What are you Baking the Week of July 7, 2024?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. The Museum of Science and Industry had a "Christmas Aroun the World" exhibit every year and there was a day dedicated to each country represented by the exhibit. Polish Christmas Day would usually have the highest attendance of the year with between 70-100k visitors. Chicago used to have the most Polish people of any city outside of Warsaw.

A nearby town has a "large" Polish population. I'll look for a bakery there and see what they have. They basically come in a single size and a large size which are called coffee cakes. Maybe they'll feature them on a future episode of "The Bear" and then everyone will want to make them.

BTW, Giordano's has annoyingly dropped all reference to "stuffed" pizza and now just refers to it as deep dish which is really sad.

Before I went to Bennison's for pastries we walked by so I could show Violet the cup! She was suitably impressed.

[Joan Simpson]

Today I made cinnamon rolls for Poker Night and I cut them with floss and I found they look a lot better.

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[Mike Nolan]

I never thought Giordano's did a real 'stuffed' pizza anyway, at least not like the ones at Nancy's. There's supposed to be a tell-all book in the works about the history of Nancy's, with recipes. I'd buy that today even if we're still on our modified keto diet for another year.

[BakerAunt]

Your cinnamon buns, ready to bake, look great, Joan. I agree that dental floss to cut them is the way to go.

[Mike Nolan]

I've never figured out how to do the dental floss method, my hands seem to get in the way. I usually use a metal bench scraper with a sharp edge, though I've also used a sharp knife with decent results. I tried doing it with a wire cheese slicer once, it didn't get all the way through the dough. I recently ordered a single-bevel knife from Japan, similar to the bread knife my son gave me a few years ago but a lot smaller. I've been using it for slicing vegetables, but it would probably work on dough as well. The advantage of a single-bevel edge is that you get tighter control over the thickness of each cut and a smoother cut. Many sushi knives are single-bevel blades.

I read an online article once in which a professional pastry chef gave his upscale take on cinnamon rolls, he used laminated dough and cut the dough in strips after putting the filling on but before rolling it up. I've tried that a few times, too, the biggest problem is that the bench gets messy.

[BakerAunt]

My dental floss method has developed over the years. I no longer start at the end but position the floss under the dough in the middle of the roll. Thus, for a 16-inch roll, I would put it at eight inches. and slice through. If I were making 12 rolls, I would then slice each 8-inch half in half, then slice each of those into three equal pieces. If I'm making nine rolls, I cut the original log in thirds, then each piece into thirds.

If you start at one end and work your way to the other end of a whole log, the rolls at the end are often misshapen.

It helps to use the thin dental floss, not the "tape" stuff. And make sure it is unflavored! The CVS brand works for me.

Use a piece about 12-14 inches long. Place the dental floss under the log. Pick up the right side with the left hand and the left side of the floss with the left side with the right hand, so that the ends are crossed, then pull down evenly.

[chocomouse]

I made lemon-oatmeal sugar cookies and a focaccia with garlic and cheese powder plus sprinkled with The Works.

[cwcdesign]

Yesterday, I wanted to make a loaf of bread for the freezer before I left town. I landed on the Harvest Grains Bread - I had adapted it slightly using AP and WWW. The one on the bag also had cornmeal. As I was collected my ingredients I realized that I didn't have any Harvest Grains, so I thought I could pick up a multigrain cereal from BRM at the market - no such luck. When I came home I decided to use the Irish whole meal. The bread is tasty, but even more dense than I like it. I did 1 ½ times the recipe and this is what I used. I also used bread flour to add to the denseness. I think because of the Irish meal, I should add more liquid.

240 g bread flour
85 g WWW
58 g cornmeal (medium grind)
110 g Irish meal
1 tsp yeast
1½ tsp salt
90 g maple syrup
284 g water
42 g baker's dry milk

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[BakerAunt]

CWC design--perhaps pour some of the water--boiling--over the cornmeal and allow it to rest for about ten minutes? I find that with medium grind, that lets it soften and absorb some of the water. You might also cut back on the salt or increase the yeast.

By Irish Whole Meal, do you mean the flour? It has less gluten than regular flour.

[cwcdesign]

It is the Irish flour. But I thought maybe it would absorb more water than the Harvest Grains Blend. There was not an issue with the cornmeal being too hard, it wasn't a lot and added a nice flavor. I also used bread flour instead AP as I know it makes a less "fluffy" bread which we prefer. Those are the reasons I thought adding more water might help - I just don't know how much I'd add. The original recipe called for 2 teaspoons each of salt and yeast, so I had reduced both - I would keep the salt (Morton Kosher) at 1 ½ tsp maybe increase the yeast again.

[BakerAunt]

I like there to be more yeast than salt when I play around with a bread recipe, so I think you are on the right track.

[cwcdesign]

That's a good thing to know BA. Thanks 😊

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