Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
I have been having rain and more rain! Its so much rain that I haven't trimmed the bushes. My "garden" is a small plot near the house with Chinese Chives and Rosemary and weeds.
A couple of months ago I pulled up the old weeds, and dried leaves and flower stalks, and covered parts of the garden -- the parts that were generally unplantable, like the part that used to grow mint until the mint died out, with newspaper and mulch. The newspaper was to keep the weeds down and the mulch was to keep the newspaper from blowing away. I planted the remaining parts with Chinese Chives and told myself that the weeds were mainly beaten and I could pull out any weeds that showed up.
Hah. I found that my grassy weeds were something called Quackgrass that grows from roots and spreads from runners and were perennials so while I had pulled up all the old dried grass, more grass came up from the roots, even the roots that had been torn up and reburied. They also went sideways under the newspaper and came up through the mulch. Three weeks after I declared victory I realized the grass and the wild chrysantheums were winning. Last week I put down another layer of newspaper and mulch over the existing part and put more newspaper and mulch down between the rows of chives.
I am waiting to see how long before the weeds conquer this layer of mulch.I baked whole wheat scones with raisins and candied orange peel. This is my normal quick bread/muffin recipe but as its baked in a cast iron pan I feel free to call it a scone. I took it in to work but its not as popular as the apple scones.
I also did a cheese pizza to eat for lunch over the next couple of days. I particularly like cold cheese pizzas on hot days. This turned out better than the last pizza -- I'm not sure why but the crust seems to have risen during the baking.Baker Aunt;
Is your whole wheat sourdough cracker recipe posted anywhere? It sounds delicious and if I was anywhere in you area I could help make it disappear.Baker Aunt;
Thanks for the biscotti recipe.I did a double batch of apple quick bread on Wednesday and a double batch of ginger bread today. I took the first batch to work and made everyone eat them with the pumpkin cream cheese spread, that didn't get rid of enough of the pumpkin cream cheese so I make the ginger bread for the same purpose.
I also did currant buttermilk bread in the cloche. This recipe used four cups of flour and fit nicely in a stainless steel 9 inch cake pan. I let it rise in the cake pan, so much easier to handle, and then put the whole thing in the cold cloche to bake. The bread turned out fine but ... more experimentation is needed. The bread didn't have the very thick bottom crust I found in the previous bread which was baked directly in the cloche but I put a thin folded aluminum foil ring between the cloche bottom and the cake pan to prevent direct heat transfer. This also made the cake pan just a bit too high so the cloche wasn't seated properly and might not have given the proper steamed environment.
It was very nice bread and I need to try it again without any aluminum foil between the cloche bottom and the cake pan.BakerAunt;
How was the lemon biscotti? Also I was reading about biscuits and wanted to ask you if you had a docker to prick holes or did you use a fork? How long does it take to make a batch?Friday I made sugarless pumpkin bread, and pumpkin cream cheese. I was taking this to a party and the hostess is diabetic so I made this so she could eat some, and everyone else had the pumpkin cream cheese to add some sweetness to the bread.
https://www.bhg.com/recipe/cheese/pumpkin-cream-cheese-spread/I did an apple pizza on Sunday. This was larger and thinner than I normally do it, but still tasty. I wasn't feeling like baking this morning but I am now feeling more ambitious. I also have two cups of pumpkin cream cheese spread which I made for a party last week, and I need something to do with it My current plan is to make gingerbread and hope I can get people to eat pumpkin cream cheese on gingerbread.
https://www.bhg.com/recipe/cheese/pumpkin-cream-cheese-spread/
I thought it would be horribly sweet but it isn't. I'd like to have some cinnamon bread on which to spread the cheese.
That bread looks very good, and the site is fascinating.
I am sorry about your father. My sincere condolences to you and your family.
