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Post by spike on Oct 9, 2023 12:02:54 GMT -5
I made potato and farmer's cheese pierogi for National Peirogi Day yesterday. Today I am making Bavarian filled cupcakes. (cause it is cold as heck out and a good excuse to run the oven!)
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Post by pepperhead212 on Oct 9, 2023 19:11:44 GMT -5
I always use the cold as an excuse to bake, too! Yesterday I made another batch of those rye bread sticks I frequently make. This batch I added the usual caraway seeds to (which I just got another pound of last week), plus a smaller number of nigella, and a smaller amount of ajwain, which I just got a new batch of from the Indian market.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Oct 12, 2023 22:35:26 GMT -5
Yesterday, early on, I made a new batch of buttermilk, and had some milk and old buttermilk left (always have that from the 1/2 gal), so I made some rye bread - another potato rye. Not what I usually use for the liquid, but it works well! Started with a sponge with the BM and rye, in between garden jobs, and later I continued with it, and even later, finished the bread, in between separating all that garlic! With about 60:40 of WW to rye flour, I put 1 1/2 c mashed potatoes in this, and 1/4 c gluten, which made it very moist and it rose very well, for so much rye. More dough than my usual 4 lbs, so I used the 2 lb pan and the clay pan, for about a 43 oz loaf, which went into the freezer. The other, for more sandwiches. Potato Rye bread, starting to bake. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Potato Rye bread, finished and cooling. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 1, 2023 21:11:33 GMT -5
I had the last of that leftover mushroom soup today, and later on, I made a banana bread, with some old bananas, some WW flour, some raisins, walnuts, oats, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, plus some vanilla extract and some coconut flavor. The liquid in it was some yogurt, and 2 eggs, and some of the bananas, and the oil I used was some coconut oil. It smells soooooo good, but I have to wait, to cut... Banana Oat bread, with some raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Update - just sliced it, and it's absolutely delicious! Sliced banana oat bread. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by bestofour on Nov 2, 2023 21:51:14 GMT -5
Looks delicious. I'm moving next to you
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 2, 2023 22:19:48 GMT -5
Looks delicious. I'm moving next to you I'll feed anyone, that goes to work in my garden!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Nov 6, 2023 16:12:34 GMT -5
Mmmm, tempting!
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Post by spike on Nov 6, 2023 21:43:41 GMT -5
Looks delicious. I'm moving next to you I'll feed anyone, that goes to work in my garden! I have a fork and a hoe
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 8, 2023 22:31:30 GMT -5
More potato rye bread, just one loaf this time. Good day to bake, as it's a little cooler today, and will be warmer tomorrow, for sandwiches. Potato rye dough, ready to rise. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Rye dough, almost ready to bake, waiting for oven to heat. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Potato Rye bread, cooling. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 15, 2023 12:41:00 GMT -5
More rye bread! I had to use the last 1¼ c of rye flour, so I'll have to grind some more. I only made one loaf again, as my freezer is getting packed, with all that butter for the cookies! I made it with a cup of mashed potato, plus some WW flour, and only a third or a half cup of unbleached, for when it was moist at the end. I also used about 10 oz of yogurt in the end of a jar - something I don't use often, but gave it that tang that buttermilk usually gives. The overnight sponge helps that, too. More rye bread - I have to grind more rye flour now! Probably outside tomorrow, so the dust will stay out. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 17, 2023 22:36:07 GMT -5
Not quite time for those cookies yet (but I stocked up on butter, sugar, and flour!), but today I baked a half, and 3/4 of a recipe of some spice bars my Mom got the recipe from someone before I was born - just called German Squares, in our house. I've tweaked them, adding some ginger to them, and some habanero powder, to make some of them spicy, for the kid I'm taking them to tomorrow - his 21st birthday! He's the one I got hooked on hot peppers. If I could have, I would have gotten him an order of seeds for that "Pepper X" (even though I'll be starting them for him), but it wouldn't have been here by his birthday. This smaller batch I made with WW flour, and no nuts or hot peppers - for the Mom and sister - and the larger one for whoever else wants to try. Some gingersnap bars I made to take to a friend's birthday tomorrow - the large pan with habanero powder. by pepperhead212, on Flickr BTW, another thing that I did earlier, was to grind a little more than 5 lbs of rye berries, to make more bread with! Just over 5 more lbs of rye flour, ready to make more bread with! by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by september on Nov 18, 2023 10:58:12 GMT -5
Gosh, I envy you being able to grind your own fresh rye flour!
