[aaronatthedoublef]

I'll look and see what I can find today, BA. I actually found their whole wheat to be more bitter or maybe it's just stronger. My favorite whole wheat is King Arthur's white whole wheat. These days I seem to only be able to find the organic version in Whole Foods which is now over $10 for a five pound bag. At that point it's cheaper to order from Central or Small Valley.

Like Mike I do like their pastry flour and whole wheat pastry flour.

BRM is going through a lot. They switched to employee-owned but then were hit by COVID and now the current problems. Add to this, at least three local bakers here are switching to wheat berries and building out their own milling operations because, they say, wheat berries keep longer, they can make five pounds of flour from one pound of berries, and things like that. These are folks who go through a couple pallets of 50 lb bags a month.

I haven't seen any numbers but adding what amounts to a whole new line to your business cannot be cheap and I don't know if it will pay off and if it does how long it will take. It will require some big, up front capital investment as well as training and new staffing, at a time when people are already short staffed.

Three is not a big number but if this is a trend across the country it will put pressure on mills.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I did not see anything online when I checked. I just received an email that was from the standard BRM address.

We have a good amount of their products here but I am not certain if we have everything you all use. And there isn't a cost effective way for me to buy and ship it otherwise I would.

After having tried their wholewheat and bread flours I am not a fan of those. I was ordering from Central Milling and Small Valley Milling. But now with shipping they are $2/pound. KAB is still under $1/pound at Walmart. Central and Small Valley are both organic and KAB is not so that is at least part of the price difference. I really like Small Valley and I want to support them but not at double the price.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The cake will stay moist but usually the frosting will start to dry out and flake after a day or so. Some of that may also depend on how much air you whip into it. I was making a cake with Violet from a Duff Goldman recipe and he has you whip the frosting for much longer than I would normally do it. It makes a very nice, light frosting but it's a little drier.

Simple syrup is good if you're worried about dry cake layers. Poke a few holes in each layer then brush it on. It soaks in and helps keep the cake moist. It does add a little sweetness.

The oil cake is interesting. The last coconut cake I made used a yellow cake but subbed some of the butter for coconut oil. It used coconut flour, coconut milk, and coconut oil for coconut flavor and definitely tasted better the second day.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA and Mike - both the cheese slicer and dental floss are worth trying. We have dental floss but I do not think we have a cheese slicer. I used a bench knife this time which was handy because I could cut then scrape and place it in the pan. This is what the bakeries I've been in have done but they also make a couple dozen a day. When you do something that often you work out a system to become consistent with whatever tool you're using.

I have a few ideas from you both for fillings to try. I need to make them more and that means I need someone to give them to, especially as we only have Sam with us for another couple days before he is back off to college.

There are no eggs in this recipe. After tinkering around with a bunch of different ones I used my recipe for schnecken. I made them a few months ago and had some extra which I used to make cinnamon rolls (Violet's suggestion).

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for the tips on prepping cinnamon rolls, Mike. I wish I'd talked to you before I made them.

Cream cheese frosting is a no-go in my house as 40% of the people do not like it. I was thinking either caramel or a light confectioner's sugar/lemon glaze.

Next time!

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made more bread this week. It's become very sour, some of which might be the starter (although it doesn't taste that sour) and some of which may be the length of time it is resting. I may need to shorten it all up.

I also tried making cinnamon rolls. Not sure how to ice the tops. And my shaping/forming/cutting needs some work but, as I said, it's a first attempt.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks!

Fascinating. I have carried frozen pizzas on planes (large Giordano's stuffed) but never a cake. A pastry chef friend was married to a man who built custom containers for shipping art around the world for art installations so whenever she a cake needed to travel he whipped up a custom container.

Frozen might work better if you have the time. It makes everything more solid and the refrigerator dries out cake and frosting. But she cut this REALLY close arriving a couple hours before the dinner where the cake was needed so thawing the cake might have been an issue.

The "drawbridge" and window are great ideas. Also, if you heat up duct tape with a hair dryer then let it cool, it is NEVER coming off until you cut it. I taught a networking class to a bunch of NASA engineers and they would use this technique to tape things to the outside of rockets and the stuff stayed on according to them.

