[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike - Thanks. I looked up gingerbread house kits and found a bunch too. I mostly stay away from Amazon these days unless I know exactly what I want. It's just too complicated otherwise. Walmart has some as does Michael's (not sure if Michael's is in the Midwest) as well as Etsy. I think I still may make my own to give as gifts with a gingerbread mix. Fun project for after the holidays.

Len - those look beautiful. I looked up the recipe and they have baking powder instead of baking soda and shortening to make them puffy. Did you use butter-flavored shortening and if you did does it really add butter taste?

I remember the episode where he made these and made chocolate chip cookies four ways. I read something recently - I think on Test Kitchen but I cannot find - and they talk about using baking powder AND baking soda in cookies to make them chewy and give a rise. I may have to try that.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA - thanks for the pointer to the gingerbread cookie cutters. They're pretty neat and along the lines of what I want but a little small. But I can search for bigger ones now.

If you all were using something like this would you want plastic or metal?

Pretty cool Navlys. I wonder how often people run into the things you ran into and give up. How many people does that turn off from baking.

Attached is a picture of my biscuits. No leakage! Based on advice from you all and Solveig (the recipe creator) I used my pastry cutter and cut the butter in instead of just tossing it. This is a big recipe and even cutting it back by 60% I still have a lot of dough left over after making two dozen midsize biscuits. Even better, Violet and Kate who both "don't like biscuits" like these! I may also use some for pizza crust this weekend if I make pizza.

The bad news is Violet tested positive for COVID so one more Christmas without Nana and Gramps. We're trying to make this as special for the kids as possible and doing last minute things - like getting a tree - that we had not planned on doing.

I added a picture of Violet's elf, Daisy, who spent a couple days on our gingerbread house. She has been very mischievous this year and has been taking cookies and candy.

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[aaronatthedoublef]

I have biscuit dough chilling in the refrigerator. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet. I also need to make some bread. We were going to leave for VA today or tomorrow but now Violet has covid and Henry may so we're staying put again. At least we had Thanksgiving. And we may try to head down for New Year's.

I gave Violet a Duff Goldman cookie cookbook for Hanukkah so whatever cookies I was planning are on hold (unless I sneak them in). She has already read through the book twice and is deciding on what to make.

Has anyone seen a set of cookie cutters for cutting out the parts of a gingerbread house? I have some friends who have a maker space - they have tools and knowledge to help you make things. It might be cool to give some people gingerbread house kits that are slabs of pre-baked gingerbread. I'll make them if I cannot find what I want.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. This is a fantastic video. It's amazing how much they can produce without machines and hand stretching.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike - like you, I am not much of a decorator. I have done it a few times in my life (like my infamous rollercoaster cake). Violet, on the other hand loves this. She could not and did not wait for me to finish putting the house together but began as soon as there was a structure to work on. we even had to remove some of her decorations to allow me to finish putting the roof on. I wish I had some pictures of that process.

Thanks Joan. This is something my nine-year-old clearly loves to do with me and I'm going to keep on hoping it survives her becoming a surly teenager. 🙂

I have been using Grandma's unsulfured molasses. Whole Foods has some black strap but it is hugely expensive and Big Y has big jars of Grandma's on sale so I bought two bottles. I have used it in other cookies but didn't notice the bitter taste.

I think the molasses helps keep things pliable. But I also noticed the gingerbread needs to cure for about 12 hours otherwise it is very soft. So trim the edges right out of the oved then let it sit for a day or so (not in a plastic bag).

BA, I thought gingerbread was actually a cake/quick bread and that the flavors were adopted for cookies like the pumpkin spice-ification of everything this time of year. I also used Crisco instead of butter to reduce the spread and this spreads more on silpats than on parchment which wasn't necessarily bad. I suppose if I were making cookies for eating I would cut back on the molasses, up the sugar a little, and chill them before they went in the oven. Maybe upping the flour some would help them hold their shape too.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Here is our gingerbread house.

It is very hard and has a bitter aftertaste from the molasses. But, my boys, when they were younger, would still have eaten it. 🙂 Now people just pick the candy off!

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[aaronatthedoublef]

The pie looks great. We need to up our pies game! The chocolatines are really impressive. They look amazingly consistent. And proper darkness, at least here, is being debated as we've had an influx of European master bakers who bake things darker than Americans typically like them.

