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I have a bag of Cara Cara oranges that I have been wanting to use for baking, and on Sunday, I pulled out Bernard Clayton's recipe, "Orange Cinnamon Swirl Bread," which appeared only in the first edition of The Complete Book of Breads (pp. 422-24). I baked a whole wheat adaptation of it last year but felt that the whole wheat flavor overwhelmed the orange, so this time, I used 4 ½ cups white whole wheat and 2 ¼ cups bread flour. I used the gold yeast (high sugar) rather than the regular yeast. I increased the water from ¼ to 1/3 cup to allow for the whole wheat flour. I zested and juiced three of the oranges, which gave me just a bit less than ¾ cup juice, so I increased the buttermilk (replaced regular milk) slightly. Before I added the sugar, I used a fork to mix it with the grated zest. I've been applying this technique when I add zest to a recipe, and I find that it helps incorporate the zest more evenly and is more flavorful. My other changes were to add 4 Tbs. special dry milk and 3 Tbs. flax meal. I replaced the ¼ cup shortening with 4 Tbs. avocado oil.
When I baked the recipe last year, I had a lot of filling leak out. To try to prevent that happening again, I left a 1-inch margin without the cinnamon sugar the far end when I rolled up the dough., as well as a smaller margin on the two sides that would make the end of a loaf. I still had some leaking on the ends when I baked the loaves. The recipe calls for starting at 375 F for ten minutes, then dropping the temperature to 325 F for 30. I dropped it to 350 F, then 12 minutes later, when I noted some leaking of filling at the end, I dropped it to 325 F. I baked the loaves to an internal temperature of 190 F., so they needed an additional 5 minutes. I was pleased that only one loaf leaked at just one of its ends. I look forward to slicing it for breakfast tomorrow. The other one will go into the freezer.
For my dinner on Sunday, I am baking a Beet, Spinach, and Goat Cheese Flatbread, a recipe that I adapted from Ken Haedrich's The Harvest Baker. I make it as one large flatbread on a 1 2/3 sheet pan. I had 2 oz. of goat cheese leftover from the frittata I made last week, so I used it with another 4 oz. log. I used golden beets, which I found in the organic section of Kroger a couple of months ago, and which have been waiting in the refrigerator for me to have time to make this entrée. Due to my other baking project, it will not be ready until close to 8:30 p.m.., but at least now I have it to warm up for meals this week.
Hah! Maple Syrup is ALWAYS necessary! 🙂
I agree, Chocomouse. Nothing bakes properly on 2 levels, even if the pans are switched around.
Saturday night's dinner: My husband had more of the turkey loaf and finished the muddled mashed potatoes. I found another container of applesauce for him in the freezer. I had Butternut Squash Chile from the freezer.
My husband has been planting our garden. The tomato plants are now in, and some of the squash is starting to come up. He also decided to plant a couple of organic potatoes from the bowl I have on the counter. I expect that bell pepper and beans will be going in soon.
Your pie looks luscious, Joan.
What a sweet picture of you and your granddaughter!
We were getting low on bread, so on Friday, I baked three loaves of my Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread. I will stick two in the freezer, so that we will be stocked for a while.
I made a Garden Vegetable Turkey Loaf for Friday's dinner, which used frozen spinach and grated carrot. I also made muddled mashed potatoes. I was preoccupied, and nearly burned the potatoes, which I left cooking in some water on the stove. I was able to salvage them, but I had to do major clean-up on the stainless-steel pan. Fortunately, I recalled the trick of heating water in it and adding baking soda, which worked perfectly, along with a sponge.
Thank you, Joan.
My husband had a check-up today. They decided to put him on antibiotics for a week.
I'm sure the wedding was beautiful, Joan. I'm glad you also had some time for sightseeing.
I made scrambled eggs for my husband to eat with applesauce and a piece of bread for dinner on Thursday, while I had the last slice of my frittata. We both had a couple of mini-Banana mini-chocolate chip muffins for dessert with our milk.
More re-runs here.
I scooped out and pressed the barley cookies and baked them late Wednesday morning. I think that the dough does better with the longer refrigerated rest. The past two times, it rested six or seven hours. This time it was closer to 19 hours. I got the second tray a bit browner than I would have liked, but they are still good.
I also tried a new muffin recipe for mini-Banana Muffins with mini-chocolate chips. It came from the Los Angeles Times Magazine, probably back in the late 1980s or early 1990s. I made a lot of changes. The recipe was supposed to make 24-30 mini-muffins. I ended up with 35 and had to use a pan that I do not like as well, as it has wider, shallower wells that likely would work better for mini-tarts. I froze most of the latter. My husband liked the small size of the muffins and tried one at lunch.
On Tuesday afternoon, I made the dough for my no-butter version of the Soft Barley Cookies recipe in the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book. The dough needs to rest "overnight," so as I finished it at 3:15, I will bake them tomorrow. These are soft enough that my husband thinks he will be able to nibble on them in pieces.
I roasted sweet potato chunks and mashed them for my husband to have with his crumpled salmon patty on Tuesday and for the next day or two. I had another slice of the frittata I made yesterday. We agreed that the Banana Chia Seed pudding was even better today.
I also made yogurt.
In an effort to give my husband some diet variety as well as protein, for lunch on Tuesday I tried adapting a carrot soup recipe that I got from Glamour many years ago. I adapted it, since he does not eat onion and does not care much for curry, although I can get the latter by him when it is a background in the spice blend that I use for my chicken or turkey broth. I used about 15 oz. of carrots and 3 cups broth and cooked the carrots until they were softened. I then used the stick blender, which even in a high pot made some mess. The carrots probably needed to cook longer. I blended in ½ cup Greek yogurt, then added 3 1/2 Tbs. maple syrup. We both had some. I would say it is ok but not ready for prime time. However, my husband was happy to have an additional item he could eat.
Thank you all for your kind words. My husband is recovering, but as the nurse warned him, he is having more pain than he did initially, since inflammation comes into play after surgery. I was only able to pick up his pain medication today because due to an error somewhere, the prescription was sent to a city two hours away from us, and the pharmacy chain could not transfer it without the practitioner re-submitting it. Of course, it was a Saturday, so it has taken until today for me to be able to pick it up for him.
I think he may need to stick with softer foods and not push it. I am trying to find special foods I can make for him that also are high in protein, which was one reason I made the Banana Chia Seed Pudding, which he did like, but it would have worked better at pudding consistency. He is not as cooperative in my efforts, probably because the recovery process is hard. I also need to make it foods for him that can be served at room temperature, neither hot nor cold. I'm thinking of trying a carrot soup that uses chicken broth for the base and some Greek yogurt. I usually season it with sweet curry, but he is not a curry fan. I might try a bit of dill.
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