Isabelle Prescott

Those bagels look delicious. I want one now with my cup of coffee. I've made bagels before but not from that recipe. What I'm looking for now is a good rye bread recipe. I made some this week with a recipe that calls for beer instead of water for the liquid. The bread is OK but not great.

Ah, if only I had a fork in hand... I'd be tasting that immediately. My desire is to lick the picture on my computer screen!!!!!!!!

Does eating a 3 inch piece of summer sausage and some crackers while driving on the freeway to get to my grandson's swim meet on time qualify as shameful?

I found a box of Velveeta and Shells at the local 99 cent store and made it for myself the other night. Ate the whole thing... supposed to feed 3 with each serving providing 300 calories. Oink, oink!!!

Has anyone used citric acid as an ingredient in their sourdough?

I make "garbage soup" with whatever tired veggies are in the bin. Saute some onion in olive oil, add whatever veggies are one step from the disposal... and any left-over meat chopped into small pieces, water, some boullion cubes, a bay leaf, s&p, and a can of tomatoes, chopped. For seasoning I like a teaspoon or 2 of Italian. Takes about 45 minutes to an hour to cook. I also sometimes puree it and add a little milk after its cooked. To serve, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh basil.

Thanks for the reminder to go to Ikea for their 99 cent breakfast. Forgot about it. I never actually have it... order the more costly one for 1.99. But, alas, the stock market dump has forced us to get a part time job selling mini bundt cakes at the local Farmers Markets so we can't go out for breakfast anymore.

I've spent the last hour reading through all your messages. And loving every minute. I have to have 6 Hershey's chocolate kisses every night after I get in bed. I place them on my chest to warm them till they get a little soft and eat them one by one. If I have some I'll also eat a black licorice twist first... letting each bite sort of melt before I chew and swallow it. My grandkids love to eat marshmallow creme directly out of the jar and that's the first thing they look for when they come to my house. I only use it to make fudge with, and that's the truth. Someone mentioned the I Hate to Cook book... I own a copy. Going to dig it out and see any recipes that strike my fancy.

Hi Katie, I've looked over the recipe and its ingredients are similar but different. The plain yogurt, vegetable shortening & prune lekva are not in the one I made. The yogurt and solid vegetable shortening (Crisco) are off putting to me. The prune lekva sounds like it would taste terrific, in bread, on bread or a bit on a spoon ! To answer your question directly I don't have any comparison as I have not made or tasted it. Whenever I have a recipe that calls for vegetable shortening I substitute butter. I checked out the video and found it interesting how they used a sling made out of a kitchen towel to hold the loaf while it was rising. Does anyone here do that?

Here's a site that explains some of the reasons for a blow-out of the crust. http://www.artisanbreadbaking.com/blogs/?p=43

Painting with water twice gives me a chewier crust. I don't know that it has anything to do with oven spring. I'm not an expert... just an experimenter.

I have started to paint my risen loaves with water and a pastry brush just before placing them in the oven. This seems to work as well for me as hot or boiling water in the bottom of the oven. Add a second painting of water about 10 minutes into the baking time.

Many thanks, copy and pasted and am looking forward to making it soon. Happy New Year. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Happy New Year.