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 18, 2023 12:08:09 GMT -5
september I got one of those Nutrimills many years ago, before I got the Vitamix, and used it more for odd grains and legumes - I still got the dark rye from the Amish market, and a Wal-Mart nearby had WW flour cheap. About when the pandemic started, Wal-Mart dropped the WW flour, and I was running out of both, so I dusted off the grain mill, and ordered a 35 lb container of hard white wheat berries, and rye berries! The wheat came in a bucket, with a rubber seal, which is what I put the latest batch of rye in. Fortunately, I found a source for good WW flour, that's cheaper than most white flour! That's lidl, and it started at $2.29/5 lbs, and it's up to $2.79, which is still good! Can't grind my own for that price.
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Post by september on Nov 18, 2023 12:48:32 GMT -5
pepperhead212 , when I was a kid growing up in Minneapolis, I remember my folks buying huge sacks of rye flour, I think from some ethnic bakery that ordered it for their own use. They would store it in large 30-40 gallon metal canisters under the basement stairs. They had an old oak proofing box that they used for bread rising, I think it held enough for 4 loafs, which was what my family went through each week. I wonder where that box went when the house was rented out after my folks died off. Wish I now had access to the unique ferment yeasts that must have been embedded in the wood. I don't bake that often, but now that cold weather is here, I'll have to do a few loaves now and then. There is a health food coop in town that has a nice selection of bagged and bag your own flours, including rye. I'm not sure if they have a grinder option too? It is just about impossible to find any rye flour in the big grocery stores here, unless you buy the little bags of Red Mill brand, and even that often is out of stock.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 21, 2023 18:15:59 GMT -5
I made a loaf of banana bread today, with 4 very ripe bananas, and a stick of butter, browned, and WW flour, in a slightly smaller amount, instead of white flour. Since it was baked in the convection oven, it was on 300°, so the sugar the dough was topped with was still white, after it was cooked to 208-210°, so I caramelized the sugar with my propane torch! Ohhhh that smells good! Banana bread, made with browned butter, and some cardamom, cinnamon, and allspice powders, and some roasted walnuts. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Before making the bread, I lightly roasted 2 lbs of chopped walnuts, I took from the freezer yesterday, and used some of those for this. I had to get started for those Christmas cookies!
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 22, 2023 23:56:27 GMT -5
I finished the sweets I'm taking to my friend's house tomorrow. A small pan of brownies, so we won't be having withdrawal, and two deserts, than have been some favorites of mine, and others I have fixed them for. The sweet potato pie is almost the same as an old favorite pumpkin pie, with has a quarter cup of cognac in it, and after discovering it in Gourmet Magazine (that tells you how long ago that was!) was one I had to make for various holiday dinners. But that was until I found the Butterscotch pumpkin pie, in bon appétit magazine. That might be a Christmas dessert. The cheesecake is a peanut butter cheesecake with a brownie crust. I'm lucky I don't make this for myself all the time! A small batch of brownies, so we won't be without chocolate! by pepperhead212, on Flickr The Reese's Cup cheesecake, made with 12 oz of creamy peanut butter, and a brownie crust. by pepperhead212, on Flickr A sweet potato pie, with some cognac, and some newly fermented crema, instead of the heavy cream. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 29, 2023 0:28:57 GMT -5
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Post by september on Dec 1, 2023 10:40:08 GMT -5
I finally found some cracked wheat flour at the local organic coop, been looking for some time with no previous success. My sister got the bread recipe from her old neighbor lady about 10 years ago, when she enthused about the cracked wheat loaf her neighbor would sometimes gift her. The recipe is for three hand formed long loaves - I only wanted to make one quick one in the bread machine, so I had to estimate the reduced proportions. You have to pour boiling water over the cracked wheat flour and let it sit and moisten til it cools off before adding other ingredients, and even so there are a few gritty hard bits left in the baked bread. I was trying to use up an outdated packet of yeast, so it did not rise as much as it should have, so ended up a short loaf, but even so, the taste was very good. Hubby had a test slice with butter when it cooled, and wanted another one later with his chicken stew over rice. Next time I'll follow the recipe for three loaves, and use fresher yeast!
