[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike,

I can vouch for BA's crackers. Kate and Violet who "do not like sourdough" (except when they do - another story) love them. I should probably start making them again. I also need to come up with a way to store my starter other than the two canning jars I have.

I made scones Sunday. I couldn't sleep and Kate had an early flight so I was up at 1:30 to make them. Since I was hoping it would help me sleep I did not make coffee before I started so I forgot the sparkling sugar on top. I also suspect my baking powder was on its last legs so I didn't have the rise I usually have.

On Monday between services Violet and I made an almond flour cookie for Yom Kippur break-fast. I screwed up the recipe but salvaged it some. I added too much confectioner's sugar. The cookies never crisped up and I suspect this might be the reason. They had an interesting flavor profile mixing cinnamon, cloves, and lemon. They will also be good for Passover since they use almond flour instead of regular flour.

Last but not least, my brother and sis-in-law have been visiting her family in Palermo. One of her cousins owns a bakery and he has been sending photos from it. I was surprised to they were using kamut and spelt (spelled "spelled"). Everything use "biga yeast" so I am guessing that means natural starter but it could be a biga with commercial yeast. AND they have gluten free options.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for the challah costing. Looking at it my bread is way less expensive than I thought and when I start buying less expensive flour that should help A LOT. I could switch from avocado oil to canola as avocado oil is about three times the cost but I like it better now than canola so I may see if I can find a less expensive source than Costco.

It was a perfect day for Northwestern: sunny and in the low 70s with a nice breeze. Our tour guide spent at least half the time talking to us in front of the beach. Smart kid! And our tour guide was from West Hartford and went to high school with my oldest and knew him well so it was a good connection.

We stayed with my brother who put on a big push to have his nephew close by and he is the uncle who live farther away in Wilmette. My other brother is walking distance to Northwestern and Henry likes the idea of family being close by. Henry is also a pretty talented singer and wants to pursue that in addition to engineering in college and of all the schools he is looking at Nwestern has the best mix of STEM and performing arts.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I will look at this when I am back home. We're in Evanston for a college tour for my middle.

I've started boiling my cider because it gives it a rounder flavor.

And my cider has one ingredient: apples!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi IC,

I don't determine who receives a challah. We have a group at our synagogue who keeps track of who might need a challah on Friday to brighten their Sabbath (Shabbat in Hebrew).

So they are anonymous to me and I am anonymous to me. Part of it is the eight forms of tzedakah. Tzedakah is translated as charity but it is a little different and there is not exact English translation. It's from the Hebrew root for "righteous". Giving is the right thing to do and people in need have a right to help from people who can afford to give.

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/45907/jewish/Eight-Levels-of-Charity.htm

But also, imagine if someone from your church or whatever organization you belong to dropped off a fresh loaf of bread when they knew you were in need. You didn't know who made the bread you just knew people were thinking of you and wanted to do something nice for you.

The next time you went to church anyone you met could have been the person who made you a gift of bread. It could be anyone. It makes the whole place seem warmer. So I want everyone to receive credit.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made eight challot (plural of challah which I have to start using since I'm working with three rabbis right now). Seven were just over a pound and the eighth was about 12 ounces. My spreadsheet calculations are working well now. I still need food costs (I know Mike has that). My estimate is that my loaves cost between $4.50 and $5.00 a loaf. I switched from local honey to Costco honey. The local stuff is great but it is $21 for 32 ounces. I will buy it for my family but the Costco stuff will work for my free loaves.

I may also switch back to KAB bread flour because I can buy 15 lb bags $20 at Costco and BRM is now up to $6.99 for 5 lb bags and I can only buy it in 5 lb bags.

These were round challot for Rosh Hashanah. I may experiment to with adding apples. Many add raisins but for whatever reason I am not a fan of raisin challah.

And my loaves were, again, over proofed but they still came out round. They just lost some of the coils.

I'm going to start making these in the kitchen at my synagogue. I'll make the dough on Wednesday afternoon, give it a 24 hour cold rise, and then bake and proof Thursday afternoon for Friday delivery. I wanted to come in at 1:00 am Friday morning but they're concerned about having someone in the building alone.

[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!

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