[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. I saw that one and it is the most expensive. It is also linen.

I'll ask what to look for in a couche. I could also always ask on the BBGA.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Len - looks great. And I refer to BBA regularly although I've yet to bake a loaf from it. If you want to make a 4 or 6 strand braid it has great directions, for example. And there are some fun stories in it too.

Mike - thanks for the tips on the baking steel. I just don't want to shell out the money for it right now. I remembered how we made pizza at our college pub and I may try a variation on that. We would stretch the dough then put it in an oiled pan. The pan went in the deck oven. After some amount of time we would take it out of the pan and finish it on the deck.

I must have made hundreds of those pizzas over four years!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Choco, the braid is lovely. I always made calzoni because I was too lazy to make stromboli.

Believe it or not. sometimes you can buy refurbished goods for good prices from Amazon. The least expensive I found there was $70. You might do better. I've had good luck there buying refurbed computers. They are a couple of years behind the latest model but they are perfect for middle school.

BA & Joan, thanks. I always keep my yeast in the freezer and theoretically it should have been good. It was less than a year old.

I haven't proofed my yeast since I switched from active to instant. I also never proofed bread dough at bakeries. I usually mix my liquids at home - apple cider, eggs, oil, and honey. Maybe I'll reserve some cider and proof my yeast next time.

I'm a firm believer that there is no "perfect" pizza, just what you like. I have been on a quest for a long time to make a good, Chicago thin. This is close. Some people told me I need a steel instead of a stone but that is an expensive upgrade!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for the lessons on chickens. It makes sense that egg layers are not eating chickens.

So if this is affecting egg laying flocks but not eating flocks it would be interesting to know why. And if it is affecting eating flocks why hasn't the price gone up?

We have a family chickenologist I could ask but that's another story.

[aaronatthedoublef]

My last eggs were $6.99 for two dozen at Costco. What's interesting here is that eggs have gone up but not chicken. Can farmers sell chicken they killed to prevent the spread of bird flu?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Lots of baking the last couple of weeks...

I've started to try using my mixer for bread to see if it makes a difference with some interesting results. I tried my ciabatta dough. It is 87% hydration. It mixed nicely but never cleaned the sides of the bowl. It was stickier than when I hand mix it but the buns came out fine. This week I dropped the hydration to 80. I'm going to make some buns tonight so I'll see how they come out.

I've been making two pizza doughs - a "New Haven" dough which is just a standard, flour, yeast, water, & salt dough. It's what I used to make when I started making pizza. The family likes it although the boys like my multi-grain pizza dough better. My MG dough was originally 70% hydration. In an effort to get a crisper crust I dropped it to 55%. I realized I was trying to dry out a wet dough. The pizzas were not soggy at all, even the veggie pizza with extra sauce and lots of veggies. I think next time I'll start it on an oiled pan to get some oil on the crust before I put it onto the stone. This should crisp it up some more.

I made challah last week and it didn't rise. Not sure what went wrong. It was baked all the way through and tasted good. The rolls I make for the folks who work in the office were all gone in 15 minutes so they still tasted good. But when I broke one open I could see where it didn't rise. But it was cooked all the way through. Not sure what went wrong. Maybe my yeast was dead. I decided order and try some osmotolerant yeast too, just to see if it makes a difference next time.

I made the challah by hand because I am making about 17 lbs.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Happy belated birthday BA!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Here in CT, at least, while egg prices are up, other baking staples have dropped. Costco vanilla is $9.99 a pint. And I was stunned the other day when KAB bread flour was $5.59/5 lbs. at Whole Foods. It hasn't been that cheap in years. It's still more expensive than Costco which is $7.99 for 10 lbs.

Sugar has dropped some too. WW flour is still up there.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. Whole Foods had 18 large eggs, organic, outdoor access for $6.59 today.

I am not sure how they can guarantee that opportunistic omnivores like chickens can be guaranteed organic if they are allowed to roam about.

You should actually never break the shell on the edge of a bowl. You should break it on the flat of the table. Using a bowl pushes the shell in to the yolk and white and the shell is the part most likely to have salmonella. Although according to my chickenologist sister-in-law grocery store eggs have their shells scoured to clean them and rarely have salmonella.

When I worked in my first bakery they would time me to see how quickly I could crack eggs. Or maybe it was just a little hazing. But they were good, kind teachers and I am still friends with them.

I love cracking eggs. It's sort of a little bit of meditation.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Trader Joe's is usually a little less expensive than our grocery stores although I haven't checked Aldi's. I don't know what their eggs are. Last week I bought 24 for $6.49 at Costco. They had dropped briefly but are back up over $6 again.

When it's just Kate, Violet, and me we go through a dozen eggs every couple weeks except for challah weeks. We had Sam home and he eats about a dozen eggs a week. They're still relatively cheap protein.

Skeptic, does your pizza dough recipe call for eggs?

BTW, yesterday was my volunteer kitchen day. I cracked about 10 dozen eggs. How do you all crack eggs?

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made more molasses cookies. I made a double batch to give-away.

It's also a ciabatta week. I usually would cut and bake the whole batch then freeze what I didn't need and thaw. Last batch I tried leaving the dough in the fridge and baking as needed. I did cut and freeze some dough then thaw and shape as needed. That works but not as well and I still need to work out the timing for thawing/shaping/rising. Pulling off and shaping some cold dough really is the best option.

I kept my challah dough in the refrigerator for a month and it still had some rise in it. I did not try eating it because I didn't want to risk making myself sick.

I also have been letting them rise at room temp under a quarter sheet of parchment. This morning I let it rise at room temp inside a tented baking bag. They came out higher so maybe the parchment has been weighing them down?

I made New Haven style pizza but for some reason the dough was really elastic. I took it out of the freezer and let it thaw in the refrigerator then for the last few hours I let it sit on the counter. I will try thawing and rising for longer. This may make it a little more relaxed.

Anyone ever converted from compressed yeast to instant? I have a recipe that calls for .8 oz of compressed yeast. The calculator I found on the web (https://www.omnicalculator.com/food/yeast-converter) says this is 7.5 g.

[aaronatthedoublef]

So cool. I'm going to try and go back and find it.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The sour cream cake looks amazing!

I took a class a the New Haven Pizza School this week. It was a birthday gift from Kate. Lots of fun and I learned some good stuff, especially their sauce. It was very simple - just canned tomatoes through the largest size grate in a food mill.

I made my mom's molasses cookies and it was a challah week as well. I always make extra challah and was meeting some college friends for lunch so I brought them each cookies and a loaf of bread. One of them texted me "keep your friends close and your bakers closer." I think I may make that a tee shirt.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Interesting KAF vs. KABC... Over at the BBGA a couple of weeks ago someone ordered a bag of KABC flour and it came from Ardent. It appears King Arthur has outsourced their flour milling now. Are they still a flour company?

I'll be interested in the regenerative flour as well.

Violet and I made oatmeal chocolate chip muffins yesterday (snow day). Kate made them with Violet before and they batter was drier so I up the moisture a bit and shortened the bake time and they're definitely wetter.

Violet wanted to use milk chocolate chips ("they taste better") but the milk chocolate chips we have are bigger and stick to the muffin tins so some of the muffins have not chips. I need to find mini milk chocolate chips.

I need to make my mom's ginger cookies.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi BA,

Have you tried contacting National Bakery and asking them for their recipe? I was looking for a recipe for something I had at a bakery in Evanston and they sent it to me. So they might be willing to share.

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