What are you baking these days? November 2020 edition!

Question

Somehow, it’s November already, and we’re coasting toward the end of this strangest of years with colder weather (at least in the northern hemisphere), earlier nights, and holidays to bake for, whether we’re entertaining or not. So what’s in your oven this month?

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The chicken shawarma pie from Falastin, because there was half a pound of filo in my freezer that needed using. 

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/mar/15/ami-tamimi-tara-wigley-yotam-ottolenghi-palestinian-table-recipes-food

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Oatmeal Craisin White Chocolate Chip Cookies. A variant on Melissa Clark’s recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. (Will try to link recipe later. It’s from NYT Cooking.)

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A friend who ordered online 8 bananas got 8 bunches (40).she's not a baker. I took 2 bunches and doubled the banana bread in Midwest Made. One loaf for her and one for us.

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I'll be getting some cranberries with our CSA later this week, and am thinking I'd like to bake with them. Maybe something with citrus? Possibly white chocolate. Anyone have any favorite cranberry sweets?

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This morning I baked Fromartz’s Stirato from The Perfect Loaf using the version on the King Arthur website as recommended by MunchkinRedux. It's much less intimidating than making baguettes. I made the dough the day before, did the stretch and folds and let it rise for 3 hours, then put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning I took it out for a couple of hours and followed the rest of the recipe, baking it on parchment on a cookie sheet, since I don't have a baking stone. Nice crunchy crust and flavor!

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I just finished a bowl of Mark Bittman's rhubarb crisp topped with a dollop of labne. I had just pulled it from the oven so it was nice and warm.

I think it's delicious. A lot of the commenters on the New York Times found it too tart. I didn't and my husband who isn't as fond of tart food as I am enjoyed it.

I used three pounds of rhubarb. I used orange juice and zest. 

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013147-rhubarb-crisp

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Apple tart...just texted to me by my granddaughter! She included some Grains of Paradise and topped it with apricot jam I had given her. So proud of her endeavors and I’m sure it tastes as good as it looks. But I can’t help myself from saying....” the apples don’t fall too far from the tree”!

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I gave myself a sticky dough distraction yesterday. Sourdough Sandwich Bread with Pre-cooked Flour. https://www.theperfectloaf.com/sourdough-sandwich-bread-with-pre-cooked-flour/

Need to find something for today...

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Another pan of cornbread. This is a recipe with more flour than cornmeal and I used the white cornmeal I bought from an Amish farmers market. So good.

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My daughter made these vanilla-nutmeg cookies using cookie stamps (first time using them) last weekend. She thought they were really easy to use. Then she melted some chocolate to dip them in, gilding the lily for sure. Will definitely use the stamps for holiday cookies this year.

Not pictured: no-knead rolls https://alexandracooks.com/2013/11/26/thyme-dinner-rolls/ So easy, perfect with soup.

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Huckleberry scones for breakfast. 

I used 1/3 white whole wheat and 2/3 all purpose. Recipe calls for blueberries, but I thought it was a good fit for some tiny little huckleberries from our garden.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/blueberry-scones-recipe

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Finally baked some cookies other than Tollhouse for grandchildren. I took a chance and brought these to the food pantry for the volunteers. Everyone loved them including me. I used a cup of mixed dried fruit bit stuck with the recipe other than that. I’m not a seed lover.

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/breakfast-cookies/

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Here’s an idea if you are really not feeling much like baking
https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/ice-cream-bread
I have often made two ingredient beer bread with sr flour and it’s not bad.

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MunchkinRedux, you're a genius! I'm forever in your debt. This bread was fantastic. I started it at 6:30 or 7 this morning and baked a half recipe on my baking steel. Everyone in my house loved it. 

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2015/02/07/search-perfect-loaf

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Not like I'm going to get anything else productive done, so I baked SK's Lemon Yogurt Anything cake this morning. Put in frozen cherries, and subbed almond extract for the vanilla. Haven't cut into it yet, but it smells nice, and the kitchen feels very homey with it sitting there. Thanks to whoever reported on it recently.

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Lemon Loaf Cake from Baking with Julia. This was an easy cake to make with just a whisk. It includes melted butter and heavy cream. Pound cake is not my favourite, but this was perfect to have around and I enjoyed a slice with my tea every afternoon. I didn’t have any lemons, so used the zest of 4 limes. It was lightly limey. I used and 8”x4” pan rather tha 9”x5” because I don’t own a larger loaf pan. It took 15 minutes longer to bake and the outside was kind of hard when I cut the first slice but it softened up over the week. And my new larger loaf pan was delivered today!

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Weekend boule, made in the style of a French levain. This is a type of slightly sourdough bread, just a bit of a tang, so it doesn’t overwhelm the bread or what you are eating with it. Good as a sandwich bread, nice with soup and great with cheese.

