Search Results for '("C'

[Mike Nolan]

I recently ordered the Presto 23 quart induction-ready pressure canner recently, and was testing it yesterday. Looks like it will work just fine on my standalone 1500 watt induction cooktop, and with the shorter time to heat up and faster processing times it will keep the kitchen a lot cooler when canning.

It was taking close to an hour for the 24 quart stockpot to get to a boil and then 45 minutes to process tomato juice.

In tests yesterday, the induction cooktop got the pressure canner to full pressure (11+ pounds) in under 30 minutes, and it only needs to stay there for 15 minutes. It took about 40 minutes before the canner was cool enough to be opened up. It is possible that in production use these times might lengthen a bit.

And although it hit 95 outside yesterday and I had the canner at full pressure for at least 40 minutes, the kitchen did not get heated up.

[BakerAunt]

I have picked two, pint baskets of black raspberries so far. I need 3 1/2 and, ideally, 4 to make jam. It is going to be close.

Our kale has done very well, and I used some in last night's stir-fry. All four tomato plants (four different kinds) and the cherry tomato plant have flowers.

We are hoping for rain tomorrow.

[mjekk]

Praying for you and your family in this difficult time. MaryJane (in NJ)

[BakerAunt]

After enjoying two nights of ham sandwiches and carrots for dinner, I cooked on Friday night. I roasted two chicken thighs and made a stir-fry with farro cooked in turkey broth from the freezer, sauteed carrots, celery, mushrooms, and fresh kale (from our garden!), some dried sage, and some frozen peas. These are not the greatest frozen peas: they are tough and not particularly tasty. We think that they must have been old when they were picked and frozen. They are the Walmart brand, which was never a problem, but the peas in this bag are not great for eating on their own. However, if I hide them in a stir-fry, they become tolerable. We bought two bags that day, so we are hoping the second bag is not like this one.

[BakerAunt]

The Kroger in the next town where we shop is remodeling, and that also seems to mean putting items in new and exciting (??) locations.

[Mike Nolan]

The one about the grocery store is SOOOO true! (Costco even talks about it, referring to a trip to Costco as a 'scavenger hunt'.)

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-777891-1.html

[Mike Nolan]

If the dough works for cinnamon rolls, it should work for a jalousie (filled braided loaf). I've made one with a REALLY soft dough, almost like a ciabatta dough, and it worked just fine though the braiding was a bit tricky.

[Mike Nolan]

In pastry school, they called that kind of braided sweet bread a jalousie. (The term refers to horizontal shutters or window blinds, which the alternating layers of the braid resemble.)

In school we made it with puff pastry, but almost any pastry dough that works with a sweet filling would work.

[Mike Nolan]

CSAs are popular here, too, and we've even been in a couple of them, but found the variety of produce didn't really work for us. And now that I can grow more lettuce in the Aerogarden than either of us can eat, 12 months a year, there's even less need for being in a CSA.

My son's CSA (in Pittsburgh) tend to have good deals on black raspberries and strawberries, he'll often order several extra flats of them, we haven't found a comparable CSA here.

[Mike Nolan]

I made honey wheat bread on Sunday using the whole meal semolina/durum instead of whole meal hard red wheat. It has a lot of similarities with the original, but the fact that the durum has been ground into a uniformly fine flour makes for a different texture and mouth feel, normally when I mill wheat berries I use as coarse a setting as I can get on my Nutrimill, so yesterday's bread is less toothsome. (I sometimes add a quarter cup of cracked wheat to the honey wheat bread, I think that would have helped here.)

I also think the bitterness of the bran permeates the bread more this way. I don't think it'll replace either the semolina bread made with mostly endosperm semolina or the original honey wheat bread in the repertoire here, but I may make it from time to time. It may be better with a little peanut butter on it or with other sandwich fillings.

[Mike Nolan]

These were finished cakes, you just put it in the oven for 15 minutes. Some Sams Clubs have a mix for making lava cakes, others have frozen ones ready to go in the oven, I don't think our club has either of those.

I haven't made lava cakes, but the proper way to do them is to make ganache, form it into balls or cylinders for the center, freeze them and put them in the batter for the cake just before it goes in the oven. That way the center thaws and liquefies as the cake bakes without much of the liquid being absorbed into the cake. So freezing the whole thing is a bit of a shortcut. (If you've seen the film Chef, making lava cakes is one of the early plot devices. The chefs I know LOVE this movie!)

In most ovens the heat source (gas or electric) is at the bottom, so the heat rises and there's a convection air flow in the oven. You can test your oven for hot spots (every oven has them) using the bread test: Put slices of bread on a shelf, run the oven to toast them, and you'll get a pretty good visual picture of where it is hottest on that shelf. Done properly this has to be done shelf by shelf at several different temperatures, though testing several shelves at once is also useful if you bake multiple pans at a time. (A chef friend told me this was the first thing he does in a new kitchen, using several loaves of bread.)

It is often hottest on the bottom rack because that's closes to the heat source, but it is also generally hotter at the top than in the middle. Something on the bottom shelf gets more heat on the bottom than the top, the reverse is true for the top self. If there's a convection fan, then the heat is a bit more even throughout the oven. (In the really fancy convection ovens, the heat source is at the back and the air flow is how the oven gets heated.)

[Italiancook]

I baked pancakes for the first time this morning. I used my go-to pancake recipe, (1-1/4 cup flour, 1-1/4 cup buttermilk) and added a diced banana. It was perfect amount of batter for my 1/4 sheet pan. I baked at 400*, because online recipes I checked used that temp. Took about 25 minutes to reach browning on top, but that length may have been the result of using the lower-middle rack instead of higher.

Baking these was wonderful. I didn't have to stand at one spot in front of the stove. While they baked, I cleaned up the kitchen & had a short rest. I'll definitely bake all future pancakes.

Mike, would you please explain to me the heat in an oven. Since hot air rises, and I am guessing the heat in my oven comes from the bottom, will a baker obtain quicker and better browning by raising the rack?

[chocomouse]

BakerAunt, I used the KABC recipe for Braided Lemon Bread for the dough, as I couldn't figure out what recipe from my files I have used in the past (I save and annotate all recipes I use, even if they are "bad"; that reminds me to never make it again!). I subbed sour cream for the yogurt, reduced the salt to 1 teaspoon, and skipped the Buttery Dough Flavor. This made a nice dough, easy to handle, although it was way too much. I made the sponge and let it sit in the fridge for about 6 hours before I continued. I used the same recipe for the cream cheese filling, but subbed 3 tablespoons of lime juice (from a bottle) for the lemon juice. I used my usual blackberry jam recipe, with added lime juice. The braid is really tasty, not too sweet; blackberries are perhaps my most favorite fruit. Don't be intimidated by the looks of the finished braid (and the ends of these braids don't look great, I had to crowd all three of them onto my rimmed (in case of leaks) baking sheet. The braiding is so simple - I've never had one come out not looking great. The first time I made one, it was so perfect, the folks at the potluck where I shared it insisted I tell them which bakery I used.

[BakerAunt]

I made the mistake of making an oatmeal pancake recipe that had arrived a few weeks ago from Bob's Red Mill. It used 3-cups of oats, two cups of which were ground into oat flour, and no regular flour was used. The recipe called for using a blender. What I should have known is that I would end up with a batter (?) that was of a thick, pasty consistency. Not even maple syrup could rescue them, although we gamely ate some. Never again! I should have realized that they were focused on gluten-free, and that rarely ends well.

[Mike Nolan]

Happy Father's Day. I'm planning steaks on the grill tonight, a nice KC Strip for me, a filet for Diane. (I think Trader Joes has the best filets in town.)