[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 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.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Walmart by ne - and I have two within a five mile radius - are useless for baking, mostly. There are no KAF or Bob's Red Mill products although they do offer the powdered buttermilk I like for at least $.50 less than anyone else. The least expensive option appears to be order from Walmart. I can either pick it up with no delivery charge or if I order more than $50 the delivery is free. It's also faster if I do in-store pickup.

We have two Whole Foods, a Big Y, a Target, and a Stop&Shop all within a few miles so there are plenty of places to go but very little stocked. Kind of a shame.

BA, not sure if this will work for you but our stores only stock 3% evaporated milk. When I used it for pumpkin pies I never worried because we have those once a year. When I started using it to make macaroni and cheese I began cutting it with skim milk. I use about 50/50 skim to evaporated. My wife and daughter actually like the result better as it is "lighter".

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

As jarring as this was for the dairies Dean actually was pretty upright about this in ending contracts with 90 days notice and continuing to pay their bills. What has usually happened in the Northeast (and in bankruptcies in general) is that a business will continue to purchase from suppliers and just not pay their bills then eliminate or greatly reduce the debt when they file.

The Walmart stores by us are selling their own brand, Great Value, and then one, well known national brand in the three stores by me.

There are even companies that create "special entities" that have no assets but do the purchasing. They then put the special entity into bankruptcy but it has no assets for creditors to attach and so the creditors are left holding the bag.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Re-reading my last post it seems kind of mean. Sorry for that.

Milk is going through an interesting moment as many are declaring it "bad" for a variety of reasons.

Butter went through it's "bad for you" moment years ago and people started substituting margarine that it turns out was actually worse for you. And after the whole non-fat movement we now are told that a certain amount of fat, even "bad" fat is necessary.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Is it butter? Or is it Land O'Lakes butter? I go through quite a bit and I quit using LOL because it is over twice as expensive as Trader Joe's and Whole Foods store brand. It is even more expensive than the organic store brand. And without being appreciably better. I am not sure why it is so much more but it is.

As for milk, my kids drink their share.

And as for plant-based alternatives, there was a funny article that I cannot find now where a beef rancher said "where would your organic, plant-based farms be without my manure".

[aaronatthedoublef]

I have used marble slabs for candy and chocolate making and I've heard it's good for pastry but never tried that.

The contractor who did not want to put marble in for the counter said (as Mike says) that it stains and his hard to maintain. He also said it cracked easier than I would have thought. He put in granite - which was exotic out in Seattle back then - and then I had a 12 foot long, unfinished butcher block island that I loved. The cabinets were natural cherry and the floors were beech. I loved that kitchen. It had great work triangles.

Our kitchen here is also granite with a smaller butcher block island that is finished. I'd prefer unfinished but I didn't have a say. Still, good work triangles and the island here has a sink in the middle which is handy. We're plumbed for a pot filler but it would require drilling holes through the cabinets and as the sink is just across from the range it wouldn't add much utility for the cabinet space we'd lose.

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