I assume it's the sugar in the orange juice that 'tames' the bitterness of whole wheat flour, though the acid might increase the amount of enzyme activity which would break down more of the starches in the flour. My honey wheat bread uses 1/3 cup of honey (in about 55 ounces of dough that makes 2 loaves) so that'll take care of any bitterness too.
I"ve made the Park food processor recipe several times, I can't say we had any problem with bitterness with it. However, it isn't what I would call a 'sandwich' bread so we don't eat it quite as fast. The next time I make it, I'll freeze half of it so that it doesn't go moldy on us before we eat it all. I think of it as more of a 'wintertime' bread.
I use buttermilk in most all of my baking, and have 2 loaves of honey-oatmeal bread cooling on my counter right now. It is my standard go-to sandwich loaf, made with 2 cups AP, 1 cup oatmeal, and 2 cups of whole wheat. I often substitute 12 grain, Super 10 Blend, or some other whole grain mix for 1 cup of the whole wheat. And sometimes I use maple syrup instead of honey. Also the usual 2 tsp yeast, 1 tsp salt, and 1 2/3 cups of buttermilk. Although I measure ingredients, I almost always need to increase the buttermilk by up to 1/4 cup to get the right consistency. And when the buttermilk (Kate's) is getting used up, I fill the container with milk, and let it sit out in the warm kitchen up 8-12 hours, so I buy fresh only every few months. I also use it in most sweet baked goods.
I recently discovered 2 bags of potato flour in my pantry, so I've started adding 2-3 tablespoons of that to each batch of bread dough. Supposedly, it helps it retain moisture and stays fresh longer. Do any of you use it?
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This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by
chocomouse.
I made another double batch of whole wheat bread. The last two times I have just made a double batch of the autolyzed flour/water. This time I made the whole doubled batch at once. Since Ms. Park insists this be made in the food processor I divided the flour/water into thirds when I ran it through the food processor. Next time maybe I'll divide it into quarters as it was still pretty full. I also subbed the second addition of water with orange juice and it is a nicer, less bitter flavor (or maybe that is my imagination).
I made a 100% starter sourdough loaf again. This time I doubled the batch. I let it rest in the fridge overnight then let it warm up for a couple hours this morning before shaping. I probably should have let it rise another hour in the loaf pan before baking and I definitely needed to do a better job sealing the seams. The bottom seam is loose and, despite three slashes on the top I had a side blowout. But I had a great oven spring. The side blowout doesn't bother me but the separation on the bottom may make it not work for sandwiches. But we'll see when I cut into it.
Yesterday I was able to buy a small bottle of 70% alcohol (the last one) at CVS. I was also able to buy a bottle of hand sanitizer.
The hand sanitizer I've been using is old, but it was all that I had until now.
According to this article in The Atlantic (they allow a few free reads per month), the flour shortage is continuing:
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/05/why-theres-no-flour-during-coronavirus/611527/
I'm not sure that I buy their argument that more baking was going on in the 1980s and that women moving into careers led to less baking at home. My husband actually baked bread in graduate school, but it went by the by once he started his career.
If the article is correct, however, the flour shortage will not be ending any time soon.
My major accomplishment today was that I managed to put the filter into the cantankerous furnace. Took 45 minutes and a call to the HVAC man. It was late afternoon before I made a revised loaf of my grandmother's banana bread. I used light olive oil in place of the shortening (equal substitution), and added cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. It smells great, but it's for the freezer. Some days, the freezer eats better than we do.
I did bake on Sunday: Bob's favorite Scottish Oatcakes. I baked this recipe from the Bob's Red Mill site last December and posted about it. This time, I used a combination of 1 Tbs. melted butter, 1 Tbs. canola oil, and 1 Tbs. buttermilk, rather than 4 Tbs. butter. I increased the cane sugar from 3/4 tsp. to 1 tsp. I had forgotten that the recipe on the website uses more water than the recipe on the bag, and I was following the one I printed from the website. So, I mixed in the greater amount of water and had a dough too sticky to roll out. At first, I thought perhaps I'd used too much water, as the Snackasaurus (aka my husband) was foraging in the kitchen, which distracts me. However, I then found the bag recipe and realized what had happened. Instead of trying to roll the dough, I used a Zeroll #40 (1 Tbs.) cookie scoop and made 17 mounds. I then flattened them slightly with a glass and put just a bit of large crystal white sugar on top. That may be what I do from now on, as it is certainly easier than rolling out and using a cookie cutter. These are not designed to be sweet, per say, but to serve as a base for lemon curd and berries or cheese, smoked fish and herbs. I may try to take the recipe more in the direction of a cookie next time I bake it. That will have to wait until I obtain some more Bob's Red Mill Scottish Oatmeal.
My stuffed pan pizza came out pretty good, but I should have used the shorter skillet. The flat pizza stuck to the baking stone, I probably didn't use enough cornmeal under it. Next time I'll do it on parchment.