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 1, 2023 11:34:30 GMT -5
What is cracked wheat flour? WW flour, with some cracked wheat added, or some very coarsely ground WW flour? If you want to make a cracked wheat bread, and avoid those bits of hard wheat, try some bulgur, softened by adding hot water to it, then cooling, and continuing with the bread, just using WW flour, or unbleached and WW flour. Bulgur is "precooked" cracked wheat, which can be softened with hot water - doesn't really have to be boiling - while cracked wheat takes a much longer cooking, to soften, which is why just adding boiling water to that "flour" is leaving hard bits. It's good you are into the baking again! You definitely want to get some fresh yeast.
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Post by september on Dec 1, 2023 12:11:28 GMT -5
The recipe as it was given to us called it cracked wheat flour, but you are right in that it is just coarsely ground wheat that looks grainy or nutty and does not contain fine flour. You add 5 cups of white flour with 2 cups of the soaked cracked wheat. Using the bulgur is certainly a good substitution, I will have to try that. I don't really mind the grittiness though, most of it is just a little more chewy unless you hit a super hard particle. Part of the charm of the bread!
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 2, 2023 21:49:24 GMT -5
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Dec 4, 2023 17:22:43 GMT -5
Mmmm, that would be right up my alley!
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 4, 2023 22:40:23 GMT -5
Two friends stopped today, and sampled that chocolate banana bread, and both wanted the recipe! And these aren't people that normally like to cook - they'd usually just want to stop in "next time I make something". I was going to start making cookie dough today, but I got busy doing other things - one thing I wanted to get done before it slipped my mind again, was to change a bunch of the water in my 4 aquariums, and refill them (instead of just refilling them), which I prefer to do when growing things still, so I can just siphon the water out to the plants, along with that composted fish waste! I hate for it to go to waste, but it happens once a year, in the cold. Then it got late, especially since I got up very early for me, so instead of actually making any cookie dough, I got things situated for it - a new bag of flour, sugar to the top of the container, and so forth. And one thing I had to do was get that solid block of molasses broken up! It was some "powdered" molasses I use in many recipes, instead of "light molasses" (I only keep around blackstrap for baking bread, which is too dark for most cookie recipes), and this is an easy (and cheaper) way to replace the lighter versions. Unfortunately, even though this was in 3 vacuum sealed bags, somehow, it got a hole in it, thus letting a small amount of moisture in, and forming a solid block! So I took it down to my workshop, and on my anvil, with a very heavy hammer, I broke it up! I took all the fine "crumbs", and smaller chunks, and made them into powder again in the VM! The larger chunks I put into a Ziploc (about 2 lbs, with a couple of silica packs), then 2 more vacuum sealed bags, not sucking the air out, so the glass like pieces wouldn't poke holes in it. The 3 cups plus of powder should have me set for a couple of years, before I have to grind it up again. I took this out on my deck, to sift everything, so I didn't have all that dust in the kitchen! Broken up block of solidified powdered molasses. by pepperhead212, on Flickr About half of the broken up molasses, re-powdered, in the Vitamix. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Tomorrow I'll get started on the cookie dough...
