What are you Baking the Week of July 20, 2025?

[skeptic7]

I did Ham and Cheese pizza yesterday. Baked late at night when things had started to cool down. The nice thing about pizza in this season is that they are perfectly good cold.

[BakerAunt]

That is a lovely cake, Joan! Your poker group are lucky people.

Skeptic--I find that pizza can warm up nicely in a toaster oven or countertop oven if you have one. However, I agree with you that cold pizza is excellent!

[Mike Nolan]

I'm baking my first attempt at the banh mi recipe I posted a link to the other day.

Having some issues, and I have one concern about the recipe (seems like it doesn't use enough salt, at 0.44% of flour weight), but they're out of the oven.

I did make them a little smaller, 9 rolls to the batch, rather than 6. I don't think that's a factor. I will probably need a bigger or at least a second baguette pan if this recipe goes into the repertoire.

My dough didn't look as nice as the one in the video, and it didn't slash decently, either.

But if it has the right texture and taste, all is forgiven. Now I need to wait 10 minutes to see if they make crackling noises as they cool (I am hearing some crackling.)

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[Mike Nolan]

More pictures. They're very light, 85 grams of dough per roll and about 61 grams baked weight.

Flavor is pretty good, but does it compare with the rolls I had 30 years ago? Yeah, I think it's in the ballpark, with practice and maybe a little tinkering of the recipe could be even better than that taste memory.

This sandwich really needs some pickled vegetables, though.

Might make good hot dog buns, too. It will be interesting to see what they're like tomorrow, will they soften?

This recipe goes on the 'try again soon' list.

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[Mike Nolan]

The more we talked about using them as hot dog buns, the more we had to try it--tonight.

Oh, the sacrifices we make for our art.

Pretty darned good! As Diane said, if they keep well we may never need to buy hot dog buns again.

I made these 9 to a batch, for hot dog buns 12 might be a better number, and they'd wind up pretty close to commercial hot dogs buns for carbs per bun. I might have to try them in my silicone hot dog pans.

So to see how well they keep, we stuck one in the freezer, another in a bread bag and the other 3 in a clear plastic box (actually a shoe box but we've been using it as a breadbox, though I'm not sure it's food-safe plastic so I put them on paper towels. I was looking at a bread box on Amazon earlier today, that might be on order soon.

Now I want to try them with some Chicago Italian Beef!

[Mike Nolan]

Made another batch of the Banh Mi dough, divided into 12 pieces (about 64 grams each raw, 55 or so grams baked)

I made 4 as burger buns (sesame seeded)

And 8 as hot dog buns (poppy seeded, of course)

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[BakerAunt]

Those look great, Mike! I may have to give that recipe a try. It is so selfless of you and Diane to experiment and to report the results to us.

We had thunderstorms and about an inch of rain overnight, which made for a cooler Friday morning. We were nearly out of bread, so I pulled out a recipe that I have been developing for a while. I use Harvest Grains and malted wheat flakes, and I use a lot of whole wheat flour in addition to some bread flour. I also had about half a cup of flour and barley from a previous recipe that was taking up refrigerator space, so I threw it in as well. I held back ¼ cup of bread flour but ended up adding it and about a tablespoon more. I also increased the amount of canola oil from 3 ½ Tbs. to 1/3 cup. (Other ingredients were flax meal, special dry milk, honey, buttermilk, and eggs.) The dough rose very quickly, probably due to the warm day and higher humidity. It doubled in less than 50 minutes, and the second rise took only about 40 minutes. I baked it in two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans for 35 minutes to 190 F. They are beautiful loaves with wonderful aroma. I will freeze one but am looking forward to slicing the other one at lunch tomorrow. I will add a picture later. (I have to do that from the upstairs computer.)

[cwcdesign]

Mike, your buns look great! Thank you and Diane for being guinea pigs - might have to try them when Will comes to visit

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