The traditional English/Aussie wedding cake (according to my Aussie and English friends) used to be an English fruitcake. They go more American style these days. But the booze and the candied fruit kept very well without refrigeration. And the whole things was sealed in marzipan held in place by marmalade. It tastes better than it sounds (when made right). And they would cut up the cake, seal up some of the pieces, and then send them to invited guests who could not attend. That sounded like a nice tradition.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I 've recently stopped using parchment to make a crisper bottom.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. Ash is pretty tough. I had an ash floor in my kitchen in Seattle and I miss it. Any floor can be wrecked and if you have slippers on and step on corn meal you won't feel it and you'll grind it into the floor. We have pine now (it's a long story).

Of course I know what Cream of Wheat is. I even know the radio jingle from the 30s thanks to my dad!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks everyone!

I may go back to wood. We're looking at an outdoor pizza oven and if we have outdoor parties wood peels are great for presentation. I may buy one to try it.

I've never tried semolina for dusting but maybe I will. It's more expensive here (I know we're close Choco) so the few times I've used it I haven't used it for dusting. Also, for some reason, my family does not like it when I have used it. They have liked it other places.

I've never tried the grill. The people I know who use their grills here use gas grills so it won't have your flavor, Rottie, and they grill the bread then build the pizza. I have experimented with par-baking crusts to shorten times and to get a crisper crust. But things don't really meld together. I make five or six pizzas at a time (sometimes more) so I would need multiple stones to do this. Here in Connecticut coal-fired pizza is typical so I wonder how it compares to charcoal. The grill's big advantage is how hot it can get but I've just learned how to adjust the heat on my ovens past the factory settings so while it would only go to 450 before I now have it at 550. With our last ovens I had one at 800.

I started with cornmeal many years ago before I used parchment. It's good but it is very messy (or I am very messy or both ;-)). We have soft, wood floors and cornmeal actually gouges them. In high heat I've had the cornmeal catch on fire.

I've been thinking about rice flour too, Mike. The last two bakers I've worked with both use it for dusting. They say 1) it sticks less than bread flour because it lacks gluten and 2) it is less likely to catch fire than wheat flour. I don't know if either of these are true but two bakers running successful bakeries swear by it. I read an article that says I can make my own using a blender and rice so that would be nice as well.

Again, thanks for all your replies.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The farmers' market we went to in Thousand Oaks was HUGE. It took up large part of the mall parking lot. We bought flats of the most beautiful strawberries for $5. And the avacados were wonderful and $0.50 (but that may have been because Kate had a crush on the farmer).

[aaronatthedoublef]

When we lived in So Cal we quickly learned to shop the farmers' market for produce. Everything in the grocery stores was shipped to Texas, packed there and sent back to California. If it did not ripen off the plant it would never be ripe and if it did it was usually bruised.

Plus the farmers said they saved the best for the markets where they saw us face-to-face.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. Thanks BA.

Mike, I used a lasagna pan to make the sugar. We have several and they are all non-reactive. I just needed a bigger one or to use less sugar. I'm thinking I may make a large quantity of it to use in other things.

[aaronatthedoublef]

What are the blueberry sweet rolls like? We had a great aunt who used to bring us sweet rolls years ago. Here they have Danish which are similar but different.

Oh and we have 90s and rain this week. Lovely!

I made scones for my college boy who has not had them in a lonnnnng time. I'll make more bread this week. Violet had a birthday party featuring s'mores. I made a coconut cake into a sheet cake. I thought it would bake faster than in 9 inch rounds but it still took about 35 minutes. It was Stella Park's from Serious Eats and had coconut flour, coconut oil, and coconut milk but no actual, real coconut. Now what is a coconut cake without coconut? So I dumped in four ounces. It could have used eight. And the flavor doesn't really come out until the next day but it was a really good cake. I used my smallest round biscuit cutter and made little rounds to have in the s'mores bar.

I tried browning some sugar but I need a bigger pan or to do a smaller batch. Some of it was toasted and had a great caramel smell and taste. Definitely worth doing again.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Len. I saw them on Amazon too. I am just trying to ween myself off buying things from them. I'm not a big fan these days.

I've been making KAF potato rolls for buns and my family likes those. I've been hand-shaping them as well. You cannot get the two tone effect of a hamburger bun without a pan (or I haven't figured that out). I have never tried hotdog buns, freehand or otherwise. Looking at them they might be similar to mini baguettes and baguettes are surprisingly hard to shape.

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