[aaronatthedoublef]

4 Strand. I may try a different way next time.

I noticed a lot of people on line making little balls of dough and then flattening them. Roll up the flattened balls and then turn those into strands. I think it makes them more a consistent size and shape and help the dough texture.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Made challah today. Kate took it out of the oven for me but I didn't tell her I had loaves in both ovens two came out a little well done. Still, the inside looks good.

Happier with the braids and I made five loaves this week. The thing I am realizing is that a dozen loaves with be expensive. Honey and apple cider are really expensive and you all already know about eggs. I'm using local honey from a small producer and his price went up a lot but I know his expenses must have as well. I may call him and see if I can buy direct.

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[aaronatthedoublef]

Just catching up. Butter cakes, too, can suffer from over mixing. It will make them dense and dry if you beat too much air into the butter.

Mike - which semolina did you use and which did you switch to?

I used some Whole Foods whole wheat and it definitely changed the taste of my pizza dough. I'm using BRM right now but I think my favorite is still KAB white. But the price is out of site now. Over $10/5lbs.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I'm trying to figure out how to add starter to my formula. I'm still not sure about how much of a percentage of the whole it should be.

Google and Microsoft (and others too, probably) both host online forms that can link in their spreadsheets. I don't know how easy it would be to pull that into the BBGA website but that would be a neat way to go. Build a form that queries you for ingredients and percentages and then fills in the recipe in the right format.

But the BBGA is tech challenged and not great about taking members up on their offers of assistance, I think.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I appreciate it.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I figured this had to exist. I was building it myself to push my Excel skills.

Skeptic, we use pasta sauce for pizza, omelettes, and even pasta.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike.

I really like baker's math. It makes scaling easier, especially if I can automate it in a spreadsheet. I can just put in a number for the flour and everything adjusts itself and I can see how much dough I'll have at the end. I adjusted my formula for challah until it would yield four loaves and I had a little over four loaves!

Also, measuring by weight reduces the amount of things to wash after making something.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA!

I just mixed up ciabatta. I'll use some for pizza tonight.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Can I use baker's math for everything? For example, now that I've converted my shortbread to weights from volume can I measure all ingredients as a percentage of the flour for scaling the recipe up or down?

[aaronatthedoublef]

How goes the bread baking? Any attempts?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Your cake sounds good BA. Apparently yesterday was National Chocolate Cake Day. How do you like avocado oil? Is it taste neutral? I used it for cooking last night but I made cheesesteaks so it would have had to be pretty strong to break through the steak, cheese, onions.

The challah is coming along. I didn't overcrowd the pan this time. And I've put my recipe into a spreadsheet so I can adjust the amount of ingredients to see how many 18 oz. loaves it will make. I want to add some formulas to it so I can have both weight and volume measurements there. I also need to have it do reverse calculations. Right now I put in the amount of flour and it gives me the number of loaves. But it would also be nice to put in the number of loaves and have it calculate the amount of ingredients.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike - your cinnamon rolls look great. I need to start working on mine again.

For us small is probably better so we don't eat too much! KAB has a recipe for a giant cinnamon roll baked in a cast iron skillet. It would be fun for a party.

Challah is out of the oven. I made three loaves and four rolls. I had enough for four loaves but I wanted some rolls for sandwiches.

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[aaronatthedoublef]

Not sure what I will bake this week yet.

I've been buying BRM lately from Vitacost. Prices are good (at least compared to local shops), the shipping is reasonable, and the service is good.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Re-reading about the acid...

Is that why milk powder helps? Does it add lactic acid without adding liquid?

[aaronatthedoublef]

The shortbread bar I want to make is Millionaire shortbread which is shortbread with caramel with chocolate on top. Maybe it was the inspiration for KitKats. When it is good it is great. It's made it over to the US but I had it in Scotland in 1999 (first trip there with my then girlfriend Kate!). Now it's easy to find recipes. I think they used to use it as an enticement to have kids eat their haggis.

Made regular sandwich bread yesterday. I've stopped working on batards and gone back to pan loaves. And I cut the time down from three days to one to try and tame the sour which most of my family doesn't like.

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