The Baking Topic

[PRgal]

Friday is the Mid-Autumn Festival (aka Moon Festival) and as usual, I made homemade mooncakes.  However, I tried a new recipe this year, based on Kirbie's Craving's three ingredient applesauce bread.  The batter was too wet and I ran out of self-rising flour, so I had to use silicone molds instead of my other mooncake-making devices.  The cakes stuck onto the molds, and let's just say it was a #mooncakefail

[SuprSuprElevated]

Happened across this page and wow! Beautiful, expensive pies. 

facebook.com/homemadepiesbykala

[caitmcg]

17 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

Happened across this page and wow! Beautiful, expensive pies. 

facebook.com/homemadepiesbykala

That almost looks like it’s embroidered. 

[SuprSuprElevated]

1 minute ago, caitmcg said:

That almost looks like it’s embroidered. 

I'd hate to see that price ! 😆

[Mondrianyone]

The prices are listed on the linked site. They're astonishingly cheap considering the amount of work that goes into those top crusts--and I do pies with chimp-level fancy crusts, so I have a good idea of what it takes to do those. Amazing.

 

[Bastet]

First reaction: Holy shit, that's cheap.

Second reaction: That's probably not cheap someplace in Michigan where one would live on something called County Farm Rd.

So I looked up Croswell, MI, and, yeah -- it's about 2-1/2 square miles, with a population of less than 2500, and the median annual income is about $25k.

[Quof]

That Facebook page, and especially the reviews, are really suspect.  Lots of 5 star reviews that are actually about cryptocurrency and other scams.    I only found one person who claimed to have eaten a pie.  

I'll stick with my "rough" looking homemade pies.  It reminds me of shows like Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes, the products looked amazing but apparently tasted like sawdust.  

[Mondrianyone]

Since I personally have no plans to buy or eat these pies, I don't care how much she charges or how they taste or if she made them or even where she lives (people in Russia and Asia are doing beautiful work in pastry). I'm just blown away by the artistry. All the rest are irrelevant details.

Edited October 9, 2023 by Mondrianyone
sp

[Gramto6]

That is one gorgeous pie!! I'm not going to buy it or eat it, but it looks stunning!

[SuprSuprElevated]

19 hours ago, Mondrianyone said:

The prices are listed on the linked site. They're astonishingly cheap considering the amount of work that goes into those top crusts--and I do pies with chimp-level fancy crusts, so I have a good idea of what it takes to do those. Amazing.

 

I totally get that for the work being done, I would expect to pay those prices. But it's also not chump change, not for nuthin'.

Edited October 8, 2023 by SuprSuprElevated

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

I totally get that for the work big done, I would expect to pay those prices. But it's also not chump change, not for nuthin'.

That was my point in looking up the location after checking myself on my reaction to the price; that's far below what someone would pay here, in a large city, and it's less than someone should be paid anywhere for that type of work, but for where she is, that's probably the most she can charge to maintain business given the local economy.

I'm not a pie fan in general; I think cooking is a terrible thing to do to most fruits other than citrus, so I really only like a few pies like key lime and lemon meringue (but only my mom's on the latter; most people/places have too much meringue) or berry pies where the fruit isn't cooked.  So the pictured pie isn't anything I'd want to eat.  But, damn, it's beautiful; I appreciate the artistry, and so long as the taste is commensurate, Kala of the domain name is churning out some great work.

[caitmcg]

16 hours ago, Bastet said:

19 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

I totally get that for the work big done, I would expect to pay those prices. But it's also not chump change, not for nuthin'.

That was my point in looking up the location after checking myself on my reaction to the price; that's far below what someone would pay here, in a large city, and it's less than someone should be paid anywhere for that type of work, but for where she is, that's probably the most she can charge to maintain business given the local economy.

Yeah, I live somewhere very much the opposite of where she is (an urban area on the west coast with a high cost of living) and unadorned whole pies at my neighborhood bakery cafe start at around $30 these days. I can't imagine what such an ornate, labor-intensive pie made with good ingredients would command around here.

[Mondrianyone]

I live on the East Coast, rural but still coastal, so I wouldn't use my situation as the typical one. I looked for prices in flyover country and found this in Missouri.

Whole pies from $32.95 to $34.95. This is for rustic Grandma-type pies without any painterly touches. So if the prices Kala lists are legit, they're still cheap no matter where they're made.

[SuprSuprElevated]

Flyover country. Nice.

[Mondrianyone]

You know exactly what I meant, and it wasn't disparaging.