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Made brownies last night, the Claire Saffitz Forever Brownies recipe from Dessert Person https://cupofjo.com/2020/10/claire-saffitz-malted-brownies/#comments 
Modifications: used 2 whole eggs instead of 1 whole egg and 2 yolks; used Whoppers that I smashed in a bowl instead of malt powder as per the recipe instructions.
They were good, but not amazing. I'm not sure what I expected exactly. The Whoppers disappeared in the brownies, which was surprising. Maybe the malt powder with chopped chocolate would have been better after all. Nevertheless, they were enjoyed. We gathered with neighbors on our porch last night and they all did their part to ensure no brownies were wasted.

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NYT Snickerdoodles. I used a 2 T. cookie scoop and got exactly 18 cookies. 12-minute bake. Love these – so basic, and exactly like I remember them. 

I accidentally used granulated salt instead of kosher, and actually prefer them a bit salty.

Next time I’ll cut the cinnamon-sugar dusting mix in half (or bake a double batch). Ended up with a lot left over which we’ll use on cinnamon toast.

Note to self: it’s tempting to eat these warm, but the texture is much better once completely cooled.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018581-snickerdoodles

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Strawberry creme fraiche bars from 100 cookies by Sarah Kieffer. These are SO GOOD.

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I baked the herbed ricotta tart from David Lebovitz’s site for dinner on Saturday, with sautéed scallions and leeks, slow-roasted cherry tomatoes, and tarragon, in an olive oil crust spiked with herbes de Provence and smoked paprika.

https://www.davidlebovitz.com/herbed-ricotta-tart/
https://cnz.to/recipes/basics/easy-olive-oil-tart-crust-recipe/

No photo, but I also made molten chocolate cakes, which I served with (purchased) salted caramel gelato, because something a bit celebratory was in order.

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ANZAC BISCUITS, a cookie with a history. ANZAC is the acronym of Australia & New Zealand Army Corps. These cookies were developed in World War II to provide energy to troops. They are fiber-rich with both oatmeal and coconut and have a caramel flavor. They stay crisp and mail well.
Cream 1 cup butter with 1 1/2 cups brown sugar and work in 1 egg and 2 T molasses (or Golden Syrup). Add 2 cups flour, 2 cups oatmeal (I use Quaker Oats), 1 1/2 cups coconut, 1/4 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp salt. Form the dough into balls and place on greased cookie sheet then flatten with the bottom of a glass. The thinner you make them, the crisper they get. Bake at 350 until light brown. Makes a lot---about 60. A substantial nibble and great for dunking.
PS I buy my coconut at Indian markets where it is grated MUCH finer than US coconut.

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I just saw this Rugelach recipe (I've never made rugelach) on Leite's Culinaria and think there's a mistake in the ingredients. They say 4 oz cold butter, 1 ½ sticks. Shouldn't that be one stick?

https://leitesculinaria.com/180093/recipes-pecan-pie-rugelach.html

Also, I don't have pastry flour and in the comments it says AP is OK.

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More flat-breads on the stove-top, in anticipation of making David Lebovitz’s Moroccan Spiced Chicken tomorrow night (and stocking up the freezer at the same time).

https://www.freep.com/story/life/2015/06/12/olgas-kitchen-bread/71139918/

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I have not been sleeping well (probably generalized anxiety about work) and woke up early today. I was meeting a friend for brunch at 10:30, so decided to make these cookies before I met her: 
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/spiced-rye-ginger-cookies-recipe
since they have oil, safe for my lactose- intolerant friend. Good although my favourite ginger cookies have more ginger..

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Pumpkin whoopie pies from the King Arthur Baking website. Omitted the cake enhancer in the cookie and the xanthan gum and crystallized ginger in the frosting. A nice, easy little fall dessert. I should have added a pinch of salt to the frosting (and in hindsight am surprised the recipe didn’t call for it). It was late and I was tired so I didn’t bother smoothing the tops of the cookies which is why they look very rustic lol. I made them mini sized using a heaping tablespoon for each cookie and got 66 cookies/33 whoopie pies. Sorry for the bad pic, this is after I had packed them up to store in the fridge.

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I’ve got no-knead bread dough rising, and I’m making cheese-filled pretzel bites tonight. Too bad I’ve run out of cheddar; I’ll have to stuff them with Monterey jack.

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With the advent of the coronavirus pandemic the cookbook club to which I belong moved to Zoom. The electronic format isn't nearly as satisfying as being able to taste everyone's creates in person, but it has resulted in our members cooking more and sharing more. Due to availability and accessibility issues we have also broadened our scope and instead of simply focusing on a single cookbook, or books by a single author, we've started doing themes. 

Our most recent theme was PIE, sweet or savory. Easy as Pie by Susan G. Purdy was published in 1985 and I have owned it since then, but have never baked from it. Every time I culled out cookbooks, I'd open up this one and start reading the recipes and then I'd put it back on the shelf and promise myself I'd bake from it soon. Apparently soon is 35 years ;-)

I started with a Buttermilk Chess Pie because I had buttermilk that needed to be used. I'd never made a buttermilk pie before and the only other chess pie I've ever made is pecan. Wow! Turned out really well. Made me and my neighbors happy. 

