My mom had a special request for cinnamon rolls for her birthday so I'd like to thank zolablue for the recipe here (It's the second recipe down the list):

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/cinnamonrolls

I'm another happy customer!

I'm mostly posting as a thank you but also with some of my personal experiences that others might benefit from reading about if they choose to make these WONDERFUL and EASY rolls:

1) I used 6g instant yeast instead of a packet (7g) of active dry.  Therefore I added an extra half cup of potato liquid to the recipe because I didn't have to disolve the yeast in the beginning.

2) I used lard instead of shortening.  I don't know if this is the reason that when I added in the eggs, milk, potato, and potato liquid, it came together with rather a curdled look.  I did add the eggs one at a time and when the first one did not mix in smoothly, I broke out the electric beater.  The concern was all for naught, though since once I added the flour everything came together beautifully - So don't worry if you get this curdled looking texture beforehand.

3) I used KA organic AP flour and it took 5 cups to create a workable dough, though I may have been able to get away with even less flour.

4) I couldn't find cinnamon chips at the grocery store so I just spread the sugar out on the buttered rolled out dough and sprinkled the whole thing with as much ground cinnamon as I thought would be desirable - A complete but thin layer.

5) I got 14 pieces out of the roll and packed them into a 9 1/2" x 13 1/2" nonstick metal baking pan that I had sprayed with coooking spray.

6) I made vanilla icing and did not use the full amount of milk since I was leaving out the chocolate and it would have been too watery.

I know that it looks like I went crazy with the icing (I actually did have some left over!) but once the roll was on my plate it looked perfect!

Summer

Would like to know what the percentage is using Ascorbic Acid in, say, 20 lbs. flour for Sweet Dough Pastries.  We've always made our sweet rolls from scratch but there was always something lacking.

Can anyone advise? Thanks.

Thanks to gothicgirl for sharing her recipe for Dark Chocolate Chip Brownies!  I made them yesterday as the dessert course of a belated Mother's Day dinner (my mom was out of town last weekend), and they were delicious!  I consider myself kind of a seasoned brownie baker (though really, who isn't?), having tried quite a few recipes and these were definitely a new take on an old standard, using a combination of mainly dutch processed cocoa with some semi-sweet chocolate - I used 88%.

The only change that I might make next time is using slightly less sugar since I like a more bittersweet chocolate flavor.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11645/dark-chocolate-chip-brownies

I didn't bother frosting them since I served them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!

Summer

Hello, everybody!  

I'm eight or so days away from departing on a loooong trans-Europe camping trip, and currently I'm gathering as many recipes for baking as I can - pitas, Irish soda bread, bannock, mantou buns so far - but I have a rather silly experiment I'm like to try.  Perhaps some guidance would help...  I'll be preparing everything with a Coleman camp stove, but I have a pretty severe sweet tooth.  I also have a basic recipe for brownies, essentially flour, egg whites, joghurt or milk, baking soda and powder, sugar, and vanilla or chocolate.  It's largely a low-fat sweet quick bread, bakes for 20 minutes or until the toothpick-in-the-center method verifies it's done.  

What I'm wondering is whether it would be possible to pour the batter into a pan - a griddle pan, saucepan, cover it on the stove, and bake it that way.  Does anybody have any thoughts?  If so, what heat would you recommend?  How long would it take?  Or is this the sort of thing that would give me a tummyache?

Any help is appreciated, and until then, blessings!

The last time I went shopping the grocery store had Ghiraredelli 100% Cacao Unsweetened Chocolate bars on sale for less than 1/2 price..So, I purchased two bars thinking I might make chocolate custard out of it..

All of the pudding / pots de creme / custard recipes that I have call for bittersweet chociolate..Same goes for the ones I tried to research on the net..Probably scanned quickly at least 50 recipes before deciding to post the question here..The single recipe that I found, link below, seems to be a cross between a steamed pudding with bread or flour in the ingredient list, and puddings using only eggs to set the custard..

I am tempted to make the recipe in the link with the following changes..Eliminate the flour altogether, reduce the butter to 4 oz., increase the number of eggs to 6, not separate the eggs, lower the baking temperature to 300F, place the custard in ramekins, and bake on sheet pan in a water bath until set..

http://events.nytimes.com/recipes/6037/1992/05/03/Bitter-Chocolate-Pudding-With-Sauteed-Bananas/recipe.html

I would be interested in hearing any comments on my thoughts as regards to changing the recipe in the link..As well as any recipes that members might have for puddings / custards / pot de creme that use unsweetened chocolate..I would also like to hear from members that have experience with "pudding" recipes that when baked can be sliced into shapes, as the pudding in the linked recipe is capable of..

