Tue. Mar 24th, 2026

skeptic7

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Viewing 15 posts - 451 through 465 (of 1,326 total)
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  • in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 25, 2020? #27118
    skeptic7
    Participant

      The Rosetta rolls look lovely! I love the way that you move them from one container to another to monitor the rise.

      I did whole wheat pumpkin yeast bread on Saturday/Sunday. I started with the recipe I used last year at this and started playing around with it. I started out wanting to use up one cup of pumpkin puree, and about 4 cups of whole wheat flour. I had a tiny preferment -- 1/4 cup water and flour and some yeast, I did a tangzhong 1/2 cup water and 3 tablespoons flour. I also had one cup pumpkin puree and one egg as the liquid. I mixed 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon ginger two tablespoons of potato flour into 1 cup of whole wheat flour and beated it in. Then I just kept on mixing in flour until it was a reasonable consistency. I let this sit a while and then started kneading it on an oiled board. I put more oil until I had 2 tablespoons in the dough. I let it rise and then rolled it out, sprinkled 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of allspice on the dough and rolled it up. I put this in my large loaf pan. I let this rise overnight and but it in the dutch oven and baked 1t 350 degrees for 50 minutes until it reached 190 degrees.
      I sent half the bread off to a diabetic friend -- which is why there is no added sweetener.
      The bread had a pretty subtle spiral and a good texture. Its all right but I wished I had made pumpkin cream cheese to go with it. It lacks pizzaz. But it was nice making a loaf of bread without following a strict recipe.

      in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 11, 2020? #27015
      skeptic7
      Participant

        Hi Dachshundlady; Its been a while. I LOVE walnuts ben tend not to use them in dishes for a group as tree nuts are one of the most common allergies. I've done raisins in apple scones and apple pie and liked it.
        How are the little doggies coming along? Do you still have them?

        in reply to: Article Explaining Preferments #26972
        skeptic7
        Participant

          The Tuscan Coffee Cake is excellent! There is a sugar glaze and its full of dried fruit so its sweet without being over powering. Its great eating alone or with butter. I think Jelly might be gilding the lily becaused of all the dried fruit. I liked a little butter spread on it. It sliced very nicely and the fruit was well distributed instead of migrating to the bottom as might have happened with a weaker dough.
          I left the butter out of the dough to start with, and then used it on the kneading board as I kneaded the dough. This prevented the dough from sticking without needing to add more flour. The recipe warned that the slack dough would be hard to handled but I didn't have any trouble. I did use disposable plastic gloves just in case.
          I don't think this dough would work well as written with all whole wheat flour because of the dried fruits and nuts. I'd like to try it with all whole wheat and just 1 cup apricots and make it into a braid like a round challah, or like a chopped challah. The sugar glaze turned out well but a little messy. I had a pan underneath to catch the spills. The glaze is more elegant than putting on an icing after baking.

          in reply to: Article Explaining Preferments #26956
          skeptic7
          Participant

            I baked my Tuscan coffee cake. It is rather uneven, I patted the dough into the pan as best I could but it was too soft to form into a smooth ball. The sugar glaze is very interesting and flakey. I am letting it completely cool before cutting.

            in reply to: Article Explaining Preferments #26938
            skeptic7
            Participant

              The Tuscan Coffee Cake recipe looked so interesting that I am making it now. I did the overnight starter only I used 1/2 tsp of yeast instead of 1/16 tsp. Is there a reason for such a small amount of yeast for the starter? I also left out the extra 2 tsp of yeast that the recipe asked for in the dough. I am making several other minor changes like 2/3 cup milk instead of water.

              in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 11, 2020? #26910
              skeptic7
              Participant

                Aaron;
                what would happen if you baked the bread in some sort of covered container? Like a turkey roaster that wouldn't have enough thermal mass to make a difference but would keep the hot air from blowing directly across the bread. I'm too lazy to do that experiment on my own and I don't have convection oven. I've had good luck with cloches and dutch ovens but I haven't tried anything like a relatively light weight roasting pan.

                in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 11, 2020? #26881
                skeptic7
                Participant

