[aaronatthedoublef]

3 1/2 pounds of challah is actually a small batch. 🙂 It needs to be 5 pounds to be kosher. I forget the reason why but it has something to do with taking a piece of the dough for a sacrifice. I'll look it up when I get a chance.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I used the Irfanview. Thanks for the recommendation. It's pretty easy to use and very lightweight.

Challah looks good! My mom made excellent challah and she started holding back flour to make it softer. I am still trying to reproduce her recipe. I've never had challah leftover for French toast. And it takes a while to go stale.

[aaronatthedoublef]

You're right. When I worked for the bakery in Seattle making pastry the chef gave me all sorts of tasks to stretch my abilities, build my speed, and challenge me.

One time she had me making flowers for a wedding cake and gave me much encouragement as well as correction only to redo much of my work after I left. But I slowly became competent this way.

Not sure why the shift lead in Hartford was like this but he was not a great teacher.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. Believe it or not I made three more pizzas! Two cheese and one veggie with red onions, olives, mushrooms, orange peppers, and grilled artichokes. My oldest came home at 9 and - despite having had a big dinner during rehearsal including pizza - he polished off a pizza. I still had enough left for lunches on Monday.

I was never allowed to make the epis at the bakery. I did make a few snake baguettes though before I made them consistently. Our shift lead wouldn't allow anyone other than himself to slash the baguettes or cut the epis.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike, bravo on the epis! Those are not easy. Actually I am amazed at how tricky baguettes can be. They all look great.

I took some pizza pictures this week.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I've heard lollipop but never popsicle.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Growing chocolate where they grow coffee! Makes sense.

I have access to a couple of wholesalers through my restaurant friends. I've purchased flour through them and I can probably buy some chocolate too. But the one I used doesn't have prices online so I need to ask for a quote.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Looks good and my wife is looking for something that supports Win 7.

Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike,

It looks like there are several chocolate farms on Hawaii now. Any idea which one your friend goes to?

11 pounds for just under $44 is really good - way better than I can buy for on sale. Not sure what the wholesalers around will sell for. They always want to give me a "quote".

[aaronatthedoublef]

Glad to hear your results BA. I probably don't think enough about saturated fat. But after years of upping butter I have started cutting back some. The best thing to do in my house is to just not make things. Fortunately I have enough school events that I can bake for. The boys running teams will eat as much as I can make. And now my oldest son is part of a show at school where they are asking us to make things for rehearsals and bake sales during shows.

Callebaut and Valrhona are both available at Whole Foods. When Callebaut goes on sale I stock up. So U probably have about 30 lbs of bulk chocolate right now. Valrhona is about $18 a pound, never goes on sale, and I am not certain I could tell the difference in a blind baked goods test. Even if I could $18 a pound is just too crazy. Callebaut actually works out to be cheaper than Guittard because I can buy Callebaut in bulk and because my family does not steal and eat the big blocks of chocolate.

And then there is the REALLY crazy stuff like Taza! Stoneground in Somerville MA and about $25-30/lb and only comes in tiny packages.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Sometimes the "mice" find and eat chocolate at my house too! Occasionally they've even broken into the unsweetened chocolate which no one does more than once.

The chips go faster than the bulk.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I was taught (never went to chocolate school sadly but in generic baking/cooking classes from pastry chefs friends) that chocolate is, at its essence, cocoa and cocoa butter. That's what my unsweetened chocolate it. I forget the cocoa percentage and I won't be home to check for a couple days.

Most chocolate only talks about cocoa percentage. No one thinks about cocoa butter, even when buying white chocolate which should be cocoa butter with no cocoa. If you look at what passes for most white chocolate out there it is mostly anything but cocoa butter. It's milk and sugar and vanilla and lots of other stuff.

My semi sweet is cocoa, cocoa butter, sugar, and lecithin. Bittersweet is the same ingredients in different proportions - more cocoa and less sugar.

Dairy is semi sweet plus milk which can vary itself in terms of fat and sugar content.

I use Callebaut for bulk chocolate and Guittard for chocolate chips. I cannot buy Callebaut chips except by mail-order and my favorite pastry chef of all time favors Guittard. I cannot tell the difference between Guittard and Toll House but my family likes them. When I'm not lazy I chop my bulk chocolate into chips and use it.

Of the stuff I buy Milk is usually in the mid 30s for cocoa, semi sweet in the 40s-50s, and bittersweet in 60s and up. Then there is "dark" which is anywhere from the 50s on up. I sometimes will use Bakers semi sweet and unsweetened, especially if I do not have a scale to weigh it out. I've never used their German chocolate. I like their product it's just harder to find these days. Not sure why.

I wish the same government org that gave Callebaut a hard time about ruby chocolate would put a bit of that effort behind "dark".

One more addition - pure cocoa butter from the Chocolate Man! When I lived in Seattle I ordered from him a couple of times. He was selling out of his house back then and one order was during a particularly hot summer. He came by and personally dropped of the order rather than chance it sitting on my porch in the heat. VERY nice man and very generous with his expertise.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Makes complete sense. I thought that lecithin was also for mouth feel too.

I have tasted cocoa and cocoa nibs but I've never tried cocoa butter.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Yes. My mom always swore it was easier to melt the butter and chocolate together for just that reason. It's never helped me though.

[aaronatthedoublef]

From our "just bread" discussion this is a simpler loaf.

It has a levain which is less commitment than a starter but then the levain requires 3 grams of starter. I'm not sure how important that is in a recipe that is about 2.25 kg.

[Author]

Posts