Search Results for '("C'

[Mike Nolan]

IMHO the 'work triangle' concept is either flawed or poorly executed in many kitchens.

I tend to think in terms of heat flow and wet/dry. Items that are designed to generate heat should not be very close to items that are designed to generate cold. Dry ingredients should not be stored near things that produce heat (by design or as a byproduct, like a dishwasher) or that use water.

I may still have a block diagram of our kitchen, if so I'll see if I can post it. Several chefs who have worked in it (catering events) have said it was very well designed for working efficiently.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Can I bake the rustic sourdough without a cloche? It looks good and I may start making sourdough again since my wife and daughter now eat it. Violet keeps saying she'll eat "whole grain bread" meanwhile everything I make is at least one third whole wheat (does that count as whole grain these day?). I don't think she'll eat 100% whole wheat bread but I may try that. She is not thrilled with the flax I put in pizza dough and hates seeds in breads!

I made a recipe for applesauce oatmeal muffins that Violet thought was too dry. It needed more apple and maybe some more liquid. I'll try it again.

I made chocolate chip cookies. Violet wanted to help but after seeing her hair all over the butter I told her she had to put her hair up. She wouldn't so I made them myself. Probably will make some more ciabatta this week.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks all! Good tips. We're working with an architect who does design that we've known almost since we moved here. She is also a mom who has prepared meals for a family of five so that meets one of my main criteria. I am tired of designers who don't cook telling me how a kitchen should look and function. I won't subject you to my full rant on that topic. Suffice it to say, I have the whole appliance garage concept that is being forced on me. I am getting a kitchen clock back after all these years! Hooray for simple pleasures.

We also know the cabinet maker they are recommending and she built some cabinets for us years ago. We ran into BAs problem where our dishes did not really fit in the cabinet so I understand that too and we'll try to account for that.

We're looking to replace the granite with soap stone. I do not like granite because, being color blind, things tend to be camouflaged when I spill them. Some stainless would be nice too but that may not be in the budget.

I think I will steer away from an Ank as it will be too challenging to us. I'll have a big stand mixer (8 or 10qt) and my 5qt. The bowl comes loose on my 5qt now and I am not sure if it is the threads on the bowl or on the mixer. I brace it against the stand and that helps but it still is loose and jiggles and is noisy. I think I have another bowl I can test with.

The contractor has recommended a local appliance dealer that I loathe. He has had nothing but good experiences with them but I've had horrible after sales service from them after buying our current, very expensive, range. They did not have a professional installed set it up so we ended up with scratched floors and a hole drilled through kitchen floor and connected to an outlet in the basement with extension cord. When things malfunction and need repair they offer no service and I had to find someone to fix it on my own which was VERY challenging. Add to this the brand is unresponsive and will not allow me to order parts and repair it myself and I'm pretty down on the people who sold this to me.

Thanks everyone for all your thoughts.

[cwcdesign]

I am not missing the snow this year - I hope you all get some relief soon.

I was reorganizing my freezer after a trip to Trader Joe's this morning (also went to IKEA). I pulled out a quart of chicken stock to make soup. I had seen a quick recipe in Southern Living which was actually Tortellini en Brodo, so I found a recipe for that. Also had tortellini and spinach on hand - this is a keeper - quick and flavorable probably because of the homemade chicken stock. It should keep me going the rest of the week

[BakerAunt]

We have had another five inches of snow as of late Sunday morning. That called for Pumpkin Oat Wholegrain Belgium Waffles for breakfast. Annie approved. Scott says the waffles have powered his snow shoveling. Overnight snow means shoveling more of it at once. When it snows during the day, he can clear it periodically.

I baked Rustic Sourdough Wholegrain Bread in a Cloche in the afternoon. I have posted the recipe as I have made it in the past with the other mixer. (Yes, I know that I have liquids in oz. and dry ingredients in grams.) Tonight, or tomorrow, I will write about my experience making the dough in the Ankarsrum in the thread about the mixer that I will start in Discussions. It is a lovely loaf of bread, so I will try to add a picture tomorrow as well.

[BakerAunt]

Rustic Sourdough Wholegrain Bread in a Cloche recipe by Marliss Desens

Overnight Levain:
1 cup milk based, thick sourdough starter at room temperature (fed within last few days best)
1 cup Bob's Red Mill Artisan Bread flour

½ cup (85 g) King Arthur Harvest Grains, with ½ cup boiling water poured over, then cooled

1 cup water (110F)
1 Tbs. honey
1 ¾ tsp. active dried yeast

(385 g) 3 cups Bob's stoneground whole wheat flour
(66 g) ½ cup Pumpernickel or dark rye flour
3 Tbs. (29 g) special dry milk
3 Tbs (23 g) flax meal

½ cup (64 g) Bob's Red Mill Artisan flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt

3 Tbs. olive oil

The night before (10-12 hours), mix the levain, cover, and let bowl sit on counter.

