Search Results for '("C'

[Mike Nolan]

We had reubens for supper.

It's a good thing the second (smaller) batch of sauerkraut is just about ready, because the first batch is almost all gone.

I've got a 4 gallon crock coming soon (UPS says tomorrow) and we bought 30 pounds of cabbage today, which should make a pretty big batch of kraut.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--switching from butter to oil not only reduced the saturated fat but it makes the crackers MUCH easier to roll out. I let it warm up for about 15 minutes, and I set the next piece on the counter to warm up while I roll out the first piece.

I've played with the recipe. In addition to the oil substitution, I add 1/3 cup flax meal and 4 Tbs. milk powder. I can post the revised recipe if that would be helpful.

I have some wooden pie wands, one set is 1/16th inch that I use to roll out the crackers. The dough usually covers most of a parchment half sheet (what KAF sells), with about 3/4-1 inch around the sides.

[Mike Nolan]

The size of the chips can figure into it, a cup of mini-chips is probably going to be heavier than a cup of standard size chocolate chips (eg, Nestle's Morsels) because there's less air between pieces.

I remember when bags of chocolate chips were 16 ounces, now some of them aren't even 12 ounces. :sigh:

[RiversideLen]

I made a pizza, sausage and onion. I have enough dough for one more, so Tuesday's pizza will be the same. I'm really pleased with how this dough turned out, I used equal amounts (90 grams each) of semolina, rye, whole wheat and KA AP, hydrated at 66% plus just a little more as it was was kneading, 1/4 tsp of salt and yeast and a tsp of sugar and appr 2 tsp of olive oil.

[Mike Nolan]

Triticale is an interesting and challenging grain. The breads I made with it at around 15% triticale were good; most people who tasted them preferred the triticale breads over similar loaves made just with wheat. The ones at a higher percentage started to show some structural effect from the triticale grain, which has weaker gluten proteins. The pasta I made with it didn't hold together very well, but it was edible.

Triticale adds a nutty taste that reminds me a bit of durum wheat or semolina; given that 75% of its DNA comes from rye (according to the geneticist at UNL), it really doesn't bring in any rye notes at all.

I've still got around 6 pounds of triticale berries, and Steve, the guy who grew it, said I can have more whenever I want. (Might have to wait until UNL is open again, though.)

[Mike Nolan]

French (and European) farming is much more of a cottage industry than in the US, especially for things like corn or wheat. There are more strains of wheat grown, and the wheat could almost be described as artisinal.

I'm not sure the small US mills are going to be that much different from the bigger ones, because they're all getting pretty much the same strains of wheat grown on similar ground.

What the bigger mills can offer (and I include KAF in that category) is consistency. A common thread on the BBGA forum is this: "I just switched from brand X flour to brand Y flour, and my breads aren't coming out the same, how do I fix this?"

Prof. Calvel didn't always have kind things to say about North American wheat, but he still thought a skilled miller and baker could produce good bread from them.

What I find interesting is how many articles and books I've seen that talk about how much bad bread is being produced, even in France. (And I'm not talking about the mass-produced factory breads, which are almost uniformly awful.)

[BakerAunt]

The Bon Appetit e-mail newsletter just "helpfully" gave out websites for some small mills. I clicked on a couple and noticed that they too are sold out of a lot of flour.

I agree that it is good to support the small food producers where we can. That's one reason that I shop at the local farmers market for produce when possible.

When we went to the Covered Bridge Festival in the fall of 2018, I'd wanted to stop at a working mill located near one of the rebuilt (original was destroyed by arsonists) bridge. We had not realized what a mob scene the festival was and couldn't get near it. Our plan is to go back in the non-festival season, at which time I hope to be able to check out the flour they sell.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you for posting the link, Aaron. I enjoyed reading the article. I did think it sad that the author is not baking bread anymore. He could investigate some of the small mills working with different wheat varieties in the U.S. Have you read Samuel Fromartz, In Search of the Perfect Loaf? Supporting those is important. I wish that some of those in the link you posted were closer to me. I'd like to check out the one in Grand Rapids (once the social distancing becomes a memory). The cornmeal that I bought from the mill at Indiana's Spring Mill State Park is a revelation as to what cornmeal should be. Part of it is the old mill but some of it is the local Indiana sweet corn.

I wouldn't swear off of Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur. Their flour is still better than a lot of flour out there. Neither is as easily available where I live as the generic flours, which I do not use. I do buy Gold Medal or Pillsbury for cakes, although finding unbleached here is surprisingly difficult even when times are not difficult, as in our time of pandemic anxiety.

[BakerAunt]

I didn't bake today, but I frosted the Lamb cake with 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (sifted), 1 1/2 Tbs. melted butter, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 2 Tbs. Half and Half. It was a bit thick, but it worked in a way that made a "rustic" looking lamb cake--and I successfully used it to re-attach the broken ear.

[Mike Nolan]

I declared my celery and carrot vinegars done this weekend, the final pH on the celery vinegar was 3.2, the final pH on the carrot vinegar was 3.45. (Carrot juice is sweet enough that next time I might try the traditional two-stage process for making vinegar, first fermenting the carrot juice into alcohol then turning that into vinegar.)