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 5, 2023 16:04:16 GMT -5
I'm not baking yet, but I did get started making the dough! I made the hot gingersnaps first, then put everything in the DW, and after all that dries, I'll get started on things that won't "flavor" things I make in the FP after, like the vanilla sables, and TN icebox, and finish with the sesame cookies, then do a half load in the DW, while I eat my leftovers for dinner. Then later do any chocolate cookies I'm making. The snickerdoodles (I have at least 3 kinds of those!) I'll have to make the night before baking - I'll have find out when my helper(s) will be over. The dry ingredients for 4 batches of hot gingersnaps, one in the FP, ready to add the butter and molasses to. by pepperhead212, on Flickr The dry ingredients ground up with the butter, and the molasses added, in the FP, then mixed with nuts, by hand. by pepperhead212, on Flickr The first log of hot gingersnap dough, ready to even out in the waxed paper. by pepperhead212, on Flickr 4 batches of hot gingersnap dough, ready to freeze. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 5, 2023 20:13:22 GMT -5
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 6, 2023 18:02:50 GMT -5
Today was the day to make some chocolate cookie dough, using Dutch cocoa in all these, since they are made in the food processor. I figured out that I used 4¼ c in the 7 recipes, which is just over a pound. I had to refill my cocoa container after the first 4, so I got a bag of the Saco cocoa I had in my pantry - a brand I tested with 4 others several years ago, by just making a simple brownie recipe, and plain hot cocoa, and even though it was a little lighter than a couple others, it was the best tasting of the 5, in both the brownies and hot cocoa. I took the bag and cocoa container out on my deck, to refill it, because of the cloud of cocoa dust I knew I'd get! I hate seeing all that cocoa going to waste, but I really didn't want it to be settling in my house! I get enough from the dry ingredients when making the dough. Cookie compost! lol by pepperhead212, on Flickr These chocolate orange cookies I made with the same basic recipe from the Wienerstube, without the spices, but with orange zest. And this time, I tried something new, though I don't know if I will notice it - a tb of Grand Marnier, as a flavoring. I'll let you know how it turns out. The dry ingredients for the chocolate orange cookies, with the zest from 2 mandarins added. by pepperhead212, on Flickr 7 chocolate cookies - Wiennerstube, chocolate orange, chocolate coconut nut, and chocolate sables. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 6, 2023 23:01:28 GMT -5
And here's something I did this evening, to make some dough with tomorrow . I made some browned butter - 24 oz of it. When making ghee, I let it get to about the same temp - 280-285° - but with the ghee I let it stick to the bottom of the saucepan (and filter the rest out), while with this I start stirring around 255° with the silicone spatula, and keep it from sticking on the bottom, so those particles remain suspended, and stay in the browned butter. The flavor is incredible in these things. Browned butter, poured into a metal bowl, to cool, before adding milk back to it. by pepperhead212, on Flickr browned butter, with the 4 oz of milk added to bring it back to 24 oz. by pepperhead212, on Flickr The browned butter, down to about 84 degrees, when it thickens and emulsifies, which is when I measure it out. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Dec 7, 2023 14:40:52 GMT -5
I've never seen powdered molasses before. Cool.
I imagine it's even harder to keep it from solidifying than brown sugar is.
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Post by octave1 on Dec 7, 2023 15:25:03 GMT -5
pepperhead212 , I would eat the brown butter straight from the bowl
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 7, 2023 15:50:18 GMT -5
I've never seen powdered molasses before. Cool. I imagine it's even harder to keep it from solidifying than brown sugar is. Definitely, and the problem is keeping the moisture out of it, while with brown sugar, it gets hard by drying out! However, if I get that problem (happens every year, about this time, in my two brown sugar jars), I have something to fix it - a small clay thing I soak in water, then set it in the jar, on a small container, so it's not sitting on the sugar, and close the jar. By the next day, the sugar is back to normal, Similar things, like a slice of apple, are often used, but I figure, why waste the apple? I also use those clay things to slowly add moisture back into other, sort of dried out things.
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