The next day, proof yeast in water with honey in stand mixer bowl for 5 minutes. Add cooled harvest grain mixture and levain. Mix with paddle. Combine the wholegrain flours, flax meal, dry milk Add to yeast mixture and mix until combined. Cover mixer with a towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

Combine remaining bread flour with salt. Add to mixer bowl and mix to combine. Drizzle in olive oil. Switch to bread spiral and knead (speed 3 my mixer), about 7-9 minutes until a windowpane can be pulled. Put dough into an oiled 4-qt dough bucket and allow to rise until double, 45 minutes to an hour, depending on warmth of kitchen and activeness of sourdough.

When dough has risen, grease the Romertopf bread bowl (bottom diameter dimension is 8 inches and top dimension is 10 inches) and sprinkle liberally with farina. Turn dough out onto kneading mat. Pre-shape a boule by patting flat and folding in each of the four sides, then turning it clockwise and pulling it in around the diameter. Repeat. Turn over and tuck around sides before placing in center of bowl. Cover with cloche top. Allow to rise for 35 minutes or until nearly doubled. Slash top with a lame. Replace cloche top and put the bowl into a COLD oven (the second rack, my usual bread baking position.) Turn on oven to 425 F. Set timer for 50 minutes.

At 55 minutes, remove cloche with lid to a towel on counter. (The towel protects the countertop and also prevents the bowl and cloche top from breaking due to thermal shock.) Check internal temperature. It should be 195-200 F. Remove bread from bowl and allow to cool on rack.

How I developed this recipe:
First Attempt: Wednesday, June 1, 2022
I decided to try an experiment for a rustic sourdough bread I wanted to bake. I worked off of the King Arthur recipe that appeared in the Spring 2016 issue of Sift (p. 65), but I made an overnight levain using a cup of my thick, milk-based starter, 1 cup King Arthur AP and ½ cup water. The next day, I mixed it with a cup of water to which I had added 1 Tbs. honey and proofed 1 ¾ tsp. yeast, then added a mixture of 3 cups whole wheat flour, ½ cup mostly pumpernickel flour, and 2 Tbs. special dry milk. After mixing, I allowed it to rest covered for 15 minutes, then I added ½ cup Bob's Red Mill Artisan bread flour, mixed with 1 ½ tsp. salt. (The original recipe calls for 2 ½ tsp.!) I mixed in 2 Tbs. olive oil, then kneaded. I had to add a bit more of the bread flour to bring the dough together. I let it rise for 45 minutes, which was more than enough time. After turning it out onto the mat, I pre-shaped into a boule, waited 5 minutes, then repeated the shaping, using a technique I saw online. In the past, I have tried to shape boules from the top, pulling the dough in; now I work from the bottom.
I baked the bread in a round Romertopf bread baking bowl that I bought from King Arthur some years ago but had never used. I did not know at the time that most Romertopfs have lids. I have a small King Arthur bread baking bowl, and it can be a challenge getting the bread cooked through without the top getting over browned and having to be covered with foil. I found that the cloche cover, from the cloche set I bought from Skeptic, rests nicely on the rim of the bowl. So, I greased the glazed bowl, sprinkled with farina, and put the shaped dough inside to rise, covered with the cloche top. Given the speed of the first rise, and the warmth of the house, left over from yesterday's heat, I anticipated a quick second rise and checked it at 35 minutes, slashed the top, then put it into the cold oven and set the temperature for 425F. I checked at 40 minutes, and the temperature was 165, although the top had browned nicely, so I re-covered and let it go another ten minutes, at which time it reached 200F. It came out of the bowl beautifully. It ended up a bit lopsided, no doubt a shaping error, but at the highest, it is three inches tall. I will cut it tonight to go with soup at dinner, at which time, it would have at least five and a half hours to cool.
I decide that next time, I would replace all the AP flour with Bob's Red Mill Artisan flour, and I would do two pre-shapings before the final shaping of the boule. I later decided that the additional pre-shapings did not help and may indeed have detracted from the final shape.

Additional Work in 2023 and early 2024:
I wanted to add Harvest Grains. I found that doing so works better if boiling water is poured over them first, then allowed to cool. I added 2 Tbs. flax meal and increased the special dry milk from 2 to 3 Tbs. The bread stays softer longer with more oil, so I increased the olive oil to 3 Tbs. The extra liquid (from Harvest Grains and water) meant increasing the baking time from 50 to 55 minutes.

[Mike Nolan]

Maybe I should start an "Adventures with the Ankarsrum" thread?

Good idea!

Two things I'd be interested in are how well it works on very small batches and what the practical upper limit is on a batch. I know when I'd make Paddy's Double Crusty recipe in my 4.5Q KA, it'd come awful close to spilling out of the bowl.

Occasionally I have a need to make a 3X or 4X batch of challah dough, even a 2X of the recipe I use most (in BBA) has been know to climb up all the way up the dough hook.

