[BakerAunt]

I've done mashed potatoes with garlic before, Len, but I never thought to add Parmesan. I'll have to try it. BTW, I also have discovered, with my hand blender that a taller pot is essential when mixing.

I roasted chicken thighs and sweet potato chunks for dinner on Tuesday, which we had with leftover coleslaw. There is enough chicken left for another meal, and there is still plenty of coleslaw.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you for reviewing that recipe, CWCdesign. I had printed it off to try sooner or later. Given your review, it will be sooner!

[BakerAunt]

I've been happy with the cloche I bought from Skeptic, although for larger loaves, I use a Romanoff bowl on the bottom with the cloche on top. I like that the recipe calls for a cold oven start. In fact, I'm going to make the levain tonight for my Rustic Sourdough, which I will bake that way tomorrow.

I have never tried the "drop it into a heated Dutch oven." I also use my Dutch ovens frequently for soups and stews, so it does double duty. I have a ceramic Emile Henry Dutch oven that I've used for rolls, but although it is supposed to be safe on the stove top, I have no plans to try it there.

[BakerAunt]

For dinner on Monday, we had coleslaw and Crispy Oven Baked Fish and Chips with Dill Tartar Sauce.

I also made yogurt today.

[BakerAunt]

That sounds really good, Joan.

We re-ran the Spaghetti Squash Casserole, but this time with microwaved frozen mixed vegetables.

[BakerAunt]

I baked a streusel apple pie. I made a mistake and instead of adding the filling ingredients to the apples, I added the topping ingredients (pre-streusel). I went ahead and added the filling ingredients, so there was 1/4 cup more sugar in the pie, as well as 1/2 cup of flour that would not be there. I made up more topping mixture. The pie still baked well and looks good. Next time, I will put the streusel mixture on the other side of the room.

[BakerAunt]

This one is for Mike:

https://www.thenew60comic.com/thecomics/2024/2/15/valenines-day-2024

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I will bake them next week.

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I roasted my last spaghetti squash (a Golden Arrow variety), then used it to make a spaghetti squash "lasagna" (really a casserole) in which it is layered with a tomato meat sauce, then sprinkled with mozzarella and Parmesan before baking. The tomato sauce is from some I froze this summer. We had it with microwaved frozen peas. There is enough for two more meals.

[BakerAunt]

Here is the chocolate cookie recipe that I baked yesterday. It originated with the Tartine Bakery, but there are numerous iterations of it on the internet. Here is one:

Salted Chocolate Rye Cookies

My husband had one at tea time, and he--who watched my whisk mishap and helped clean up--proclaimed: These are SO WORTH IT. I'll add my review after I have one for dessert tonight.

My Review: WOW!

[BakerAunt]

We finished off the farro stir-fry for dinner on Friday. As there was not enough for two, we supplemented with roasted sweet potato chunks and microwaved fresh broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

Len, I suspect it would be like the time I was trying to buy a new work bowl for my food processor. While Cuisinart was helpful in aiding me in finding the part number, they no longer carried it. They would have given me a 20% discount on a new food processor, but I knew that my old one is superior to the new ones, and I was able to source the part.

There appears to be a design flaw in the Cuisinart hand mixer latching mechanism that causes it to break. I'm not willing to buy another one, even with a discount. I will make do with my back-up hand mixers and think about whether a small Kitchen Aid stand mixer might be a better investment.

[BakerAunt]

I baked a new cookie recipe on Friday, "Chocolate Salted Rye Cookies," from a 2013 email from Tasting Table, a site which may no longer be in existence. I did a half recipe because the cookies are rich and I wanted to be sure they are worth the chocolate. The half recipe took 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate. While the recipe said preferably Valrhona, I used 60% Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate. I replaced the butter in the half recipe with a scant 2 Tbs. avocado oil. My only other change was to add ½ tsp. of espresso powder. For this recipe, I ordered muscovado sugar the last time I ordered from Vitacost. As the recipe calls for using the whisk attachment (6 minutes at high speed), I had to use my 7-qt. Cuisinart. It did ok on the half recipe, but a smaller mixer would work better. I also made the mistake of not changing to the paddle before adding the flour. The recipe did not mention that, and I should have ignored it and gone with my instincts. I spent far too much time, cleaning the dough out of the whisk, and I ended up kneading in the rest of the flour by hand. The dough or batter was not "loose," perhaps due to a difference in their dark rye flour and mine (Bob's Red Mill). I did not need to refrigerate it, but I did allow it to rest in the bowl for about 15 minutes so that the rye could hydrate completely. I used a 1 Tbs. scoop (Zeroll #40) and ended up with 25 cookies, which is the number I could expect from a halved recipe. I did not put the bit of flaked salt on the cookies, but I pressed the cookies down a bit. I baked the first sheet for 10 minutes, and the second for 9 minutes. We will wait to sample one until tomorrow, since I think the flavor will improve with an overnight rest.

[BakerAunt]

Thursday was a day for a baking experiment. I have had two containers of almond pulp (2/3 cup and 1/3 cup) from making almond milk last year in my freezer. I had one recipe for using them to make crackers, but I was not going to bake them at 135 F for 20 hours until crunchy. I found another recipe, "1-Bowl Vegan Gluten-Free Crackers," at the website Minimalist Baker that was a promising base recipe that offered an option for using spelt or another flour in place of the gluten-free flour. It used 2/3 cup almond meal but allowed for using leftover almond pulp from making almond milk. I did not find that I needed to dry it out in the oven, as it dries out nicely in the freezer.

Here is the link to the original recipe:

1-Bowl Vegan Gluten-Free Crackers

I set out to make 1 ½ of the recipe and made some changes, such as adding 2 Tbs. Bob's Red Mill milk powder, using just 5 Tbs. avocado oil, and adding 3 Tbs. Penzey's Buttermilk Dressing mix in place of salt and rosemary and garlic powder. I needed just ¼ cup plus 1 Tbs. of water to bring the dough together. I rolled it out to 1/8 inch thick, then cut it into 4 x 4 cm squares, which gave me 80 crackers. I was able to slightly separate them on a large, no sides baking sheet lined with a large piece of parchment. I baked for 20 minutes at 325 F, turning the sheet halfway through the time. I then gave them another 2 minutes. I removed the parchment and let them cool on the hot baking sheet.
Verdict on the next day when sampled: they are a tasty, slightly chewy cracker. This recipe has potential, especially with leftover almond pulp, although almond meal could be used. It is a bit too salty from the Buttermilk dressing mix, but I like the spices. I would cut back to 2 Tbs. next time.

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover farro, chicken, vegetable stir-fry.

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