[aaronatthedoublef]

BA - it's interesting. The more I bake the more it seems that many things are not best fresh out of the oven. I have two cookie recipes that should site for at least a day (one is best at three days old). My brownies need at least 24 hours to mature. Rye bread needs 12-24 hours out of the oven. And I am always amazed at the baking competitions where people make pastry cream that has great flavor in an hour. I've never found a pastry cream that didn't need at least four or five hours of solid chilling and was definitely better the next day.

This week I made what has become known as BA's crackers and a loaf of sourdough bread. I have a second batch of BA crackers in the fridge and another loaf of bread rising in the pan before it bakes. It seems I am the only one eating the whole wheat bread now but I think I'll keep making it. The desiccant seems to prevent mold so I am saving them from my medicine bottles.

Last weekend I made yeast doughnuts but apparently I'd misunderstood and Violet wanted chocolate baked doughnuts (much easier). I promised those last weekend so I made those this morning. It makes enough that I made a dozen and then put the rest of the batter in the freezer so I'll have at least another dozen. I used disposable piping bags because I'd always wanted to try one. They're so easy and nice but it feels very wasteful (yet liberating) to just toss it in the trash with no cleaning. Not sure I'll buy more when these are gone.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I have the doc but lost the link. Since we were talking about flour storage this link was posted on the BBGA for flour storage and life.

And a master baker from Cargill said that gluten gets stronger over time and flour loses moisture even in a humid environment so they keep their flour in plastic bags and freeze it to prevent that even though they go through it quickly.

The thing about KAF cake flour is that it has really high protein - 10%. Haven't actually tried it in a cake. BRM worked well enough in Cake Bible white velvet cake but I may go back to one of the bleached cake flours for that. I don't make them very often and I've found other things I like to use in my pizza dough.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Never tried BRM whole wheat or white whole wheat. I only saw organic so it was really pricey. But I loved their cake flour and their whole wheat pastry flour.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Interesting. No one talks about ash content which is very important in Europe. They've talked about it on the BBGA site. I believe it affects moisture absorption.

And they completely skip over unbleached cake flours. There are a couple of those.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I have never wanted to reproduce that... I believe it has among other things furniture polish. Carnuba wax is pretty popular in cheap "chocolaty" foods. Improves mouth feel I am told.

I used Callebaut 54% (I've seen that as both bitter and semi-sweet) and skim milk (because that is what we had). I did 1-to-1 mix - eight ounces of each. I found the empty leftover bowl of chocolate next to an open bag of pretzels at lunch so someone enjoyed it.

I should have thinned up some jam and used it as filling. But I didn't think of that until too late.

The doughnuts are a sweet fry bread. Now that I have figured out what to do with the oil I might make them again.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Bagels look good Mike!

BA good to know about your cracker dough. I have some in the refrigerator that is a few days old. I also have scraps in the freezer and when I am up to a few hundred grams I'll turn them into crackers.

I made more bread this weekend. I am up to three loaves a week weighing in at about 6 pounds.

I made yeast doughnuts this weekend. Violet was very excited to hear doughnuts but then disappointed that they were not the baked, chocolate doughnuts which are much easier. I made KAF yeasted doughnuts from the website. Pretty simple but there is a rest followed by a rise followed by a second rise.

They did not have center holes because the doughnut cutter I have is HUGE and would have used most of my dough for one doughnut. There was not enough of a difference between biggest and smallest circles of my biscuit cutter. If I'd been smart I would have cut the dough into strips and formed them into circle or just made churros.

I used canola oil instead of the recipe required peanut oil because that is what I had. But peanut oil might also have left a taste and canola is more neutral. The oil required constant adjusting to keep it at temp and most of my doughnuts are a little dark but they do not taste burned. I might be better served here by using an electric hot plate that I can set and leave instead of adjusting a gas flame but that is what I have.

I made a chocolate glaze with some semisweet chocolate and some milk and dipped he doughnuts in them.

After the oil cooled down I filtered it and reclaimed it and will reuse it.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Len - your bread looks great!

Yes Violet did get something sweet. I found some chocolate chip pancakes and added a healthy dose of syrup. She was happy.

Then Sunday I made doughnuts but I'll save that for the week of July 26.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Chocomouse that is a very cool idea. What do you do with Sir Galahad?

[aaronatthedoublef]

I have a sourdough loaf in the oven. I did a long (probably too long) proof in the basement which is cooler than upstairs it's between 70-75. I let the bread sit out for 24 hours. It was very loose so I did some folds and stretches and put it in the loaf pan and let it rise for another hour and a half. I'll see how it turns out. Sam and Henry will eat it. 🙂

I made dough for crackers while waiting for the second rise. I'll bake those either today or tomorrow.

Violet has requested something sweet.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I'm a little at a loss Len. Last few times I made pizza outside I used my beehive oven which is radically different from a charcoal grill. I blogged about it at the time. Rereading it I may have to go back to it.

My experiment with my whole wheat seems to be working. It is usually moldy in a couple days but it has been around since Saturday or Sunday and no mold. We've been eating it. The desiccant may be working.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Looks good Len.

Did you have the lid off the entire time? It might help cook the top if you lowered the lid for a time.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Don't know. I could try that. I remember bread coming in waxed paper bags when I was a kid. Haven't seen one in years.

Found them on Webstaurant.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA Thanks.

I've tried that. You need to change the paper towel. Otherwise it pulls out moisture and then holds it against the bread.

[aaronatthedoublef]

A couple ways I know to do this:

1) Push the coals to one side and cook over the non-coal side.

2) Keep the grill well oiled

3) Dough on the grill. This requires you to par-cook the crust then add sauce, cheese, and toppings to the cooked side and and put it back on the grill.

Or

Put you pizza stone on the grill and cook on the stone the way you would in the oven.

If your oven only goes to 500 or 550 you can generate much higher heat with a charcoal grill.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made pancakes the old fashioned way yesterday instead of the sheet pan way. My kids like them better

I baked my sourdough loaf. It came out nicely with a little bit of side blowout. I think next time I will try a batard.

I tried to talk my family into ordering pizza last night but they wanted mine. I added red pepper flakes to veggie pizza and my wife was not happy with it. Oh well...

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