In any event, I may get a refractometer to measure the process more precisely.

I'm going to let them settle for a day or two before I decide if I need to rack them to get rid of more sediment.

Looking forward to trying these in salads and recipes. I've got some nice bottles for them that I got at Hobby Lobby, and I'm going to print up some oval labels.

I'm thinking I may try an onion vinegar next. That's not one the Noma book suggests, but they do a black garlic balsamic vinegar, so alliums must work. This fall I may try a butternut squash vinegar. A cucumber vinegar is another possibility.

[Mike Nolan]

Sounds like a good deal and a rather enterprising store manager. I'm not a fan of lima beans and my wife doesn't like corn except for corn-on-the-cob and cornbread.

I wonder what the local Sysco office is doing these days? I may have to give my former neighbor (he runs the office) a call next week.

The reports about milk and other items being dumped are distressing, but the problem is that the items aren't in a producer channel that normally deals with consumers, so they don't have things like packaging that meets labeling requirements and is consumer-sized. An experienced baker probably wouldn't flinch at at 50 pound bag of flour, but neophyte bakers would.

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday evening, I experimented with adapting the recipe that came with my lamb cake mold (bought from King Arthur, perhaps eighteen years ago) from butter to oil. I replaced 1/2 cup butter with 1/3 cup canola oil. I also substituted a scant quarter cup of half and half, combined with 1% milk for the 1/2 cup milk in the recipe, and I replaced 25% of the AP flour with barley flour. I used The Grease on the pan. I used a mixing method that I've developed for oil-based cakes and was very careful not to overmix once the wet and dry ingredients were combined. I filled the bottom half of the mold to barely from the top. I had about 3/4 cup batter left over, so I put it into a single 1 cup Bundt mold to bake alongside the cake (20 minutes). I always put the lamb cake mold on a baking sheet, and once it is in the oven, I put an iron pan on the top to hold the top down and encourage the batter to fill the mold. I've not used my Wolf oven for this mold, but I've noticed that Bundt cakes bake better slightly above center (three racks from the bottom), so that is what I did. I baked it for 50 minutes. There was the usual minimal amount of batter that dripped onto the baking sheet, which always happens with this mold.

The top of the mold lifted off cleanly, and I was pleased that the cake had indeed filled the pan. While I let the cake cool for 15 minutes in the bottom of the pan, I used a small knife to cut away any batter that may have stuck around the outside. However, I missed around one ear, so while the cake came cleanly out of the pan, one ear broke off. Sigh. I'll try to use glaze to attach it tomorrow.

I won't be frosting it with that lovely simple buttercream frosting tomorrow. I may try the simple glaze that I used on the Hot Cross buns, or else a reduced butter frosting.

I'm very pleased at how the cake came out, even with the damaged ear. I hope that the taste is good.

[BakerAunt]

I made another batch of yogurt today. I used the last of my Stonyfield full-fat plain yogurt to do so. (It lasted remarkably well and gave me five batches.) The next batch of yogurt will have to be made with yogurt from this batch. That will work for a while, but eventually I will need a new carton of plain yogurt.

[chocomouse]

I live in a pretty rural area, the nearest restaurants and grocery stores are about a 25 minute drive north or south, and in those two area are many chain stores as well as local family owned places. Almost all the restaurants and coffee shops are doing curbside pickup for take-out, although quite a few have reduced hours, and almost none have closed. All the other retail stores ("essential" only are allowed to be open) are doing call/email your order for curbside pick up. And some organizations, such as fire departments (volunteer) are picking up curbside and delivering to the homes of the elderly, at-risk, etc. residents. Also, residents are making large donation, like $50-100 each, to restaurants to have meals delivered to fire, police, hospitals, etc. Excess food goes to schools, (making and delivery meals via school bus, to all students under 18 in their district), and to the food banks and homeless shelters. Also, many towns have "Road Captains" who contact all residents in on their assigned roads on a regular basis, and manage "Give help - Get help" lists. My sister is sewing masks for everyone on her road, and putting them in bags hung from her mailbox at the end of her driveway for neighbors to pick up. I'm not sure a lot of this would work in more urban areas, but it's amazing to watch the daily creativity and generosity of townspeople. We no longer have large dairy farms in our area, but it's sad and confusing to read that farmers are dumping milk, yet the dairy section in the local grocery store was almost empty when I went shopping on Tuesday. No cheese, except the imported brands in the deli case, almost no yogurt, cottage cheese, milk.

[Mike Nolan]

There used to be a cake supply store in Nashville near Opryland that had all sorts of pan sizes, but it changed hands (and name) and the new owners seem to be taking it in a somewhat different direction. The last time I was in Nashville it was still closed while they reorganized. (Their new name is Sweet City USA.)

There's one I've been to a number of times in the Pittsburgh area, too. (K&B Candy Supply, but I haven't been there in a few years and their web page doesn't seem to show a lot of what I've seen on their shelves in the past.)

I think the Fat Daddio pans have pretty vertical corners in their cake pans.