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I keep my cocoa in the refrigerator or freezer. It lasts a long time if I stick to hot chocolate or chocolate scones, but brownies can use up a lot of cocoa fast.
Has anyone made chocolate yeast bread? I think I did it before and can only remember that this recipe does need sugar or honey to taste right.I like my potato ricer -- it was a gift from a friend when she was cleaning out her mother's collection. Its messier to clean and has more wastage than a round potato masher, but it does a more thorough job and produces fluffier mash potatoes.
I'm not sure it counts as "gadgets" but I have a lot of cake pans. I liked the deeper 3 and 4 inch cake pans since the idea of baking one large cake and then slicing it in layers sounded so cute and practical and then I wouldn't have to deal with trying to fit domed layers together. I have 9", 8" rounds and a 9"square all 3'' deep. I also have spring form pans of various sizes, and a couple shallow 8" rounds. I am now baking mainly bread and don't use these pans at all. My last couple of cakes were done in a half sheet pan, or a 9X13 pan.
On the gadgets, I have a glass gravy strainer which is suppose to seperate the fat from the juice. This is really only useful for large amounts of gravy. For smaller amounts like a quart, its easier to just remove the fat with a spoon.I did apricot scones/muffins yesterday with chopped dried apricots and apricot jam. Very tasty. Also did medium dish pizza with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and cheddar cheese. I wish I could make an apricot yeast bread or a chocolate yeast bread but that takes so much more time to mix and knead.
I am eating a bar of 72% chocolate from Trader Joe's. Its one of their pound + bars and I have plenty left. I broke it up and it fills a quart mason jar. I might melt the rest down for chocolate rabbits or chocolate bark. This was $4.99 for the bar
Baker Aunt;
Good luck with your biscotti. I like orange/ginger flavor in scones and the recent hot cross buns. I don't think dried orange peel has much flavor compared to orange extract or candied orange peel. The recipe in which I used dried orange peel, like sponge cake, have a very subtle orange flavor.
Cabot Cheddar is wonderful stuff as is the Greek yogurt. I've been to the Cabot Creamery twice when I was going through Vermont and stopping at King Arthur -- they aren't close but I was going up the Eastern part of the state. Very nice people and a wonderfully clean and modern plant. I love their history. Last time I was there I bought plenty of cheese and later a Cabot Creamery cook book. Its amazing how recipes from a dairy farmer uses much more cheese in macaroni and cheese, then my older cook books. I've seen a cheese sauce recipe that uses 1/2 cup of cheese in a white sauce, and the Cabot Creamery had 2 cups of cheese with just enough milk and flour to let it spread easily.I baked white whole wheat bread with hunks of Cabot chedder mixed in. This was based on my focaccio recipe but I cut up a cup of Extra Sharp Cabot Cheddar in 1/2-3/4 inch cupes and mixed it in. I had 4 cups of flour in the recipe. It was very good, I gave half away and ate the other half in two days. This made a rather large flat round that I baked in a cloche.
Thanks for sharing this article! There are many interesting articles on that site.
On Easter, I did my last and best batch of Hot Cross Buns. This is a large recipe from New York Times Heritage cookbook and I normally reserve it for Easter Weekend. This took forever to rise so it was baked in the evening. I also did a Ham and Cheese Pie, being inspired by the Italian Easter Pie, but I put in cabbage and onions to make it more of a balanced meal. This didn't turn out badly but it was a little bland, I wish I had put more strong cheese to give it a richer flavor.
On Saturday I did Hot Cross Scones, which were Scones with Hot cross bun flavoring and fruit. I wanted to bake something for a friend that could be baked quickly.Wonky;
What is your whole wheat cinnamon swirl bread like? I am impressed that you cooked so many loaves of bread. A large batch of Hot Cross buns can consume an entire evening if not more. Do you do much of your kneading by machine?
Your sister seems to go through a lot of bread!I did whole wheat Hot Cross buns with fruit, this is one of my favorite recipes developed from combining a lot of different recipes and every trick suggested for whole wheat baking. This particular version has dates, apricots, cranberries, candied orange and candied lemon which is perfectly safe for dogs due to the lack of raisins. I'll also have to give some to a friend who is allergic to raisins poor soul. I didn't try any tricks with the cross this time. I like this the way it is.
I tried one more oil/water/flour cross and made the proportions more like the butter/milk/flour cross and it seems to work very well
2 tbsp oil
6 tbsp water
1/4 tsp lemon extract
1/2 cup sifted white flour.Heat the oil and water together. mix in lemon extract and flour. Beat the dough very well in order to develop the gluten. Add more water or more flour in order to get a pipeable mixture. Pipe the dough as a cross onto the ready to bake hot cross buns. The dough is strong to a fault. It bakes up paler than the hot cross buns, and sort of merges into the crust but still has a distinct cross shape. It has a good texture a little soft but not hard and tasteless. The crosses travel well and do not break off the buns This is perfection for pastry crosses.
Friday the 23rd I baked more hot cross buns. These were from "From a Baker's Kitchen" by Gail Sher, very nice recipe but could use a little more butter. I tested a new version of a pastry cross and it worked! This recipe had 2 tbsp oil, 6 Tbs water and 1/2 cup flour and a little lemon extract. Heat the oil and water together, add 1/4 tsp lemon extract. Stir in the flour and beat well -- the idea is to develop the gluten a little so it will stick together. I tested this on 12 of the hot cross buns and it was perfect. The cross merged with the crust so it didn't break off when touched, it wasn't hard and tough, it was noticeably lighter than the crus so it stood out. It doesn't contain milk or butter which might scorch. It piped nicely out of a plastic bag and was relatively cohesive and stuck to itself.
I ate quite a few and gave the rest awayI once wrecked a batch of dough by dissolving the yeast in cold water instead of warm.
Sorry you had problems with your buttermilk. Do you use muffin papers when you make your muffins? Also do you freeze excess muffins?
I did whole wheat pizza with white whole wheat flour, and three types of cheese for toppings. I came out surprisingly well.
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