What are you baking? APRIL 2023

What you got in the oven?

Not baked, but since it’s April Fool’s day, I will post it here. I bought smooth cottage cheese last week and didn’t like it at all. It was sour and gross to me (I don’t mind regular cottage cheese, but can’t do cream cheese or sour cream unless heavily sweetened). I didn’t want to throw it away, so I added an egg, some sugar and vanilla and used it as a blintz filling. It looked thick enough not to need draining but I didn’t account for the added sugar and egg so they were hard to roll up while corralling the filling. Fried in butter and served with some apricot jam melted with a bit of rum. Pretty tasty.

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I posted this same bread last week, but that was last month’s thread so here is a whole new month AND a new attempt at King Arthur 's Japanese Milk Bread recipe.

Recommended rise time is 60-90 min. I cut it at 60 last time due to having a lunch date. I let it go 75 this time. I tried to be much more careful about shaping the rolls, and Iet it proof in the pan a full 50 min instead of cutting it off at 40.

The result, as you can see, is a slightly taller, fluffier loaf, at least on 3/4 of the rolls.

Soft feathery interior with lots of yeasty flavor (1 tablespoon for just the one loaf). Tastes awesome.

Only catch this time was the bottom, which left a few air pockets that might make for a weird slice or three.

But hey! Practice makes perfect and it’s definitely better than any supermarket choice.

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I definitely believe in “practice makes perfect.”

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Experimented with some lye-washed sourdough potato rolls stuffed with ham and cheese. Not bad for first attempt.

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Does the lye give them a pretzel vibe?

2nd time around twisted bread from Baking with Dorie. This is a 3 times rise bread. Takes a little time, but we love it a lot.


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Beautiful! The photos make one want to just dig in. :yum:

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Yep!

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Buckwheat bread (still experimenting with gluten- free breads) from this blog. I skipped the flaxseed and topping seeds, but it looked good and tasted good too - definitely worthy of being used for a grilled cheese sandwich later today. I used regular olive oil (recipe called for “light”) and I think I’d use something else next time as it tastes a bit olive oil-y.

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I tried out these polvorones today. Tasting the dough I felt they had too much matcha, but baked I’m not sure. I kind of like it, but I like bitter matcha flavor.
These have a lot less, though, and I think I might like them better. I don’t know if I would bother with the yolk, though.

I also like the use of granulated sugar, which I usually use rather than powdered sugar because I find the cornstarch in it chalky. Organic powdered sugar made with tapioca is better for this reason.

I added a little salt to the dough.
I weighed the flour after baking it out of curiosity and 10 grams were lost.

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team meeting tomorrow, and wanted to make something “springy”. I don’t know why I think of coconut as being springy, but I do! Yossy Arefi’s Snacking Cakes to the rescue again: I made Coconut Lime cake, very easy https://medium.com/the-cookbook-for-all/coconut-lime-cake-663861d673bc Cut myself a sliver before I sliced to take into work, and it’s very good.

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A two-fer today, finishing with a Chocolate Babka from Standard Baking Co. Pastries.

I have never made (nor eaten) babka prior, but this version appealed to me as it is not overly complicated.

Modifications included omitting the few drops of lemon oil and adding 50 g. sourdough discard. I added 1/3 c. chopped walnuts to the filling, and in lieu of a streusel topping, used more walnuts and some raw sugar. I measured 135 g. per cup for the flour (calls for scoop-and-level) and had to add 2 T. liquid before the dough felt “right”. Other than that, followed the recipe.

Very fun to make, and the results so delicious.

Since I needed chocolate cookie crumbs for the filling, I also made Pierre Herme’s chocolate sables (aka Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies – original version). There is a slightly modified version of this recipe in SBC Pastries, as well, where it is recommended as a source for the cookie crumbs in the babka.

These cookies live up to their reputation. I baked only five: one test, two for the babka, and two for us to munch on. The rest of the dough is in the freezer, although we probably could have eaten half the batch in one sitting (if we didn’t know the babka was coming later).

Two winning recipes for me today.

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Babka looks great! I always appreciate seeing a classic “cake” type rather than the laminated version that dominates social media these days.

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This is an april thread, so it seem appropriate to mention that I only just now noticed the blog title change, which must have taken place Saturday (natch).

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Thank you!

THAT BABKA!!! Wowza.

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Pumpkin seed rye from The Rye Baker. Mild sourness, chock full of pumpkin seeds and flax with a very slight undertone of char from black malt. Excellent bread. Still loving this book.

Croissants from Lune: Croissants All Day, All Night

The dough contains clarified butter, and the layering is done with room temperature dough and softened butter. For the actual turns and rolling out, the dough is fridge cold. This is a 3 day affair where you make a poolish and dough on day 1, do the turns on day 2 and bake on day 3. The croissants are good, with a shattering crust and a nice interior. With practice, I’m hoping to get an even honeycomb crumb one of these days. :slight_smile:
There are a number of interesting variations from sweet to savoury that I’ll try, as I have 3 small batches of dough in the freezer.

Last, but not least, is the white sourdough made from discard, on the right.

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Beautiful. So much work involved

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Does anyone here own “Zoe Bakes Cakes?” I am trying to figure out what size mold she is using in this recipe.