[aaronatthedoublef]

After several days of mixing my starter became liquid enough to move to a new jar so I did that this morning. Since it was pretty loose I also added 10g BRM ww flour. I think I'll make crackers with it before going to bread.

I also don't call it sourdough because while many use "sourdough" to mean starter with natural yeast instead of commercial, there is a lot of "sourdough" bread here with all commercial yeast, no fermentation, and flavorings added to give it a sour taste. Also, my first sour loaf was deli rye and I didn't use starter but I did give it a long, slow, overnight rise to have some fermentation and develop the sour taste.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks everyone. My starter isn't liquid. It's more sludge. I guess I can add water to it and liquify it or I can pull some out, put it in a fresh jar, and hydrate that.

I'll let everyone know what I do and how it turns out.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike!

[aaronatthedoublef]

The pie looks great Mike. Joan - you are a good friend!

Has anyone experimented with making grain free bread? I have a friend who is trying it with marginal success.

I did not bake this week but Violet did. She made her first cake for my birthday. It came out very nicely. I made the frosting mostly because I wanted to try a new method. I also did the clean up for her so she only had the fun part of baking.

Last week was a challah bake but the temple was locked up on my bake day (Thursday) so I had 15 lbs of dough sitting in the fridge. I came in Sunday and gathered it up and brough it home. Can't waste that much dough. I've given away a few pounds of raw dough and a couple dozen 100g rolls and I still have plenty left. It seems to still have rise as I pull it out of the fridge and make rolls, proof, then bake. I haven't weighed how much is left.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The stand mixer lift is something that looks cool but probably becomes annoying when you really have it. At this point I could toss our stand mixer and just use a hand one for amount I use it. I think I can probably find one powerful enough for cakes and all my bread is done by hand anyway.

The triangle was developed for professional kitchens and then designers tried to transfer it to homes. In a big professional kitchen with lots going on, it may make sense to give multiple people their own workspaces without overlapping, to keep people from crossing paths unnecessarily, etc. But that is not what is in most residential kitchens.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Agreed! Joan your breads are amazing!

Thanks Mike.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. Should I coat the apples with cornstarch or flour (or even confectioner's sugar) or just cut them into small bits?

I'm inspired with the pumpkins. I may try that myself.

Update on Henry in Dublin - he is cooking for himself which is cool. He made meatballs the other day and had a slight mishap with the garlic. He confused cloves with bulbs and ended up with two whole bulbs of garlic in the meatballs. But college boys will eat anything.

Thanks again.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi. Have any off you ever put apples in bread? I'm thinking about doing this for some challah. When I've had other people's the apples appear to have kept the dough wet and from baking properly. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Also has anyone ever made a pumpkin shaped loaf? I was thinking about making a boule and then scoring it.

Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

That loaf is a work of art! Amazing.

[aaronatthedoublef]

After working with manufacturers to make appliances in all sorts of colors we are now being told to hide them away. My favorite is the lift that raises and lowers a stand mixer under the counter.

Kate want to redo our kitchen. My question to any potential designer will be "how many meals a week do you cook for three or more people."

[aaronatthedoublef]

It's quiet here!

We did our challah bake at temple. It was fun. Not sure how many people actually baked their bread once they were home but the kids enjoyed it. I made a few batches of dough and I also made three loaves of challah for the kids to sample.

The one challenge was rather than cleaning the tables and having the kids roll the challah on the table, they had them do it on paper tablecloths. The kids either floured the paper very heavily and then had trouble making the strands stick or, like Violet they rolled them into strands in their hands. Then they weren't tight enough. While they stuck together the strands melted into each other while rising.

While waiting for the first loaf to rise everyone mixed their own batch of dough.

We baked off the first loaf waiting for the second to rise. Then I shaped it into a coiled, round loaf and we baked it. We gave it to one of Violet's friends who was at the house to take home.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Choco, those look great!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks everyone. I hardly consider myself an expert. There are so many people who know so much more than I do. But I do use the temple kitchen once or twice a month to make 15 1lb loaves of bread so I know more than both our rabbis.

Mike and Len are right, this is ill advised but it's not my show and even when I was "leading" it the rabbis were going to do what they wanted to do.

They will go home with one or two braided loaves (the original plan was two) and a lump of dough that needs to rise.

Of course I am not sure how they will get the dough to braid. There is some number of volunteers bringing in enough dough to make two or four loaves that has been rising in the refrigerator some amount of time. I am delivering my dough at 8:45 in a disposable container. I'll use a turkey roasting bag as that is what I use to raise dough. Religious school begins at 9 and there is a 15-20 minute service. So between 8:45 and 9:30 we'll need to:

cut and pre-shape the dough.

Then the dough will need to rest and relax so people can roll it into ropes and braid it.

Then after we've braided it we're going to let it rise while someone walks us through mixing bread dough.

I am not clear if we're going to egg wash it at temple and I am not clear how we'll transport it back to our houses. I have bus tubs and roasting bags so my daughter and I will be okay. Not sure what others are going to do and no one has given me, as a dad participating in this with his daughter, any thing up front about what is happening.

Maybe I over plan but this is not the way I would do it. But they did not want to do it my way. I am doing what I can to support it.

I am hoping for the best.

[aaronatthedoublef]

My baking is way down (sort of) because my boys are gone.

I'm baking more for other people. I've been making chocolate chip cookies lately for mostly other people (I always keep some at home). I'm using brown butter, toasted sugar, and brown sugar. Kate took a batch to Ireland when she went to visit Henry, our middle.

I have to make a bunch of challah this week. Our rabbis want to teach people to make challah. They've asked people to volunteer to make a double batch so I said I would do that. They also want people to bring in samples of their challahs with the recipe so I volunteered to do that as well.

It should all come together next Sunday. The plan is to give people pre-made dough to braid and then have them make their own dough while the braided dough rises. Then they'll send people home with the dough they braided and the dough they made but no actual bread. I'm trying to keep quiet because they asked me to do this. I said yes and then they kept telling me I didn't know what I was talking about so I said they should do it without me. I'm hoping for the best.

I also have scones and cookies to make!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Joan, your cake looks great! And if you didn't say you'd had a minor mishap no one would know. A great pastry chef friend used to say "frosting hides a multitude of sins."

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