BakerAunt
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It was 19F here this morning, and it is 20F now. We had over four inches of snow yesterday.
We do have the oven on its own circuit. We also had the refrigerator moved to its own circuit after the inspector insisted that the counter on the opposite side of the kitchen had to have outlets that were GFCI, even though they are far enough away to meet code. Our contractor realized the refrigerator was on that circuit, so we gave it its own.
I have good outlet position everywhere but at the end of the peninsula. We did make sure that the microwave had its own, and we thought carefully about where to put it.
Skeptic--For baking sheets, I selected a tall lower cabinet that is about 11 inches wide (10 inches entry). I took out the silly, silly half shelf the manufacturer had put in, and reused it in another cabinet. I stand my large baking sheets upright in it, with the ones I use the most at the right side.
Cabinet manufacturers like to give only half shelves on lower cabinets. The ide is that you can see everything at once and don't have to get down low. I, however, would use that low space for long items, so I would know what is in them. It took me a while to figure out the best configuration for the shelves that I had--and they were designed so that you can't just add a half shelf in front of another half shelf.
With over two inches of snow so far, it was a good day to try out the Zo. I used it to knead and to do a first rise of a batch of Ellen’s Buns dough. I turned off the initial warming, so that I could dissolve the yeast in the water and honey before adding the rest of the wet ingredients and the dry ones. I was impressed with how quickly the dough came together, so I went ahead and added the oil. This machine is much quieter than my Wel Bilt, and it does not move around on the counter. It does bring the dough together more efficiently and kneads it well. It is a cold day, and the house is cooler than usual, so I let the dough rise in the machine. Oddly enough, toward the end of the rise, the paddles start moving again, a little at a time. That was when I turned the machine off. The dough rose well, but it had a “skin” on top where it had dried out a bit. Next time, I will let it rise in an oiled dough bucket, which I find the best way to prevent the dry skin, unless I put saran tightly over a regular bowl. It took me a long time to try out the dough buckets with their snap lids; they are now one of the most useful items when I bake bread, and it cuts down on the saran usage by replacing it with a re-useable item.
Once I went to a conference in Boston, and a friend and I went to an Italian bakery for cannoli and some cookies to take home for Easter. At the counter, they had spools of colored string hanging down, and the counterperson expertly wrapped and tied each package in record time with two colors of string.
Would plain (no flavor) dental floss work instead of string?
I'm thinking of trying Ellen's rolls in my Nordic Ware pumpkin muffin pan. Each well is 1/2 cup, so it's a 6-cup pan. It seems to me that to get the pattern, the dough might have to be on the wetter side, or perhaps put a greased cookie sheet on top during the earlier part of the rising. The pan would have to be greased by hand with Crisco. I might try it this week, especially if we get the snow being forecast.
