[aaronatthedoublef]

More snow yesterday and more crackers. But I was transferring my starter to a clean jar and the dirty jar fell and broke. 🙁 I lost a few hundred grams of starter. I split the remaining jar between two clean jars and am building it back up so I do not have to start from scratch.

A co-worker sent me an almond bread recipe to ask why it was dry. It is a quick bread and seemed odd that the only leavening was baking soda and vinegar and the only liquid was eggs. Any advice would be appreciated. Here is the recipe:

2 1/4 cups blanched almond flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine texture sea salt
5 eggs
1/2 tbsp honey
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made pizza last night. Sam and Violet teamed up to prep the dough. It had a very different feel because I let it sit out on the counter overnight to help it ferment faster. I usually make it Thursday and this week I made it Friday. Violet and Sam cut, weighed, and wrapped the dough. It was pretty cut and Sam and I had a fun conversation on Adam Smith and the division o labor.

I baked of my bread too. I usually start that Friday making a sponge then put it all together Saturday morning and let it rise 24 hours. The I bake on Sunday.

I've been trying to make flat sandwich buns and some of this came from increasing hydration but they were still more round and roll like than I wanted. This time I sprinkled some flour on top, covered them with parchment, and the put a sheet pan at a slight angle so it rested on the edge of the other sheet pan and kept the buns more bun-like.

And we shoveled... and shoveled... and shoveled. We had about 5-6 inches of snow and my snow blower is down.

I've also started using a new mixer - my hand!

[aaronatthedoublef]

It's interesting. I have two books by Bill Buford sitting in my shelf, "Heat" about his adventures learning to cook and butcher in Italy and "Dirt" about baking and cooking in France.

It re-emphasized some lessons I learned years ago which is you can cook authentic, Italian dishes or you can cook using an authentic, Italian method.

If you want to cook the dishes you'll need to find some uncommon special ingredients. If you adopt the method your cooking will emphasize what is local and fresh.

I suppose these days with modern supply chains we can do a hybrid of this but there really is something to keeping it simple.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made pizza dough and more bread dough. I also made BA's crackers. Over at the BBGA someone suggested rolling the dough with a pasta maker so I tried that (first time I've used a pasta maker). I did two passes and made long strips that I cut into squares. I did the first past on 1 - the widest setting and then the second pass on 2. The dough was more even than my hand rolling and I think it was faster once I figured things out. I might have been able to do a third pass on 3 or 4. I'll play around some more.

Violet and I went sledding instead of baking today. More snow is expected tomorrow.

[aaronatthedoublef]

My deli rye needs to rest after it comes out of the oven for about 12 hours, at least, for the flavor to fully develop. It has about 1/4 cup of rye (don't have the recipe in front of me) but most of the flour is either bread or first clear.

Like BA I do not know why. Mike advised I do that and I suspect once he is recovering and back online he will explain it to us. I'll ask over at the BBGA too.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for the recipes and tips BA. I'll have to buy some quick oats as we only have old fashioned. But it looks good. I may try the Stella Parks fig newtons as well.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I've been doing some of what I did in the bakery. I only worked for about a month and decided to try some of the things I was doing there.

I've also added a boule-shaped rise before I do the final shape and that seems to help.

There is a technique I started doing with my bench knife (scraper) where I push the dough towards my opposite hand then give it a quarter turn, then push... I'm not good or fast but I'll get better with practice.

For pan loaves I flatten the boule, then fold the two sides into the center, then roll it away from me while pulling towards me to tighten the loaf.

The thing that works for me is to create surface tension.

BA - can you point me to the apricot-oatmeal bars?

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, the apricot oatmeal bars sound good. I have to find the recipe. It might be something I can make my kids instead of the store bought bars.

I made snickerdoodles with Violet for one of her friend's birthdays. This friend's family are bakers and have left us treats a few times so it will be nice to return the favor. They are from Duff's book. We made two batches because the first did not come out right. Duff says to chill the dough before using but that led to 1) the cinnamon sugar not sticking and 2) the cookies not spreading but staying in balls. I also think our measurements were off in the first batch as my scale appears to be wonky when it's next to the stand mixer mixing. Any way the second batch came out very nice. I am not sure how they tasted because one of the boys ate TWO (not one) so there were no extra cookies to test. My son has lost his kitchen privileges!

I made more sourdough bread and rolls. My shaping is coming nicely but my rolls were higher and I wanted them wider. But they are more consistent.

This morning I made BA's crackers. I used some fancy sea salt with lemon my wife gave but I don't taste any difference. I also mixed in some garlic, oregano, and cayenne pepper.

[aaronatthedoublef]

What is the difference between rye bread and sourdough? I'm going to try making my deli rye with starter instead of commercial yeast. But it's because I want to see if I can shorten the time to make it. With commercial yeast it takes about 3.5 days to develop the sour flavor I want. I'm hoping I can cut the time down to 1.5 or 2 days by using starter.

I am not sure there is any consistency in what people call "sourdough" any more. There is starter made bread and commercial yeast made bread and their are breads with sour flavors.

Not all starter breads have sour taste and some commercial yeast breads do.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I don't ever discard either. I'm not sure why I started doing what I do but I build up starter until I need it.