If you grew up during the 50s or 60s and possibly into the early 70s, chances are good that you mother made Grasshopper Pie for dinner parties, her bridge club, women's club meetings or other "special" occasions. I figured why not a little blast from the past. The recipe isn't hard, but there are numerous steps. But...double WOW! probably one of the best pies I've made in the last 10 years. There is a reason it was so popular way back when. Rich, decadent, creamy, dreamy and also surprisingly light. I gave some to my neighbors who swooned and took some to a fellow cookbook club member who nearly fell off her chair when she tried it. 

Election anxiety kept me going, but I went savory with a Hasty Pie instead. Good old meat and potatoes. I thought it might be bland, but it wasn't. I did bump the flavor up with a bit more fresh thyme and a few shakes of Maggi Sauce, but I think it would have been equally as good without it. Satisfying comfort food. 

I am now, of course, thankful that I did not discard this cookbook. Not only have the pies turned out really well, I've really come to appreciate how well written and well structured the recipes are. Clear, concise with directions that are straightforward and fairly easy to follow. A testament to a strong writter, but also to an equally strong editorial hand. The first 100 pages are an invaluable resource for information, descriptions, explanations about ingredients, pie crusts, pastry in general, baking and troubleshooting.

Cookbook club is moving on to soups and breads from Gourmet Today and The Gourmet Cookbook. I'm sure post election anxiety will push me into bread baking.

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Practicing my mini French bread loaves today. These are 100 gram loaves. My slashing skills, in general, leave a lot to be desired.

I wanted a way to invert all four bannetons at once, so I put them into a snug-fitting serving tray, put the parchment and peel on top of the whole lot of them, and flipped them over as a single unit. That worked well.

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Holiday today for me (for Remembrance Day), so only worked a few hours. Make a double batch of muffins for breakfasts the next few weeks: this recipe http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/248772/spiced-apple-cider-muffins/
but I added some apples for fibre, and cut the brown sugar down slightly..

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S’mores chocolate chunk cookies. These were outstanding- I liked them best when the dough rested for 24 hours. Baked for 11 minutes, and sprinkled with Maldon sea salt. I used regular chocolate chips - not chunks. 

https://www.bakefromscratch.com/smores-chocolate-chunk-cookies/

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Cranberry maple pecan breakfast cake recipe from Flour
A nice cake with maple flavouring and tartiness from cranberries. We LOVED it. Baked in 55 minutes.

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Chocolate Chip Banana Bread from NYT Cooking, https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020899-chocolate-chip-banana-bread?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share. 

I liked this more than my husband, who observed that you can barely taste the bananas because the chocolate is so dominant. BTW, although it looks burnt, it’s not. Because I did not have any mini chocolate chips, I blitzed some regular sized chips in a mini food processor, which resulted in a lot of chocolate powder, along with chocolate bits. The former turned the batter a very dark color.

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More stress baking (case counts are exploding). "Trashy cookies" from a cookbook called "Dirty Food" https://www.dinnerwithjulie.com/dirty-food/ Made with crushed potato chips and left over hallowe'en candy ). ALso had peanut butter and oats. Pretty good! Probably it for a while..

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Finally got around to the CRANBERRY BUCKLE WITH VANILLA CRUMBLE from Rustic Fruit Desserts. Haven’t tasted it yet, and slightly worried that my decision to bake it in my pie pan was a mistake. Took much longer to bake. Hard to tell if it is fully baked since the cranberries come out wet. Hoping for the best, and can attest to the fact that the batter tasted wonderful with that bit of orange peel in it.

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I'm a little freaked out by the rising numbers in MA so am baking like crazy. My older daughter wanted to bake "alone" last night so I kind of conceded to that by baking alongside her - she made sugar cookies, I made brown sugar cookies.

(ETA: from 100 Cookies)

We hosted outdoor mother/daughter book club and read the BEST book - Marvels by Brian Selznick. Highly, highly recommend.

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Rustic pear and walnut galette , recipe courtesy of the Costco Connection flyer. I have made this twice and we really enjoyed it. The filling consists of ricotta with vanilla and sliced pear. The pear is then drizzled with caramel sauce. Bake for about 25 minutes and top with chopped walnuts, bake for another five minutes. Drizzle with caramel sauce at service...and then a little more!

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Cheese coins (savory shortbread).

I only make these once a year, as they’re loaded with butter and cheese, and I can’t resist eating them. First you taste the cheddar and pecorino, and then the cayenne kicks in. The sesame seeds add a nice little crunch. 

I usually take them to a holiday party, where there are plenty of mouths to help partake in their granular goodness. No parties this year, but we’ve decided we’ll still indulge in our favorite holiday nibbles. Just not all at once, not all on the same day. Last week we enjoyed a small batch of Ina Garten’s smoked salmon spread on bagels and on crackers. This week we’re partaking in this NYT recipe for cheese biscuits.