[EtheltoTillie]

Someone recommended Amy's Bread cherry cream scones.  I couldn't make it to the store, so I found the recipe on line.  Each batch makes four disks.  Last week I made two disks, and the texture was all wrong, and they were too burnt on top. 

I saved the other half of the dough in the fridge all week and just baked them, and they're just right.  I used my regular oven this time, instead of the smaller electric oven. 

The interesting thing about the technique is that it uses a large amount of heavy cream in place of what would be milk/cream and butter in a regular recipe.  No shortening in this recipe. 

[EtheltoTillie]

That was @Quof who mentioned the scones and posted the brown soda bread recipe.  I shall post the soda bread shortly, as I'm a busy baker this morning.

Keeping fingers crossed.

I'm moving on from yeast breads for a while.  I've had only disasters.  My challahs were awful, and I tried making an oatmeal molasses loaf that used to be foolproof, and it was also terrible.  Instead of a hockey puck, it was a doorstop.  They all went in the garbage. 

Update, the brown bread is very good.  I added caraway seeds, because I love caraway seeds. 

[EtheltoTillie]

pictures of brown bread and scones.  The scones look like chocolate chip cookies for some reason.  Because they have brown sugar, I guess.

[Quof]

Are those raisins in the brown soda bread?  Evil, bad and wrong.  🙂

[EtheltoTillie]

2 hours ago, Quof said:

Are those raisins in the brown soda bread?  Evil, bad and wrong.  🙂

No, maybe it's the angle or shadows.  No raisins.  But again, I did add caraway seeds. 

[Quof]

That's okay, they'll go great with the chunk of old cheddar that this bread calls for. 

[annzeepark914]

@EtheltoTillie Do you have a gas stove or electric? I've found that gas stoves make yeast breads better (at least in my baking experience). Baking is not easy!  

[EtheltoTillie]

7 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

@EtheltoTillie Do you have a gas stove or electric? I've found that gas stoves make yeast breads better (at least in my baking experience). Baking is not easy!  

I have a gas stove.  I think my recent yeast bread failures are due to my using the stand mixer.  When I used to make the oatmeal molasses bread, I kneaded it by hand.  I didn't even have the Kitchen Aid mixer at that time.  I may be overworking everything.  I also have to find my original oatmeal molasses bread recipe, given to me by a friend.  I've misplaced it.  We have lost touch with that family, so I can't contact her.  There is one in the Joy of Cooking that I was using, but I'm not sure it's exactly the same. 

[Quof]

I bake bread with an electric oven, I turn the convection feature on towards the end for browning. 

[CheshireCat]

24 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I have a gas stove.  I think my recent yeast bread failures are due to my using the stand mixer.  When I used to make the oatmeal molasses bread, I kneaded it by hand.  I didn't even have the Kitchen Aid mixer at that time.  I may be overworking everything. 

That's very possible. My mom bakes bread and she kneads all of her breads by hand. I'm not sure if you're overworking it or if it's simply not the right kneading process. Bread needs to be kneaded for a long time to incorporate all the air and activate the gluten/proteins.

Also, yeast tends to like warm(er) and moist(er) air, so if you're living in a colder climate, make sure that when you proof the bread it's at a warm place. (My mom uses a hot water bottle (filled with warm water) and wraps the bowl into a blanket in winter).

[Quof]

I've gone the lazy way of late, No Knead Bread for the win. 

[caitmcg]

On 11/26/2023 at 10:50 AM, EtheltoTillie said:

The interesting thing about the technique is that it uses a large amount of heavy cream in place of what would be milk/cream and butter in a regular recipe.  No shortening in this recipe. 

I've been making all-cream scones like this for many years, with endless variations. It's the easiest ever (no cutting in butter) and produces a very tender, light result, but the texture is different than the flaky biscuit style or crumbly texture you get from recipes that include eggs.

[BooksRule]

The holiday baking bug has finally bitten me. I'm going to bake something tomorrow to take to work.  I have the ingredients for a pan of gingerbread (thick cake, not cookies), a cranberry orange loaf cake, or an eggnog pound cake.  I'm leaning towards the eggnog cake, because my sister brought me some whole nutmeg at Thanksgiving (I was down to grating the last bits of the last piece from the jar I had had around for quite a while) and I'm anxious to taste one made with fresh grated nutmeg. If I get ambitious I might make two of the recipes. 

