Oh great, something else I need, a dough whisk. I never even knew about such a thing! I like King Arthur's flour and buy it locally, but I've never ordered from them on-line. I like many of their recipes but disagree with some of their statements, like the one that you cannot knead bread dough by hand if it's made with bread flour. I've done it for 20 years and never knew it wouldn't work until they told me, LOL. I'd love to visit their Vermont store, though, just because, plus it's an American business and I like that a lot. I see the Fantes whisk is made in Poland, but King Arthur doesn't say where their's is made. I'd pay a bit extra if it was made here. As for the non-stick bread pan, I'd probably have blundered ahead using parchment paper or some other device and totally ignored the directions, LOL. No one to blame except myself when those things go wrong. (grin) I'm not careful enough with non-stick bakeware, I cut it or nick it or scratch it and ruin the finish, so I've been sticking with plain old pans and avoiding the non-stick. It'd be interesting to see if I could make that work... Annie

I took advantage of that "$40 a yr membership" when it was first offered back a couple months ago. I have already earned back the $40 and now feel I am home free. It is an automatic renewal one yr later, need to be on your toes and cancel if you do not want an additional yr. I usually stay away from automatic renewals. I do more and more online ordering of 'special things " . For instance just recently CF had a discussion on Grade B maple syrup. I had finally gave up hunting for it in local grocery stores, I use it in a KA maple oatmeal bread recipe. I think it was annie 92 or grainlady who said they ordered it online and froze the balance. Yep there it was on line....and it freezes well. See all the knowledge here on CF!! Shirl

I found out when sharing the link with someone who had signed up for emails but apparently too recently to get this notice that you have to go through the email and it cannot be shared, so I'm glad you found it..

I made the one called "Our Easiest Stollen", because I didn't have marzipan, I didn't have almond paste, I didn't have dates, and I don't like the fruitcake mix kind of candied fruit. That one seemed to be the one that I could most easily adapt to the ingredients I had and that we like. Hmm. So FOAS is familiar with stollen where the raisins are soaked in rum, and Peppi had one with rum, so maybe that IS traditional, like the brandied fruit cake. The bakery doesn't bake the rum IN the bread, they mix butter and rum and use it to baste the already baked bread, it makes kind of a glue for the powdered sugar, and they make a thick coat of it. I do like almond flavoring, though, I just sniff the bottles of almond extract at Penzey's and I LOVE almond paste in those Italian neopolitan cookies. Almond paste isn't something that's readily available here, though, usually the cans of "Solo" brand are available around the holidays and occasionally I'll see a block of it in the refrigerated case with the rolls of cookies and stuff, but again, only at the holidays. Annie