[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Joan and BA for the buttermilk information. BA - it was 1%. Joan - when the recipe calls for decreasing baking powder and upping baking soda is it calling for double acting baking powder? I don't have any recipes that distinguish between double action baking powder and baking powder and even a lot of baking powders on the shelves here make it hard to distinguish.

I used my brown butter to make shortbread. I used my standard recipe - 8 oz. butter, 2 cups flour, half cup corn starch, and vanilla to taste (I use 1 tsp.) Could not get much simpler. The dough was more crumbly than normal but I pushed it together, rolled it out, and cut out cookies with a round biscuit cutter. Mt family went nuts over them. They definitely tasted better after cooling for some time. As I said, I think the butter could brown some more.

This is the thing that confuses me about all the cooking competitions - most of what I bake does not taste good or at least it's best for several hours to several days after baking. People make pastry cream all the time and while I've only made it a couple of times it needed to chill in the refrigerator for at least a few hours before it had a full flavor and it was even better the next day. So how do people create this great tasting stuff right off the stove or only having chilled briefly, even in a blast chiller?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike, what's the best way to use the BBGA forums? They're a little overwhelming.

I made pancakes yesterday but instead of the usual powdered buttermilk I used actual buttermilk. I needed much more liquid than normal. Not sure why and I have not begun investigating yet. I usually use 2.5 cups of milk with a cup of whole wheat pastry flour, a cup of white pastry flour, and a half cup of flax meal.

I used most of the quart of buttermilk.

I browned some butter too. Plan is to use it for brown butter shortbread. It's the first time I've ever made brown butter and I probably could have browned it a little more but I'd rather it be less brown than burned. I'll take it a little farther next time I think.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I've done very little baking since before Christmas. This week I made KAF sour cream coffee cake. My one change is that I make half the crumb topping called for in the recipe. It seems like it's too much and no one has ever complained. It cuts the amount of butter and sugar used by a third. I need to make molasses cookies at some point but we're trying to detox from all of the cookies and chocolate.

My youngest has been watching the kids baking championship on the Food Network and has a list of things she wants us to make including macarons and pate' choux. Not certain when those will happen.

[aaronatthedoublef]

My favorite chocolate cake recipe has always called for a half cup of strong coffee. I've started adding espresso powder too, to my brownies. Like BA's husband, my kids do not like coffee but that does not slow them down eating my cake or brownies.

Cutting down food waste will reduce costs. If you show restaurants a way to cut their costs they will all follow your lead. It will reduce costs in at least two ways - 1) The money spent on food will be stretched farther, and 2) the money spent on waste removal will go farther.

Speaking of food waste one of my sons today suggested we start a place to sell muffin tops. This led to a discussion about the muffin top Seinfeld episode and he had a great idea for the bottoms - put frosting on them and resell them as cupcakes! 🙂

[aaronatthedoublef]

Really interesting. If nothing else this should catch on because it will help restaurants lower costs, increase margins, and increase profitability.

What they do with bread is very creative. The places I worked would put some water in a bowl in the warming drawer to soften old bread. And we used it that for more than day old bread.

I wonder if I could grind grounds and use it to give chocolate things a coffee boost.

For an interesting take on coffee see the Black Blood of the Earth.

I'd like to try it but it's REALLY expensive, I like my coffee hot, and I like to drink more than I can drink of this because of the massive amount of caffeine in it.

Oh, the problem we had with nitrous filled whipped cream cannisters was people inhaling the nitrous. We stopped using them because entire cases would have nothing but dead cans. But what do you expect in a kitchen run almost exclusively by college students with almost no adult supervision.

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Sorry BA. Guess that is why the USPS still exists.

Mike, I have used NY Bakers a couple of times and have been happy with their prices and their service. I bought first clear flour from them and it was about $9 for a 5 pound bag as opposed to KAF which is about $10 for 3 pounds.

I have not heard of gingerbread cookie pancakes either. I think my daughter was inspired by a food show she was watching...

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, you might try online UPS shippingonline UPS shippingonline UPS shipping and see if you can schedule a pickup for your town.

Skeptic, the ricotta/cranberry pizza sounds great and Mike your bread looks fantastic.

I had baking planned but other things intervened... Only thing I've made this week is gingerbread pancakes. My daughter asked for them as I was making the Sunday morning pancakes so I mixed in some ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and molasses. The pancakes tasted pretty good but it turns out what my daughter wanted was regular pancakes with chunks of gingerbread cookies mixed in!

