Any Home Bakers Here?

Xiao Casa said:

Hi everyone,

I haven't been baking for a while! Too busy applying to college.

But, after finishing my application the other day I made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies as a thank-you for the wonderful ladies who wrote my recommendation letters. To be honest, I think that their husbands were more thrilled than the ladies themselves.

The recipe I use for that is just the "Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies" from the lids of Quaker Oats cans. I have been making it with my mom since I was about seven, by myself since I was around eleven. She didn't trust me by myself with the hot oven before that. It never disappoints me, it makes a perfect oatmeal cookie. I have even modified it and used it with craisins and chocolate chips instead of raisins!

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Good luck with your applications! You'll have to let us know where you decide to go, that's a big decision. Do you know what you want to study (not that that might not change somewhere along the line)?

The cookies sound good. I've made lots of oatmeal cookies but never used the recipe from the lid of oatmeal. Ought to try that one. When you think about it, I think company's would put their best recipe on their labels to make their ingredients more likely to sell. My favorite recipe for chocolate cake is off the cocoa powder can (but I like to mix it up with the frosting and use the coconut buttercream for the top & inside layer).

Thank you for all the good wishes! I plan to study Special Education. I doubt that I'll change my mind on this, it has been pretty clear that teaching is my area of spiritual giftedness. Plus it's a huge commitment, changing my mind would be a big waste of money! LOL.

Which cocoa can? I've been wanting chocolate cake lately....

The recipe for the cake is on the back of the Hershey cocoa can. Makes a really moist chocolatey cake.

You're going into a very rewarding field! Teacher's in general get my respect but there's a special place for the special ed teachers. I am so impressed!

I was thinking of making a pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving but don't have a springform pan any longer. What would you all suggest as a good substitution to bake cheesecake in?

Jenn, how's that new oven working for you?

Hope everyone is having a good morning!

Great! Food threads on a chicken forum, I landed on my feet here!

I'm feeling hungry reading this!

I love baking, in fact I have a passion for food in general.

A little tip for the thrifty home bakers out there.

I'm not sure about the US, but here in the UK we can readily get hold of free fresh yeast. This can be obtained from your local supermarket, the ones with the bakery in-house. Ask politely for some fresh yeast and they will usually oblige, they can't charge for it as it is a live organism and supermarkets are not licensed to sell live organisms.
It refrigerates in a n airtight container for a week or two, to keep for longer, cube it and freeze it.

Dump a teaspoon of sugar on the fresh yeast (you don't need much yeast, maybe a cube about the size of a sugar cube is enough to make 500/600g recipes) the yeast will "melt" then you can add the warm water let it fully activate and use as normal.

Guido said:

Great! Food threads on a chicken forum, I landed on my feet here!

I'm feeling hungry reading this!

I love baking, in fact I have a passion for food in general.

A little tip for the thrifty home bakers out there.

I'm not sure about the US, but here in the UK we can readily get hold of free fresh yeast. This can be obtained from your local supermarket, the ones with the bakery in-house. Ask politely for some fresh yeast and they will usually oblige, they can't charge for it as it is a live organism and supermarkets are not licensed to sell live organisms.
It refrigerates in a n airtight container for a week or two, to keep for longer, cube it and freeze it.

Dump a teaspoon of sugar on the fresh yeast (you don't need much yeast, maybe a cube about the size of a sugar cube is enough to make 500/600g recipes) the yeast will "melt" then you can add the warm water let it fully activate and use as normal.

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Glad you joined us. Our local groceries rarely even carry local produce although my state, GA, has loads of farmers.

sunflour said:

Glad you joined us. Our local groceries rarely even carry local produce although my state, GA, has loads of farmers.

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Local farmers, great if you can build up a good relationship with them.

The UK really seems to promote local produce, even in the supermarkets, they have isle sections dedicated to local produce, fewer carbon miles and local business promotion, all good.

Hi Guido, nice to see you here! What sort of things do you like to bake/cook? Must be nice to get fresh yeast like you do. No one around here carries it that I know of and with only 1 small store with a tiny bakery section close to me, I'm sure they wouldn't give any out (if they even use it). I go through quite a bit of the stuff too.

The kids love home made Pizza, so that is one of my "autpilot" go-to dinners! I swear i could almost make them blindofdled!

We also make your regular loaves for making toast or having with home made soup.

A personal fave is Brioche, no good for you , but you can't leave it alone!

I buy my active dry yeast from Sam's Club. 2 1-pound packages lasts me a long time.
I am really sad that almost all of the little bakery shops are gone, they were a staple in every town when I was growing up. Now the doughnuts come from the grocery store - and are not as good.. I grew up in a small town in northern WI with the best bakery, it was right on the highway to "up-north" for a lot of vacation/hunting cabins so it did really good business. I have met a lot of people from Milwaukee area that knew of that bakery because they would stop there every on their way to their cabin. Doughnuts were our Saturday or Sunday treat, maybe not every weekend, but often enough. It closed down sometime in the last 7 years while I lived in Wyoming. It was a family business and none of the kids wanted it when the parents needed to retire because of health reasons. I moved back to the area and wanted to stop in, but it was closed up and empty.

There weren't any bakeries in our nearest town in Wyoming, so I found a recipe for Kringles and make my own now. They are a tradition for my husband for Christmas time.