[skeptic7]

Probably the bread needed more time and a warmer temperature. Nothing about this bread rose as well as the bread last week -- the sponge didn't rise, the dough didn't rise, the shaped loaf didn't rise. The main difference was the temperature 60 degrees in the kitchen as opposed to 66. Next time I am going to give it more time and find it a warmer place to rise.
However the good news is that I have finished insulating my attic, and making the insulated attic hatch cover for the attic ladder so I can hope for warmer temperatures in my house. I need to find a good excuse to run the oven the same day I want to make bread now that its cold. I think one of those recipes where you do a roast at 250 degrees for hours would be perfect. I've seen recipes for bake beans and pot roast in the oven too.

[skeptic7]

I baked a whole wheat bread with 1 cup of very good Cabot cheddar cut in cubes and kneaded in on Tuesday. This is the same recipe I did last week but I baked it in the oven instead of the crockpot. This didn't rise very quickly and I baked it when it was only partially risen, I didn't get much oven spring, it was tasty but rather dense.

[skeptic7]

On Sunday I did Pumpkin Farro Risotto, which was inspired by this recipe. https://thirdculturefoodie.blogspot.com/2011/11/pumpkin-farro-risotto.html

This was my first time cooking with Farro and I found this web site very helpful.
https://cookthestory.com/cook-farro/

This was a very nice bright orange. I need to try this recipe again as I had lazily left out ingredients like goat cheese as I wanted a blander less rich dish and found it a little boring.

On Monday I baked a long necked pumpkin getting > 5 pints of very richly flavored sweet puree in a bright orange. There is going to be more pumpkin bread in the future.

[skeptic7]

Yesterday, I did whole wheat cheese bread -- a whole wheat bread with milk and egg and 1 cup of diced cheddar folded into it. I was going to go to martial arts practice and was bringing this to share with friends, when someone from work called and told me I needed to phone into a 6:15 pm meeting in an hour. The bread turned out beautifully! And I couldn't take it with me to impress friends. I had used some very good Cabot Cheddar, as well as some only good Cabot Cheddar. I am freezing half of it and eating the rest and it is very tasty.
Sunday I baked gingerbread.

[skeptic7]

I messed that one up.

[skeptic7]

I have been leaving vanilla out of pumpkin baked goods as cinnamon ginger allspice etc would overpower any vanilla flavor.

[skeptic7]

Has anyone tried pumpkin chili? I think I made it last year with 2 cups of pumpkin puree substituted for part of the diced tomatoes. I don't remember it as being bad or good. I like black beans in chili.

[skeptic7]

That's great. It should be served with plenty of ketchup.

[skeptic7]

I knew this!

[skeptic7]

On Friday I made whole wheat pumpkin bread starting form the KAF Whole Grain pumpkin yeast bread. I made two large loaves as I was planning to bring these to share with friends on Saturday and Sunday.
I have modified the recipe to use four cups of flour, 1 cup of pumpkin, 1 egg and 1/4 cup of water per loaf so these are quite big loaves. One loaf was a cinnamon and allspice swirl baked in larger loaf pan. The other was done as a boule with > 1 cup of diced cheddar. The weather was nicely cool so I let them rise overnight and baked them on Saturday morning in the oven. I baked the loaf pan in an oval Dutch oven, and the boule was baked in the ceramic cloche. Both loaves turned out wonderfully.
I also made sugarless pumpkin cream cheese to serve with the swirl loaf. It was very well received.

[skeptic7]

I got it!

[skeptic7]

I knew this! I didn't know it had a strict proportion of vegetables.

[skeptic7]

The clotted cream was wonderful! I put a little leftover cream in hot chocolate the next day. I think she baked 2 pints of heavy cream in a baking dish for 12 hours at low temperature, perhaps 200 or 25 degrees. She said that at the end the cream was golden cover and had sperated. She skimmed the solids off and refrigerated it as clotted cream and kept the liquid for cooking.

[skeptic7]

By the next morning the braids had raisen but weren't too puffy. The fake braids baked up to a beautiful golden brown. The one with more filling leaked at one side edge and was a little misshapened, the other one is beautifully symmetrical. I wrapped them up carefully and put them into the refrigerator. Will take to a party tonight.

[skeptic7]

Have fun at the NY Sheep and wool chocomouse. Yesterday I had baked chicken thigh with leftover Afghan pumpkin with yogurt sauce. The pumpkin was much better warmed up, then it had been the first time around, probably the tomato sauce improved after being refrigerated.

I am going to do a colonscopy next week. I have two days without whole grains, or raw vegetables or raw fruit in preparation as well as a day of essentially fasting. Its been so long since I first started eating whole wheat flour and brown rice that this is going to be disconcerting. I do cook with white flour, and eat white rice but thats an occasional treat and mainly when eating out.

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