[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...

[aaronatthedoublef]

I haven't used cheese powder yet and my wife asked me not to as she likes these with cheese.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike - I did add a little honey my whole wheat bread.I replaced 15 grams of brown sugar with honey to see if that helps. My daughter saw me adding the honey and asked what I was making. She told me honey does not go with bread and I told her it was actually a regular ingredient in bread. She was surprised and curious.

It may be time to order some micro-perforation bags like Mike is using.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Rice... That's funny. We used to have rice in the house. Then my 17 year old learned how easy it is to make and he mixes it with some microwave Indian food. And now we have no rice. 🙂 I think he has used about four cups uncooked in the last five days.

I need something food safe and inedible. Just took 100% whole wheat out of the oven. It's red wheat and I do not know where it is from. But don't look a gift bag of flour in the mouth! It is the Stella Park recipe from Serious Eats but I dropped the hydration from 75% to 70. And I dropped the second rise time to about 1.25 hours from two or so to make up for a warmer house. I may try dropping hydration another 5%. It is still pretty slack and loose but now I am starting to get some peak.

Oh, and my wife has decided she likes my sourdough. I'll bake that and maybe more crackers tomorrow.

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

[aaronatthedoublef]

I have sourdough and pizza dough rising refrigerator and a whole wheat autolyse on the counter. The sourdough and pizza dough should be ready tomorrow (pizza dough is on day 4). I'll make the whole wheat today. We're almost out of bread. We've gone through three loaves this week.

BTW, anyone have any recommendations for preventing mold? Sourdough is fine but the whole wheat goes moldy very quickly. I slice the loaf and freeze it taking a few slices out as needed. I have some medicine that comes with the little moisture absorbing packets and I am thinking of saving them and adding them to the bread bags.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Cass - Thank you. I'm looking at Rose Levy Birinbaum's website now. I've been using the Cake Bible for 25 years now. I knew she had a pie bible too and apparently a bread bible and a baking bible as well.

IC - one note I left out from pancake making is I've started to sift the dry ingredients. They absorb liquid better and reduces lumps and mixing.

It's interesting. KAF and Alton Brown give very different advice. Alton Brown says to mix the batter and use it right away to take advantage of the baking soda lift which is why minimal mixing is important as it agitates the glutens. KAF says to let the pancake batter rest for at least 10 minutes and even overnight to relax the gluten. I use pastry flour so there is less gluten and sift to reduce mixing. So take my advice with a grain of salt.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The fight of lye vs sweet was definitely passionate and kind of entertaining. I have expected a duel using baguettes at dawn (I was watching "Hamilton" the other night).

That and mixers seem to evoke immediate and intense responses.

I need to start making bagels! One more thing to add to the list.

[aaronatthedoublef]

IC thanks for the info on baking powder. It's handy to be able to make it if I need it and cannot buy it. I also had no idea I needed to keep cream of tartar away from the light. It is tucked away but that is more because we keep it with our spices and they are all tucked in a drawer.

For pancakes try reducing the liquid a bit. They thicken and hold it longer if they are a little tighter. The downside to this is that they will not bubble through to tell you when to flip them so it involves some experimentation.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Maintaining a well stocked pantry (including butter and eggs in this) can be a bit of a challenge even in non-pandemic times. Mixes do make that a little easier so I get it. Plus I have many friends who start out baking and then give up because it doesn't look like the blog they are following. I am thinking of starting a new blog (because the world needs another person writing about baking) called "Bad bakes and ugly cakes" which features blow out and fallen cakes and cookies that spread into each other.

I am baking more and continuing to bake more even though work never slowed down (it increased) and we have more to do with the kids because they are home more. But I stopped traveling which gave me time to build a starter (plus starters were all the rage so I had the okay to have one on the counter) and time to bake bread. Plus I am sleeping less lately so that gives me more time to bake.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, what is the advantage of Bakewell baking powder? Aside from having or not having aluminum are different baking powders really different?

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