[aaronatthedoublef]

Joan, your cake looks great! And if you didn't say you'd had a minor mishap no one would know. A great pastry chef friend used to say "frosting hides a multitude of sins."

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi,

I've been baking ciabatta weekly although that will probably end this week. Sam is back at school and Henry leaves Sunday so a batch may last as long as a month if I leave them in the freezer after cooling.

I am making progress on shaping them. Less is more in this case. I don't handle them too much so they don't form tight rolls but are rustic buns. I also reduced the rise time after shaping and they came out of the oven higher so maybe I was over proofing them. They still shrink a bit after cooling but they are deeper than before.

I've been making chocolate chip cookies with brown butter and toasted sugar. I think the sugar needs to be toasted more. I think I told you about the first batch with melted butter. These cookies stayed globs and didn't spread. When I used the rest of the brown butter that had cooled and was solid, the cookies spread like normal. I remember reading some place that melted butter will coat the individual flour grains and prevent gluten from forming but is this why they didn't spread?

BA - when you moved from butter to oil did you see anything like this? What kind of oil do you use?

In my quest for a crisp crust I tried something new with pizza. I have been rolling them out and leaving them in the refrigerator for about 12 hours and that dries the top but the bottom on the parchment stays damp. I tried putting them on a paper towel and that didn't really do anything.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi Skeptic. I live in CT. And you are right. Wool generally insulates when wet. But convertible mittens leave then ends of fingers exposed and then they become cold while working. It might happen with waterproof mittens anyway. I just don't like wet hands.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, Skeptic, Senator Sanders mittens were indeed lined. The woman who made them went to high school with a friend of ours here in CT so we had the inside scoop. Her mitten business on Etsy went through the roof for a while. Not sure where it is now.

I like the flip-top mittens that turn into fingerless gloves. The only problem is I can only find knit ones and I need a pair that are water proof, especially for snow removal.

[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.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi,

I've contemplated some 1/8th sheet pans. Now I have halves and quarters. They have become trendy here among restaurants to use as plates.

I made chocolate chip cookies. I used browned butter and toasted sugar and the cookies were brown, even though lightly baked. They did not have the flavor I was looking for either so I need to figure out how I made this one batch that tasted amazing.

The other interesting thing that happened was I usually brown the butter and let it harden then cream it with the sugars. This time I just dumped the liquid butter and some of the browned solids into the sugar and mixed. Then I followed the usual process - eggs, vanilla, and then the dry mixture, flour baking soda, and salt. The cookies stayed in lumps. they did not spread at all. Kind of weird. I flattened the last two batches.

We were in Evanston briefly before the 4th. I went to Bennison's. One of the things I bought on impulse were some sweet rolls. I miss those from when I was a kid. Are they a midwestern thing or a Chicago thing. The closest we have in the East are "Danish" which are good but not the same.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. So with the possible exception of the extra dark, Guittard is probably not couverture.

I think I'll compare Guittard with Nestles and Kirkland and Ghirardelli. I may not find exact information but I can usually find the percentage of cocoa.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Your baking all looks great. Maybe we could schedule a My Nebraska Kitchen meet up? We had the virtual pizza night during Covid.

This week was supposed to be a challah week but my logistics partner is laid up after surgery so we're skipping May. But I think I'll bake her one next week.

We're expanding challah production. Not quite sure how we'll do it yet. One of the rabbis wants to have more people involved and I also want to do this for a second congregation. Part of this too, is to convince people who are already making their own challah to give a loaf away. Most traditional challah recipes will make two loaves (at least). It's tradition to have two loaves on your sabbath table. It would be great if everyone took one of those loaves and gave it someone else.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I've noticed differences in semisweet chips beyond the amount of cocoa they contain. I always considered Guittard a step up from Ghirardelli. For example, their white chocolate has cocoa butter and Ghirardelli does not.

I checked the ingredients in Guittard chips and Callebaut bulk chocolate the other day and with the exception of the extra dark 70% chips the first ingredient in Guittard is sugar. In Callebaut it is cocoa. Is bulk chocolate consider coverture? I have some Callebaut callets. They don't have the same mouth feel when uncooked as chocolate chips. I am starting to use them instead of the bulk chocolate because I am lazy and I don't have to break them down. They're also harder to find than bulk which I can buy at the grocery store. I have to order the callets.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Congrats Mike. Glad you found something that works.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hmmm... Violet did not forget. She just did not want to do it because she is "not good at decorating." I asked her how she expected to improve if she didn't try. I also asked if she were on the "Kids' Baking Challenge" if she would hand in two, unfrosted layers as her cake to which Violet replied "I'm not on the Kids' Baking Challenge."

SASSY!

Then she couldn't find a recipe, blah, blah, blah... So I just made it and frosted the cake. If I'd known she was leaving it to me I would have done it in the morning and had time for a proper crumb coat.

[aaronatthedoublef]

What is more important than what I am baking this week is what I did NOT bake this week - a birthday cake for my oldest. His little sister insisted on making it herself (and was annoyed with me for hovering). She did make some mistakes so the texture was off but it tasted good.

Of course she considered "making the cake" just mixing and baking the layers. While I was making the birthday dinner and cleaning off the outside table and chairs I also had to make frosting and frost the cake. But it all worked.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi BA. Yes, I think Sam honestly forgot the cookies. It is sad. Maybe I'll bake some more and send them to him. Still he couldn't share them with his friends in Boston. We have baked cookies for his cross country meets a few times.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I am not sure about his recipe. I will ask, including why he is using baking powder. Maybe I'll try making them with him.

[aaronatthedoublef]

We now have TONS of chocolate chip cookies. Sam left his when he went to Boston but Violet needed "cute, little" cookies. I used brown butter in both but the first batch butter was browner. I like them better. I now know I need to let the browning go longer.

I will probably make more ciabatta rolls this week and challah either this week or next.

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