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 get a daily e-mail from the Baker's Catalogue, with a featured recipe usually in each one. That apple challah was the featured recipe about a week ago, and I've been meaning to try it out. Thanks for the reminder! Also, the daily mails are a really nice thing--sales alerts, new products, tips, recipes. I've been getting them for several years, and they don't seem to sell addresses, which makes me like them even more.

I change recipes, too, because for the most part I know what I'm doing. There were a few I used for the holidays this year from CF where I held back some salt and sugar, adjusted for slightly different ingredients or whatnot, and I mentioned my changes when praising the recipes, because I didn't make them exactly. But I did use the recipes more than not and do consider that I "made" them. No butterscotch, though. :) OTOH....if the recipe didn't come out nicely (which didn't happen...they were all great), I wouldn't blame the recipe itself if I changed it! But there's also the problem of ingredients and basic methods. Like people don't know that they need to use butter (not the kind with oil in it) or baking sticks or that if it's not said, recipes mean size large eggs--unless it's an amateur recipe and the author doesn't know to specify if they're extra large--or that beet sugar might ruin your baking. They don't know that the "beat butter and sugar" step is for whipping in air and shortchange or omit it. They don't know that oven temperature is the number on the thermometer (that you put in the oven) not on the dial, or even that opening the door can affect the baking. A lot of people who think they're following the recipe as written and having failures, still may be doing it all wrong. I would never review a recipe that I hadn't made, though in certain situations I might comment "sounds good" or "do you think it would work with peaches rather than pears?" but I don't bother reading the ones that didn't either. You can tell from what they say. A useful comment is like for the GF pie crust that says roll between layers of plastic wrap because it's more like a sticky batter than a dough. A skipable comment, true or not, is the family liked or hated it. Somewhat more useful is "this is my new go-to". Re reviews in general, you can usually tell by the details whether they're authentic. Paid reviews, unless it's a real reviewer who's just being paid for the writing, can't know the specifics. Most are farmed to foreign countries, and the workers are chosen for their ability to write decent English rather than their knowledge of what they're speaking of. Speaking of which, a family member asked for pizza for dinner way too late for me to make it. I googled best pizza nearby and most of the listed restaurants had pictures of the dining rooms (and they all looked the same--trendy post-industrial charcuterie chic). One place showed a pizza (a tasty looking one). I looked up the reviews. On Yelp, the average was only 3.5 stars. The negative reviews, however, were about whether the delivered sandwich was cold, the waiter surly, the GF choices limited (they have GF pizza!), or whatnot. The five star reviews all praised the pizza (in long, detailed, multiple paragraphs telling all about their visits and experiences), and many praised the service and attention to customer satisfaction. We got the pizza. It was really good. Much better than many from "better" (i.e., more expensive, more established) restaurants. Reviews can be revelatory if you read them well and look for the things you want to know, rather than just accepting the things they want to tell you.

Thanks all! I now have to investigate several ways to make a better dough. an active sourdough tangzhong honey potato Maybe also a milk dough? Or like I make flatbreads. Make the dough I used this time, divide and refrigerate. Bake over a couple of days. Lars - I think I want to get some mini cake pans rather than muffin tins. So mom can have several servings per cake. Eileen - I had looked at that video in the past. I will have to try that too. This time I wanted to include the cocoa/cinnamon filling. I like it better than I thought I would. And mom mentioned it several times as well. Mostly I need to make the crumb cake and bring it all to them. I have eaten too much crumb cake in the past few days.