[aaronatthedoublef]

Progress!

250g bread flour (instead of 130)
040g cornstarch
228g unsalted butter
140g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt

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[aaronatthedoublef]

BTW, many screw up many measurement conversion and some are more consequential than others.

There was a movie based on the first flight between Montreal and Edmonton after Canada converted to metric. They fueled the plane with the number of liters they would normally fill with gallons so the tanks were about a quarter full. I wish I could find that movie again. I cannot find the movie but here is a link to the story.

And I was just worried about my shortbread!

[aaronatthedoublef]

I really need to shift this to a spreadsheet Mike. I have printed recipes with hand written notes

I've seen pickle juice a couple times here lately. What flavor does it add? I want to start spinning up my corned beef again I wonder if I could reuse that brine. I saw a post on Instagram where some women used their pasta water to make pizza dough.

Rye is funny. It invokes passion from people that other breads do not.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Okay! I was looking at some recipes and then at my own and I figured out at least one problem. I converted measurements from volume to grams and I used the g equivalent on 1 cup instead of 2... Oops. I will adjust, try again, and let you know the results.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I baked the last of my dough and it was chilled but not frozen... Same, flat results. I'm going to figure this out because it tastes really good.

I'll make more dough and freeze it this time. I may also reduce the amount of butter.

Maybe I'll ask the folks over at the BBGA, too. I added a picture of my brown butter. It is unsalted, Trader Joe's. I wonder, too, if a different brand would work. In my laminated dough class they talked about about fat content. In Cook's Illustrated (this is going back MANY years) I remember articles about the shape of the crystals in the butter and how they were aligned. As you all has said, this stuff is complicated.

Thanks for your help and patience!

Like you all

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[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. And thanks for fixing my account!

I am very careful not to let the egg wash pool having done this before.

I have tried salt in the past but these days I just add some water.

I was going to bake the short bread yesterday but Kate took apart the ovens for cleaning and has not finished so we have no working ovens. I think the brown butter may be part of the culprit in making in spread. I've used brown butter for short bread before and it adds a great flavor but I don't remember if I chilled the cut cookies or not. I will try and write down the results this time.

Worst case, I can bake it in round cake pans. I was told by Kate's granny that the Scotts did it this way.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made more challah. I should have let them rise and bake on two pans. They started out less wonky than they looked at the end. I included a picture of them with the egg wash since we talked bout that last week. My main concern is for the eggs wash not to pool in the cracks. That gets funky during the bake.

I just baked off what began as a dozen brown butter short bread cookies. Not sure why they had this spread. Maybe I should have chilled or forzen them before they went in the oven. This is only the second time I've made these and it did not happen the first time. I have a little dough left so I made try to make them and chill them before going into the oven. Anyone else ever tried or seen this?

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[aaronatthedoublef]

Testing this for Mike.

Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

more testing too

[aaronatthedoublef]

more testing

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I pulled out Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day again after not looking at it in years. It does do a nice job of breaking things down and giving you basic recipes that you can use for multiple, different breads. It also has some good shaping instructions. For whatever reason YouTube does not work well for me. I work better from print and pictures.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Wow BA! You are way more conscientious than I, especially back in the 90s. Until CT I lived where I could walk to the store. Sometimes I would use a backpack or bike paniers occasionally. Usually the bags were the brown paper kind. The stores in Seattle said they switched to plastic to be greener because they were better for people riding bicycles.

[aaronatthedoublef]

There was also a story from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) about a tax on plastic utensils in Israel causing problems for the Orthodox Jewish community.

Sealed utensils are the only way to guarantee the forks and knives are kosher unless, like BA describes, you carry your own set with you. I have used corn starch utensils in the past that worked as well as plastic. I am not sure how they would break down. And we've rented apartments where the kitchen was kosher. For someone not raised knowing the rules it is very challenging to understand.

The reusable bags appear not to be as green as they are supposed to be based on what goes into making them. But the cheapest ones I use - here they are from Target - actually get used the most by us. Of course we also reuse all the plastic bags that come into our house.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Welcome back! It's always good to have more voices and different experiences and we stretch and try new things. Sometimes having people ask me why I am doing what I do because it makes me think. I have a nine year old who loves to bake with me and she is constantly pushing me and it is fun to see this through new eyes. She has not come around to bread yet but I have a cookbook to give her the next time she gets a present that I hope will change all that.

So ask us questions but tell us what you're doing too. We'll learn from you no matter how much you think we may know.

For bread, my one piece of advice for people starting out is do as much by hand as you can. If you can mix your dough by hand, do it. If you can stretch and fold and shape by hand, do it. You'll learn how things should feel.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for the tip on Bob's. I usually just use what is least expensive.

For egg washing, I don't think you have to be that careful to not get it in between the strands. I've watched large bakeries do this with a paint sprayer and I know I care more about complete coverage than keeping it out of the cracks.

The one thing I am careful about is making sure it doesn't pool between the strands.

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