[skeptic7]

I made whole wheat date scones on Tuesday. I also melted the last of my dark chocolate and made chocolate pecan bark. Half of it turned out fine, the other half is soft. It had hardened too fast and I couldn't get the pecans imbedded into the chocolate, so I put it in a warm oven. The chocolate softened enough to let the pecans sink in, but when it cooled down it ended up soft.

[skeptic7]

Saturday I tried making carrot rosemary scones. I took my standard scone recipe and added two cups of grated carrots. Very orange and far too moist. I'll have to try it again with less liquid -- probably start by leaving out the honey for a more savory bread. I was able to add two cups of diced apple to the scone recipe without any other alteration so I thought I could do the same with grated carrots, I guess the carrots release more liquid into the batter.
It was a nice bright orange and tasted fine, a little overly sweet.

[skeptic7]

Aaronatthedoublef;
Thats a lot of pizza dough! How many pizza's will you make?

[skeptic7]

DO you have a link to the basket weave? Also the round braided challah?
If I come to hate the Cloche or find it boring, I'll be glad to mail it to someone. Wonky do you live in the continental US?

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
On quickbreads I use 1/2 tsp baking soda to 1 cup of buttermilk -- thats the amount I found in a northern cornbread recipe when I first started using whole wheat flour for quickbreads.
Do you every use baking soda with yeast breads to counteract the acidity? I've added sugar or honey when I think the bread is going to taste too sour.

[skeptic7]

Riverside Len;
How do you cook a beef round? Isn't it tough without the fat found in chuck? I've cooked Eye of Round but not the other cuts.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
The lemon-pecan biscotti sound wonderful! I had hoped to cook yesterday but I didn't have time.

[skeptic7]

I use buttermilk a lot on quick breads and a little bit on yeast breads. I don't think buttermilk needs to be scalded, the culturing seems to take care of the enzymes that cause problems. I try to limit the buttermilk in yeast breads to 1/2 the liquid -- advice from Laurel's Kitchen Bread cookbook, said that using all buttermilk would make the bread too tender and soft to rise properly. However I didn't confirm this with an actualy experiment.

I notice a change in taste from using buttermilk in yeast breads but I like it. Its just slightly sour. I don't notice a change in quick breads.

[skeptic7]

I made Mediterranean White Bean and Vegetable soup with Fennel from "366 Delicious Ways to cook Rice, Beans and Grains" by Andrea Chessman This is a very tasty soup but the vegetables dominate the soup, with the beans an after thought. I made this with out any salt, but it tastes best with a grilled cheese sandwich or cheese pizza to add salt and fat.

I cooked this in two parts in the slow cooker, first cooking the beans and then heating it up with the vegetables and herbs.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt,
The Laurel Kitchen Breadbook has the opposite problem. They were saying that one problem with kneading the dough well is that it tended to mellow the whole wheat flavor, also the flavor could be lessened by adding an acid ingredient like buttermilk. I liked a more mellow flavor and made a concerted effort to be sure my dough was well kneaded.

[skeptic7]

I just added my Very Easy Whole Wheat Focaccio to the recipe list. This is a very forgiving bread, if the dough is wet it ends up with a coarse texture and lots of holes, if the dough is drier it has a tighter crumb.

[skeptic7]

I bought the KAF Whole Grains book and was not terribly impressed by it. One of my favorite bread cookbooks was "In a Baker's Kitchen" which introduced me to sponges. Have you tried making corn breads? I like the Southern spoonbreads but these are rich in eggs and cheese.

[skeptic7]

I measured 2 cups of flour with a one cup measuring cup, sifted, spooned and leveled with a knife.
I then measured 2 cups of flour with a two cup measuring cup, sifted, spooned and leveled with a knife.
The two cup measuring cup has about a tablespoon less flour. This was such a useful cup, and a present besides but now I wonder how accurate it is.
The discussion of accuracy in measurements earlier made me want to mention it.

[skeptic7]

Is your heart set on backing a loaf of bread in a bread pan? I can give you a very easy whole wheat bread recipe that I use for pizza and focaccio loaves. I bake it in a medium cast iron frying pan and it only gets a couple of inches high as a bread, and flatter as a pizza. But its tasty particularly sprinkled with rosemary and very forgiving of mistakes.

[skeptic7]

I am following all the conversations about salt, and while I try hard to be good, I pick up a lot of sodium from cheese and crackers and tortilla chips.
My normal English Muffin recipe has 1 teaspoon of salt to 4 cups sifted whole wheat flour. I think this is just over 1% by weight. Can someone give tell me a more exact %, and whether I should reduce the salt.

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