I was thinking of making a mix of gingerbread spices since I use it a lot this time of year. Has anyone ever used powdered molasses before I buy some?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Interesting. Never been to cooking school either. I was just taught that by chefs I was working for. They always told me it was how knives were meant to be held and was safer and faster. Never questioned it.

I don't really think he is a phony. And looking at the close-ups of his knife hand he may have some arthritis problems too.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I didn't notice that! That is cool. And they appear to be cut differently too. If you cooked American style cinnamon rolls that way and managed to keep them from falling over everything would probably leak. This looks a little more croissant like.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The pearl sugar looks like a nice alternative to the heavy white frosting we have. Too often people use it to hide a mediocre roll underneath.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hello. Mike - those challahs are beautiful. I found a YouTube video of making them and it looks like something I could manage with a little practice.

I've been reading about all your various baking and I'm envious. Business picked up like mad on Monday and Tuesday (and even a little Wednesday morning) so I was way behind where I wanted to be.

BA - your doctor may not allow you to read this as I started Wednesday evening with 10 lbs. of butter and was down to two by Saturday evening.

I made my usual pumpkin, pecan, and chocolate hazelnut pies. My crusts were not ugly this time. Instead of subbing heavy cream for water I used water and had no shrinkage on the pumpkin pie which was not blind baked and only a little on the blind baked pecan. For blind baking I dropped the temp when I put the crust in the oven and only blind baked it for a short time. I also had it resting in the freezer before I put it in the oven. I noticed the butter started to ooze out so I still to need to work on that but my crusts looked not bad and the pies tasted good. I wanted to bake them Wednesday as they taste better the next day but it just didn't work this year.

I also made two dozen English muffin rolls and those were pretty good. I used the leftover dough to make English muffins.

Friday I made scones for my in-laws and family for breakfast and cookies for the cross country team for their meet on Saturday. I made molasses cookies (which my mom always called ginger snaps) but they did not spread right. I was rushing and I wanted to make a recipe-and-a-half so I must have added too little butter or too much flour or something. They tasted good and had the right spice taste.

Saturday was my middle's birthday and party. The night before when it was too late to order he requested an ice cream cake. So Saturday I was up early and made yellow cake cupcakes from the Cake Bible. Pretty tasty. I also made what seems to have been dubbed American buttercream.

Saturday night I made pizza. I was going to make a chocolate chip cookie birthday cake for my middle but we had leftover cupcakes and I was out of eggs. So maybe I'll make that today.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. This is great. I just joined the BBGA but I'm still figuring out how to use it. There is TONS of information.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Shaping has some effect on the chewy-ness of the cookie. If cookies spread they are flatter and tend to bake through faster. If they stay as blobs it takes a bit longer for the middle to cook through so you can cook for the same amount of time as flattened cookies but still end up with a soft (or even uncooked) center. Much of this relates back to Mike's point about hard and soft fats. And you can chill or even freeze things before putting them in the oven and this will also affect the cooking time and the doneness. When I made cookies in the bakery we would drop them with a scoop, then flatten them, then chill them. So we had a medium thick cookie with thick edge that did not spread as much.

And then there is carry-over baking time so remember that things keep baking as they are cooling - cookies less than something thick like a loaf of bread. I realized I was over-baking my scones recently because of the carry over baking and my brownies need to come out of the oven a little before they are completely set or they will be overbaked.

It's interesting that people still freak out about raw eggs and NO ONE (at least in my small patch of New England) worries at all about raw flour despite warnings in the newspaper and on flour bags.

[aaronatthedoublef]

We made cookies Saturday and Sunday. My daughter wanted to make gingerbread men but my wife wanted molasses cookies so we tried to make rolled cookies from the molasses cookies which were way too soft.

Sunday I chilled them before we cut them then chilled them again before baking and it was better but not stiff like gingerbread. I'll experiment some more.

But today is pie crust day!

• This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I liked LOL because it was consistent and store brands out west (when I really started baking regularly) and even some name brands were bland and often varied from lot to lot where I could taste it. A friend who grew up in Wisconsin said West Coast cows don't have the cold winters of midwestern cows so their milk fat is not as rich. Doesn't sound like a good reason but I did notice a difference between dairy from west vs east of the Mississippi.

I've never tried European butters for baking. And we do have some cultured butters in our grocery stores so maybe I'll try one of those and see if anyone notices the difference in baked goods.

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