[CheshireCat]

1 hour ago, BooksRule said:

The holiday baking bug has finally bitten me. I'm going to bake something tomorrow to take to work.  I have the ingredients for a pan of gingerbread (thick cake, not cookies), a cranberry orange loaf cake, or an eggnog pound cake.  I'm leaning towards the eggnog cake,

In Germany, you use eggnog at Easter, so it's weird for me when it's used for holiday baking in the US. I'm always like, uh, wrong time of the year 😄

[EtheltoTillie]

15 hours ago, BooksRule said:

The holiday baking bug has finally bitten me. I'm going to bake something tomorrow to take to work.  I have the ingredients for a pan of gingerbread (thick cake, not cookies), a cranberry orange loaf cake, or an eggnog pound cake.  I'm leaning towards the eggnog cake, because my sister brought me some whole nutmeg at Thanksgiving (I was down to grating the last bits of the last piece from the jar I had had around for quite a while) and I'm anxious to taste one made with fresh grated nutmeg. If I get ambitious I might make two of the recipes. 

I have a really old jar of whole nutmeg, and it’s still good!  There are a couple of nuts left.  I can’t tell people about it though or they might not eat what I made. Some people are so weird about expiration dates.  They don’t apply equally to everything. The few grains of that fresh grated nutmeg in my gingerbread won’t kill anyone.
 

I too love to make a gingerbread cake and an orange cranberry  loaf. I use Joy of Cooking recipes for both. I have never made eggnog pound cake. Sounds good. 
 

The crazy office manager where I rent office space recently tried to throw out my box of “expired” tea bags.  You know those people who are always purging the office refrigerator?  She was ranting about how I was trying to poison the people in the office.  

Edited December 3, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[chessiegal]

20 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

The crazy office manager where I rent office space recently tried to throw out my box of “expired” tea bags.  You know those people who are always purging the office refrigerator?  She was ranting about how I was trying to poison the people in the office.

Expired tea? I'm guessing that just means you've lost some potency, not that it's turned toxic. 🙄

[BooksRule]

29 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I have a really old jar of whole nutmeg, and it’s still good!  There are a couple of nuts left.  I can’t tell people about it though or they might not eat what I made. Some people are so weird about expiration dates.  They don’t apply equally to everything. The few grains of that fresh grated nutmeg in my gingerbread won’t kill anyone.
 

I too love to make a gingerbread cake and an orange cranberry  loaf. I use Joy of Cooking recipes for both. I have never made eggnog pound cake. Sounds good. 

My jar of nutmeg was ancient.  I grated on those little pods for years until I was down to one or two that were basically 'c-shaped' and I couldn't grate from them anymore. I couldn't find any nutmeg in the local stores (and don't do a lot of shopping for that sort of thing online) so sent the word out to family and friends to keep an eye out for some. My sister brought me some that she found in a local Indian market.  I didn't think of looking in that type of store. I probably could have found some locally (she lives about 3 hours away from me). 

I'll post a copy of the recipe when I dig it out.

[EtheltoTillie]

@BooksRule Please post that recipe if you get a chance, thanks.

[chessiegal]

I can get whole nutmeg in my regular grocery stores - McCormick brand.

ETA: Amazon has several brands.

Edited December 3, 2023 by chessiegal

[EtheltoTillie]

Yeah, I always see the whole nutmeg in every grocery store in my area.  I just haven't had to buy any for, well, decades, probably.  (Hides face.)

Edited December 3, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[BooksRule]

Up until last year, I was able to fine whole nutmeg.  Then, for some reason I haven't been able to find any in my local stores.  I know of at least two chains that would probably have it, but none are in my area.

[ebk57]

Penzey's has it.  I always try to shop there first because they're so wonderful.  They do ship if there isn't a store in your area. 

[Bastet]

5 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I have a really old jar of whole nutmeg, and it’s still good!  There are a couple of nuts left.  I can’t tell people about it though or they might not eat what I made. Some people are so weird about expiration dates.  They don’t apply equally to everything. The few grains of that fresh grated nutmeg in my gingerbread won’t kill anyone.

Thankfully, the people I cook for don't include any of those nutters, but, yeah, I've been working out of the same mason jar for many years.  I don't use a lot of nutmeg, mostly just adding a little to some dishes with greens -- you don't taste nutmeg, you taste enhanced greens (like lemon juice, or even salt, just a specific thing greens take very well to).

[Browncoat]

6 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

The crazy office manager where I rent office space recently tried to throw out my box of “expired” tea bags.  You know those people who are always purging the office refrigerator?  She was ranting about how I was trying to poison the people in the office.  