I made the dough last night and let it firm up in the fridge. My yield was 52 crackers (recipe calls for 72) – I let them bake a few minutes longer due to thickness. The coins freeze nicely once baked.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020040-cheese-crackers

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BEST BANANA BREAD from Sally's Baking Addiction

Had a bunch of bananas to use up and big kiddo wanted to bake something one last time before her sister starts full time distance learning with her next week. She did almost all of it herself with some hand over hand technique assistance. We forgot the yogurt (oops) and had to add half a cup of applesauce to make up for the missing banana that Mr Autumm reportedly ate with lunch. Baked it in 4 mini- loaves so 2 went straight to the freezer and the others are almost gone. Sorry no picture, in the tastes good not photogenic situation

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/best-banana-bread-recipe/

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Pain De Mie. 

I actually baked this yesterday, but we didn't cut into it until today and I wanted to include a crumb shot. 

I'd been craving egg salad sandwiches on squishy white bread (more comfort food?), so that's what we had for lunch.

Having a heavy carb day today - bread with all 3 meals. :|

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I had buttemilk to use up and with soup for dinner, some kind of bread seemed like a good choice. 

Irish Buttermilk Soda Bread...super quick and easy. I'm happy with the results. A wee bit flat in the flavor department, probably could have used a bit more salt, but it doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment of the bread, and it's nothing a little jam and butter, or melted cheese won't fix. 

https://donalskehan.com/recipes/soda-bread/

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Hi everyone! 
Edit: Sorry, for some reason photos won’t post.

After years of having things like Madeleine pans in a storage unit, all my equipment is free and I finally made madeleines again. I used Felicity Cloake’s recipe for them to make rosemary and olive oil madeleines. The recipe is spot-on, though I think the baking temp should be higher for better browning and more spring. Next time I will bake at 400. Will probably make Earl Grey ones next as I love that flavor. 

I also made Dan Lepard’s fantastic passion fruit crumble cake. It uses fresh passion fruit and the seeds are absolutely delightful in the cake. The coconut crumble on top really works with the tangy passion fruit. I added 3/8 tsp salt to it.

I get really annoyed with myself when it comes to making Stella Parks recipes sometimes. Too often if I trust her completely I regret it. She simply writes recipes that are excessively sweet for my liking (and honestly in comparison to a lot of other recipe writers) even as she claims that she doesn’t like things too sweet. I’ve made quite a few things that I absolutely hated because I ignored my instincts and experience with her recipes. Recently her pistachio ice cream, which even my far more tolerant of sugar mom declared very sweet. It was such a waste of ingredients and effort. And of course her response tends to be “add more salt”, which I’ve seen on her ridiculously over-sweetened fior di latte gelato and ice milk recipes. Calls for far more sugar than any other fior di latte gelato recipe you can find! Salt can’t rescue something drowning in sugar! 
 Then there was the pistachio buns, which are based off her cinnamon buns, which I found mediocre. The pistachio buns were sadly not much better. They weren’t too sweet, but even cutting the ferment down to 45 minutes rather than 2 hours because it’s warmer here they were over-fermented. The dough does not need to be mixed for 25 minutes, which makes it too hot and that adds to the problem. But it really wasn’t the right texture before that, and I think part of it was the oil in the pistachio paste interfering with gluten development. Much better to have added the paste after developing the dough! Halving the yeast in those recipes would produce better results too, because the longer rise would actually be needed. 

However, when her recipes work out, they’re fantastic! This tiramisu recipe is for my liking the best I’ve ever tasted! It’s light, just sweet enough, and the flavor of mascarpone comes through. It’s just the right level of boozy, and just enough chocolate flavor to complement the coffee:
I didn’t make the ladyfingers as I typically do, so I can’t speak to that particular recipe, but I probably would have separated the eggs to avoid the issues so many seem to be having. I cooled the foam before adding the mascarpone after reading the disaster stories in the comments and it worked out just fine. I used Cardamaro and Bailey’s, but any number of combinations could work. 
I split the recipe into two separate dishes and had a bit of filling left for a mini tiramisu, which is what I tasted. Will tuck into this one later! 
Oh, and definitely try to give this at least 4 hours to soften the ladyfingers and the flavors to meld. One hour is not enough!

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My earlier post got eaten. yesterday I made cookie dough using the NYT recipe for bacon fat ginger snaps. I saved bacon fat for the usual cookie sale and holiday bazaar but of course they are cancelled. Hopefully food pantry volunteers will take a chance.

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I made onion soup yesterday and was too lazy to go out to get the bread for croutons so made baguettes. The recipe is very easy and not labor intensive at all. It calls for separating into four loaves but I found them too skinny the first time I made them.
https://bakingamoment.com/crusty-french-baguette-recipe/

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Tiny hand pies. I won’t bake any of these until Thanksgiving, but got them made and into the freezer today. They’ll be finished with an egg-white wash and a raw sugar topping. This is a quarter-sheet pan (toothpick included for scale). More like a 3-bite pastry than a pie. I ended up with 8 huckleberry, 6 blackberry and 4 blueberry (and I still have 2 apple left in the freezer from my last batch). We can pick our favorites for Thanksgiving dinner.

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Cocoa/espresso meringues on the menu for tonight, inspired by serious eats ...nice combination of flavors.

