[aaronatthedoublef]

Agreed! Joan your breads are amazing!

Thanks Mike.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. Should I coat the apples with cornstarch or flour (or even confectioner's sugar) or just cut them into small bits?

I'm inspired with the pumpkins. I may try that myself.

Update on Henry in Dublin - he is cooking for himself which is cool. He made meatballs the other day and had a slight mishap with the garlic. He confused cloves with bulbs and ended up with two whole bulbs of garlic in the meatballs. But college boys will eat anything.

Thanks again.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi. Have any off you ever put apples in bread? I'm thinking about doing this for some challah. When I've had other people's the apples appear to have kept the dough wet and from baking properly. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Also has anyone ever made a pumpkin shaped loaf? I was thinking about making a boule and then scoring it.

Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

That loaf is a work of art! Amazing.

[aaronatthedoublef]

After working with manufacturers to make appliances in all sorts of colors we are now being told to hide them away. My favorite is the lift that raises and lowers a stand mixer under the counter.

Kate want to redo our kitchen. My question to any potential designer will be "how many meals a week do you cook for three or more people."

[aaronatthedoublef]

It's quiet here!

We did our challah bake at temple. It was fun. Not sure how many people actually baked their bread once they were home but the kids enjoyed it. I made a few batches of dough and I also made three loaves of challah for the kids to sample.

The one challenge was rather than cleaning the tables and having the kids roll the challah on the table, they had them do it on paper tablecloths. The kids either floured the paper very heavily and then had trouble making the strands stick or, like Violet they rolled them into strands in their hands. Then they weren't tight enough. While they stuck together the strands melted into each other while rising.

While waiting for the first loaf to rise everyone mixed their own batch of dough.

We baked off the first loaf waiting for the second to rise. Then I shaped it into a coiled, round loaf and we baked it. We gave it to one of Violet's friends who was at the house to take home.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Choco, those look great!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks everyone. I hardly consider myself an expert. There are so many people who know so much more than I do. But I do use the temple kitchen once or twice a month to make 15 1lb loaves of bread so I know more than both our rabbis.

Mike and Len are right, this is ill advised but it's not my show and even when I was "leading" it the rabbis were going to do what they wanted to do.

They will go home with one or two braided loaves (the original plan was two) and a lump of dough that needs to rise.

Of course I am not sure how they will get the dough to braid. There is some number of volunteers bringing in enough dough to make two or four loaves that has been rising in the refrigerator some amount of time. I am delivering my dough at 8:45 in a disposable container. I'll use a turkey roasting bag as that is what I use to raise dough. Religious school begins at 9 and there is a 15-20 minute service. So between 8:45 and 9:30 we'll need to:

cut and pre-shape the dough.

Then the dough will need to rest and relax so people can roll it into ropes and braid it.

Then after we've braided it we're going to let it rise while someone walks us through mixing bread dough.

I am not clear if we're going to egg wash it at temple and I am not clear how we'll transport it back to our houses. I have bus tubs and roasting bags so my daughter and I will be okay. Not sure what others are going to do and no one has given me, as a dad participating in this with his daughter, any thing up front about what is happening.

Maybe I over plan but this is not the way I would do it. But they did not want to do it my way. I am doing what I can to support it.

I am hoping for the best.

[aaronatthedoublef]

My baking is way down (sort of) because my boys are gone.

I'm baking more for other people. I've been making chocolate chip cookies lately for mostly other people (I always keep some at home). I'm using brown butter, toasted sugar, and brown sugar. Kate took a batch to Ireland when she went to visit Henry, our middle.

I have to make a bunch of challah this week. Our rabbis want to teach people to make challah. They've asked people to volunteer to make a double batch so I said I would do that. They also want people to bring in samples of their challahs with the recipe so I volunteered to do that as well.

It should all come together next Sunday. The plan is to give people pre-made dough to braid and then have them make their own dough while the braided dough rises. Then they'll send people home with the dough they braided and the dough they made but no actual bread. I'm trying to keep quiet because they asked me to do this. I said yes and then they kept telling me I didn't know what I was talking about so I said they should do it without me. I'm hoping for the best.

I also have scones and cookies to make!

[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.

[Author]

Posts