[aaronatthedoublef]

Well, I went back to the original recipe for this test and only made a single batch. So now I need to go back to my changes (I reduced the hydration a little) and increase it to a double batch and see how that goes.

Ultimately my goal is to get it to where I can do it by hand unless/until I can buy a bigger mixer. My is a 5 qt so it is overwhelmed pretty quickly. The engine can handle more than the bowl can hold.

[aaronatthedoublef]

This looks like a good source. A fifty pound bag of white whole wheat would be good. It's about a three month supply. And they have unbleached cake flour which I need too. Their 5 lb bags are not cheap but their 50 lb ones are pretty good.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I knew this. Not sure how but I did.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Yesterday I made Stella Parks whole wheat bread. I used my KitchenAid instead of the food processor. Much easier as the mixer could hold the entire batch at one time and clean up was much easier.

I know Ms. Parks says the food processor is faster but if I need to divide up a batch into two or four it ends really being faster in the mixer where I can do it all. And I used the mixer bowl for the autolyze so I did not have a bowl and the food processor to clean. I haven't cut into it yet but will today. From teh outside everything is good.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I've only used the food processor for the Stella Park bread and it works well there. But getting the dough out without cutting my finger is a huge challenge. Ms. Parks wants to cut the ingredients together quickly so the metal blade is required. But it also heats up the dough in a way a stand mixer does not. So far it has not hurt the dough but my kitchen has been cool (65) each time I made it. Now it is at 75.

I will make some this weekend with my KitchenAid just to see how it comes out and because I think I can handle a bigger volume.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Has anyone ever tried making English muffins from an English muffin bread recipe? Conversely have you made bread from an English muffin recipe. How much effect does shaping and griddling have versus baking a pan loaf or even a free form.

I made a sourdough yesterday. It's interesting. The recipe calls for a sponge to be made of starter, flour an water. My starter is 100% hydration but the flour and water added are at 50% so not sure what the hydration would be for the sponge. I upped the water to 66.67% in the sponge but left it the hydration at 50% when adding the flour and water to the sponge. I baked it in a bread pan that was probably too small but it looked good. I'll cut into it today. It might be too slack to do a free form although stretching would help some. Also would there be a benefit to a third rise? I remember doing that with some breads at the bakery. We'd get the dough after the first rise and make rounds and let them rise. Then we'd take those, degas them, shape them into their final shape, let them rise, and bake them off.

I think, except for baguettes and brioche, most loaves had three rises. But that was a long time ago.
So much to try!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Honey also has anti-bacterial qualities. I am not sure if it will make a difference but I have a bunch sitting around.

My sourdough appeared not to be rising after I shaped it but then it had blow outs. Looks kind of like long rolls and I that's how I will use it. I'll try some more later this week.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I've started cleaning my jars. Plus I have two clean jars and I will move it to them later this week. I noticed while making my sourdough that the starter was a little looser than normal. That may be humidity. I try to keep it at 100% (that is what the original recipe called for) but I may up the flour content a bit.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I'm working on a batch of sourdough bread. I have a loaf of whole wheat bread thawing on the counter. My last loaf grew moldy pretty quickly. That hasn't happened before but it's pretty humid now. I wonder if subbing some honey in for the brown sugar will slow that. So many things to try!

[aaronatthedoublef]

You all are inspirational! I need to make coffee cake or chocolate cake soon to use up the sour cream we have.

I need to make some English muffins and more sourdough bread. Plus I have two olive bread recipes and a raisin bread recipe to try.

This weekend is supposed to rain so it may be a good time to stay in and bake.

[aaronatthedoublef]

More on starter. I learn every day...

I switched it up and used medium rye instead of whole wheat which yielded a noticeable increase in activity. I then found an open bag of rye flour but didn't realize it was white rye. It had lower activity than both whole wheat or medium rye. It means I also must have used it for deli rye. I going to have to pickup some dark rye and do a variation on Mike's rye tests using different ryes in the same recipe.

I had to toss a few cups of starter. 🙁 The edge of the jar looked and smelled moldy and I did not want to take a chance so I dumped it. I will need to be cleaner now. Over on the BBGA everyone says a clean container each day. They are using large containers - one fellow has five gallon buckets! If someone is going to use glass jars as I do see if you can use wide mouth jars, use a wide mouth canning funnel, and wipe down the mouth. I will also move to clean jars more often.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The New York Times reported no new deaths over night in their Thursday newsletter. That is the first time since March.

Here restaurants are open and doing about 50% of normal business but it is heavily weather dependent. They want to move inside before the scheduled June 20 date. When I spoke with my friend he figured they would be able to use about half of their space inside.

He has lots of flour and yeast so that appears to be back to normal too. I did not ask if I could start using his kitchen again. I don't want to even if he said yes. Even though the CDC says the risk of spreading through surfaces is low I do not want to risk my infecting one of his employees or customers.

I'm going to see if I can find some of the large equipment he has used locally.

[aaronatthedoublef]

KAF has been an annual trip for us since our boy began going to summer camp up that way. I wish I'd purchased some giant bags of flour occasionally but I can find them down here at restaurant supply stores for less. I love gadgets but we just do not have the space AND I am cheap (maybe those should be reversed). But it is great to walk around and see everything and the people are so nice. And then my oldest began going to running camp way up in the Northeast Kingdom (15 minutes north of St. Johnsbury, Chocomouse).

I've always been a little disappointed with their café and there are some phenomenal places in the towns nearby. It's always been a fun couple of weekends, dropping off and picking up.

Sadly there is no camp this year. Our kids are second generation as my wife went there. My middle will age out and unless he wants to be a CIT he is done. But Violet will be old enough to begin going in a year or two.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, the pie sounds wonderful.

I made a sourdough again. Last time it looked dry so I added extra water. I had a softer crust but a very high oven spring. This time I resisted the urge to use water and had very little oven spring. I'll see how the crust is later. But it looks like I have to find the balance in hydration.

As for Ms. Parks recipe, I may try an experimental batch this weekend just to see if I can make it in a mixer. Some of the commenters/questioners on the site swear they've done it.

I'll probably use the paddle instead of the dough hook since it's very loose.

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

[aaronatthedoublef]

I'm in IT and went from working 9-10 hour days to 12 hour days...

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