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Thanks to my husband's green thumb, I have an abundance of passion fruit. I am a huge fan of passion fruit so this is great.

I made these passion fruit cheesecake squares a few days ago. They were delicious. I am partial to recipes that call for unstrained passion fruit pulp as I like the crunch of the seeds.

The flavor benefited from being in the refrigerator overnight and being eaten cold. As Alton Brown likes to say, "Your patience will be rewarded.".


I've only seen strained passion fruit for sale. It you don't have access to fresh passion fruit, I'm confident that these squares will be wonderful without the seeds.

http://technicolorkitcheninenglish.blogspot.com/2009/05/passion-fruit-cheesecake-squares.html

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My neighbor is a caterer and she has hired me to bake something each day for nine days. The best part is that I get to bake whatever I want as long as it can be served in small-ish squares or slices and doesn't need constant refrigeration.

I made these cranberry/lemon bars. They are delicious and pretty.

To address some of the comments under the recipe. I used a 9" X 13" inch pan. The cranberry layer bled through the lemon layer a little. I didn't mind. In fact, it makes the top look like stained glass.

These bars are quite tart. I would find them unpleasant with less sugar.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021641-cranberry-lemon-bars

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Orange Olive Oil snacking cake, based on this recipe from NYT Cooking, https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019986-olive-oil-cake?action=click&module=RecipeBox&pgType=recipebox-page&region=recently-viewed&rank=1. 

I substituted orange zest & juice for the lemon. 

I also baked the cake in a 9x13 pan, rather than a 9" round pan, based on the comments of several reviewers that, if you used the volumetric measures (which do not correlate with the metric measures), the amount of batter will overflow a standard 2" tall, 9" round pan. If I make this again, I'd make it in my spring form 9" pan, which has higher sides. The cake was a bit flat in the 9x13 rectangle. But the flavor is good, so I would make it again.

(The only picture that I have is when the cake was in the pan. Another reason to use a springform pan, rather than 9x13, was that the cake broke slightly in the center as I was flipping it over, after I'd removed it from the pan.)

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Cranberry chocolate jam on White Lily flour biscuits. Vita-Mixed some cooked cranberries, sugar and TJ’s 72% chocolate until perfectly smooth, chilled and kept my fingers crossed...turned out well!

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hi everyone,

every year, my favorite thread is the Holiday Treats thread - please join here! I always make rstuart's pretzel bark! 

https://www.chowhound.com/post/holiday-treats-2020-1095210

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These are called Split Seconds and they are a cookie from my childhood. They are called split seconds because they are easy to make and come together quickly. I make them every now and then when the craving strikes. They aren't especially sweet even with the jam filling. They're more like if pate sucree and a thumbprint cookie had a baby. I had 3 jars of jam in the fridge...the end of a jar of Bonne Maman cherry, pink grapefuit with vanilla and passionfruit, both from Small Batch Jam Co. 

I'm very happy with how these turned out. The ones filled with passionfruit were by far the best.

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Lemon jam cake with raspberries and almonds, brushed with lemon verbena syrup, dusted with confectionery sugar. The loaf cake was made with tangerine jam with a ribbon of apricot jam in the center. Both cakes were loosely adapted from Rachel Roddy’s marmalade cake. These are small five cup mold cakes with a tender crumb and stay fresh at least three days . I’ve made at least a half dozen of various jam combinations, most any jam or marmalade works very well.

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Just want to show that even semi-professionals can forget to add items to dishes they are preparing. Also, her recipe for No-knead Buttermilk Rolls is great!

Alexandracooks

Friends, this past Thursday evening I made boozy chocolate truffles on Food52's Instagram Live.

I have made these truffles countless times over the years, and in the days leading up to the event, I made several batches to be sure I was prepared.

On Thursday evening, as planned, I made the 4-ingredient boozy chocolate truffles on Food52's live stream, and when the demo ended, my stomach dropped as I looked down at the bottle of Grand Marnier on my counter top.

I had forgotten to add it. I had forgotten to add the booze in the boozy chocolate truffles. The salt, too. I had forgotten to add HALF of the ingredients in a 4-ingredient recipe. I mean ...

I would be lying if I said I didn't want to cry a little bit, but, alas, what would that do?

Shortly after the demo I received a message from a friend that read: "You also have 4 children. More imporant not to forget half of them!"

True!

Friends, I am wishing you all well. If you are spending part of the weekend preparing for Thanksgiving, I hope it is going smoothly. I have two goals:

 Bake bread for the stuffing​
 Make pie dough, roll it out, fit the rounds into pie plates, and transfer to the freezer.
New, interesting looking recipe on her site:

Roasted Kabocha Squash with Chilies, Garlic & Capers

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We started early yapping about holiday baking this year, probably because 2020 has been so challenging, but baking still delivers all the good feelings :)

Holiday and Christmas Baking 2020: 
https://www.chowhound.com/post/christmas-holiday-baking-2020-1095153

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Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl muffins (cupcakes). I use a whole egg in the cream cheese mixture, making it thinner and easier to swirl. DO use paper liners - these are a very moist muffin. I use a table knife to swirl (toothpick was way too slow). The tops have a nice swirled effect but as you can see from the 2nd photo, most of the interior isn't. 
 Mine bake about 25 minutes, and the top does not brown much so the insert-a-toothpick test is best to know when they're done. http://www.thenovicechefblog.com/2015/11/pumpkin-cream-cheese-swirl-muffins/

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Cranberry Pecan Sourdough.

