[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike - how do you like the meater? Someone is offering deals (cannot remember if it is Moink or Porter Road) and I need a new leave in oven thermometer.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Did I miss it or is there no leavening? No baking powder, soda, or yeast. The eggs could give it some perhaps.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made schnecken this week! It's the first time I've made them in years. I always think they are sooo complicated and they aren't.

One of my brother's started a text chain asking the kids what their favorite thing was their grandma made and they hall two things one of which was schnecken. And my kids did not know what they were so I had to make them. They needed a little more filling and be more tightly rolled but they were tasty.

I subbed apple cider for the water and used chopped up apples instead of walnuts since Violet doesn't like nuts and Kate wanted an "apple" sweet to serve our neighbors. Then Kate said "these would be really good with walnuts"! 🙂 Next time I will make some with walnuts, some with apples, and some with both!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Darn. Wish I'd had this in April. I made a My wife wanted a coconut cake for her birthday. It's surprisingly hard to find one that actually has coconut. I forget where I found the recipe I made.

The cake I made had me add the shredded coconut to the frosting. It's easier than pressing it into the side but doesn't give the same look. I will also toast it next time.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Violet and I made her birthday cake - Duff Goldman white, confetti cake. It's like the Cake Bible White Velvet cake but with a ton of sprinkles in and on top of the cake. I've figured out how to work with Violet. I had everything pre-measured before she came home from camp and she mixed everything up. We only had to make the cake once and we were both happy.

I think I will cut the sugar some next time as the sprinkles add sweetness. Duff's recipes in general are very sweet).

I frosted it instead of Kate. I froze the layers the night before. Then I did a crumb coat and chilled it followed by a smooth layer and then piped scallops around the top and bottom. First time I've used a piping bag in years.

Mike - if you come up with a good Italian beef recipe I'll happily try it. I've been looking for one off and on for several years and never found one. It's only in the last couple years I've seen them at all as people begin to realize there is more to Chicago Cuisine than deep dish pizza and Vienna hot dogs with poppy seed buns.

And speaking of deep dish pizza I found this article debunking the Ike Sewell story which I never believed in the first place.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Wow. Amazing article and especially coming from Megan McArdle who from her blogging and talking knows what she is doing in the kitchen and appears fearless.

CWC, I sympathize with having hot hands. My pastry-chef room mate came into the kitchen once to find me with my hands in bowls of ice to cool them while I decorated a cake. I've found that food safe gloves give a little insulation and help. I also cool my crusts more to try to make up for this.

My problem has not been making crusts that taste good it is making crusts that look nice. I suspect much of it is, like some of you here, taking time and practice. I don't make them often and I am usually rushed when I do.

It's the same with cakes. Time and practice

[aaronatthedoublef]

Was listening to a podcast that covered the Oreo v Hydrox battle and Hydrox was the original, while Oreo was the knock-off. At religious school and temple functions we always had Hydrox because up until the 90s Oreos used lard.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. I found the article. Pretty interesting but this happens a lot across all industries. I've seen it in tech numerous times in my life. In his first book Lahey says that what he is doing is his spin on techniques he learned while studying sculpture in Italy.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

For some reason I cannot see the link.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike, they look pretty good!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Interesting! I never thought about melting the sugar but that makes sense. These days I melt half the butter and cream half the butter with the sugar. I may try melting some of the sugar.

I've also started adding about a TBSP of freeze-dried coffee too. Supposedly brings out the chocolate.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I've tried KAF raisin bread twice. The first time I didn't let this rise enough and had no oven spring.

The second time I may have over-proofed it. Our kitchen was about 75 instead of about 67 and I forgot to put the dough in the refrigerator when we went out so it rose in the pan at room temp for about four hours. It had a nice high crown over the pan edge but not only did it not have any oven spring it actually fell back some in the oven.

CWC, I'm with BA. Some brownies really are better the second or even third day.

I looked at the recipe and it has you melt the chocolate and butter together. This makes it fudgier. It's denser because you're not beating air into the butter. If you cream the butter with the sugar and add the eggs, chocolate and oil, and cocoa and water, it should make them cakier.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Interesting. I have two sets of sheet pans bought at Costco about a year apart. The first batch was from Korea and the second from China. Even though they have the same listed dimensions on the bottom the Korean pans are slightly larger. Other than that they have been functionally the same.

My wife bought me a KitcheAid half sheet and quarter sheet set from Williams Sonoma that had to be pretty spendy. The quarter sheet is okay because of its small size I think. The half sheet buckles EVERY TIME even at 300 degrees.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Sorry. I am late to this. For what it's worth I have Costco but they only have half, quarter, and full and they usually come in packs.

But they were pretty cheap when I bought them 25 years ago and they do not bend or warp under high heat (I've taken them up to 750).

Mike and BA, thanks for the quick lessons in what to look for in better sheet pans.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Sugar often goes in with the fat instead of the dry ingredients. As BA say, cream it with the oil (or the butter).

BA thanks for the tip but I am not sure there is anything I can do to slow my boys down. Sam took out a block of cream cheese and all the crackers I made and just sat there spreading the cream cheese on the crackers and finished most of both of them. I started adding Everything Bagel topping to them and that has not helped! I am back to rolling by hand instead of with the pasta roller. I think it's easier.

I put together bread dough I just haven't had time to shape, rise and bake (mostly the rises).

I'll make more crackers tomorrow.

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