I miss thrift stores. A local church does run one in our town, where I have found some good items (including one of my dough buckets), but I haven't been inside since the pandemic began. Right now, it is mask optional, and with a vaccination rate of only 39% in our county and cases increasing, I will not be going back inside any time soon.
I have a 5 1/2 qt. and a 7 1/2 qt. Le Creuset. I also have a 4 qt. Staub and a large oval Staub. I also have a 3 1/2 qt. Staub pumpkin-shaped (sale when Chef's went out of business) and a 3-qt. yellow bell pepper that was among my Mom's stuff but never used. I bought most of these at T.J. Maxx or Tuesday Morning. The 4 qt. was bought when KAF had a deal on them some years back (touting it for bread baking). The Staub's are not enamel coated on the inside. I rub them with a bit of oil after washing.
I love the pots for cooking soups, stews, beans, and roasts that go into the oven. They are one of the reasons I never bothered to update my small crockpot. I would just use them on days I would be around the house.
A French meringue is fairly easy to make, but it weeps easily.
Some people think that an Italian meringue is the hardest to make, because you have to make the hot sugar syrup then pour it into the egg whites, but to me a Swiss meringue is the most work, because you have to cook it in a double boiler. (Maybe it's just that I've been making cooked sugar candies for so long that making a sugar syrup is easy for me.)
I've always admired those who can make lovely peaks of meringue, mine winds up looking like something made by two little kids playing in a bubble bath. I suppose I could pipe it on, but that's a lot of work, too.
For a while I was making a brown sugar French meringue, but we got tired of it, and it seemed to weep even more than one made with powdered sugar.
On Friday, I baked my Lime-Pecan Biscotti using two limes from my lime tree.
I also baked Malted Whole Grain Rolls (KABC recipe), using a flower-shaped clay dish that holds seven large balls of dough, that I bought from KAF who at that time was advertising the pan with the recipe. It makes some wonderfully light, but substantial, large rolls. I replace a cup of the water with buttermilk, delete the whole grain improver, add 1/4 tsp. honey, and reduce the salt by a third. The recipe uses the malted wheat flakes that KABC sells as well as malted milk powder (Carnation).
Several years ago I bought a 10" diameter round Tramontina enameled cast iron Dutch oven at Sams Club for about $40. We also have a huge Club aluminum roaster (11x16) that we've had for nearly 50 years, big enough to do a turkey or a goose with the lid on.
I've made bread in the Tramontina, but not the Club. The largest boule I've made in the Dutch oven was about 16 ounces of dough, I could probably make one with 2-3 pounds of dough and have it pretty much fill up the pan.
I've not done bread in the Dutch Oven, but I adapted a then KAF (now KABC) recipe to use oil rather than butter, and it goes into a cold Emile Henry pot that then goes into the oven. There are other recipes at the KABC site, and some discussion that it does not make much difference if the pan is hot or cold when it goes into the oven.
The recipe does require removing the lid at a certain point so that the rolls can brown.
I don't have a cloche, but I do have a Dutch oven, and when I bake in it, the oven is pre-heated with the Dutch oven in the oven. This does make lowering the dough into the pan a bit tricky, but I've got a big wide offset spatula (KAF used to sell it as a cookie shovel) that works pretty well. I've seen instructions online to make a sling from parchment and use that to lower the dough into the hot pan, but I've never tried that.
I'm starting to think about my 2022 garden a bit. I think I'll skip the Brandywine and Mortgage Lifter tomatoes next year, and do more Amish Paste and Italian Heirloom, those were the majority of what I processed last night. I'll keep the Rutgers, 4th of July and First Lady II, maybe add Celebrity, a variety I've had good result with.
Several years ago, one of the test gardens at UNL was planted with Defiant tomatoes, which is a determinate that produces an 8 ounce fruit. Those were pretty good, I may add that to the mix next year.
My 4th of July plants went crazy this year, at least twice I've picked a large bowl of them. The First Lady II plants did well, too, but I think they didn't get enough water during the hot months. Next year I should set up some soaker hoses to water the tomato garden when the hot dry spell hits (which it always does.) I meant to do it this year but was having some ankle problems and just never got it done.
Yeah, I was up past 2AM processing them all, since I can only process 7 quarts at a time in my 24 quart pot. All 10 jars sealed, so I'm happy. I've done 22 quarts of tomato juice so far this season, which seems like a lot but my mother often did 50. (We drank it all winter.) We've already finished off 5 quarts and are working on the 6th.
And we've got our big fridge and freezer back in operation, though the freezer is still working on getting cold. And the dishwasher is currently running a load of mostly pots and pans. Now I just need to get a new garbage disposal installed on the cleanup sink. (It is on order, should be here early next week, then I need to get a plumber to put it in.)
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This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by
Mike Nolan.