I add small amounts of flour a couple or three times a day (between 5 and 15g) and equal water. But when I add some flour and water I don't dump an equal amount. Then when I have enough starter I make something with it like bread or crackers. This has given me starter with a nice, sweet odor and flavor. If I want something with a more sour bite I can feed it once a day, in larger amounts.

I have about a kilo of starter on the counter I'll use it to make sandwich bread and BA's crackers this week.

I do not like the idea of dumping dough into a 450 degree Dutch oven. I usually make sandwich loaves because to me the rounds are a pain to make sandwiches from. But I'm starting to work on boules and batards more. I did try dropping a boule into a cast iron skillet. I had it sitting on parchment and used the parchment to lower it into the skillet. I may see if I have a Dutch oven bottom that will fit in the skillet and then I can put this on top. But I'm with BA on being afraid of this.

I need to figure out how to get more my boules and batards a little stiffer and then I can just put it on the stone. I'm trying to let my bread rise/rest in a well floured towel but it's not floured well enough and it keeps sticking like crazy. I may have to break down and buy a couche and or basket...

[aaronatthedoublef]

Skeptic, the popcorn looks really good. I may have to try it.

Violet made unicorn cupcakes from the Duff cookbook. This week she made them with Kate instead of me because I was tired and cranky. When I woke up they were already making them. They were very good except they had too many sprinkles on them. Violet loved the sprinkles but it was too much for me.

I made more BA crackers. Not sure what else I'll make this week.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Chocomouse - that cake sounds great!

I tried the KAF potato buns again. I upped the water from 227 to 275 g. Much softer and much closer to what I was looking for. In homage to BA I left out the melted butter (okay, I was rushing and forgot it) but everyone liked the buns without it so I may leave them out.

Need to work on my shaping now. And maybe I'll try adding some seeds to them like Len. I was at Trader Joe's and saw some Everything Bagel sprinkle. Inspired by all of you who use it here I bought some. My family liked it on BA's crackers and it would probably go well on the potato buns as well.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I tried baking bread in the toaster oven at work years ago. I was surprised at how well it worked. I had most of the office in the kitchen to see what smelled so good!

It was part of blog I was starting on baking things fresh at work. I never made it past my rolls.

[aaronatthedoublef]

CWC - sorry to hear about your arm and hand. Hope you mend quickly!

Duff's book is great. He spends time not just on baking but a couple of pages on unicorns and lots of other things to make it fun for kids. Duff is a big kid himself (or at least that is his public persona) and it makes it fun. Violet has read through several times. It's also going to give Violet a leg up when she begins to learn fractions in school because she has already started to learn them for baking. We're starting on metric weights (Duff has all weights in grams) so that will likely be helpful some point in the future too.

As for American buttercream most of my older baking books call it easy or quick or even faux buttercream as opposed to "buttercream: which is the traditional cooked, frosting. Now I see French, Italian meringue, American... It's interesting to see how things change. I have three French baking books I've had for over 15 years (the newest is from our honeymoon so that means I picked it up 19 years ago in December). These are from people like Jacques Torres and Pierre Hermes and what are now called "macarons" were called "macaroons". I've seen food history books but has anyone seen a food etymology?

[aaronatthedoublef]

New Year's eve I made more bread. I am working on a boule. I think I need to knead/stretch/fold it some more before it holds it's shape. I baked it in a skillet instead of a Dutch oven but it was too soft for me to score the top before baking.

I made more pizza dough Thursday as well so we'll have pizza for Sunday dinner.

Then at 2:00 after everything was cleaned up and put away Kate and Violet told me Violet and I were making dessert for New Year's Eve dinner. First Violet wanted Buche de Noel but we didn't have time and I've never made that. I said we would make it next Christmas. So she decided she wanted cookies and cream cupcakes from her new Duff Goldman Kid's baking book (it is really well done). Of course we had no Oreos and I said I wasn't going to get any as I had to go to the hardware store but then, of course, on the way back from the store I picked some up. Violet was SO excited she was literally dancing around the kitchen. I wanted to knock these out fast but still give Violet tasks so I had her taking my melted butter our of the microwave and then crushing the cookies by hand instead of using the food processor. Saved some cleanup, gave her a job (which she enjoyed), and then she could handle the crushed cookies without sticking her hand in the food processor.

I also had Violet put the cupcakes in the oven by herself. She was a little nervous but I was right there. I need to get some kids baking mitts for her.

The cupcakes have a crushed cookie bottom, chocolate cupcake, and then American buttercream (when did this become "American" buttercream?) with more crushed cookies on top. The interesting thing about Duff's buttercream is that tells you to start on low and then mix it on medium for a couple minutes. It beats a lot of air into it and makes it very light and very white. It also increases the volume so it goes farther. I will definitely use this again.

Violet finished the cupcakes by piping the buttercream onto them then sprinkling the remaining cookie crumbs on top. Have to admit they were pretty tasty and she was thrilled.

We had leftover frosting, cookie crumbs, and batter so I made a six inch cake layer out of the crumbs and batter and then put the frosting and cake in the freezer for my emergency cake.

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