[aaronatthedoublef]

People are always dinged in baking challenges for not toasting their nuts these days. The one or two dishes I make with nuts call for toasting but in at least one of them that is to help remove the skins as much as for flavor.

Thanks for all your kind words about my pictures. I did not think they looked great which is part of the reason I started posting them. I see so many single, perfect things on Instagram and I wanted to show that not everything has to be camera-ready to be good and to feed people. I'm more impressed by a dozen loaves with basic scoring than one loaf with lots of intricate, fancy designs cut into it (although those are cool).

Oh, and Len, the dark loaf was gone in under 12 hours and my wife and I only had one piece. With Sam home from college, we're back to two teenage boys who boy eat tons of bread.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I thought that's where kouign amann came from: leftovers and unusable croissants.

Good luck and happy Father's Day in advance.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi BA. The bread sounds good. Did you toast the almonds first?

I made KAF's crumb coffeecake from their big baking book for our contractors yesterday. I use half the crumb because making all of it use way too much butter, even for me. It also makes it less sweet and highlights the cake's flavor which is very good. I may need to use more as the top looks bald. I could always make the full amount of crumb and save some out.

This morning I made apple pie pancakes. I just caramelize some apples and add cinamon. I should probably add some nutmeg too but no one in my family likes nutmeg.

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[aaronatthedoublef]

Happy birthday Cass! I have always enjoyed your writings.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made challah for the first time in about a year. It took three tries to shape one well. I put them all on one half sheet so they grew together, but I knew that would happen. And one was a little dark. But the inside is really nice. This is the closest my challah has been to what my mom made as I've ever made.

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[aaronatthedoublef]

Friends had a jazz concert/lemonade stand/bake sale yesterday so I baked some a few dozen oatmeal coconut chocolate chip cookies for that.

I baked two loaves of my sourdough that has been blowing out on me and I am proud to say I managed it with NO BLOWOUTS! I let it rise overnight in the basement - about 65 - instead of the fridge - 38 - and then left it rise upstairs - about 73 to 75 - for about four hours before deeply slashing it then baking.

My oven was too cool when I put it in - 350 - so I did not have as much oven spring as I like and the gluten was not developed enough so the loaves were flatter but the bread looks nice and my boys like it. I've started slicing these loaves in half then cutting slices the long way. It can make better sandwiches that way.

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[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, thanks for the tips on fats. What I like about coconut oil over avocado oil is that it's solid at room temp. But if it's as bad for me as butter then I'll take butter any day.

And I think I'll skip einhorn right now. it's at least $4/lb so unless there is something out-of-this-world wonderful about it einhorn is not worth the price.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Never thought about just putting it on a pan covered by a Dutch oven.

The part I like about a cloche is that I don't have to drop a ball of wet dough into a 400+ degree Dutch oven. So by flipping it upside down I can put the dough on a pan over oven lid then put the oven on as a cover. It uses a the Dutch oven as a cloch.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made a double batch of KAB potato buns. I already made a single batch earlier in the week.

Sam is home! And Henry likes whatever takes the least effort for him to eat so since he doesn't have to cut these he eats them too.

It seems like they have a lot of salt so I doubled the recipe without doubling the salt and they taste good. I also subbed out a quarter of the white flour for whole wheat.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Has anyone ever tried turning a Dutch oven upside down? I would need to figure out something for the knob on the lid but it might work.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks everyone. I have a couple of options but I think I'm done with the Taylor dial oven thermometers. Maybe the infrared pen or a probe I can hang.

[aaronatthedoublef]

They proofed for about two hours. I probably could have scored them deeper.

Next time. Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

Bread blowouts! I let them rise overnight in the refrigerator. Next time I'll let them rise overnight in the basement which is warmer than the fridge but cooler than the kitchen.

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[aaronatthedoublef]

I bake pizza at or above 500 sometimes with convection and sometimes without. I turn it on and off based on how fast the top is cooking versus the crust.

After several weeks of par-baking I've stopped. I like the crust to absorb some of the top and I just cannot get that with docking. I may play with it some more in the future.

I think what I really want is one very hot shelf to cook the crust bottom fast, then move it to a cooler spot to let the top cook.

I heard Nathan interviewed and he said something about infrared cooking too. I can get that with my broiler but I haven't played with that yet.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. The recipe said 375+convection but it's also a recipe from a bakery so their "375+convection" may be hotter than mine!

I'll definitely raise the heat next time.

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