Here's the Pumpernickel recipe I use. I make it in my Cuisinart 14-cup food processor. You can use a regular mixer or do it all by hand. In that case you put the liquid in the bowl and add the flour. If doing by hand, I suggest kneading for at least 8 minutes. Pumpernickel Bread 1/2 tsp. sugar 1/2 cup warm water 1 Tbs. dried yeast 1 Tbs. cocoa 2/3 cup boiling water 3 Tbsp. molasses 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (approximately) 1 1/2 cups rye flour 2 tsp. Kosher salt (if using table salt, use 1 1/2 tsp.) 2 Tbsp. caraway seeds 2 Tbs. cornmeal for baking pan 1 tsp. instant coffee granuals dissolved in 1 Tbsp. boiling water 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tsp. water Dissolve 1/2 tsp. sugar in 1/2 cup warm water. Sprinkle yeast into water, stir to dissolve. Let stand for about 5 minutes until foamy. Dissolve cocoa in 2/3 cup boiling water. Add molasses and oil; stir well. Cool until lukewarm. Reserve 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour. Process remaining all-purpose flour, rye flour and salt for 5 seconds. Add dissolved yeast mixture and process for about 15 seconds. Add cocoa mixture through feed tube while machine is running. As machine slows down, add reserved all-purpose flour through feed tube and process 10 seconds longer. Dough will be quite sticky. Turn dough out onto well-floured surface and knead by hand 2 to 3 minutes, until smooth and elastic, adding just enough flour to keep dough from sticking. Knead in caraway seeds. Put dough in oiled bowl, turning dough over so all surfaces are lightly covered with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled. May take up to 2 hours. Punch down. Let dough rise a second time; punch down. Shape into 1 large or 2 smaller balls. Place on greased baking sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover with a cloth and let rise util doubled, about 2 hours. Brush with coffee mixture, then with egg glaze. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes for large loaf or 35 to 40 minutes for smaller loaves, Cook on rack.

Beautiful pic of your bread. Keep on experimenting... you'll come to not wanting to buy bread. I've wondered why so many folks think baking bread is difficult. The actual work time involved is minimal for the enjoyment of that fresh baked smell in the house and the taste of your own home made bread. Here's a pic of my pumpernickel.

In my 74 years of living I've never found anything that tasted like the "real thing" that didn't have the ingredients of the "real thing". I'm not trying to put down your request for an eggless brownie... just reminding you that ingredient replacements never taste like the "real thing". Have you tried modifying the vegetarian recipes by substituting butter for the fat listed in the recipe?... it may give you some of the flavor you like. I encourage you to experiment by substituting ingredients until you come up with a flavor you like/remember. Good luck in your search.

Here's the tastykake website if you want to see how they look. http://www.tastykake.com/

Here's a sort of klone recipe to give you an idea of these little "beauties". (If I were eating them I'd use my mom's devils good cake recipe but he's used to the store-bought taste so don't go there): "Tasty-cake Chocolate Cupcakes" About 24 cupcakes Cupcakes: 1 18.25 ounce package Devils Food cake mix (whichever brand you like) 3 eggs 1/2 cup oil 1 1/3 cup water Chocolate icing: 5 1/3 tb butter -- softened 1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips 1 1/2 ts vanilla extract 1 tbs milk 2 1/4 c powdered sugar Buttercream filling: 5 1/3 tb butter -- softened 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 2 1/2 tbs milk 1/8 tsp salt 3 c powdered sugar Filling: 1/2 c shortening 1/2 ts vanilla extract Pinch of salt 1 cup powdered sugar Instructions Preheat the oven to 350. Make the cupcakes according to the directions on the box. While the cupcakes bake, make the chocolate and/or buttercream icings. Chocolate Icing--In a mixing bowl, combine the butter with the chocolate chips melted in a microwave set on high for 30 to 45 seconds. Blend in the vanilla, milk and powdered sugar and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Buttercream Icing--Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. If you're making the filled cupcakes, combine the ingredients for the filling in another mixing bowl and beat until fluffy. When the cupcakes are cool, complete each by following these directions. CHOCOLATE-ICED: First spread a layer of chocolate frosting on each cupcake. Then, using a pastry bag with a small, round tip, draw a single straight line of buttercream icing down the middle of the chocolate icing. BUTTERCREAM-ICED: First spread a layer of buttercream icing evenly over the top of each cupcake. Then, using a pastry bag with a small round tip, draw a straight line of chocolate icing down the middle of the buttercream icing. CREME-FILLED: If you want the cupcakes filled you need to do it before you frost them. Use a skewer to make a hole in the top of the unfrosted cupcake. Stick the skewer into the middle of the cupcake and then swirl it around to carve out a cavity in the middle of the cake. This is where the filling will go. Using a pastry bag, inject about 1 tsp of filling into each cupcake to fill the hole. When you ice your cupcakes, the icing will neatly hide the hole you made. I'm counting on you - eat 2 packs for me and then log on and describe them! She's talking about the chocolate cupcakes with vanilla cream filling. ←

