[chocomouse]

Another salad night at our house: chicken salad from leftover chicken breasts, more leftover macaroni salad, a tomato and onion salad, and fresh cole slaw using the first cabbage from our garden. Another hot and humid day, with thunderstorms in the area, but not a drop of rain in our neighborhood.

[chocomouse]

That looks really good, Len. We've learned that opening the top of the grill lets out a ton of hot air, much more than opening the oven door. As Aaron asks, did you have the lid off? Or, if shut, maybe don't rotate the pizza as frequently or open the lid to check doneness.

[chocomouse]

Tonight we had shrimp marinated in Stonewall Kitchen pineapple-ginger sauce, grilled on skewers, with fresh green and yellow beans and macaroni salad.

I just wrote bacon on my grocery list! I have enough lettuce for an army, and tons of green tomatoes - just waiting for them to ripen. The Romas are looking great, but also still green. Pizza is on the menu for Thursday night, but I'll still be using last summer's tomato sauce.

[chocomouse]

Mike, I was thinking back to the early 1800s when the Wood's flour company started. They carted their bulk flours through the street of Boston in wooden kegs stamped with pictures of a knight on a horse. I was not referring to any connection to the mythical kingdom of the Middle Ages. I do recall that the flour they first sold was imported from England, it was not milled from US raised wheat.

[chocomouse]

Does that new logo look like it belongs to Burger King? I'm OK with the new name - KA(F? BC?) as it does reflect more accurately the current mission of the company. But the knight, the horse! And that gorgeous knight in shining armor that stands in the entry way by the Cafe! I asked if they would be changing the name of the Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot professional flours and the response was, so far, no change. I wish they had retained more of the historical connection to King Arthur.

[chocomouse]

I assume by now most of you have heard about the change at KAF to King Arthur Baking Company, and the new logo. I tried to start a new thread about this, but couldn't figure out how to do that. What do you think of the changes?

[chocomouse]

I need to add to my photo/comments about the loaf of bread on steroids! Not only did the that recipe make that huge loaf of bread -- it made 6 hot dog buns also. You can just barely see a bun at the edge of the photo. They were free-standing, and don't seem to be over-grown.

[chocomouse]

I will definitely make 2 loaves of the bread next time! I should think it would make 2 dozen rolls. I make 1 dozen out of a typical 3 cups of flour recipe. I do make smaller roll than what I see for sale in bakeries!

[chocomouse]

Tonight we had potato salad, broccoli salad, seafood salad, and watermelon chunks. Salads are planned leftovers: one salad gets finished off each night, and one new salad added! Tomorrow night I should add a pasta-veggie salad. It's too darn hot to grill or cook inside. We have 2 more days of temps in the upper 90s, for a total of 4 in a row. This is our 3rd official heat wave this summer. This is very unusual for Vermont.

[chocomouse]

I have a similar problem when I make blueberry pancakes. I pour the batter onto the griddle, and then sprinkle blueberries over the top of each pancake. When I slip the pancake, the blueberries end up on the bottom, right on the griddle, and the berries stick a little. It just makes cleaning the griddle difficult.

[chocomouse]

Baker Aunt, I've made the Maple Cinnamon Rolls from sallysbakingaddiction. My written comments on the recipe are: dough soft, difficult to handle; no maple flavor. I also have a recipe (but have not made it) for maple sticky buns (don't know where it is from) that pours maple syrup into a greased 9 x 12, sprinkled with nuts, and with the cut spirals of dough laid on top. That is the only maple in the recipe.

I know that I've made maple cinnamon rolls numerous times. I use maple syrup in the dough instead of sugar, just use your favorite sweet dough recipe for the dough. After I roll the dough out into a rectangle, I brush it liberally with maple syrup, no idea how much I used. Then sprinkle with brown sugar and nuts and roll up. Not sure if I used any melted butter in that filling or not; probably not. I do recall that some of the syrup oozed out during baking. I suspect that is why I decided to make sticky buns instead of cinnamon buns. If you are frosting the rolls, I would put maple syrup in with the confectioner's sugar and butter. I've never use maple sugar, although I currently have several bags of it in my pantry, waiting for a good recipe. We make the syrup in our sugarhouse, as well as candy, but do not make sugar. Maple is such a subtle flavor (especially if you are using the "fancy" or "light" grade; I always use the dark) that maple flavored goods are often a disappointment.

My concern with using the Maple Buttermilk bread recipe for the rolls/buns is that mine was growing/expanding as I tried to shape it for the pan - it surely would not work for shaping into rolled buns!! I will make it again, but will look at your changes first. This time I followed the recipe exactly.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by chocomouse.

[chocomouse]

Finally posting a photo of the Maple Buttermilk bread I baked last week. It shows the dough only half-shaped, since I had to try to stuff it all into the pan as it was growing so much bigger as I worked on it!! As you can see, getting all the dough into the pan was not easy! It is a light fluffy bread with good flavor. It's very moist, almost too wet, compared to the much dryer whole grain breads I usually make. I'll make it again, probably with some slight changes.

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[chocomouse]

Friday night we had boneless pork chops, potato salad, and our first green and yellow beans from the deck garden. So good! I have another planting of beans started in a 3 foot planter, also on the deck.

Tonight we had grilled chicken breasts, leftover potato salad, and a fresh from the garden broccoli salad.

[chocomouse]

Good evening, Cass. It's good to hear from you and thank you for your detailed suggestions about my bagel baking.

Due to my arthritis, I use a bread machine to knead all my doughs. I've never had a problem with poor gluten development, although I do understand how that might result in a shriveled up product. I have used bread flour sometimes for my bagels, but we don't care for the real chewy bagels and find the combination of half bread flour and half AP (from KAF, with it's higher protein level) usually results in the perfect chew. Next time I make bagels, I will use your recommendation to boil them for 1.5 minutes per side. I appreciate your help!

My husband really likes this batch, and his only complaint is they are "skinny". I think they taste good, the outside is crisp, and the inside is dense but not overly chewy. I'll try the recipe again, and report back on the results.

[chocomouse]

I wonder if the new home bakers will continue to bake from scratch, or turn to using mixes. They may have less time for baking, if they've gone back to work, kids back doing kid activities, everyone socializing more, etc. We all know that from-scratch doesn't take that much more time than using a mix, but I think most people believe a mix saves time.

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