Today I baked two loaves of bread, a recipe I just made up as I went along, but pretty basic - 2 cups of whole wheat, 3 1/2 cups of AP, the usual remaining ingredients, plus a lot of garlic and herbs, some fresh and some dried. The first rise was great, and a little quick. Same for the second rise (in the Proof function of the Breville) so I aborted the rise and started baking it. The oven spring was tremendous - and the top of the loaves burned on the heating element. I already have the rack on the lowest level, so guess I'll need to cut back on the amount of flour. It smells delicious, but we haven't cut into it yet.
I'm surprised, Skeptic, that the recipe does not call for milk or egg before dredging. I have decided from now on to do a dusting of flour, beaten egg, and then the crumbs. It sticks beautifully.
Wednesday is the first day of autumn, and it has been cool and rainy, very much the kind of day I associate with fall. For dinner, I made a large pot of pea soup with ham (also carrots, celery, and dehydrated onion), seasoned near the end with thyme and marjoram. I also made yogurt today.
I'm not sure where I read it, but one description of a hot water crust said it breaks all the rules but still works.
I suspect part of what the hot water does is similar to a tangzhong bread, the hot water starts the process of gelatinizing the starch in the flour.
Kenji Lopez-Alt has written a lot about pie crusts (he invented the vodka pie crust when he was working at Cook's Illustrated) and he says the trick to a good pie crust is to get the flour to coat the fat (the opposite of conventional wisdom), and melting the fat might encourage that. I wonder if he's ever looked into a hot water pie crust? The word 'pie' isn't even in the index for his book, "The Food Lab".
I use his trick of holding back a little of the flour (around 20%) until after the fat has been cut into a pie crust, I think it improves my all-butter crusts. In pastry school they initially had us cut the fat in with a chef's knife, it takes a long time but you get to watch what's happening. Most of the time we were allowed to use a mixer, and at home I've used my fingers, a knife, a pastry cutter, my KA mixer and a food processor, and I've pretty much settled on using the mixer.
We had sliders (3 ounce burgers) on the grill.
Once a year I make plum dumplings using the Italian "prune plums". Small plums work best and I like to keep the dough layer as thin as possible.
2.5 lbs russet potatoes boiled barely tender
2 heaping tablespoons soft butter
2 cups AP flour
1 egg
pinch of salt
Cinnamon sugar made with brown sugar and a touch of cinnamon.
6 tablespoons butter
3 cups panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/4 to 1/2 cup brown sugar
18 small plums room temp.
Drain potatoes and let cool. Grate finely. Add butter and egg and mix well. Add most of the flour and knead lightly. Add enough additional flour to get a sticky dough. Do not overwork. Chill for 30 minutes or overnight.
Melt butter in a pan and add the panko bread crumbs, walnuts and sugar. Stir often until crumbs are golden and crunchy.
Put a large pot of water up to boil.
Pit the plums. Dry with a paper towel if the juice runs. Place a bit of cinnamon sugar in the middle of the plum. Take a handful of dough and roll or pat to 1/4 -1/2 inch thick. Cut a two or three inch square of dough (depends on the size of the plum) Pat, fold, pinch the dough to completely cover the plum making sure all seams are sealed. Make about six and drop one at a time into the pot of water. Stir gently to make sure the dumpling does not stick to bottom of pot. Simmer until dumpling floats. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain well and place in bread crumbs right away or crumbs won't stick. Coat completely, remove to plate. Repeat with remaining plums. Leftover dumplings can be cut in half and warmed in a buttered pan.
Leftover bread crumbs make a great yogurt topping. Leftover dough can be rolled into half inch thick logs and cut into small bits and cooked as gnocchi.
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This topic was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by
Janiebakes.
I keep my instant dry yeasts (regular and osmotolerant) in the freezer as well, and lately a package of IDY lasts me close to a year with no noticeable degradation in how well it works. The osmotolerant (SAF Gold) yeast I have is a good 3 years old and still seems to work fine, I don't make a lot of sweet doughs, so it lasts a lot longer
Joan--be sure to bake something particularly yummy to celebrate having your oven in working order again.
I made a new recipe for dinner on Friday: Crispy Oven Fish and Chips with Dill Tartar Sauce. The recipe was one featured in an email or online from the now closed Chefs Catalog. I used a pound of cod and adjusted the proportions accordingly. It called for toasting the panko used for breading the fish. As the fish only bakes for 15 minutes, that gives a nice golden crust. I also cut my potatoes into long wedges (large Russets into six each). The tartar sauce is exceptional. It uses mayonnaise, dill, minced dill pickle, lemon juice. I did not use grated onion, but I did use ¼ tsp. of Penzey’s roasted onion powder. The sauce was a hit with both the visiting son and my husband, as well as with me. I had only made a one-third recipe of it, but I might make a half recipe next time I make it for more than two people. It says a lot when dedicated ketchup eaters will consider tartar sauce as well.
I was hoping to post a link to the recipe, but with Chef's Catalog gone, so is the recipe. If anyone is interested, I will post it at Nebraska Kitchen and note my changes.
