[aaronatthedoublef]

Happy Birthday BA!

Sorry I missed Kid Pizza's discussion. What does unbleached flour do for cookies, particularly shortbread? I make my shortbread with unbleached bread flour and corn starch or with matzoh meal and potato starch during Passover. I'm also making hamentashen right now which is basically a French shortbread and using unbleached bread flour for it.

Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

Fried rice is my kids new favorite. I used a left over roast chicken and we had it two nights this week. It will be a good base for us as we can make it as a base and then add different proteins.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made KAF's no-knead challah but I have a couple of changes. First, I instead of just water I use water and apple cider, which is standard in my own challah recipe. I also recommend mixing all the dry ingredients together and all the liquid ingredients together then combining them. Otherwise it doesn't seem like everything is thoroughly mixed through-out. Finally I actually had to knead it (just a couple of turns though) to make it all come together. It is a big recipe coming in at about four and a half pounds of dough. I baked off two, one pound loaves and will see how it tastes tonight.

I put together some dough for hamentashen and then I'll make some either today or tomorrow or both days. We're making baskets for members of our temple who are homebound. Two years ago I made the hamentashen and last year the temple bought them. This year we're going to make them with the religious school kids so I am prepping for that.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I roasted a chicken Sunday with lemon and garlic. This morning (school delay after a Nor'easter dumped some "Wintry Mix" on the road) I made chicken fried rice for lunch. I made it up as I was going and so it has Mediterranean vegetables mixed with basmati mixed with some sauce we had in the fridge called "soy vey" so it is a multi-cultural dish. I'm trying to give my kids something other than sandwiches, burritos, and/or quesadillas.

Tonight is hamburgers and I am not sure what I will make the rest of the week.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I continue to work on my English muffins. This time I used less corn meal on the griddle although I think I could go without it completely. I may try that next time. Also, last time they were a bit under done so this time after they browned on each side I put them in the oven but for too long. They are better under done than over done because I usually toast or griddle them for sandwiches.

I have a new challah recipe to try and I have to test recipes for hamentashen as I will be helping lead our religious school kids in making them. I'll probably make the dough ahead and have the kids fill and fold them.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I have a whole wheat bread recipe some place (I'll look for it) that swear has yeast and baking powder. But, as you say, the yeast is activated and mixed with the dry and then everything is leavened.

[aaronatthedoublef]

This would be a good Passover dessert recipe. No grains and using a whole vanilla bean instead of liquid vanilla.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I love that book! Mine is dog-eared and stained and much used.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Lou Malnati's and Giordano's are both par baked. However if you've ever had Malnati's in person the mail order ones will be unsatisfactory.

I never shipped Uno's but Geno's are horrible and not even from Chicago at this point. They are manufactured in Madison, WI (at least the last time we tried those).

Giordanos was pretty good the last time we ordered them but that was pre-bankruptcy reorganization so I cannot vouch for them now. They usually baked up pretty well in a standard oven. The last time we had them I'd monkeyed with my oven so it's max temp was about 700 specifically for pizza. Since we replaced that oven I have not tried that as this one is much more complex (actual screws to remove to get to the oven temp adjustment). I've looked up how to do it on the internet so maybe I'll try it. It runs a bit low (max temp is about 450-475) and the bottom shelf is always much cooler than the top two shelves. The people who installed it did not know what they were doing.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Len - did you bake those in a mold or freeform? They look fantastic!

[aaronatthedoublef]

BevM, I make pizzas almost weekly for my family. It's to the point where they do not want pizza out anymore (unless I order it shipped in from Chicago). Perfect circles don't matter and taste is everything. I'm to the point now where I can shape pizzas pretty well but I made some early ones for chef friends and they kindly told me the pizzas were "artisan" pizzas.

Not sure if the KAF recipe talks about it but pizza dough really needs a long, slow rise. Mine will sit in the refrigerator for about two days. I've gone as long as five but two is the sweet spot for my family. One day or less and they say the dough is flat. Three or more days and it is too fermented.

[aaronatthedoublef]

We used baguettes from Whole Foods. I guess I could have made my own baguettes but my wife decided on this at 5:00. My wife does not eat meat and I cannot eat shell fish so we prepared all the veggies and then I cooked chicken and shrimp.

My wife won't eat lamb or beef but I wanted to try something a little different. Plus my son gave me a copy of Jerusalem A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi for fathers day and I wanted to use a recipe from there.

We have a couple of places that make gyros and they both use lamb. One place will also makes chicken.

We'll have a new spot soon that will have schawarma.

[aaronatthedoublef]

My big adventures this week were banh mi sandwiches and a cross between kibbi and kofta. I need more work on the kibbi/kofta but it was a trial to see if my kids would eat ground lamb with allspice and cinnamon for spices. They were a hit despite the fact that I overcooked the lamb. I served them with broccoli cooked with the lamb over rice.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made pizza this week. Not sure if that should be under cooking or baking or maybe both? We had friends over and so it was pizza for 10. Surprisingly the kids ate very little and I only made seven pizzas (each dough round is about 7 ounces).

Taking a cue from BA I made English muffins. This was a recipe from a class my wife gave me. It called for buttermilk and I substituted powdered because my family does not like the taste of buttermilk. The recipe also called for two TBLs of sugar which seemed like a lot so I cut that in half. I realized after the fact that this would make them rise more slowly. As a result I ran out of time on Saturday and let them finish rising in the refrigerator over night. These are so different from anything I've ever bought from the grocery store. My boys polished them off in a few days so I'll be making them again. Off course once I am a little more secure with the recipe I'll sneak in some white whole wheat flour and some flax meal.

[aaronatthedoublef]

My go-to rolling pin is a warped, but much loved, European model I have used for decades. It has crossed the US with me twice now. I wonder if it would work for something so thin and could I get the consistency.

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