The pizza bread was really good, the baguettes I've been making work very well for that. The pepperoni was a bit strong, though, I need to look for a milder brand. (We used to use Oscar Meyer, but I think they changed the formula a year or so ago, adding garlic.)
It's great that you got into the spirit, Joan!
I made a sourdough half-sheet pan pizza, using homemade tomato sauce (with just a bit of garlic), Canadian bacon, sliced mushrooms, mozzarella, Parmesan, and on my half, black olive halves and sliced green onion.
My husband said it was the best crust yet, maybe because I used only a scant 1/4 tsp. of yeast and let it rise two hours in the bulk rise and two hours in the pan.
I thought the virtual pizza party was a big success, I think we should plan another virtual gathering. One possibility would be a virtual brunch, another would be a virtual afternoon (low) or early evening (high) tea.
Stuffed pizza and pan pizza have one thing in common, they aren't flat, so they need a pan with sides. But a stuffed pizza has at least two layers of dough, and I've seen a few that had three. (Beyond three and it is more of a lasagna, IMHO.)
The original Nancy's claimed to be the originator of the stuffed pizza, but at least one other north-side Chicago pizzeria had a similar pizza in the late 60's. The first time I went to Nancy's was after they had moved, because of urban renovation of their original location. A lot of the old crowd (including, reportedly, some Chicago gangsters) didn't follow them to the new location.
I don't remember Giordano's being in a house, I do remember a three hour wait for a table at a place on the far South side in 1969, but all I really remember was we had to park about 4 blocks away in mid-winter. (For us North-siders, it was a really long trip, especially when you pack 6 college students in a car.)
I was always more of a fan of thin crust pizza, which was more common on the North side. There was one place near south campus that Northwestern students favored that had a cracker-like crust that tasted a bit like matzoh, but my favorite was a hole-in-the-wall place in south Evanston that would deliver to campus. I think they had just one table, and it was mainly for those who were walk-in customers waiting for their pizza to get done so they could carry it out. I've never duplicated their sauce or crust, not sure what made them unique.
Chicago Magazine had a feature story on the '5 types of Chicago Pizza' back in the early 70's, I remember reading an early draft of it and having discussions with their features editor (a chess buddy) over whether it should be 5 or 7 types! (I was in negotiations to do 'casual dining' restaurant reviews for them when we decided to move to Nebraska, the person who eventually got that position was probably a better writer than I am anyway.)
I picked up some garlic-free Hillshire Farms pepperoni yesterday, I'm hoping it is fairly mild. (Most of their sausages are.)
It's a Chicago thing, even more decadent than pan pizza.
Divide the dough into 2 parts, one of them using 2/3 of the dough.
Take a deep pan (a deep cast iron skillet works well), line it with the larger piece of dough all the way to the rim, put in sauce, cheese and other toppings, cover that with the smaller piece of dough, poke some vent holes, then put on more sauce, toppings and cheese.
I like to put ricotta cheese and spinach in the lower layer of sauce.
Bake until the top edges are well done. Let cool before slicing. One slice is usually plenty, even our sons had trouble getting through a full second slice as teenagers.
Chocolate, if it is stored properly, lasts a very long time, several years. Even if the outer surface develops a white powdery look (fat bloom), it is still edible and if melted, as would occur when you bake pain au chocolat, you won't know the blooming had occurred.
Like any fat, cocoa butter can go rancid, but it is not common. A bigger problem is bugs, they like chocolate. (So do mice, as I found out a few weeks ago.)
Cocoa butter has six states, alpha-1 through alpha-6; the higher the number, the higher the melting point.
The normal state of the cocoa butter in well-tempered chocolate is alpha-5, which is solid at room temperature but melts in the low 90's, so it melts on the tongue. The alpha-6 state can develop if chocolate sits for many months, it is a bit harder than alpha-5, so the chocolate can lose its ability to have a clean 'snap'.
I decided on Friday afternoon to try the Hazelnut Pain au Chocolat but with vanilla rather than hazelnut. I replaced the 5 Tbs. of butter with 3 Tbs. canola oil. I reduced the salt from 1 ¼ to 1 tsp. I used Special Gold yeast, so I halved the amount for 1 ¼ tsp. My chocolate sticks are old, but they still smell like chocolate, so I went ahead and used them, two per roll. The first rise took an hour, as did the second rise. For shaping, I rolled each quarter portion into a 34.5 cm x 10 cm rectangle, then cut into three strips (at 11,5 cm and 23 cm.) Yes, you can use the inches given, but it is so much easier in metric. I used two sticks of chocolate per roll. It is a sticky dough. I rolled it on a Silpat mat, with saran over the top, using a smaller rolling pin (from a ravioli set). Before baking, I sprinkled with some coarse white sugar but did not do brush them with milk. I baked on the third rack up in my oven, so it is a bit above halfway. I let it bake for 23 minutes but perhaps could have removed them slightly earlier. (It will depend on your oven.) After 5 minutes, we each bit into one. The bread is so soft and the chocolate so melty. Clearly, we each had to have another, as just out of the oven, they are at their best.
