[aaronatthedoublef]

Very nice! What is the dough?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Another interesting pizza story... https://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/unusual-pizza-around-the-world?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=7412ac2f29-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_09_11&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-7412ac2f29-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&mc_cid=7412ac2f29&mc_eid=584974d195

[aaronatthedoublef]

The Doughnut Fairy brought baked, chocolate doughnuts. Normally he uses an oil-butter mixture but this time it was all melted butter.

I am making challah again this week. They will be round for the season. I'll make eight, seven to give away. I am also aiming for schnecken but we'll see how it goes.

[aaronatthedoublef]

There is another element to Chicago style pizza which is too often ignored but is true regardless of the crust - sausage cooks on the pizza! This may be true for some other styles but nothing that I've found on the East Coast.

Also, the WaPo left out Greek pizza which, at least in the Northeast is its own, distinctive style. The closest I've found to it is frozen, grocery store Homerun Inn pizza. That was another childhood favorite that never makes anyone's list, sadly.

[aaronatthedoublef]

We have a lot of coal-fired here in CT of course. It is considered New Haven even though I think it now is considered to have started in NYC.

I've been tinkering a lot trying to make tavern style. It seems for home cooks technique may be as important as the recipe.

For example, I start mine on the stone and finish it on a baking rack on the top oven shelf. It might be better on the lower shelf.

Then I let it rest for about five minutes on a baking rack after I take it out.

I have that pizza book I just haven't tried his dough yet. I think I will have to do that soon.

As for challah I'm starting my project up again.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, glad the dough tasted good even though it leaked!

Mike, Violet does not like peanut butter either but she does like Reeses and the no-bake peanut butter energy bars she makes with Kate that have chocolate chips and other good stuff.

We needed some bread so I made a quick batch of ciabatta that I use to make sandwich rolls.

This is my last bake of this week and next. My brothers and I are going to Israel for a week.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I had to make this divided because the biggest bowl I have is 8 qts which will only make about 9 lbs of dough. I made two batches of about 7.5lbs each and put it in two buckets which each hold about 8-9lbs of dough. So I already did that out of necessity. But, next time, if I understand correctly, I'll do one big batch at the mix (I just ordered a 20qt bowl), divide it, then shape one batch and preheat the oven while rising, then shape the second batch. I like doing it all at once for the assembly line aspect. Do one task, finish, and move on to the next. If our second oven were working I could bake eight loaves at once but...

As for speed racks, that would be great but it would never be tolerated. Our kitchen is for show not for go.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA - I have an old KA from before they were acquired by Whirlpool. It smells like burning plastic whenever I use it which is why Kate bought me a new one (the "new one" is about 17 years old). But it still works. It just stinks.

The burning smell started mixing a stiff bread dough at a higher speed. I suspect it would have been okay had I just used a low speed. But that is one of the reasons I started making bread dough by hand. With KAs, anything smaller than an eight quart seems to be too small for all but the smallest recipes and the dough runs up over the hook even if the motor is okay.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I am doing research now of gophers and peanut butter. I do know the exterminator had me bait our mouse traps with it, so it may be the sort of thing where the peanut butter attracts the gopher and then something else kills it.

Busy end of week baking. Thursday I made the dough for 14 loaves of challah and put it to rise in the basement fridge. It took my two biggest bowls and two rising buckets. It was a lot of dough! Violet and I also made "coconut" cake for Kate for her birthday which was pretty un-coconutty. I tried something new after my last one. I had a good recipe but somehow I lost it so I am back on the hunt. This was basically a white cake subbing coconut cream for the milk. It called for five egg whites and one egg. I used two eggs and four whites to give it a little more structure.

Then I was up at 2 Friday morning to shape and bake and make Kate birthday scones. After the initial shaping I put together the scone ingredients.

I went from four strands to three because it takes less time but I may switch back at some point. I braided the challahs (technically it is challot) and put them aside to rise. I mixed, shaped, and baked the scones while the challahs were rising.

I can bake four loaves at a time because one of our ovens is broken. I think some of my loaves might have been a bit overproofed waiting to bake. But they looked good, smelled good, and tasted good.

By 5:45 I had a dozen scones cooling and 14 loaves of bread!

Friday afternoon Violet and I decorated Kate's cake which tasted good and looked good too which is unusual for our cakes.

I still need to make sandwich bread for next week but I am not sure when I will do that as we have stuff this weekend.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I just realized, this might work for Henry but Violet will not eat my pizza cold or even reheated. She will eat the junk pizza or pizza bagels but not mine.

Spinach and ricotta sounds good. I may tried this just for regular pizza night. Two of the three kids will not try it as long as they know what it is.

Henry might if he doesn't... He was eating a Ruben the other day and I said "When did you start liking rye bread." Hen replied "I'm pretty sure this isn't rye." I said, "it is marble rye."

Now in fairness, it was probably some store brand so it was a little bland but, it sure was rye!

Kids!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. Thanks Mike.

Working with two bakers here I was amazed at the small amount of starter they used for relatively large amounts of dough. I think most of the recipes for home bakers I've seen use a much bigger ratio. One of the things I noticed about the Unified Mills recipe is the relatively small amount of starter added to the levain compared to my standard recipe.

The other thing is, bakers NEVER EVER through away ANYTHING unless it is a health hazard. Margins are small and tossing something that is useable or saleable - even as a sample - can affect the bottom line. Even giving out samples, while free, is still marketing and generates good will.

When Sam was home and I was making about 8 lbs of bread a week AND BA's crackers, I did not need to worry about discard! I may try starter chocolate chip cookies. I've heard so many raves about those.

And part of the "put started in everything" movement probably comes from not wanting to waste it and also the belief that starter has beneficial bacteria for the gut. I agree with the former. I am not sure how about the latter. Way more research needs to be done on that.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. I've seen some similar recipes but I do not recall where. Someone was repurposing cinnamon buns to make pizza rolls.

This might be the next thing in pizza. It would be good for school lunches too.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Is yogurt the new way for home bakers to make starter-less "sourdough"?

It's in the recipe Mike and I tested. It's in one of these instead of a levain.

As for self-rising flour there seem to be more and more recipes counting it as one ingredient. Is a box of cake mix one ingredient? Just add water and it is a two ingredient recipe!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike,

I noticed it being slack as well. I used a levain.

My boule stuck to the towel it was so wet and I didn't flour it enough.

I should have reshaped it but just dumped it onto the stone.

Taste became a little sour after a couple days. Boules may be easier to shape than batards and boules are what you have with Dutch ovens. So that may be why they did that.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA - is there a noticeable difference between the BRM and the KAB milk powder? Thanks

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