[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for reminding me! I made pizza last night and I usually like to put the mushrooms on the sauce and under the cheese but I usually forget. I began doing this to tweak my son but ended up liking it better. I remembered last night thanks to this thread.

As for shapes, a chef friend who was eating my pizzas once said to me - "Don't worry about the shape. They're 'artisan' pizzas." Or now, in our town, they would be "craft" pizzas.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Does anyone know, has the incidence of flour recalls increased as we use more unbleached flour? Would bleaching the flour kill the e coli/salmonella?

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies again for the XCountry team meet. This time I made them in my friend's restaurant kitchen. It was great having a 12 quart mixer and using full sheet trays with 20 cookies a tray. I made 10 dozen in under an hour and will be faster as I learn the kitchen.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I don't know if I've ever even been on an Amtrak train with a dining car. The only over night trips I took were to Boston and back in 1980 for college. After the one time I started taking the Hopscotch flights on Piedmont Airlines! Four stops between Logan and O'Hare but one way was under $100.

The article says that millennials do not like big communal tables but it's the way many of the hipper restaurants in Boston and New York are going. Maybe it's become passe and is on its way out.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Most challah recipes are vegan, or pareve. That way it can be eaten with dairy or meat products. I only have one challah recipe (and I have A LOT) that uses butter as a substitute for oil.

I also prefer honey to sugar and I replace some of the water with apple cider. It's still not overly sweet and the loaves with honey seem to have a longer shelf life than those with sugar.

[aaronatthedoublef]

In Bread Baker's Apprentice Peter Reinhart uses brioche so an enriched bread like challah with oil would work. You could also vary the eggs in it based your doctor's advise about them.

I used to make a white bread that was a challah recipe without eggs. Have to find that again.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for the links. I'll have to watch the show on Epicurious. I don't make cinnamon rolls often. The recipe I've used most is for schnecken which was my mom's tradition for Rosh Hashanah.

The recipe I have makes a log and then cut it with a knife or dental floss and then second rise and baking is in muffin tins.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I like the 'beery'-ness. My family like 1-2 days and if it were up to me I would refrigerate it for about five days.

If I need it to go from freezer to oven fast I leave it out on the counter. It defrosts in about two hours. My oldest brought a friend home unexpectedly and I had to pull out extra dough. I can thaw it faster if I run the bags under luke-warm water.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Agreed. I wrap dough in oiled plastic wrap and that goes into freezer bags and into the freezer. I let it thaw on the counter or in the refrigerator depending on how quickly I need it.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for the tip about pounding the dough. Pie dough is on my list for this week.

After all our discussion last week I made English muffins. My boys love them. My daughter not so much. My wife might try one... The recipe calls for buttermilk but I used powder so there isn't any buttermilk tang. I let the dough rise on the counter for 24 hours instead of following the recipe so I have some fermentation flavor. Next time I will use some more flour as the dough was a little too slack. I will also sub out a cup of bread flour for WWW flour.

My wife volunteered me to make oatmeal cookies for the cross country team this week. It's an out-of-town meet so only 10 kids are going, thank goodness. The coaches here take as many kids as want to run so our boys XC team has about 130 kids. And after a 5K (plus warmups and cool downs and just in general) they can EAT. I may try the apple oaties I just saw here or I may just make my usual oatmeal cookies.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, we are eating your share! Based on my family's consumption I would have thought it would be higher. I just reduced our pizza consumption by a few ounces and so far no complaints. But we eat A LOT of cheese.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Cool! And then I can claim any bread I bake is "multi-grain" which is obviously better for you! 🙂

[aaronatthedoublef]

Happy Birthday Mike!

Okay, next starter question - my rye bread has a starter with rye flour in it. Can I use this as a generic starter for other sourdoughs? I supposed I can test it and see how much it changes the flavor. But the rye in the starter would be a pretty small part of any non-rye recipe.

Thanks!

[aaronatthedoublef]

I'm about to make and keep my own starter.

How can I use it? For example, can I start to use it in some of my regular recipes like my pizza dough? What about my rye bread recipe that calls for making a poolish. Can I sub in a regular sourdough starter and skip the day it takes for the poolish to develop flavor?

Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

I was given a bread class as a gift. It was by a chef who knew less about bread making than he thought he did. But I can usually learn something from anyone.

He did have a good English muffin recipe that my kids love. My wife only likes Thomas's. 🙂 It has milk, butter, and butter milk.

It is not a slack dough although I may make it a bit looser after reading the comments above. I make four ounce balls and flatten those. I cook all of them on a sheet pan on a griddle and then finish them in the oven. But I may stop using the oven, again, based on the comments above.

I was under the impression that English muffins only had nooks and crannies if you fork split them. Store brands like Thomas's are pre-split so they will always have them. But some fancier, more expensive brands are not and people cut them with knives and are disappointed.

Because crumpets are only cooked on they always have the holes.

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