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We're not doing much for Thanksgiving, so I haven't worked on the scrumptious tasks some of you have enjoyed. One day I made my grandmother's chocolate cake. I haven't unpacked my new hand mixer yet, so I couldn't make the cooked frosting. I settled on a confectioners sugar frosting from jennycancook.com. I think it's her 2-minute vanilla frosting, but I'm unsure. It's very good, and I discovered it's better if it sets on the cake an hour or two before eating. Another day, I made Jenny's Blueberry Coffee Cake for breakfast. It's an oil recipe; I really like the quantity of oil recipes on her site.
BakerAunt, thanks for the flour information. I have no idea why Gold Medal unbleached isn't sold in this area. After Thanksgiving, when stores aren't so busy, I may check around again to see if anyone has added unbleached GM.
BakerAunt, thanks for your effort in passing along Cass's suggestions for the Portuguese bread. I've copied and pasted them into a Word document.
Cass, I plan to use all your suggestions, so I saved the Word document. I think using part Gold Medal flour and part KA makes sense, since I don't know what type of flour the recipe-writer used. My KA all-purpose is unbleached, but I can only find bleached Gold Medal AP flour. Will the bleached make a bad difference?
I appreciate you analyzing the recipe and telling me to use a pan, Cass. I certainly don't want to invest the time or ingredients to end up with a pancake!
Cass, you offered an interesting idea for enjoying the bread with olive oil. We'll try that for sure. I'll report back with the results in a couple of weeks. Initially, I had posted I was going to make this bread next week. I hadn't thought about Thanksgiving. Now, I'll bake it the week after the holiday.
A long time ago, on a vacation at Seabrook Island, I ate at a restaurant that offered an appetizer of bread for dipping in olive oil. It was the most scrumptious appetizer I've ever eaten. I can't believe it, but I didn't ask the waiter the name of the olive oil or the bread (homemade).
Fast forward recently, and I read something about Portuguese olive oil. I had never purchased good olive oil. I buy olive oil in a large can -- the same brand my mother-in-law used! I e-mailed portugaliamarketplace.com to ask which olive oil to purchase for dipping. I also asked what type of bread to use. A rep sent a suggestion for both. I don't recall the name of the oil, but when I bought it, the site said there were only 2 left.
This will be my first adventure with anything Portuguese, so I thank you Cass for your help, and BakerAunt for sending the help my way.
Mike, your dinner rolls are gorgeous! Thanks for posting pictures.
Thanks, Mike and BakerAunt for your expert opinions on the flour type. I'll go with KA AP. Mike, I'm glad you mentioned the salt level. I hope the bread does have a good rise.
Because I have a small, traditional kitchen, I needed only ordinary appliances. My GE double oven range and refrigerator were delivered the day after I ordered them. I had to settle for stainless steel. I wanted white, but the pandemic nixed that.
The day after the appliances were in place, the dishwasher quit drying the dishes on the top rack. My husband researched online and found that if we turn on hot tap water before starting the dishwasher, the top rack will dry. This is true, and it solved our problem. Another tip he found is to keep Jet Dry in the holder. That helps the dishes on top dry fully. Of the two, I think it's the hot tap water run that solved our problem.
A customer service rep at portugaliamarketplace.com sent me a link that I've posted below. It's for a crusty, Portuguese bread to serve with olive oil for dipping. I'm hoping to make this bread next week. The recipe doesn't specify what type of flour to use. I like KA bread flour and am thinking of using that. But you're all more expert bakers than I. If you have time, please look at this recipe and tell me what type of flour you'd use. https://portugueserecipes.ca/recipe/778/5/Portuguese-Homemade-Bread-Recipe-
BakerAunt, you struck a chord -- my pet peeve -- recipe times. I can't even prep KABC recipes in the prep time they offer. I always add 30 minutes prep to any of their recipes. If it's bread, I add an hour to the total recipe time.
I only prep all the ingredients if the recipe is a fast-moving one. Otherwise, I like to work a next-step while a previous one is taking place.
I rinse dishes and stack in one side of the sink as I go. I count that as recipe time. At the end of the recipe I load the dishwasher, but I don't count that as recipe time. I also wash my hands after touching the refrig or freezer handles or the stove handle. It takes time to do that, and I count it as recipe time. I tried wiping everything with Clorox Wipes before starting recipes but found that takes longer than handwashing and is more wearisome.
After years of grumbling to myself about recipe times, I've decided that all recipe-writers start counting the time after all the ingredients are prepped and ready to go. I think that's unfair and misleading. Plus, as the article mentions, there is the necessary task of washing some ingredients.
I also have a pet peeve about cooking shows that don't even give lip service to washing ingredients. I worry that novice cooks won't know to wash their ingredients. I know people who've developed salmonella, probably from unclean kitchen habits. So when I see a cooking show chef pull out some of the product with a spoon, taste it, then return the spoon to the pot, I cringe. I worry that novice cooks will emulate that behavior.
For the first time in 22 months, I went into a retail store . . . wearing 2 masks and gloves. To my pleasant surprise, all the employees wore masks. I had arranged by phone with two departments for my items to be ready for pick-up. In one area, I had to chose from seven items for a gift. Total time in the store: 19 minutes.
I hope that store has a lot of brave customers, because the ordeal will keep me away for the rest of this year.
But I do have plans to buy a refrigerator and stove and throw rugs all in one day, when I recover from today's ordeal.
I wanted to make a cake that requires only a hand-held mixer. Then it dawned on me: My 20-year-old hand mixer bit the dust while making mashed potatoes a few weeks ago. I had thought I'd buy the KitchenAid battery-operated mixer, but I wanted to think about it more. I never moved forward with the purchase and forgot it completely. I don't often use a hand mixer. Today, I decided not to spend the $99 or so on the KitchenAid. I ended up buying a Cuisinart hand mixer, although I was tempted by the much less expensive Hamilton Beach that has a storage container. I probably would have purchased the Hamilton Beach, but most of the reviews were part of a promotion. I wasn't sure what that means, so I passed. Does anyone know what it means when reviews are part of a promotion?
I baked cinnamon muffins for breakfast and the freezer.
Your bread looks delicious, Mike! It's helpful when you post the measurements. Thanks.
I baked banana spice bread today. I used my grandmother's banana bread recipe and added 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/4 teaspoon allspice.
I went back to the 1970s and baked a Piecake for the first time since that era. I used a can of cherry pie filling. Recipe calls for 1 teaspoon cinnamon. I was careful to level off the cinnamon, but we still couldn't taste much of the pie filling. Nevertheless, we enjoyed all the cake. It's not something I'll make again, because it's heavy on sugar with the pie filling. I used half white splenda with the sugar. The cake doesn't taste overly sweet, but I know it's caloric from the pie filling and white sugar. Of course, that never bothers me when I make Texas Chocolate Cake!
Thanks, BakerAunt, for letting us know Aldi's has Italian pasta. I'm still not in the protected range after The Vaccine, so I'll ask my husband to stop by there and see if there's any at our Aldi's.
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