Last Easter I tried to make a double batch of Hot Cross Buns, I wound up splitting it once it was fully mixed together.

[Mike Nolan]

white whole wheat (KA is now calling it 'golden') is said to be less bitter, but I've never really noticed a difference with it.

The primary recipe I make with whole wheat flour has a 1/4 cup of honey in it, that probably covers up any bitterness.

[RiversideLen]

Nice looking loaves, CWC and Joan.

I became interested in a proper Chicago style thin crust pizza recently after watching an ATK video. So, yesterday I made one and stayed as close as I could to their recipe for the crust (toppings are my own). So I made it with all white bread flour, I usually always use some whole wheat and semolina and have to been known to use rye as well. Although they called for AP, I have more bread flour on hand so that's what I used. While ATK calls for using a food processor, I used my stand mixer, kneaded it for just 5 minutes.

The ATK recipe calls for 2 ½ cups of flour but didn't list the weight (they probably list it on their website but that is behind a pay wall). Since the hydration ratio for this crust is important, I wanted to weigh the flour. I recall that ATK thinks a cup of flour is 5 ounces (a pretty heavy cup, in my opinion) so that's what I went with (12.5 ounces total). The dough came together nicely and quickly. When it was done I weighed it, it came out to 20.4 ounces, which is pretty close to ATK weight of 20 ounces. So that tells me I figured out the weight correctly. It's a slow fermentation, about 2 ½ hours.

The dough rolled out easily.

The pizza came out good. It baked for 10 minutes. The crust is pretty thin yet firm so it doesn't flop when holding a piece. I'll be making this again, adding in some whole wheat.

The dough recipe makes two 12 inch pizzas.

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[cwcdesign]

Aaron, I'll reiterate what Mike said about the Magnet test. I had my 40 yo Cuisinart flat bottomed pans so I thought they would work when I got my induction stove. No such luck. But I was fortunate that Williams-Sonoma was having a crazy sale on a 16 piece set of the same pans (lids and pans) which was comparable to the set I had accumulated - it was something like $250, as I said crazy, but they're great.

Ditto drawers on the bottom and my cabinet maker insisted on a super lazy Susan in a lower cabinet which has a right angle cutout and snaps into place.

[Mike Nolan]

My basic rule of kitchen design is you can never have too many drawers. Making sure you have space for multiple people to move around, even with drawers (or the dishwasher) open is also key, There's 45 inches of space between the center island and the counters on either side of it.

Yes, this is a big kitchen 17x18 if I remember right.

Also our lower cabinets are a full 30 inches deep (countertop edge to wall)
and the upper cabinets have an interior depth of 14 inches.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike - thanks for the magnet test. Our popcorn popper and our All Clad both say they are induction compatible but neither will hold a magnet. Looking deeper into All Clad, they added a magnetic layer in 2025 to be induction compatible. Our pans were a wedding present and are 25 years old and that was before induction became popular.

We are redoing cabinets and thanks for the tip about drawers. We'll definitely do that. The pullout surface is a good idea too. We don't really have a ton of counter space and that might be a nice way to add more.

Our island is finished butcher block (not sure why the builder did that) and we're swapping that for unfinished butcher block. We have granite counter tops now and we are trying to figure out what to replace those with. We're thinking about soap stone. Some stainless would be nice.

[Mike Nolan]

When I ran out of the baker's dry milk last year, I just bought some from Bob's Red Mill. Seems to work just fine.

I think what you don't want is the big box of Carnation, because it's very granular and IMHO smells awful. (And I don't even want to think about the taste!)

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hello,

We're starting a kitchen remodel which will include all new appliances including our range. We're dropping way down in size from our current 64 inch/10 burner (it's a long story) to a 48 inch (probably) and we're looking at dual fuel or an induction cook top. All our cookware is stainless or cast iron so they should all work. Any thoughts and/or recommendations? Kate wants something easy to clean so I've said even if we get gas we'll need sealed burners. I also have adjusted our ovens to bake at higher temps than on the dial so one of them hits 600 even though it says 500. I don't think I'll be able to do this with an electric oven.

Also, we'll likely buy a new mixer. BA - how do you like your Ank? What is the learning curve and how well does it work for cakes and cookies. Or should I buy a larger planetary mixer - currently we have a 5 qt KA and we could go up to 8 qt without braking the budget. I want something that will handle five, six, or seven pounds of bread dough but also cookies and cakes.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[BakerAunt]

Those are lovely loaves, Joan. Some people find whole wheat bitter. When I bake bread when Scott's cousins are around, I use white whole wheat flour, which is more mellow. King Arthur, in their whole grain baking book, uses about 1/4 cup of orange juice to mellow out regular whole wheat flour. (That was before they got into selling white whole wheat flour.)

However, like you, I bake what the people want to eat, not what I think that they should eat.