[Italiancook]

A couple years ago, I wanted to try my dad's white bread recipe. I couldn't find the cake yeast called for in the recipe. During my search for it, I learned that over the years, cake yeast has been sold in differing weights.That info stymied me until I found the linked info from Red Star Yeast.

Yeast Conversion Table

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

I'm headed to the kitchen to make rice pudding for a late lunch. I know it sounds strange to have pudding as lunch, but it has milk (protein), rice (starch), 3 eggs (protein), raisins (fruit), white Splenda (non-caloric sweetener), and lots of cinnamon, which helps control blood sugar (so I've read). Sounds like a wholesome lunch to me.

[Italiancook]

Mike, I enjoyed your detailed report and appreciate your post even though you don't feel fully successful. Question: I've heard the term "blow out" before but never knew what it meant. On your picture under your discussion of blow out, is the blown out part the section near the bottom of the picture that is a different color and texture? If it isn't, do you have a picture that shows the blow out?

I noticed something similar to that on dinner rolls last year. I didn't know what it was. Now, I'm thinking it was a slight blow out from a second rise of underprooofed dough.

[Italiancook]

I missed it.

[Italiancook]

I missed this because of an article I read about homemade disinfectant during this health crisis.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, skeptic, for the recipe and instructions. And thanks, Mike, for your detailed instructions. I've copied and pasted both posts to a Word document to study and try. Thanks!

[Italiancook]

I knew this.

[Italiancook]

kimbob, good to see you here. I wasn't part of the BC, but I read the posts near the end. I also have too many critters for a garden.

[Italiancook]

skeptic, would you please elaborate a little more on the sponge method you use. I assume you put the 1 teaspoon yeast in water and flour, but how much water and flour, & for how long?

Thanks, swirth, for bringing this article to our attention. I guess I made a mistake when I ordered the KAF gold yeast the same day it went out of stock. The limit was 2. I ordered only 1, because I didn't want to hoard. I wanted someone else to have yeast, too. I also thought the SAF red yeast would soon be back in stock. Now, I know it won't.

On the Ciao Italia show I mentioned a few days ago (pizza), Mary Ann Esposito stressed that people use too much yeast. I have a couple of quick recipes I don't mind experimenting with, because I think they're a lot of yeast for quick results. Generally though, I'm inexperienced enough that I'd hesitate to reduce the yeast in written recipes, especially the KAF ones. Does anyone have advice on this?

[Italiancook]

Yesterday, I made roasted chicken with mashed potatoes & frozen broccoli. Enough chicken for tomorrow. Today, I made a batch of cinnamon pancakes for my lunch and the freezer, and a plain batch for my husband. I'm unsure what he did with his. I only made his batter; he cooked them. Last I saw, they were cooling.

[Italiancook]

I knew this, also.

[Italiancook]

Actually, Mike, now that you mention it, I think the problem is the lock lever. It's not going all the way over. Any ideas on how I might fix it myself?

[Italiancook]

I finally made French Bread from The Wise Encyclopedia of Cookery. The author uses the term French Bread and Vienna Bread interchangeable. I think there's a difference between the two breads but don't know what. The bread is brushed three times with egg/water wash -- once before second rise & twice while baking. Thus, the crust is absolutely gorgeous. This cookbook was published in the early 1970s, and the bread is too salty for my 2020 tastebuds. I made the decision not to reduce the salt, because I wanted to replicate what I had served at dinner parties in the 1980s. People really loved it then, which goes to show we were all eating too much salt in the good old days. I made it in the food processor, as I did then. The difference is that I used bread flour today, instead of the AP recipe calls for. That used the last of my expiration date 2018 bread flour. I had to add a fair amount of water to the dough, which I never had to do with AP flour. But I'm pleased with the crumb, so no harm done.

BakerAunt, this cookbook has a recipe for Limpa!Below is a list of the ingredients, which Mike says we're able to post, in that it's only the instructions that are copyrighted. In case you want to compare and contrast.

LIMPA (from The Wise Encyclopedia of Cookery)

1 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 tsp. caraway seed
1 tbsp salt
1 package dry granular yeast or 1 cake compressed yeast
1/3 cup brown sugar or dark molasses
2 tsp grated orange rind
1 1/4 cups milk, scalded
1/2 cup water
3 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3 tbsp melted shortening
3 cups sifted rye flour

[Italiancook]

The last time I made bread, the head of my Kitchenaid stand mixer jumped up and down as the bread was kneading. It was locked, so the jump up was only a small distance, but enough to be concerning. It's either just out of warranty, or almost out. This is exactly the reason I ditched my smaller KA for the Artisan. It works fine for cake batter. I'm going to call KA tomorrow and hope they have someone in customer service. I know she's going to tell me to remove the end cap and adjust the screw, because that's what I was told to do with my old mixer. I'd do it now, except I don't remember which direction to turn the screw. Since it didn't work then, I'm skeptical now. Do any of you know what to do about this?

I'm going to make bread today and use my food processor instead of the stand mixer. Before I had a stand mixer, I always used the food processor. It makes the dough warm enough to concern me, but it's never killed the yeast. And, the bread still tastes good.

[Italiancook]

Recently, I saw Mary Ann Espisoto on Ciao Italia do a show with a man who had a pizza oven in his home. He made the pizza and Mary Ann helped. When the dough was risen, he scooped out the dough onto the floured board stressing to not deflate the dough. This surprised me, because I always degas the dough before stretching it out for pizza. What do the rest of you do -- deflate or not deflate the risen dough before shaping it for pizza crust?

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