[skeptic7]

Riverside Len; the Rye buns look great. They are more like English Muffins in size. What do they taste like toasted, with butter and jam of course? Well if life gives you muffins, then reach for the butter!
I did KA Flours Moravian Fruit Coffeecake, but left out anything for which I didn't have the ingredients like potato flour and dried milk, also had to use KA all purpose flour as I didn't have anything else. This came out surprisingly well, it was like a pan pizza with sugar crust and of course plums. I went off to look at other Moravian Sugar cake recipes and King Arthur had made some modification of their own. The original recipe had mashed potatoes instead of just a mere trace of potato flour.
I also did minature scones with dried cranberries.

[skeptic7]

I am so glad that you are going to be there! I was afraid for some reason that you couldn't make the journey. If no crisis arrive I will be there and look forward to seeing you. I want to meet so many people I haven't seen for ages and look at all the sheep and fabric and tools.

[skeptic7]

I did a cheese bread with white flour and Extra Sharp Cabot Cheddar. The sharpness of the cheese really stood out this time. It could be using all white flour instead of whole wheat, and it could be because this was extremely sharp cheddar. The cheese is sharper than I normally like it. I went on a tour of Cabot Cheese and they joked that they had some cheddar they sold to people for a hunting trip, by the time they came back they had forgotten they disliked the taste. I think the cheese would have improved with some apples, either raw or in a pie.
Aaron, I hope you have a good trip. Stay safe and well.

[skeptic7]

Does salt have any structural affect on cookies? I know baking soda affects the spread of cookies and the browning of the top, but I thought salt in cookies is only for the flavor. I have left salt out of brownies and cookies without problems, but I didn't do a side by side comparison.

[skeptic7]

I hope you are able to fix your mixer or send it somewhere to be fixed. I once took an old Kitchen Aid mixer apart but it was always sort of misaligned when I put it back together. It did work for a couple years after that. I've always admired the Ankarsum mixer but it was out of my budget.

[skeptic7]

I finally opened up my jars of maple syrup and tried to can it. Its a darker richer flavor than the previous batch. I look forward to eating it. How is the maple syrup season with this warm winter? Do I need to hoard my jars for future years? I lost a bit when it boiled over in the canning process -- I thought I had it on low when I rushed off to recheck the canning directions.

[skeptic7]

Aaron; The Challah looks wonderful. I'm glad that your temple is helping you. I had a friend who tried to follow an old tradition and make two braids on Friday and then found that was way too much bread.
I made cranberry scones and a flatbread with cheese on top. Like a pizza only no tomato sauce. I hope to make curry butternut squash soup this afternoon and wanted the bread to go with it.
BakerAunt; the oatcakes sound good. Are they like a cracker or a cookie?

[skeptic7]

I did scones and pan pizza again. No experimenting just the same recipe as last time. Its comfort baking in a small kitchen. I was pleasantly surprised by how light and fluffy the pan pizza came out. So I've used up all the mozarella and provolone cheese and still have have a jar of pizza sauce left. Does this have any non pizza uses?

[skeptic7]

I have tried different methods at different times. White breads, wheat breads, sponge methods, direct methods, refrigerating between steps. Here is some general advice
1) Start with a small simple recipe. One loaf not two or three. White flour not wheat or rye.
2) Have a fall back for dealing with disasters. Taking it out to feed the geese works great. Bring a friend who will listen to your complaints, or you can listen to theirs.
3) If you are using a white flour recipe, reserve 1/4 -1/3 of the flour and mix it in by hand when kneading. You might need more flour or less thats normal.
4) If you partially knead the dough and get tired or bored, cover it up and let it rest than finish kneading. Its easier to knead with 15 minutes or half an hour of rest.
5) Reread the directions before every attempt.
Be prepared to do the same recipe several/many times to learn how it should work. Don't expect perfection -- something new can always go wrong.

[skeptic7]

Ouch thats a lot. I haven't looked at real estate taxes recently but my car tax has gone up. I think they go by Blue Book Values and used car prices have increased. I expect the real estate taxes has gone up but I live in Washington DC suburbs and most house prices have gone up in the last couple of years.

I had to buy a 10lb bag of KAF all purpose at Kroger as they didn't have any 5lb bags today. They had KAF organic flours and whole wheat in 5lb bags. They had a lot of KAF flour during the holidays.

[skeptic7]

Mike;
Thats impressive. I have a 1/2 sheet pan for mass producing cinnamon rolls and hot cross buns and thought I was making doing well. I couldn't fit anything bigger in my oven. I don't frost cinnamon rolls either, I think it hides the true beauty of the roll.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
How did you get your griddle pan to the correct temperature? I burnt my last couple of pancakes. The cast iron heated up faster than I expected.

I made cranberry scones and a pan pizza Sunday. It was rainy and miserable so a good day to bake. Both of these were with KAF all flour so much lighter and milder than whole wheat.

There was a KAF email about making giant cinnamon rolls. I did that once but its too easy to eat an 8 inch cinnamon roll. I can't see why they suggested cutting it into slices insteal of unrolling it, where is the fun in that?

[skeptic7]

I could never tell if the comparison was suppose to be short term like several months, or long term like a decade ago. Flour is more expensive but at least its available as opposed to middle of 2020. I know eggs are definitely more expensive but am not sure thats inflation of just that the supply is less since many flocks were wiped out by bird flu.

[skeptic7]

I just baked what was suppose to be my regular quick bread/scone only with all white flour instead of whole wheat and 1/2 cup of left over cranberry sauce for flavor. It mixed up nicely used up 1 cup of superfulous buttermilk, and thin I poured it into a cast iron frying pan. It wasnt until the baking was finished I realized that this was a 12 inch frying pan and not a 10 inch pan. I have something like baked pancakes rather than scone subsitutes. But its tasty and colorful and has cranberry and orange flavors. Now I just need to adopt a focaccio recipe to use lots of milk...

[skeptic7]

Merry Christmas! Snow on the ground from Friday. Its still very cold but getting slightly warmer.

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