[Italiancook]

I baked 2 loaves of Amish Bread for the first time. Used allrecipes.com recipe. I baked this one other time and turned it into Raisin Bread. Now that I've baked it just as white sandwich bread, I have some questions. Keep in mind that this is only my first time baking sandwich bread. Normally, I make Italian or Cuban Bread. Questions:

(1) How brown is a loaf of white sandwich bread supposed to be? Or, do you go by the temperature? If so, what temperature do you seek? The loaves I made are light brown, and I didn't think to check their temperature. The recipe said to bake 30 minutes, and I did, in a preheated oven.

(2) When I bake Italian and Cuban Breads, I don't temp them. I bake them the recipe-suggested time and make sure the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. When I tapped this sandwich bread, there was no hollow sound. Instead, the bottom "gave" when I tapped it. I assumed this was because it's supposed to be soft bread, not crusty like the ones I usually make. Did I err?

(3) I have hot-burning under the cabinet lights. I used them to rise bread during cold weather. Today, being hot weather, they probably worked to my detriment. Both rises took half the time than the recipe suggested, because of the heat from the lights. I was working in the kitchen during the rises, so I kept on the lights.

The finished products have cracks on the ends at the top of the bread pan area. In other words, below the dome of the bread, but only on the short ends. Do those mean the bread rose too high while resting?

The bread is cooling, so I don't know what it looks like inside. The recipe calls for 2/3 cup sugar. I used only 1/4 cup, which one reviewer said makes a fluffy loaf. At any rate, I'd never use 2/3 cup sugar for plain white bread.

Thanks for any ideas you have on this.

[Italiancook]

On Sunday, I made lamb loin chops, broccoli & cauliflower. The veggies were for the fridge for this meal and later in the week. Today, I made braised pork chops. I followed BakerAunt's lead & saved the leftover braising liquid to make gravy when eating leftover pork chops. I have a chicken in the slow cooker. I had planned on having it for dinner, but the pork chop lunch was large with broccoli and fried potatoes. Now, there isn't enough hunger for a chicken dinner. I'm going to use some of the chicken to make chicken fried rice this week. Other than that, my cooking for the week is over. It's leftovers.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, Aaron, for the information.

[Italiancook]

Joan, although the recipe says you can use other pie fillings besides cherry, I have never made it that way. I use only cherries, because it looks so pretty and I prefer the taste of cherries over any other fruit. My motto is, "Why mess with success." The color in Cherry Flip pops on a buffet table.

[Italiancook]

Yes, that makes sense, BakerAunt. Thanks for posting. The recipe clearly states to not use the quick oats, so that must be the reason. I just don't have pantry space to keep old-fashioned oats, quick oats, and steel-cut oats. So I opt for stocking the latter two.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

Joan, your recipe reminds me of one I have called Cherry Flip. I've had the recipe on an index card for so many years that I no longer recall who gave it to me.

CHERRY FLIP

3 tbsp. milk
1 carton Cool Whip (10 oz.)
1 c. powdered sugar
1 - 8 oz. package cream cheese
1 can cherry pie filling (OR any kind of pie filling)

graham cracker crumbs

Mix together milk, cream cheese, Cool Whip & powdered sugar in a bowl.

Then put graham cracker crust into bottom of pan & pour the Cool Whip mixture on top of it. Then put cherry pie filling on top of Cool Whip mixture and sprinkle some graham cracker crumbs on top and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (It tastes better if refrigerated overnight.)

CRUST: Add 2 c. graham cracker crumbs, 1/2 stick margarine, melted & 3 tsp. sugar. Mix this all together & this goes in the bottom of the serving dish.

Use a 9" x 9" dish.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by Italiancook.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

I don't think it was clotted cream. Once, I ordered that from igourmet.com. As I recall, it was not pourable. The high percentage heavy cream from the grocery would pour even though it was quite thick.

BTW, what does one do with clotted cream? I ordered it without knowing anything about it. When it arrived, I couldn't figure out what to do with it! I guessed one would put it on scones, but I don't like scones.

[Italiancook]

Once, I found heavy cream labeled on the front as 60-something percent heavy cream. Out of curiosity, I bought it. I thought it was too thick for using in a soup, but guessed it'd be fantastic as whipping cream. It was so thick I thought it'd be too unhealthy to use with fruit. Never again saw it in the store, which was okay. I wasn't impressed with it.

[Italiancook]

Ditto on your anniversary, BakerAunt. I hope it turns out to be a great day.

I'm curious about your Blueberry Yum Yum dessert, Joan. I have my mother's recipe for Yum Yum Salad, which is a lemon jello-based "salad." I always serve it as a salad, but since it has Cool Whip in it, I think of it as a fake salad. Is your Yum Yum dessert also jello-based? (There's no crust to the Yum Yum Salad.)

This afternoon, I baked Martha Stewart's Oatmeal-Raisin Bars for the first time. Pretty good, and quick to make. The recipe says to use rolled oats, not quick ones. I don't stock rolled oats, so I used the quick oats (not instant). I was concerned eating them that they are too buttery (3/4 cup butter for an 8" dish). So I went online to read about substituting olive oil for butter. I'll make these again using olive oil.

[Italiancook]

Take heart, BakerAunt, your new blade probably has a high statistical chance to be the right fit. Surely, not fitting is the anomaly.

I hope your contractor can start sooner rather than later, so you can enjoy your new home in its fullest.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, cwc, for mentioning the fit. When my blade arrived, my husband washed it before setting it on top of the old blade in the food processor. I haven't had to use it, so I hadn't discarded the old one. After reading it might not fit, I rushed to the kitchen to check the new blade. Frustration! The new blade is too loose -- too big at the opening! It doesn't fit as snugly as the old blade.

Because I waited so long for the new blade, I've decided to stay calm until I have to use it the first time. If it makes a rattling sound, or if it performs incorrectly, I'll call Cuisinart. In the meantime, I decided to keep the old blade, instead of disposing of it as the company suggests.

[Italiancook]

As cupcakes, this recipe makes a good-sized cupcake. As cake, the layers are thin. The cake has the peanut butter filling between the layers and on top. I didn't frost the sides. With the cake, there's so much of the frosting that it's difficult to taste the banana flavor. The cupcakes have a much better banana taste, because they don't have as much frosting. The banana taste is good, so I prefer this recipe as cupcakes.

[Italiancook]

Sunday afternoon I baked a banana cake with peanut butter frosting. I used KAF recipe for banana cupcakes, but followed their directions for turning it into an 8" cake. It is good, but I prefer this recipe as cupcakes.

[Italiancook]

I'm not the expert that some other posters are, but I've always thought the purpose was to warm up the milk so the coldness wouldn't shock the dough. Of course, the trick is to not dump hot milk onto the yeast and kill it. But again, I'm no expert.

[Italiancook]

Mike, the recipe is copyrighted 2008. The peaches I used have light syrup. I watched Trisha's video after my attempt failed. I couldn't tell if she used heavy syrup or light syrup, but you're right -- the liquidity of the syrup used could affect the final outcome.

RiversideLen, I would be hesitant to use canned peach pie filling. The recipe starts with a stick of butter melted in the bottom of the pan. I think the pie filling would be liquidy, too.

Sometime, out of curiosity, I'm going to try using canned peaches and my dad's peach cobbler topping. But my guess is that Trisha's recipe might have worked for me if I had used frozen peaches. I never store them, so that experiment will never happen.

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