I started yesterday, with an overnight ferment of the unbaked loaves, and baked them off this morning. These will go into the freezer in anticipation of left-over turkey sandwiches after the holiday. I love how the cranberries add a bit of fruity acidity to any sandwich:

Hot Brown with turkey, ham, bacon and hollandaise
Turkey Club with bacon, mayo, pickles and lettuce
Turkey-Mashed-Potato-And-Gravy on toast

Croutons from this bread are equally desired, and perfect in a roast-chicken or left-over turkey bread salad (a riff on the Zuni Café recipe…). Any heels or small pieces make for an awesome French toast. 

Will add a crumb shot once we cut into the first one on Friday.

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This just came out of the oven. It's a Maple Oat Breakfast Bread. The recipe caught my eye via a food52 special on a Staub pot. Mixing the dough, it seemed too stiff. Thankfully I had been adding flour in 1/2 cup increments, so I was able to hold back the last 1/2 cup or so. Have I mentioned how much I hate bread recipes that do not have weight measurements? I wish I had looked at the original KAF recipe, which did. I winged it and used 40 gms of sourdough discard instead of the 1/2 tsp of yeast. It seems to have achieved pretty good oven spring. 
https://food52.com/recipes/24198-maple-oat-breakfast-bread

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Pear and dark chocolate cake.

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Cranberry curd on a meringue nest, also made it as a pavlova but the meringue won out with the crispy crunch as a nice counterpoint to the creamy curd. Curd adapted from NYT. Happy Thanksgiving all!

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Skuffukaka. 

DH's holiday tray bake from a family recipe. 

I see the Internet likes to call this a brownie. His is not at all brownie-like, but a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sweetened coconut flakes. 

The edges are my favorite part.

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Sourdough anticipation bread....anticipating tomorrow night for a gobbler sandwich....white with a touch of rye.

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Desserts for tomorrow - Pecan Tassies - miniature pecan pies... already sampled and deemed "still great"! And a just out of the oven pumpkin pie. I rolled out one of the butter crusts I made/froze in October ("Emily Hilliard's Pie Crust" from COTM Victuals) and filled it with the Libby's Pumpkin standard recipe. The pumpkin pie will look much better when dressed-up with whipped cream. Or cinnamon ice cream.

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A happy and safe thanksgiving to a wonderful, sharing group of bakers.

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Macarons. A ring of swiss meringue lemon buttercream with a dab of lemon curd in the middle. One of my favourite flavours.

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Pumpkin pie is cooling. Melissa Clark’s recipe for Brandied Pumpkin Pie, https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015413-brandied-pumpkin-pie?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share. 

DIL is bringing an apple pie from an artisan bakery, at my request. I usually a bake both put wanted to support a local merchant this year.

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I was in charge of dessert for a small Thanksgiving gathering...5 of us, outside on a patio, all seated an adequate distance apart. One of the hosteses is gluten intolerant, so I needed to make a GF dessert that still satisfied the sweet tooth while featuring holiday flavors and a little bit of decadence. 

Enter the Pumpkin Pavlova with Pecan Brittle from Food 52. Tasting as I went, I wasn't sure how well this would end up coming together. Separately, I didn't think the components were all that great. I was wrong :-D...all together they were a delight. 

The recipe is really pretty simple. I baked the meringue late last night and left them in the oven overnight. I made the whipped cream and brittle this morning. The brittle makes a lot, far more than is acutally needed for the pav. The directions have you whip the pumpkin puree with the heavy cream. Several commenters said they were not successful with that method so I whipped the cream and then added the puree bit by bit to see if it would hold up. It did. 

I would make this again. I would probably cut back or reduce the brittle and add a roasted or poached fruit.

https://food52.com/recipes/39286-pumpkin-pavlova-with-pecan-brittle

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Joining the pumpkin pie chorus. I used my usual filling mixture, but took a page from the Melissa Clark recipe masha linked and added 2 T. brandy.

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Pumpkin pie from King Arthur Baking using Stella Parks’ all butter pie crust. This is my first time making pumpkin pie, because inevitably someone in the extended family will bring one of those Costco pies. Since there were just 4 of us this year I decided to go traditional. The filling is great - make sure to add the optional ground black pepper and refrigerate the filling overnight before baking to let the flavors meld. And the pie crust is so easy and wonderfully flaky.

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Thanks to the pesky global pandemic (and the fact that both my brother and his wife are in dangerous professions) we were just 2 for Thanksgiving this year - me and mom. She begged me not to make a pie or cake, as I've been baking almost nonstop since March. 

