I love this recipe so much. I also don’t use the suggested covered baking time - 15/20 mins covered gets the crust to the right level for me, so it doesn’t become too chewy in subsequent days. I also like the trick of doing the second rise in a parchment paper-lined colander - helps the shape, and you can just pick up the parchment corners and transfer to the pre-heated pot.
There’s a quick version of this recipe too - up the yeast to 1 tsp per 2c of flour, half an hour or so first rise, 2-3h second rise. People say there’s a flavor difference between the overnight rise and the quick, but if you need the bread faster, it’s still very tasty.
I am most certainly not the baker in the house but these lemon and blueberry cookies turned out ok. They spread out a bit more than I expected and obviously icing is not my forte.
Posted this in the WFD thread last night but wanted to share it here as well.
Figured I would bake today, which is a rarity (my BF and I both cook but he nails the baking and I am more than happy to step aside in that department). Headed into our 1950 Mennonite Community Cookbook and something simple: “Dream Cake”. Pastry crumble is topped with a coconut-walnut-brown sugar concoction. This recipe probably dates back a hundred years and is one of many in this collection from simpler times. Wording throughout the book includes phrases such as “add a cup of fat”, and my personal favorite “cook until done”. Indeed.
Said Dream Cake tasted good but was a little overdone. Recipe called for 35 minutes of baking but since my oven routinely runs hot, gave it 30 and that seemed to be too much.
When I think of desserts, I don’t often pick the chocolate one. This is a mayonnaise cake, it has no eggs because there used to be a wartime shortage. It is chocolate, but the icing is a toffee flavor which I enjoy.
I make it in an 8x8 pan, which is a nice single thickness for a cake. I am not someone who can ice a cake. Did I use my fingers to smooth it out in places? Yes! Because I’m the only one eating it!
Quite moist, I used 2 type of chocolate, the melted one 40% and the chocolate chips 70%, both Valhorna. I reduced the sugar by 1/4. I added 5 more minutes in cooking, as I found it a bit too raw. When cut, the centre part stuck to the parchment paper. H said he would like it even a bit more “uncooked”.
Finally making a loaf of Irish soda bread. No raisins or seeds. Just fresh buttermilk and cream butter in the dry ingred list. Right out of the oven, sliced and slathered with the buffalo milk butter we buy from Netcost.
Super proud of this boule. I’ve been on and off (more off) playing with bread baking for about a year, and this was the best one yet. From the Forkish book.
All your breads look awesome. I figured being home for now, it was a good time to bring out my neglected sourdough started and get back to feeding it. Nope - apparently it was neglected for so long it decided to grow disgusting pink slim all over it. It smelled rank too. Oh well, time to start over I guess.
My wife made an “Irish” soda bread (as opposed to an “Irish-American” one) with oats in it, and it was kind of dry. I forgot to tell her to use the Rose Levy Berenbaum recipe I had tacked up on the fridge–that one has whisky in it.
