudson Mill bleached flour. The cake and cookies are for the after service social time at church tomorrow.
Note: Kid Pizza is correct: bleached flour in cookie recipes with a lot of butter is the right choice. My cookies came out nicely crispy (baked 15 minutes, but also refrigerated a few minutes before putting the cookie sheet in the oven.
Baking Valentine's cookies makes me think of Livingwell (Penelope). I hope that she is reading, on either this site or Zen's site. I hope that she is baking her sugar cookies for the holidays.