Thanks, Bruce

This past Friday I purchased a 4 lb. bag of Granny Smith apples with the intentions of eating some plain, and incorporating some into my fruit smoothies..Well, I had too much other fruit on hand, and the apples sat until this morning untouched..As they were starting to show soft spots where they had ben bruised during picking and transportation, I decided to use the entire 4 lbs. in a batch of 20 Hour Apples..

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11218/20hour-apples-are-absolutely-fantastic

Being in somewhat of a hurry, I decided to incorporate some of the suggested short cuts that were mentioned by various posters in the above thread that I started back on March 21st..One poster mentioned using a slow cooker (crock pot), and other posters mentioned that Chef Herme's methodology for the ultra thin slicing and layering seemed to be unnecessary, as well as too fussy..

After peeling, coring (was not very meticulous about getting all of the core), and quartering the apples I was left with 2 lb. 4 oz. of yield..I elected to slice each quarter lengthwise into three to four 1/4" thick slices..I had juiced up all of the citrus fruits that I had on hand Friday night so I elected to spice things up a little with additional spices other than cinnamon..

20 Hour Apples--Redux

4 lb. Granny Smith apples--peeled, cored, quartered, sliced lengthwise into 1/4" slices

1lb. 8 oz. whole strawberries, stems pinched off as closely as possible (frozen for smoothies)

8 oz. organic granulated cane juice

1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

1 whole vanilla bean, split lengthwise in half, scraped out, mixed into the sugar

Instead of using a baking dish wrapped in plastic wrap weighted with a pan on top of the plastic wrap, I elected to use a Farberware Millenium hard anodized alluminum 4 quart stock pot to cook the apples in..First, I placed the scraped out sections of the vanilla bean in the bottom of the pot..Then, I layered the apple slices so as to cover as completely as possible the bottom surface of the pot..Then, I sprinkled a generous amount of the sugar-cinnamon-cardamom-cloves-cayenne pepper-vanilla bean mixture onto the apples..I repeated the apples and sugar mixture two more times..These three layers used up about 50% of the sliced apples, and the stock pot was not quite 1/2 full..Then, I remembered that I had approximately 1.5 pounds of whole strawberries in the freezer to use in smoothies..I pinch off the stems as close to the strawberry as possible when prepping them for freezing (the tiny amount of stem left on the strawberry disappears in the smoothie)..For some reason I wanted the pot to be as full as possible before I started baking the apples..Accordingly, I used the entire 1.5 pounds of frozen whole berries to create a layer of strawberries on top of the first half of the apples..I sprinkled the berries with the sugar mixture, and finished layering the remaining apples in three additional layers..The one cup (8 oz.)  of sugar was the perfect amount for the 6 layers of apples, and the single layer of berries..None left over..

The pot, with its relatively tight fitting lid, went into the 175F oven at 12 noon..My intentions are to let the apples and strawberries cook until 6 AM Monday morning..What I am shooting for is an apple-strawberry jam with the apples being cooked completely down..I will post back to let everyone know how this experiment turns out..

Bruce

Anyone have a recipe for something close to what these taste like, with that same crisp texture? I'm thinking THESE might be close, but the ingredients list for Voortman's Windmills don't mention almond.

http://savory-cooking.blogspot.com/2007/12/netherlands.html

Not sure what I'd use for a mold - I've found some, but they're $30 and seems to me you have to do 1 cookie at a time? I'm not quite -that- patient!

Hi all:

Well, here is my Easter Gubana (Easter Bread from the region of Friuli)! When I asked about this bread on the forum last month, nobody replied that they had made one, so I thought I'd share mine with you.

It was quite delicious, but definitely an "adult" flavored cake.  LOTS of nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, almonds) and some booze soaking for the filling.  It was pretty much following the recipe that is in Carol Fields' "The Italian Baker", and was especially delicious with some vanilla gelato.  Next time, I think I need to make a wetter sponge, and I'll macerate the raisins before adding them to the nuts & other filling ingredients (which is a long list:  The aforementioned 4 nuts + raisins + candied orange peel + cinnamon + cocoa + lemon zest + 5 different liquor/liqueurs). 

There was what seemed to be an impossible amount of filling for the loaf - but I crammed it all in!

Hope you all had wonderful holidays!

peace.

Do you know this cake?
I thought thant you would like to have the original recipe so I have also translated in english language.

You can find the recipe here:
http://www.croce-delizia.blogspot.com/2009/04/la-pastiera-napoletana.html

I am pondering making Reinhart's sticky buns for breakfast tomorrow. I do not, however, want to be up at 6 am to start my dough and then go back to sleep! Can this be mixed up and allowed to rise slowly in the fridge overnight? Would it likely be just-about doubled in size by, say, 9 am tomorrow morning (roughly 11 hours from now) if I were to do this? I haven't done anything to alter the timing of my bread before, and have always worked my schedule around my bread. I'd rather not have my breakfast somewhere around brunch, however!