[aaronatthedoublef]

Len - your pizza is a work of art!

Mike - is my math right? Are you really putting 14 ounces of cheese on your pizza? Your my hero!

Does anyone ever par-bake their crusts? I'm thinking about it for my veggie pizza where the raw veggies give off lots of water and for my sausage pizza where the sausage gives of lots of grease (I went back to Chicago method for my sausage).

I've now made two batches of whoopie pies. The first spread too much. I then noted that I had changes the recipe and added more flour so my second batch of cakes looks very nice. I'll make the filling tonight. Violet helped with the first batch but not the second because I had to make them quick and early this morning. I'll let her help with the filling.

I was going to bake some crackers but ran out of time. I'll do that tonight or tomorrow. The dough is resting right now.

I have my first COVID 19 vaccine this weekend! The scheduling system here is a mess! Badly thought through and I'm not convinced that federalizing it would have made it any better. Yes, I know how hard building a massively scalable scheduling system is (I've worked on them). But they came up with multiple new vaccines in under a year which is MUCH harder.

[aaronatthedoublef]

More bread and crackers and pizza. We made chocolate chip cookies.

I am going to try raisin bread at some point this week. Found a recipe I like.

Violet has decided that whoopie pies are her favorite thing I make and she needs the recipe and a picture for a school project so I may make those. Kate thinks Violet should use scones so I'll probably make both this week.

Kate bought some raisins... 🙂

[aaronatthedoublef]

After months of suggestions for making and using starter I now receive at least a couple "scoring" lesson suggestions a day. I think a lot of people are asking for that now.

[aaronatthedoublef]

This is amazing. But if it doesn't have egg is it challah? That's more a philosophy question I guess.

Does it use some egg substitute?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike.

I suggested they shave a little time off the baking to see. I've only done banana, pumpkin, or zucchini quick breads and those are never dry.

I'll ask about the shaping instructions.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. Biscotti are twice baked and that accounts for some of their dryness. Not sure about Mandelbrot. My mom never made them and I was never much of a fan so I've never tried them.

This was definitely supposed to be bread. I've found a few recipes for almond bread like it online.

I've also found some that use baking powder and a quarter cup of almond milk.

What surprised me a was the lack of liquid (even though there are five eggs) and the lack of leavening. The vinegar and baking soda will have finished their reaction before the pan hits the oven.

[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.

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