[aaronatthedoublef]

I had landlords who made their own mascarpone from ricotta. I am sorry I never had them show me how to do it.

I just had a conversation this weekend about freezing mozzarella. I usually buy it 10 pounds at a time in one pound block (loaves?) and keep it in the freezer. I thaw it and use it as we need it. I have yet to find a shredded mozzarella that my wife likes but I've frozen both. The woman checking me out didn't know you could freeze mozzarella which led to a discussion of freezing cheddar (which does not work for me).

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike - the marble is beautiful.

In the bakery we would double wrap things in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. The key was supposed to be to have an inner layer flush against the food and an outer layer to protect against frost. Not sure of the science behind it but it seemed to work. We always had a couple items frozen in case someone came in without notice and needed an "emergency" cake or pie.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. And I should have known Caputo was unbleached because they sell it at Whole Foods which doesn't sell bleached or bromated flours. Interestingly it is the least expensive flour there even with all the shipping involved. My family's favorite cake - white cake from "The Cake Bible" calls for cake flour. I had it in the house for that and tested it for pizza to try to simulate the lower gluten flours in Italy before I found anything like Caputo. My family liked result. Since then I've added white whole wheat flour for fiber and flax meal (I prefer red to golden) and chickpea flour to increase fiber and protein. Whole Foods sells Caputo oo and an Italian grocery near my doctor sells semolina but my family (who loved it in Italy) has rejected that here. But maybe I'll try it again.

Many of the bakers here prefer shortcuts. They're doing whatever they can to stay alive, especially if they only have retail customers. Still not sure why it's so hard to find real sourdough since once you have the starter going you just have to maintain it but the none of the local bakeries have it.

Most of our bagels are still NY style but I've seen a few Montreal style popup and they are smaller. They tend to be smaller and sweeter but I have not been to Montreal in years and did not go out of my way to note bagels there the last time I did.

I have taken several drug screen tests that asked if I'd eaten poppy seeds in the last week (some screens go back farther). But the last screen I did (four weeks ago) did not ask me any questions about diet or medications which is interesting. There was a plot in "Seinfeld" where Elaine tested positive for heroin because she ate a poppy seed muffin every day.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike, the pie bottom looks great! Never though of transferring a pie too. I may have to try a Norpro pan. My Norpro griddle has been a bit of a disappointment.

Around here (central CT) and in Portland/Camden MA where I've talked to bakers coffee is trendy to put into dark rye breads for color. I'm not sure how it affects taste. And for me to really know I would need to taste it blind.

My wife has never liked rye but after giving her some rye without caraway we discovered that the caraway is really what she objected to.

I tend to think I live in a suburban backwater but we can find lots of things in the grocery stores here even if it's more expensive than online. We also have a lot of ethnic groceries - various Asian and eastern European - and rye flours are popular in the German and Polish groceries. And I'd rather support small grocery stores than buy online.

I've made a slight change to my pizza dough. I stopped using cake flour and started using Caputo oo flour. It's pretty fine but there is very little info on the bag. It might be bleached. I'll need to research on the internet. But it's half the price of cake flour.

Chocomouse, congrats on the bagels! They're on my list for this year. Did you put baking soda in the water?

And BA thanks for the tip about boiling to long. Most recipes I've read have you boil them for several minutes per side.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made pizza dough for tonight and next week. I forgot to add the yeast. I don't remember who did that a few weeks back and then added the yeast in later but thanks for recounting that here. I realized the dough wasn't rising after a couple hours, dumped it out, and kneaded in about a tablespoon of yeast. It is rising. Not as high as normal, not quite doubled, but it is definitely higher.

Has anyone ever done a double-rise pizza dough? Nobody seems to but I may try it some time.

In my "Secrets of a Jewish Baker" for several different deli ryes They mist the bread before they put it into the oven AND pour some water into a hot pan to have a burst of steam as you say Mike. They may do this several times over the course of a bake. Commercial ovens have steam injectors. The hot pan/add water method is to try and simulate the steam injectors.

I made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies this morning. Track meet and math competition for my kids.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Missed it. I thought it was peas which, according to this link was the first commercially available frozen vegetables in the UK.

This link has a neat story about how Clarence Birdseye was inspired to invent frozen food but does not say what he froze first.

https://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question97828.html says Birdseye began by freezing cabbage as a test to see if it would work.

[aaronatthedoublef]

We use olive oil for a lot but it's smokes to easily on high heat. We use some canola, peanut, sesame too. Or sometimes I'll use safflower or sunflower instead of canola.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I know canola is from rapeseeds but I thought it was modified and was not pure rapeseed oil. I'll have to do some research.

And thanks for the pointer to Sandra. I'll need to look more at that.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. And I get it. I faced my own battle with cholesterol a long time ago. I gave up dairy and whole eggs and exercised five or six days a week and my numbers stayed the same or went up. I was resistant to taking any drugs. When my dad died my doctor, a very smart, nice man who worried a lot about me, said "enough" and put me on statins. It's the only thing I've ever tried that has lowered numbers.

But the things I make weekly I now make with more whole grains and mix in flax seed and chickpea flour (be careful with chickpea flour as it has a strong taste) too. I've cut back on butter and cheese in my recipes as well. And interestingly my kids usually prefer what their mom or I make for them to anything we might buy, even with the whole grains and reduced dairy fat.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Isn't Maillard non-pyrolytic?

[aaronatthedoublef]

I've never seen canola oil in any Mediterranean countries but I'll check with friends there.

Italy is mostly olive oil and from Umbria north they have lots of sunflowers for oil as well.

I'll check. BTW, wasn't there a woman on the old KAF baking circle who lived in Spain? Does anyone know what happened to her?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Choco. I may need to look at BJs again.

BA, are there restaurants near you? You could befriend them, see who they order from, and maybe they would help you out. I've been very fortunate that way.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA! I looked through recipes and even searched. But the hunt was worthwhile as I found some more good recipes to try that everyone has posted.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Happy Birthday BA!

[aaronatthedoublef]

We have a Benriner which appears to be about $20 on Amazon. The guard was never very good and it appears to have a couple of blades which have been lost along the way too. But the blade we have is STILL sharp and this is something my wife brought with her when we were engaged and moved in together so that is 19 years ago (I proposed in March of 2001). We also had a fancy one from William Sonoma that someone gave us as a wedding gift that was dull the day we received it. That one is floating around somewhere but it was pretty dangerous precisely because it was so dull...

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