Why are they using your teabags?  If you don't take other people's food, you won't have to worry about being "poisoned."

[SusieQ]

4 hours ago, ebk57 said:

Penzey's has it.  I always try to shop there first because they're so wonderful.  They do ship if there isn't a store in your area. 

FYI Penzey is running their $50 gift card for $35 promotion. Great deal!

[EtheltoTillie]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Why are they using your teabags?  If you don't take other people's food, you won't have to worry about being "poisoned."

There's a box of teabags out in the kitchen for anyone to use.  I purchased it, but I don't care if anyone else uses it, or they want to serve to clients. 

[BooksRule]

I just took a Sour Cream Pound cake out of the oven.  And then put an Eggnog Pound cake and a pan of brownies in to bake.  The Sour Cream cake was the hardest because it was totally from scratch.  The Eggnog one and the brownies both start with a box mix, so they were easy to mix up. The scratch cake is for a luncheon tomorrow and the other two are for an open house at my local museum tomorrow evening. After these two events, the only other holiday-related party I have to get ready for until Christmas is a lunch on Friday (and I'm making deviled eggs, so I need to remember to boil the eggs tomorrow morning so I can 'devil' them tomorrow night).

Here is the Eggnog Pound Cake recipe:

1 box pound cake mix

1 1/4 C. eggnog (I use bottled or the kind in the carton)

2 eggs

1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 t. fresh grated nutmeg (I throw in a little bit more for good measure)

Mix until fully combined, about 2 minutes. Pour into a greased large loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. (you might have to bake a little bit longer. Check after one hour). Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out on a rack to finish cooling.

[supposebly]

I just modified my tried-and true no-knead bread recipe I perfected with 2/3 white, 1/3 7-grain + rye flour to make buns leaving out the rye. I put the dough in a muffin pan and they came out excellent!

Little buns for little lunch sandwiches!

[EtheltoTillie]

On 12/13/2023 at 9:22 PM, BooksRule said:

I just took a Sour Cream Pound cake out of the oven.  And then put an Eggnog Pound cake and a pan of brownies in to bake.  The Sour Cream cake was the hardest because it was totally from scratch.  The Eggnog one and the brownies both start with a box mix, so they were easy to mix up. The scratch cake is for a luncheon tomorrow and the other two are for an open house at my local museum tomorrow evening. After these two events, the only other holiday-related party I have to get ready for until Christmas is a lunch on Friday (and I'm making deviled eggs, so I need to remember to boil the eggs tomorrow morning so I can 'devil' them tomorrow night).

Here is the Eggnog Pound Cake recipe:

1 box pound cake mix

1 1/4 C. eggnog (I use bottled or the kind in the carton)

2 eggs

1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 t. fresh grated nutmeg (I throw in a little bit more for good measure)

Mix until fully combined, about 2 minutes. Pour into a greased large loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. (you might have to bake a little bit longer. Check after one hour). Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out on a rack to finish cooling.

Can you post the scratch pound cake recipe also?  Thanks!  

[BooksRule]

9 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Can you post the scratch pound cake recipe also?  Thanks!

Here it is.  (Please excuse the condition of the card.  I've used it for many years and it's gotten grimy. :) )

[EtheltoTillie]

11 hours ago, BooksRule said:

Here it is.  (Please excuse the condition of the card.  I've used it for many years and it's gotten grimy. :) )

Thank you. I love old well used recipe cards. 

[Quof]

I made these today

https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/salty-oatmeal-chocolate-chunk-cookies-1

I've made them before and they were good, but not outstanding.  Today I used chunks of dark chocolate and ruby cacao chips - no dried cranberries - and baked them barely 8 minutes. They looked really underdone when I took them out, but when they cooled they were deliciously chewy.

[annzeepark914]

@BooksRule One more question: which brand of pound cake mix do you use for the Eggnog Pound Cake?  I'm not much of a baker (I do give it the ol' college try but baking is so much harder than cooking!) Thanks 😊

[BooksRule]

8 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

@BooksRule One more question: which brand of pound cake mix do you use for the Eggnog Pound Cake?  I'm not much of a baker (I do give it the ol' college try but baking is so much harder than cooking!) Thanks 😊

I used Betty Crocker brand, but mainly because that was the only one I saw (although the store might have had Krusteaz brand). The recipe I found online didn't specify.

[scriggle]

@BooksRule You inspired me to make the eggnog pound cake.