I have the sides of my house baked. The roof was in the oven too but then the oven shelves were too close and I accidentally wrecked them. I crushed up some Jolly Ranchers and put them in the windows to try to simulate glass. Kate and Violet were pretty impressed but it all looks rough to me. I rolled it all out on parchment but I may use silpats next time, at least for the ones with windows.

I promise, I'll take pictures.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Violet and I started a gingerbread house a couple weeks ago. The recipe was too small (and my first attempts at cut outs were wonky). I made a double recipe yesterday and will cut it and bake it with V tomorrow. I need to make some royal icing. I found a recipe that works with pasteurized egg whites. I had some meringue powder but cannot find it. The recipe I have is for flooding cookies so I think I'll need to add some powdered sugar to it to stiffen it up for mortar.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Wednesday was my middle child, Henry's, birthday. Hen is quiet and didn't or wouldn't tell us anything he wanted. So for breakfast I made him pancakes topped with bacon and Choco family fantastic maple syrup topped with a fresh baked chocolate doughnut and whipped cream. Violet said "that's what I want for my birthday breakfast."

I made him Stella Park's coconut cake which he liked but liked less than my patched-together-piece-meal coconut cake recipe. I'll have dig through my notes and resurrect it.

No pictures as I am going between computers and don't have everything on a shared drive yet.

I did a lot of baking last week and we still have pie left! I also have baked pumpkin pie filling. I'm thinking of putting it in a jar and labeling it pumpkin pie butter and giving it to some friends. Might be could on crusty toast.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. I may try avocado oil instead of canola or vegetable. Canola has really fallen out of favor here. I still use it as my alternative to olive oil though.

I also have used some coconut oil but it has a definite coconut smell/taste. It's good if you're making something coconut flavored like buttercream but not sure I would want to use it in something more neutral like pie crust (unless I was making a coconut cream or maybe a key lime pie). I am going to use it next time I fry doughnuts I think.

My crusts are blind blaked. I reduced them temp from 375 to 350 and only baked them for 15 minutes. Violet and I will make the pies today - pumpkin and pecan - so the flavor should be set by tomorrow for dinner. Tomorrow we'll make the hazelnut chocolate tarte.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi Choco. Glad you are feeling better. People who don't bake don't realize how physical it is.

Thanks for the tips Mike. I did it exactly backwards. I mixed in the butter a third at a time. I'll try it the other way next time. Also, the bakeries I know all mix in the butter in their mixers, like you. And they mix A LOT. I have a bowl shield and it doesn't do much good. I wonder if I couldn't do a hybrid method of cutting it in some by hand and then finishing it in my KA to keep the flour contained. I stopped using water and started using buttermilk for my liqiuid. Before that I was using powdered. I've also used heavy cream too.

BA, for something like pie crust do you use a neutral oil or olive oil? Here, with all the keto followers, coconut and avocado are the big oils. Costco now has giant bottles of avocado oil here. I don't know if that is country-wide or not.

I think I'll blind bake today and then Violet and I can make the apple and pecan pies tomorrow.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA - have fun with your bonus kids! I'm sure they will enjoy the blueberry pie.

Thanks mike. I wondered about this. I wouldn't pound the butter before mixing it in because I cut it but I'll try pounding the mixed dough and let you all know.

Also, usually I just toss the butter in the flour mixture but I spent a good amount of time cutting it in. I was told by a baker friend this helps reduce shrinkage.

[aaronatthedoublef]

It's pie time... Can I whack my pie crust before rolling it out like I would the butter in laminate dough? Will it make it more pliable? Will it make it less flaky?

Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

Lot's of bread making last week. Violet and I also made pie dough and I'll roll out the crusts and blind bake on Monday.

I'm making my sourdough and still not happy with my shaping but it is improving.

I've also started making challah again. I am trying four strand braids and finally had one this week that was not a mess. It's still not to my liking as I like smaller ends and a plumper middle but at least it was not a total mess.

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[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike, the post on baker's math is good. When using a guild recipe it really is the only way to go. Scaling down from 13 kg of flours is easiest if figure out if you start with how much flour you want to use and figure the percent for everything else. The guild recipe I found makes around 18 kg of dough.

The thing I need to figure out now is how to account for a biga/poolish. If I use 250 g of starter at 100% hydration mixed with flour and water at 75% hydration how does that affect the rest of the mix. If I use flour and water at 65% hydration, is the overall mix 70%?

I'll talk with my friend on Wednesday

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