aaronatthedoublef
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I made a double batch of sourdough sandwich bread. I made a 2.25 lb sandwich load, a 1.5 lb batard to see if I could shape it and what were supposed to be buns but turned into rolls. Both loaves suffered blowouts.
It was the first time I've mixed it by hand as anything this big will overflow my mixer. I think it needed more water. When my dough is wetter and slacker the blowouts do not happen and the buns stay flatter. When the dough is tighter that when I have blow outs and I get some very nice, round rolls instead of flatter buns.
I also made some of BA's Sourdough Crackers. I baked one batch with the oven door open to see if allowing some moisture to escape would crisp them up. It did not. The edge crackers are always crisp but the middle ones are a little soggy. I may need to not just turn the pans but actually move the crackers around during baking.
Not sure how much the formula has changed over the years except now they are kosher and they were not until the late 90s. The lard is gone from the filling and that has to be a huge difference.
Len, those are great. Mine always have a flat side. Violet actually prefers the baked to the fried which is fine by me.
Poilane is one of the paragons of the "true sourdough" pain au levain in the article so it is interesting that her own cookbook recipe includes commercial yeast.
The article also draws distinctions between hard and liquid starter and commercial starter. I have not tried starter from KAF so I don't know how it compares. Over on the BBGA there were plenty of bakers giving away starter. I still want to try saving some old bread dough to use as starter for new dough.
I have not had Hydrox in years and Len, like you, people stopped liking the name. It made people think of hydrogen peroxide.
I like Jo-Jos and Whole Foods. I have not had Target but I may try them. I like the peppermint flavor that comes out at Christmas and I do like double stuff. I was making my own before Nabisco came out with them by combining two Oreos and eating the leftover cookies separately. Chips Ahoy are awful.
Maybe I'll make Fauxreos this weekend!
Len, I'm surprised you've never tried Hydrox as they are a Chicago product! According to the podcast the name, was originally considered to be superior to Oreos but fell out of favor as it sounded to much like chemicals and people wanted natural products.
Oreos filling contained lard until 1997 or 98 (both dates are mentioned in the podcast).
CM, that was the disappointing bread we bought at the farmer's market. We didn't try their pizza after we had their bread.
I made my sourdough sandwich loaf and for the first time had NO BLOWOUTS! My kids had bread I did not make last week for the first time since March. We had a combination of store bread and bakery bread from a farmer's market. The store bread was what it was. The bakery bread was very disappointing. Spongy with not much rise. Decent taste but bad texture.
CWC, I am sorry to hear about your mom.
BA's crackers are made with butter. BA has subbed in some oil for some of the butter. But they use all butter in the original recipe here. They also use white whole wheat but I am using red whole wheat as that is what I have.
I can't find my copy of the recipe otherwise I would give you the notes BA gave me.
I knew the answer but also misread the question. Ugh
Looks like parchment but hard to know without more information. I do reuse parchment sometimes. The box itself will be less than rolls of parchment but shipping may eat up any savings. The cheapest option to my company's office in suburban Indianapolis is $12.06. To my house - which is about two hours away - it is actually more expensive - $12.44!
One more thing... I subbed out half the white flour for whole wheat and cut the butter in half. And there are three left of the dozen I made so no one is complaining.
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.
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.
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