[aaronatthedoublef]

Sorry. Put this in the wrong place... Moving to Adventures in steam...

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

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I didn't realize it was cocoa butter that determined the quality of the chocolate. Looking at the chocolates at the grocery store now the only thing anyone seems to think about is the amount of cocoa.

I know my favorite chocolate cake recipe uses melted unsweetened and semi sweet chocolate and oil. I've used both Bakers and Callebaut successfully.

But the recipe does not call for melting the chocolate with the oil. The oil and coffee are added to the dry ingredients and then the melted chocolate is added. Butter and chocolate are often melted together because they both need to be melted. Is there an advantage to melting the chocolate in the oil?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Skeptic. I bake scones and pizza too. My family does not want to order pizza from anywhere in town now (we average one pizza place per resident in my town). SO I get it. And I used to buy Whole Foods whole wheat sandwich bread and it was reasonable. My wife is now buying this sprouted stuff that is stupid expensive. I would and do pay that much from one of the local bakeries but a mass produced loaf? Doesn't seem worth it.

BA - I use white whole wheat in my pizza crust. I make about five pounds every two weeks:

2 pounds of water
1.5 pounds KAF cake or Caputo semolina flour
1 pound KAF white whole wheat
1/4 pound Bob's flax meal
1/4 pound Bob's chickpea
~ 1 TBL SAF yeast
~ 1 TBL turbinado sugar
~ 2 tsps. Morton's kosher salt

My family loves this dough and is very resistant to any changes or experiments. Not sure if the proportions are on or not and I do this by feel but it's a start.

[aaronatthedoublef]

What are YOUR favorite whole wheat sandwich loaves? I want to try making one my kids will eat and so far I've never been successful.

Have fun at class Mike. Looking forward to reading about it.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Yup. I really started looking at no-knead when I was teaching kids to make challah. The first time I used my KA stand mixer and they all went home and asked their parents to buy one.

The next three or four times I did it I made all the dough by hand to show them it could be done. I used a bowl, a wooden spoon, and a scraper - all of their kitchens had at least two of those three.

Anything that gets people baking is good.

Here is the KAF Just Bread recipe... They bread has a levain which calls for a sourdough starter but doesn't have a link to a sourdough starter. So I'm not sure how popular this will be for novice bakers.

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

[aaronatthedoublef]

The no-knead trend may have contributed to using Dutch ovens. Yes people have been baking bread in pots forever. But looking at Jim Lahey's "my bread" all of his recipes require a pot or a stiff pan in the case of baguettes because the dough is too soft to hold a shape on it's own.

And it doesn't seem as if it's less work. I have to admit I've always been afraid to use a Dutch oven but maybe I'll try it with a spatula or using it cold.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Interesting. Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike. Pretty cool. Thanks for this. I want to make a steam tube!

What was the difference between starting weight and finishing weight? Was it significant? I don't usually care but when I taught challah making the finished loaf size mattered. I needed about 18.5 ounces to make a one pound loaf.

I've just started to notice the different weights before and after proofing, after second rise, and after baking and I have been curious.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Pretty amazing challah. I've made a double decker one once. It is not easy.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I've used oven/microwave oven combo units before in some long term hotels but they seem to have fallen out of favor for regular microwaves these days. It worked okay. It had some kind of rack in it that worked wit the microwave.

A local appliance store used to sell them but I could never convince my wife we should replace the microwave with it.

Our current range is better than the last which had no insulation but it still throws off a lot of heat and stays hot for a while. More than once I've doublechecked to see if the I've left the oven on after pizza night where it runs at about 500 for a couple hours.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Yes, Mike, it is a common practice and considered legal to hire someone to turn things on and off, push elevator buttons, etc. during the Sabbath. I've always disagreed with practice of having someone break the law for me, but I also do not "keep the Sabbath". In big hotels in Israel they have Sabbath and non-Sabbath elevators. The Sabbath elevators stop on each floor going up and each floor going down so no one needs to push a button to call the elevator or designate where they want it to take them.

I do not think my wife would allow me to keep the oven on overnight unless I were staying up to watch it. And even then she might not because she knows I would fall asleep.

And since you've taught us the Maillard reaction is non-pyrolytic it shouldn't inhibit browning.

We won't get a slow cooker because it takes up too much counter space. What would be neat is a combination microwave/toaster oven that was big enough to hold a dutch oven. Then I could use that without turning on the entire oven and heating up the kitchen in the summer.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made scones yesterday for Valentines day. Today my daughter and I made strawberry ice cream cone cupcakes. The frosting had strawberries too and was a little too liquid but it tasted good.

[aaronatthedoublef]

It looks great. And the ground caraway is an interesting addition.

I go back and forth with the cornstarch glaze. I'm not sure it adds much beyond color.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The only time I've used self-rising flour I made my own and I used KAF bread flour so it had high gluten and was not soft. But that's what I had and since I only had the one use for self-rising I wasn't going to buy a five pound bag.

Never used barley. I'll have to try it sometime.

I use flax meal and chickpea flour which appear soft and are gluten free.

I also use corn meal in shortbread to soften it. My Scottish side of the family says they used to add rice flour back when they were kids. This was before I could find rice flour so I added some corn meal.

We've recently started having corn flour in addition to corn meal in a couple stores here. I am not sure of the difference between corn flour and fine corn meal. They look the same in the bags. I always thought corn flour was what the Brits called corn meal/

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. So just based on protein content (glutenin vs. gliadin aside) pastry flour is soft like self-rising but doesn't have the leavening or salt.

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