[Italiancook]

Thanks for the warm welcome, Everyone.

[Italiancook]

When I was growing up, my mother made mac 'n cheese way too often. It was horrible. Dry, with terrible taste. I could only tolerate her mac 'n cheese during the summer when fresh tomatoes were in the garden. A fresh tomato on top of the macaroni made it tolerable.

Because of so many bad experiences, I've never tried mac 'n cheese as an adult. Once, I made Ina Garten's Four Cheese Penne (or is it 5 Cheese?), and it was good. She has a mac 'n cheese with tomatoes under the bread crumbs that looks good, but my aversion to mac 'n cheese is so strong I probably will never try it.

[Italiancook]

Lunch was kielbasa with broccoli. Dinner will probably be tuna salad sandwiches.

[Italiancook]

I baked the Chocolate Chip Loaf Cake from jennycancook.com. It turned out a little dry, probably because I didn't use the nuts called for in the recipe. I didn't check on it when I smelled chocolate burning. It wasn't burnt, but it was more brown than I would have preferred. So I'm blaming the dryness on the baker, not the recipe.

[Italiancook]

RiversideLen, I had seen that grinder when I was on Amazon looking. I didn't pay any attention to it, because it didn't look like what Mike had described. I'll probably end up buying it. Thanks!

Thanks to you, too, Mike for the picture.

Like BakerAunt, I now use my Micrcoplane rasp grater for nutmeg. The way I measure the nutmeg is by where I buy it. McCormick's . . . their rep told me that 1 whole nut is about 1 teaspoon grated. So if I want half a teaspoon, I grate approximately half of one piece of nutmeg. I've never been disappointed in this "measuring tool."

[Italiancook]

Mike, I was all over the internet, including Microplane's website, and I can't find a nutmeg grinder by Microplane. I found the William Bounds Nutmeg Grinder at Williams-Sonoma (see link).https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/nutmeg-grinder/?pkey=e%7Cnutmeg%2Bgrinder%7C95%7Cbest%7C0%7C1%7C24%7C%7C1&cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH#reviews Thanks, Mike.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by Italiancook.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

I'm trying something different for us for lunch. We love bruschetta made with fresh tomato, basil leaves, olive oil & some red wine vinegar. I have leftover sautéed mushrooms and a boule of Cuban Bread from the freezer. I'm going to make bruschetta with the sautéed mushrooms on top.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, chocomouse, for mentioning the KAF Doughnut Muffins. I celebrated Donut Day by making them. We enjoyed the nutmeg in them, although it was time-consuming to grate a teaspoon of nutmeg. The recipe calls for up to 1-1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. I may try that next time.

[Italiancook]

I baked a loaf of Banana Bread. It's going to the freezer for house guests in June.

[Italiancook]

Wonky, I send my condolences. I appreciate the veterans in your family, including your dad.

[Italiancook]

The donuts of my childhood were Krispy Kreme. The cream filled with powdered sugar topping. I didn't know they have other fillings until I read these posts. I can buy KK's in the store, but there's no bakery near me. I try to avoid the KK display in the store.

Dunkin Donuts has made product changes. I used to buy their cinnamon/sugar covered cake donuts, but I was told they're no longer making them.

My dad made doughnuts once when I was growing up. The recipe made many more than he anticipated. He had so many that he went up and down the street looking for neighbors to take the excess. He never made them again. My guess is it was also more work than he had anticipated.

If I have all the ingredients, I'll try KAF Doughnut Muffins of Friday to celebrate the day.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, I have a typo in my original post. I used 4-1/2 tsp. instant yeast, not 5-1/2 tsp. (I'll try to correct it.) That's how much the Red Star Yeast conversion chart said to use for 4-8 cups flour. I don't recall how much flour I used, but it was more than the recipe called for. The recipe said the dough should not be sticky, so I added flour up to that point.

We discussed Butterhorns in a weekly thread a few months ago when I made a Taste of Home recipe for them. That recipe calls for refrigerating the dough overnight.

Thanks for you input. The recipe you referenced sounds similar, although yours uses more liquid.

[Italiancook]

I mentioned my newer acquisition, "Mennonite Community Cookbook" a few months ago. Since I did, I think I should tell people about a huge variation I found in the cookbook. I made Butterhorn Rolls (should butterhorn be one word or two?) from this cookbook. Probably, as a novice baker, I should not have, but I did.

First problem was the yeast. It called for 1 cake compressed yeast, which I didn't feel like trying to find in the store. I called KAF and a baker asked me what weight the cake yeast was cited in the recipe. No weight. Off the top of her head, she said 1 tablespoon. I decided to search for a yeast website conversion. I found one by Red Star Yeast: https://redstaryeast.com/yeast-baking-lessons/yeast-conversion-table/ Based on that, I used 4-1/2 teaspoons instant yeast. That worked out okay, I think.

The recipe doesn't say how many circles come out of the dough. I guessed at 4, which I now believe is wrong. Should have been 3, I think. By doing 4, the rolled out circles were only 10 inches, and I now think too thin. The result was that the recipe is stated to make 3-1/2 dozen small rolls, but I ended up with 60! They're quite small.

The real problem was the oven temperature. Recipe calls for 425 degrees for 20 minutes. I foolishly agreed to that and burned the first batch of 20 rolls. But hubby rescued them, put in a plastic bag and has been eating them as snacks. I baked the others at 350 degrees, and ended up with good-looking rolls. I'm now thinking that old-timey stoves heated much differently than modern ones.

I have a question for you experienced bakers. The recipe says to let dough rise until it is "light." I have no idea whether "light" means proofed, or if it is to go beyond the finger-poke test for proofed. I only let it rise for 30 minutes, and at that time, the finger indentation stayed, so I divided and used the dough. Thanks!

(Edited to correct amount of yeast used.)

• This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

Well, drat! If it wasn't "cleaned," I could tell people their baked goods have a secret ingredient -- wine. Thanks, Wonky, that's an interesting tidbit.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, Mike, for suggesting bulkfoods.com for the cream of tartar. I bought a pound from them. That should last me a long time, since the cream of tartar is mixed with baking soda to replicate baking powder. Bulkfoods.com offers an array of shipping options. I chose the least expensive and it still arrived fast -- or in a reasonable amount of time to me. Others may have a different concept of "fast."

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