[aaronatthedoublef]

Never trusted Martha. Her recipes never seem to work for me. Plus if you ever saw her Food Network Halloween special the kids were absolutely terrified of her even though she was trying to give them treats. Makes me wonder what they saw off-camera.

I love Ina Garten but I've never tried any of her recipes. Going back to my cooking class in Italy I would probably sweat the eggplant. But you can make a tasty tomato sauce in 10 minutes. Olive oil, salt, garlic (or no garlic), onions, perhaps some carrots, and crushed tomatoes. Do it in a skillet and it will thicken in about 10 minutes. You can add some sugar to tame the acid or you can add about a teaspoon of baking soda. But I've found I need to up the salt a bit when adding baking soda or it tastes flat.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Okay... re-read the instructions. Let's see if this works.

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[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, I could not find hearth pans on the KAF site but there were some large bread pans - 10x5. So I'll look at the local kitchen shop, then the restaurant supply store.

Mike, I should know more about this. I worked on Photoshop and Illustrator but that was also back in the late 80s. I just have not had much call for it since then. I have a Linux system so maybe I'll try what you suggest. My kids should know some software I can use.

[aaronatthedoublef]

It's a great story. I spent Friday nights for six months going to the local artisan bakery and making bread. There were four of us each shift and we would make about 600 loaves of bread. I would stagger home at 4 am and try to get to sleep. Then I would wake up at 7 am and have to take kids to soccer and/or baseball. It was not easy.

Here the state has said that, in theory, home kitchens are okay and then kicked it to the town. But the waiting lists to get into a farmer's market is usually huge. I had a chef friend offer to try and help me skip the queue once, but like you all, the task of doing this every weekend is daunting, at least so long as I have a job and kids.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. I'll look at the hearth pans. I don't usually make more than a couple loaves either. I am trying to buy things from a local cooking store now. It's a two or three store chain that started in Sydney, Australia and they are a very nice family. They are right in the high-rent center of town so they are a bit more spendy than I like but I want the store to survive so I buy from them when I can. I start there and then go other places if the prices are too dear.

And, Mike, I just use the camera on my phone. I'll need to see if I can dial back the resolution. We do have some other cameras in the house but I am not certain I am allowed to use them. 😉

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. I'll look into deli loaf pans but I will also try a bit more stretching and folding to tighten it up. I'm guessing this is what we used to make banana bread in the bakery. I had a dozen large bread pans all attached. They were heavy when filled!

The taste this morning was more noticeable and a bit stronger than last night so maybe it needs to sit longer after I take it out of the oven. I finished it at about 4:00 yesterday and cut into it around 8:00.

Also, this had a sponge that sat for about eight hours but maybe that needs to sit longer too.

[aaronatthedoublef]

It appears cannot upload my picture as it is way to big. I'll have to work on shrinking the file size.

It was a little lighter than I want but I have lots of advice on how to remedy that.

Also, it was wider and flatter than I would have liked. My dough felt a little soft when I shaped it so perhaps it needed a bit more flour. Or maybe I needed to make the loaf tighter. Or both?

I also wanted it a little more sour and rye tasting. So I need to up the percentage of rye flour.

Thanks for the help. To quote Stephen Sondheim, "I took myself one step, I won't stop with two!"

• This reply was modified 8 years, 12 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Growing up grilled cheese was a slice of American cheese (usually Kraft) on a slice of white bread (usually Burny Brothers for those who know and remember them) under the broiler. And that was grilled cheese for many years until we learned to do some cooking ourselves and learned that people would make a sandwich and cook it in a pan on the stove.

So to me, that has always been a form of grilled cheese. But Mike's distinctions between grilled cheese and pizza bread and pizza seem good.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 12 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike, Len,

Thanks for the tips. I would never have thought rye bread need to bake to 200. I would have guessed much less so I really appreciate it.

Also, the light-ish colored rye flour is making a darker dough than I would have thought. I also used first clear flour because I have it and this, as Mike points out, makes it a bit darker than bread flour would have. I'll try to post a picture when I am done.

Also, should I slash the top?

[aaronatthedoublef]

What's a good internal temp for a well-baked loaf of rye bread?

Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

What a great article. I have my mom's 1953 edition that does, indeed, describe cleaning and skinning a squirrel! This was not the one she used daily which was a bunch of pages (the covers vanished long ago) barely held together by tape.

I had a 1973 edition as well that I lost in a bad breakup.

The other cookbook my mom lived by was The Settlement Cookbook which was a staple of Midwestern Jewish ladies.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made scones for Mother's Day.

I just made the sponge for my first attempt at rye bread. This is also my first attempt at a sponge. So far so good. I aspire to Len-quality rye breads. Looking at the flour I have, I think for looks I made need a darker flour although this smells pretty good.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike.

I haven't tested baguettes but I have tested it with my pizza dough which is pretty simple as it's just flour, water, salt, yeast, and a pinch of sugar. My wife and kids like the dough best when it is between 24 and 48 hours. I once had dough that was only 12 hours old and my wife commented that it tasted flat.The only thing I'd done differently was shorten the rise. If I let it go fro three or more days the family eats it but they are not as happy.

My English muffins are the same way. The recipe I have came from a bread class where we made a bunch of breads in a three hour class so rise times had to be short. I now let it sit at least overnight and the difference is noticeable even to my 13-year old vacuum cleaner who refers to himself as a "speed taster".

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike,

I forgot to check the restaurant supply stores. I probably could have asked a couple of bakeries I know to sell me flour too. But I don't want a 50 lb bag just yet. I had a coupon from KAF so I used that and bought some from them.

Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

Kid,

Thanks. As always I appreciate your wisdom and, normally I would just make the Marcy Goldman rye bread. She is my gold standard for Jewish baking. And it has, as you recommend, an overnight starter but isn't too fussy.

But I am coming up with a recipe for some people who want to open a deli. Again, that is a call for simplicity but I want to 1) give them a choice and 2) give them something that is distinctive and different from what they can find any place else. But the choice will be up to them.

Mike I will look up the Tartine Bakery book. Thanks

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