I did Northern style cornbread to eat with strawberries -- I would really like to eat biscuits as in strawberry shortcake, but its hard to make a whole wheat biscuit and they are sort of gritty. I could eat strawberries and yogurt by themselves but it tastes better accompanied by a biscuit, or muffin or cake. This year I've decided that quick breads are moister and tastier than biscuits and less sweet than cake and can be made with whole wheat flour.
I also made gingerbread with diced apples. Tasty and moist and gets rid of more apples. I want to eat all the apples in the refrigerator before cantalope season starts. Last week was apple and raisin scones. Apple pizza is in the future.BakerAunt;
Is making crackers like making rolled cookies? Doesn't this take a lot of time to roll and cut and bake them? Especially since they could mysteriously disappear in a couple of minutes with a little cheese. or apples, or soup.I did chicken drumsticks in a slow cooker with barbeque sauce on Monday night. I had this on high for awhile and then turned to low. I saw the legs were cooked at about Midnight and decided to turn the crock pot off, but waked up the next morning to find the legs were still cooking away. I am pulling the meat off the bones for sandwiches for lunch, and warming up the chicken with rice and vegetables for supper. The meet is over cooked but still very tasty. The meat off one drumstick is enough for one sandwich.
BakerAunt;
I used parchment paper on the bottom of the cloche, but I didn't do anything else. I was surprised at how well the ceramic cloche bottom conducted heat.On your pizza, do you use a very hot oven? why is that recommended for thin crust pizzas? A lot of articles talk about trying to get a very hot oven or to use a baking stone to increase the heat transfer. What good is this suppose to do?
I baked a buttermilk whole wheat bread in my cloche! It was enormous about 3 lbs and around 7 cups of flour with cut up dried apricots. It was much better than the last whole wheat bread, but it was pushing the capabilities of the cloche as a bit of the top crust was stuck to the top of the cloche. It was also a bit too soft and on what I thought was a final rise, melted down into a shapeless blob instead of a nice round super boule. I added more flour and reshaped it.
Next time I am going to do this with 4 cups or less of flour and have a boule that fits comfortably within the cloche. I am also going to let it rise in a 8 or 9 inch round cake pan to have a layer between the bottom of the bread and the baking pan. The bottom was more cooked and dry than the top and sides.
Should the dough of a bread be noticeably drier than that of rolls? The noknead bread is more hydrated and they form shapely boules.On Friday May 4th stretching into the early hours of Saturday I made King Arthur Flour breakfast cookies with oatmeal, cranberries and walnuts. This made 29 tasty cookies about two sheets worth. I made this as a present since it was tasty and sturdy enough not to crumble if eaten in the car.
I also made a double recipe of a quick bread and baked it in a 9X13 pan. This was easier than baking it in two pans but its rather short, might have made prettier slices if I had used a triple recipe. The bread was date orange and I normally bake this recipe in a 8inch cast iron frying pan and cut in wedges.
I had the idea for the pan from this site
http://heidimix.blogspot.com/2014/05/quick-bread-for-crowd.htmlI made two batches of chocolate cherry scones on Sunday which were great!
Yesterday I made A whole wheat cinnamon raisin bread which turned out be be a large flat circle and the sort of bread that is cut very thin and eaten with cream cheese. I did everything wrong and knew it as I did it, but I was so tired i let it rise too long at most of the stages and before baking. If it wasn't for a very good bread knife and a lot of cream cheese, this would be best fed to the geese. Its very dense and heavy and sort of harsh tasting. I basically made this bread to use up a lot of milk that had been accidently left unrefrigerated. The next loaf is going to have white flour which is easier to work with.
Today I made my absolutely perfect brownies in a double batch -- but what can you say about perfect brownies? These are cakey with nuts, and have whole wheat flour and oil and cocoa and walnuts.
My favorite whisk is a flat one used for roux, but I like it for mixing quick breads and doughs. It has the plastic fill to support the handle and its much easier to clean than a round whisk. I've seen it in two sizes but the smaller one is easier to use.
I like the article and the picture.
-
AuthorPosts