We settled on apple crisp, and I made it in reasonably-sized indivdual servings :) I've been loving the Martha Stewart apple crisp recipe (it's very funny to me because apple crisp is *extremely* traditional round here, so using a MS recipe feels...weird.)

Having resisted ice cream to top it with, I settled on a nice pour of local buttermilk. Highly recommended.

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I made 3 pies for thanksgiving- chocolate pecan from DL, apple pie galette from BA, and brown butter speckled cream pie from Midwest Made. I made pie dough from Claire Saffitz’s new book, Dessert Person. I made all the doughs on Wednesday night which helped with the Thursday load. 

Pie verdict: chocolate pecan was too boozy for me - and we didn’t love that the dough wasn’t blind baked. Apple galette was out of this world - incredible pastry and fun way to make it with butter rolled into sheets. Midwest made pie was amazing but I love that kind of flavor profile. The pie dough from Dessert person was incredible / so flaky - you can see from the side profile of the crust.

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Since we were only four for Thanksgiving dinner I made pecan tartlets and apple turnovers. For the tartlets I used the dough that MunchkinRedux mentions with her amendments. The crust came out very flaky and was easy to make. For the turnovers I used Trader Joe's puff pastry since I had some in the freezer.

Funny thing was when I was making the glaze it kept seizing up and I would getting it smooth but too thin. Then I would add more 'sugar' and it would seize again. So I just said screw it I will try to drizzle it but I tasted it first. I grabbed cornstarch instead of confectioners' sugar. Lucky I tasted it.

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/07/easy-pie-dough-recipe.html

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And the best part is the morning after...lightly warmed in a skillet, Dutch Apple pie.

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Two pies for us yesterday, trying two new crust recipes/techniques. No pics though. Tasty but both needed improvement.
1. Daughter made family recipe pumpkin pie with Claire Saffitz's dough from Dessert Person. I wasn't involved in the dough making but we think she overworked it because it was not flaky at all. She par-baked it according to the instructions in the book (which I double checked due to her dyslexia) but it was too long because the crust was burned by the time the pie was set. The filling was perfect though, and we just broke off the side crust when eating it.
2. I made chocolate pecan pie adapted from an old Martha Stewart recipe using Erin McDowell's flaky pie dough recipe from The Book on Pie. The crust wept butter while baking and the finished crust was almost fried. It definitely flaked though ;) It was a little too wet when I mixed it so I had to add more flour so that may have changed the ratios or something. I have a second crust dough in the fridge and I was more careful with keeping the butter cold and not adding as much water so I will see if that turns out better. Her par-baking instructions were perfect. 

On a positive note, we tried Stella Parks's technique of using white sugar as the "pie weights" and that is GENIUS. it's the first time I've made a crust that didn't slump when the foil was removed.

If you can't tell, I am super excited about making more pies! The Book on Pie is so helpful with a thousand pictures of how things should look and possibly more importantly how they should not look. My husband's sister loves pie and will definitely be getting this book for Christmas.

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Yesterday I made the banana cake from Smitten Kitchen (half the recipe for options 2 or 3 baked in one 9" cake pan).

https://smittenkitchen.com/2010/09/monkey-cake/

I iced it with this icing.

http://technicolorkitcheninenglish.blogspot.com/2009/10/banana-cake-with-passion-fruit-icing.html

The banana cake is delicious. The icing is insanely delicious. I've haven't previously made icing in a bowl over simmering water. It's a great technique. The icing has a wonderful consistency and strong passion fruit flavor.

This is how good the icing is:

Cake is my husband's least favorite dessert. His favorite dessert is fruit pie, especially apple pie. Our neighbor brought over some apple pie that he'd baked. My husband liked my cake much better than the pie due to the fantastic icing.

Between eating three slices of my cake, the apple pie and two ramekins of pumpkin pie filling from another neighbor, I'm surprised that my husband didn't explode.

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I made the cranberry rolls I make every year(I leave out the nuts) for Thanksgiving but decided to add another bread item since I had extra time on my hands this year. Thanks to CH, I tried Alexandra Stafford's buttermilk pull-apart rolls. They are going into the rotation for next year, since a few family members preferred them. They are super easy and I enjoyed them, but my heart still belongs to the cranberry rolls! (And my husband would be very upset if he didn't have them for the Black Friday Turkey sandwich.)

I always make (former?) CH Roxlet's coconut custard pie. I tried Deb Perelman's flaky pie crust for the first time, and this was hands down my best attempt yet! My family has been raving. My pie wouldn't win any beauty contests, but the taste was spot on!

I also tried Food52's pumpkin pudding. This is essentially the pie without the crust. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to stirring some leftovers into oatmeal for breakfast this week!

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/cranberry-nut-rolls-355806
https://alexandracooks.com/2019/11/24/no-knead-buttermilk-pull-apart-rolls-overnight-or-not/
https://smittenkitchen.com/2019/03/extra-flaky-pie-crust/
https://food52.com/recipes/32181-pumpkin-pudding-a-k-a-no-pie-pumpkin-pie

I hope everyone who celebrates had a healthy, happy holiday!