                  Its cold here today and yesterday. Mid 60's just perfect for baking. I did pumpkin scones on Sunday. They were okay but a little boring since I didn't put cranberries or dates or any other fruit in them. I was thinking that I might want to eat them as an accompaniment for chili or soup so went on the plain side. It isn't bad but would be improved by lots of cream cheese.

                  in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of October 11, 2020? #26880
                  skeptic7
                  Participant

                    I tried to do pumpkin risotto with pureed pumpkin on Sunday. It didn't turn out too well. Rather mushy. I'll have to try it again later.

                    in reply to: Covid 19: The Next Six Months #26847
                    skeptic7
                    Participant

                      The supermarkets are back to normal, but I am feeling the need to stock up for the winter. Particularly with staples like dried beans, and maple syrup. I already have chicken legs and thighs and roast beef and KAF flour and dried milk and cocoa in the freezer. I have enough toilet paper but am thinking of getting some kleenex too. Would I be excessively hoarding if I got a couple more pumpkins as well as half a bushel of apples? The apples are something I normally buy.

                      in reply to: Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers #26846
                      skeptic7
                      Participant

                        Thanks for this recipe. If I could visit you, the crackers would disappear very fast indeed. They probably taste very good with apples, or pears, or chili. 🙂

                        in reply to: Covid 19: The Next Six Months #26824
                        skeptic7
                        Participant

                          I have seem the normal displays of baking goods in Grocery stores for Thanksgiving. I hope your voting goes succesfully. I voted several weeks ago, depositing my mail in ballot in a drop box at City Hall. Virginia changed the rules so I didn't need a witness to watch me open the ballot and fill it in. I despise the states that still want witnesses.
                          I like going in to vote on election day, and feeling part of a process thats been going on for more than 200 years, but it seemed too dangerous to me and the poll workers and the other voters.

                          in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 4, 2020? #26819
                          skeptic7
                          Participant

                            Len;
                            Your pie looks great! Did you eat it with ice cream?

                            in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 4, 2020? #26818
                            skeptic7
                            Participant

                              I did cheese pizza yesterday and finished up the mozarella and provolone cheese. I'm getting tired of cheese pizza and will have to stop for a while.

                              in reply to: Frustrated would-be gardeners and bakers #26774
                              skeptic7
                              Participant

                                Once upon a time I had two Amaryllis, then one of them produced seeds, and one little seedling came up in its parents pot but eventually died. The next year I collected the seeds and planted them in their own flat and watered them. And they lived. and I moved them to pots. Then I planted the seeds from the other Amaryllis and moved the surviving seedlings to pots. Then I started moving the parent plants into bigger pots so they wouldn't fall over in the wind and the bulbs would have room to grow a bit. Then the Amaryllis started producing little bulblets; and some of the seedlings started to produce little side shoots even though the seedlings were still smallish bulbs. Now I have big pots full of multiple big amaryllis, and medium pots with medium size plants and medium pots with lots of small plants. Its not warm enough for them to live outside all year, so I have to bring all the pots inside in the winter and set them in front of the south windows. I have given some away but its hard finding responsible people who will care for Amaryllis properly.

                                in reply to: Frustrated would-be gardeners and bakers #26773
                                skeptic7
                                Participant

                                  Once upon a time I had two Amaryllis, then one of them produced seeds, and one little seedling came up in its parents pot but eventually died. The next year I collected the seeds and planted them in their own flat and watered them. And they lived. and I moved them to pots. Then I planted the seeds from the other Amaryllis and moved the surviving seedlings to pots. Then I started moving the parent plants into bigger pots so they wouldn't fall over in the wind and the bulbs would have room to grow a bit. Then the Amaryllis started producing little bulblets; and some of the seedlings started to produce little side shoots even though the seedlings were still smallish bulbs. Now I have big pots full of multiple big amaryllis, and medium pots with medium size plants and medium pots with lots of small plants. Its not warm enough for them to live outside all year, so I have to bring all the pots inside in the winter and set them in front of the south windows. I have given some away but its hard finding responsible people who will care for Amaryllis properly.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 451 through 465 (of 1,326 total)