What are you baking? March 2023

I do 240g. Never had a problem.

1 Like

I was voluntold to bake for an event for Mom this weekend. Couldn’t possibly decline.

ETA: wow, the bottom of that cake looks REALLY dark here. Bad lighting!

13 Likes

I was inspired by @Stef_bakes to make the Everything No Knead bread. My cast iron Dutch oven is a bit bigger in diameter so my loaf is flatter, but it is delicious. I always seem to get a hard rather than crisp crust on the bottom with these recipes, but this one was better. Still a bit too crunchy and brown but worth shredding the roof of my mouth over. Now fortified to go shovel myself some snow tunnels to the front and back doors. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/no-knead-everything-bread-recipe


15 Likes

Looks great. Such a good bread. Easy to mix together. Im thinking of making it without the everything bagel sprinkle. Yes, we too got a huge amount of snow in Markham but now it is a nice sunny day.

1 Like

Looks great! What size Dutch oven did you use?

I’ve been dying to make Bon Appetit’s brown butter frosting made with toasted milk powder, but I have tons of egg whites, so I was planning on making white cake. I made a 3/4 batch of Stella Parks’ white cake, but while I was making it I decided I wanted to turn it into poppy seed cake. Frosted cakes are just not something I like making in large batches because I can only eat so much of them and I find most people who might buy from me don’t necessarily want frosted cakes either unless they specifically need a special occasion cake. So a 9x13 cake covered in frosting just didn’t appeal to me. Maybe I’ll make an 8x8 cake to try that frosting. And I can use a buttermilk cake or even a chocolate cake rather than a white cake. I added 3/8 cup of poppy seeds to the batter and that made for a nice amount.

Something I wanted to mention is I find it interesting how conservative people like Stella Parks and Kenji are when it comes to salt in book recipes vs online. For example, Kenji’s Peruvian roast chicken on Serious Eats was 4 tsp of kosher salt. In the book he calls for half that amount. There’s other instances, but that’s the one I remember off the top of my head.
Stella meanwhile calls for 2 tsp minimum for all the cakes that were originally published on the site. The lowest is the vanilla cake with 2 tsp. Her coconut cake and brown butter cake both call for more than that.
The vanilla cake has the same ratios as the white cake except that it calls for even more egg and a little more fat. So why less than half the amount of salt?
I upped the salt to 1.5% here, which is 5 grams for the 3/4 batch I made. If I decided to go with 2% salt that would be 6 grams (technically a bit more, but 6 is fine). I also reduced the sugar from 12 oz to 11. I’ve always liked this white cake, but more as a means to use up egg whites than on its own merits. Or when I made the apple cider variation, which is lovely. Well, this is easily my favorite version of this cake. With more salt the flavor is just much better, and I don’t miss the bit of sugar I took out. It makes for such a tasty poppy seed cake that I keep going back for another piece. Very moist and tender, and truly worth making again!
And on the savory side, I made Jamaican beef patties with rough puff. Temps lately are not rough puff friendly, though, so I don’t think I’ll be laminating again for a while.

16 Likes

That looks like a good amount of poppy seeds! Hate when a recipe only calls for a tablespoon or two. Great looking beef patty too.

2 Likes

Mine is 11”. Recipe calls for 9-10”. I might use parchment next time to try to keep the bottom crust from getting too dark, and keep it a bit more compact if I double layer.

Thanks! And yeah my favorite poppy seed cake calls for a whole cup of them, so I like a generous amount!

1 Like

Strawberry almond oats muffins from here.

I had strawberries needing to be used up and I liked the ingredient list.

They were good, though a little undersweet for me and soft and cakey rather than more dense, which is what I think of muffins as, despite me using almond flour for half the amount of flour listed.


The troops liked them though, which is a big win.

They were beautifully domed just as they came out of the oven, but deflated as they cooled.

11 Likes

Kentucky butter cake, pomegranate glaze. For an event at mom’s church.

I don’t usually glaze the KBC but I wanted this one to have more visual appeal.

18 Likes

It is indeed beautiful! And the glaze is so even and symmetric. Mine would have been uneven, more here and less, some drips higher than the other kind of thing.

5 Likes

I have a big Crueset dutch oven which was too big for bread baking. Then i bought a Staub oval one which just wasnt right. Finally found one that suits me. Its an Amazon Basic 5 quart. Pre seasoned and its $48.00 canadian works great for me.

2 Likes

Thank you! I was thinking parchment as well. Will post when I get to this bake. :slight_smile:

Thank you. This particular design of pan makes it easier to get a more uniform drip (vs the swirl-y pans, which can look… chaotic.)

2 Likes

I purchased one of those back in August. I really like it. And yes, I’ve baked bread in mine, as well.

BANANA-SESAME CREAM TART from What’s for Dessert by Claire Saffitz (page 245)

This is an interesting combination of flavors (sesame and banana) that works. This book is my first experience baking with Claire Saffitz but her recipes so far have been quite unique. I used graham crackers instead of Nilla wafers, toasted sesame seeds and added those to the crust as instructed. The crust baked up fine and held its shape when removed from the tart pan. The banana custard was a bit challenging. I’m not sure it set up perfectly but it is also possible that it needed a few more hours to chill - we ate our first slice at exactly four hours. You add toasted sesame oil to the custard before placing it in the baked tart shell - so different. Finally, the cream on top is simply sour cream and heavy cream. I whipped to medium peaks as instructed but I wish I had gone firmer with the whipped cream. I ended up with slightly soft custard topped with slightly soft whipped cream but a nice crunchy crust. Overall, the flavors were amazing and not too sweet.

18 Likes

The people who bought a garlic butter cheesy wool roll bread want another for tomorrow. I was also asked if I’d have anything else— something sweet. Ingredients right now are scarce, so I can’t make cheesecake, sadly. I was thinking maybe some cream puffs, and I was also considering fresh fruit tarts. On the other hand, the yogurt tart was a HUGE hit with the people I made it for, and it’s really cheap to make, so perhaps I’ll make that again.
Planning on making some challah today because I feel like braiding.

Oh, and a friend told me about making 40 brownies for a party, and I told her husband who dropped by that it would be very expensive and that I also don’t think it’s the best idea for a party to serve brownies on their own as opposed to maybe part of a larger cookie selection. Well, he laughed about the 40 number and said there will be more like 100 people at least and agreed that brownies don’t sound like a great idea.
I am slightly tempted to suggest a croquembouche so I can finally have an excuse to make a real one (as opposed to a mini), but I don’t know if I want to commit to such an endeavor :joy:.

7 Likes

I’d love to make a full-sized croquembouche. Once I get started putting one together, I don’t want to stop. It’s like lego for baking addicts.

5 Likes

Had to push the challah back until today. No need to go even longer with the strands next time (like 16 inches), but not bad.

I had to wake up really early to make the wool roll bread, and after she picked it up she called and asked if I could bake another for today, so I’m working on that now.

20 Likes