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Yesterday I made the French apple cake from the David Lebovitz website (a Dorie Greenspan recipe). The cake is largely apples with a batter to bind everything together. It's a very nice fall dessert.
I also made the Amish dinner rolls from the King Arthur website. I used the suggestion from the accompanying blog to put the butter, sugar, and salt in a food processor with the boiled potato and the warm potato water (I pulsed mine in a blender). The dough is pretty sticky so I had a little trouble with shaping the rolls and they looked like they may have all melded together by the time the final proof was done. However, once baked they pulled apart easily and they tasted great. A perfect buttery dinner roll.

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Biscotti that uses sourdough discard, although I don't taste it. These are very tasty but next time I would use more than quarter cup olive oil(maybe a couple of tablespoons more) because dough was quite dry. They were very hard to cut.

https://www.baking-sense.com/2020/11/23/sourdough-biscotti/

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Alice Water's Cranberry Upsidedown Cake...didn't love it.

The cake portion is actually quite good, nice flavor, good crumb. The topping is too sweet and overwhelmed the orange in the cranberries, lime probably would have worked better. Baking time in the recipe was off by about 15 minutes.

May try this again with a different fruit, reduce the amount of sugar (and butter for that matter) in the caramel and use white, granulated sugar instead of brown sugar.

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Mom’s Cherry Shortcake Squares from Midwest Made

More detail on the BCOTM thread, but these are tasty. Excuse the horrendous lighting. I could probably do surgery on my dining table if necessary.

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A half recipe of Apple Sauce Sweet Bread (Cake) from Machine Shed, baked 90 minutes in an 8x8 pan at 300 degrees. An online version of the recipe I used is here https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/bread/sweet-bread/apple-sauce-sweet-bread.html but the photo of the restaurant's postcard recipe card that I worked from had the evaporated milk listed as 1/3 C plus 2 T. rather than measured in oz. For my half recipe I just used skim milk (3 T plus 2 tsp.) I did not need/use all of the cinnamon-sugar topping.
The topping forms a thin, crispy crackle crust.

This is a tender crumb, nicely sweet cake that goes well with a cup of coffee or tea.

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Hi all:

This November I managed 2 bakes, both using my 6 C size bundt pan that I really love for its size and how nothing sticks in it: 

1. Gulab Jamun no-egg cake for a teen's birthday; teen has an egg allergy. I made a half-recipe from this site, and it turned out very well. 
https://www.sanjanafeasts.co.uk/blog/2019/07/gulab-jamun-cake/
It's great that she uses weights, perhaps because she's a UK blogger. 
Her cake was the only one I found that was no-egg and also recreated the gulab jamun flavour in the cake, rather than making a plain cake and sticking cut up gulab jamuns on it like some others did.

2. 'Impossible chocoflan' cake for Thanksgiving, half-recipe made from:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/marcela-valladolid/chocoflan-recipe-1949457
My picture shows the edges blurred as if the layers hadn't successfully separated, but that was only an extremely thin layer on the outside. The inside of the cake had a perfect separation/distinct layers (no picture).

Both these turned out really well and were well received, so that's it for this month for me. I am not sure what I may bake in December - I don't think I really plan but do something on a whim.

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Pumpkin bread with walnuts and boiled cider. Stocking the freezer, so made a double batch.

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Rustic potato loaf from Baking with Julia. I halved the recipe to make one loaf. I also halved the yeast, as I am home all day so don’t need a loaf that rises in 20 minutes. This dough starts out like pie crust in the mixer and was very soft by the end, climbing up the dough hook and pooling in the bowl. The dough was a bit too slack to shape well, but the end result smells good. I used bread flour instead of all purpose.

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Desperate for a sweet with my tea I made Smitten Kitchen crackly banana bread. Of course I didn't have any millet but she says it doesn't matter. My bananas were about to walk so I went for it. I liked the ingredients list and the easy mixing in one bowl.

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I made the corn pudding with brown butter from Smitten Kitchen. I adore brown butter and my husband adores corn so it looked to be the perfect recipe for our household and it was. It was delicious and had a lovely texture. 

I highly recommend using the hot honey. I'd never heard of hot honey until I saw this recipe. When I tasted it plain, it was quite spicy hot (and I can handle my heat). On the corn pudding it didn't taste hot; it just added depth. In fact, my husband who is sensitive to spicy hot said that the hot honey made the dish.

It took quite a bit longer to bake than the recipe stated probably because:

I forgot to set aside two tablespoons of the brown butter for the topping, so I browned two extra tablespoons of butter. This meant that there were two extra tablespoons of browned butter in the pudding.

I baked it in an 8" X 8" X 4" ceramic casserole dish, not the shallow gratin dish shown in the recipe.

I used frozen corn.

https://smittenkitchen.com/2020/11/corn-pudding/

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New thread for the month of Chrismtukkah, etc.: https://www.chowhound.com/post/baking-days-december-2020-edition-1095335

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After a long break, a nice toasty batch of KAF sourdough discard crackers. I've got... I don't know, half a gallon of discard to get through!

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What are you baking these days? November 2020 edition!

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