[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 8 years 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.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, CWC, thank you for your replies.

CWC I wondered about clarified butter because I wondered in the milk solids were needed.

BA, so the baking soda is there to tame the acid? I've used it instead of sugar in tomato sauce for that.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA,

Does baking soda still give your crackers a lift after several hours? What about double acting baking powder?

Also, how would clarified butter work compared to melted butter mixing with flour or cocoa to grease a pan? I have to admit I usually just use cooking spray but I've never made a bundt cake.

I made Jakes. This is a chocolate chocolate chip cookie recipe I made for my nephew many years ago. I used to make them weekly when I lived out west but I make them very infrequently since we moved east.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Could you create a makeshift griddle with sheet pans?

I used to have a 36 inch griddle that went with the rest of my range that was not supposed to be in a house (said so right there on the first page of the manual - "not for installation in residential settings"). That and the broiler are the two things I dearly miss.

But if I put two or three sheet pans inside each other and then put that on the gas burners could I use it as a griddle?

Or if BA put it on the would stove would that work?

Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. This may be something where I have to trick my family for the ingredient to receive a fair tasting.

[aaronatthedoublef]

They said at the end of the custard show that the semi-finals were next. I did not realize this was a repeat but I am late to watching this so it was new to me.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Has it been shown yet? I thought there was at least one more episode before the finals. I just watched the meringue episode last night.

I wish they would make it more NasCar than Survivor in the scoring. It does seem nice that people seem to help each other rather than watching a competitor go down in flames.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I have not done this in years but when I worked at the bakery we used to caramelize sugar in a pan then shape it. We would cook it until it was fairly solid but still pliable (probably softball stage?) then pour it over things. We could make flats like Mike is talking about but we also bent it around bowls as it hardened. It is a cool way to serve ice cream in a caramel, edible bowl. Sometimes we would torch it to get the burlee'd effect and sometimes not.

As I said, I haven't done this in years.

[Author]

Posts