Oh my! The smell is fabulicious! One whiff and I'm on a trip straight back to Europe and my grandmother's kitchen! I freeze a block of it and use it occasionally to fire up a sourdough recipe. I just used some yesterday on a batch of sourdough I will be making crusty German rolls with. Dough is in the fridge, but smells divine already. Someone mentioned the cost being high, but I get it at a restaurant supply store and it is very reasonable. A 'brick' of it, which is about the size (volume wise) of a pound of butter is about $.79. If you don't have one near you, make friends with a pizzeria owner who makes his own dough. I'll bet dollars to dough, he is using fresh yeast. -sabine ← Someone gave me a brick she buys in a restaurant supply store and told me to cut it into1/3 inch sections and freeze them for later use. I made white bread with the chunk I didn't freeze and it rose twice as fast as instant yeast. The bread was delicious. Normally I bake with my sourdough starter (used La Brea Bakery method with grapes to create) and though it takes a long time... the resulting loaves are more flavorful than when made with yeast.

The reason I mentioned Canada is the reference to "Christies" which is Canadian and they do have a "Dad's Cookies".

Far as I can tell... its a Canadian brand we don't have in the US... I don't know how they taste which prevents me from trying for a clone. Sorry.

MOCK TWIX® BARS 1 c. flour 1/2 c. powdered sugar 1/2 c. butter 1 tbsp. sweetened condensed milk Mix as for pie crust. Press into 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake 12 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool. FILLING: 1 (14 oz.) pkg. caramels 1/3 c. sweetened condensed milk 1/2 c. butter 1 c. powdered sugar 6 Hershey chocolate candy bars Melt caramels and milk in heavy saucepan. Blend together butter and powdered sugar. Add to caramel mixture and beat well. Spread over cooled crust. While still hot, top with Hershey bars. Spread evenly. Cool. Cut small, very rich.

Thanks for your reply and the pictures. They are beautiful I was thinking about a glaze that is poured onto a warm cake while it is still in the baking pan rather than a glaze/frosting put on after the cake is removed. I've had bundt cakes with rum, kalhua, etc., glazes and wanted some other suggestions.

I shop at the local 99 cent store for my vegetables. Yesterday I got 3 lbs. of Yukon Gold potates, very large head of beautiful cauliflower, large bag of key limes, bag of 3 hearts of romaine, bag of spinach, 4 red peppers, 3 zucchini in a package, large celery, large bag of carrots, large bag of red onions... each costing $1. I passed up the tomatoes as I find they don't ripen well and the taste is off. I got my Roma tomatoes at the local Mexican market, 3 lbs. for a dollar on sale. I bake my own bread, buying the 25 lb. bag of flour at Smart and Final. I use my own sour dough starter (which I made using the La Brea bakery method). The only other ingredients in the bread are water, 2 teaspoons sugar and a tablespoon of kosher salt. I also buy SAS yeast for regular bread which comes in 1 lb. bags and is less than $4... at Smart and Final. Supermarkets yeast is outrageously expensive compared to this. I make "garbage soup" from the veggies left in the bins that are starting to get a little old. Make the stock from chicken bones, necks, backs, wing tips that are left when buying whole chickens which I can get here on sale from 69 to 99 cents per lb. on sale. If you get to the supermarket early enough in the morning they have meat with a "sold by" date but has nothing the matter with it. I either freeze or cook it when I get home. I grow my own tomatoes in the summer. I like Vella burgandy box wine... on sale around $7.99 a box. And Cristalino Brut Champagne. Yogurt can be made at home, too. Its easy.

The commercial bakery that we work for where we sell at Farmer's Markets also has a website and corporate accounts. They do very well taking orders from their website and with their corporate accounts. Your belief that people don't order from the internet is wrong. The website I offered where the person sold their goods on Etsey actually got so many orders for her baked goods that it became to large for her to supply within a year and she closed her on-line business. I'm not trying to be flip or blow you off but I've read this entire thread and no one's suggests are to your liking. You seem to shoot down or discount anyone's advice offered. Perhaps you need to ask yourself... Why is that? Best of luck to you and I hope you can succeed in getting into baking. (And yes, I can tell that you are easily discouraged.)