[KIDPIZZA]

BakerAunt wrote:

I had to giggle, Skeptic, as I, too, often forget to include the prepping when tackling a recipe. We must remind ourselves that we have no sous chef!

Thanks for posting the result of your substitution of almond flour in the biscotti recipe. You might consider reducing it to 3/4 cups if it seems too crumbly.

BAKER AUNT:
Good evening my friend. Very good suggestion to employ less ALMOND FLOUR...why because this flour has no gluten in it. 25% max of the total flour weight is appropriate. It is now close to 1/3rd of the total.

Enjoy the rest of the day.

~KIDPIZZA / CASS

[KIDPIZZA]

MARLISS:
Good Morning my friend. I have read your post on your GRAHAM CRACKER baking episode.

You didn't ask for my thoughts but I just cannot not help myself... I am like an old retired firehouse dog that is ready to jump on the fire truck when it hears bells clanging & whistles blowing.

Marliss your recipe has failed you because it omitted at least 1, egg... most likely 1, egg plus a yolk.
This is why your dough was crumbly as you described. The oil can be increased an extra 1,oz or 2. You can consider adding honey about 2, oz

Marliss, 1/4 inch thick is to thick consider 1/8th or add 1/2 more to 3/32nds/inch (.09375) as a thickness.

Consider using ground cloves rather than cinnamon.

MARLISS let me give you good a reason why you should not pay any attention to the above...I have never baked graham crackers before. I use them in my cheesecakes base along with NILLA crackrs.

Good luck in your next baking episode....enjoy the day my friend.

~KIDPIZZA/CASS

[KIDPIZZA]

BAKERAUNT:
Good evening to you. Marliss, why not consider a sruesel (crummy top) cover. easily found on google.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU & ALL OF THE BAKER MEMBERS.

~CASS///KIDPIZZA

[KIDPIZZA]

BakerAunt wrote:

For breakfast, I baked a new recipe, “Blueberry Cream Scones [with Mint Sugar], from Ken Haedrich’s The Harvest Baker (p. 46). I did not use the optional mint sugar (my husband is not a mint fan, nor do I have any fresh mint on hand) or the glaze, as a good scone should be able to stand on its own! I made a couple of changes: I substituted in 25% barley flour for that much AP flour, I deleted the ½ tsp. of vanilla, and I used ¼ tsp. lemon oil rather than 1/2 tsp. lemon extract or 2 tsp. grated lemon zest, which I do not have. I have an old jar of vanilla sugar that still smells like vanilla, so I sprinkled some of it on top before baking, along with a bit of the KAF sparkling sugar. These are some of the lightest, most tender scones that I’ve ever baked, and they are heavenly. I followed Haedrich’s advice to freeze the blueberries overnight. I also mixed up all the dry ingredients the night before, covered the bowl and put it in the refrigerator, along with my pastry cutter.

I omitted the vanilla because, with the skyrocketing vanilla prices (and no end to it in sight), I find myself taking a page from the home front of the second world war when posters reminded motorists of gas shortages: “Is this trip necessary?” I try to apply that to recipes these days, “Is the vanilla necessary?” My only concession was that stash of vanilla sugar that I really should use up.

BAKERAUNT:
Good afternoon Marliss. I understand your concern about VANILLA prices going thru the roof these days.
My purpose in posting this information to you & other concerned members is I am hoping that it will help you archive your expected baking results without going over your monthly food budget.

Now then, some time ago Christopher Kimball of the food magazine fame conducted this test on his learned bakers. He had baked various recipes with pure vanilla & some with artificial vanilla. & had his bakers eat these various articles. He then asked which article had the real & or fake vanilla ....GUESS WHAT...they were not able to tell the difference.

And Soooo with this info why don't you all go to the .99 cent store & buy a jar or two of the artificial vanilla & see if you can tell the difference.

NUFF SAID !!!!
You all have a nice day now.

~KIDPIZZA.

[KIDPIZZA]

BakerAunt wrote:

NPR’s The Salt had an interesting article on why brick ovens are superior for pizza:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/23/630544154/pizza-physics-why-brick-ovens-bake-the-perfect-italian-style-pie

[/quot

BAKERAUNT:
Good morning. I read your article with much interest. Thank you for posting it.
I cannot help myself but I must reveal to you as an ENGLISH COLLEGE PROF. in the photo caption the word "SIMULTANEOULY"
is written. The proper word to be used is "CONCURRENT".. I WILL complete the sentence "IN CONCURRENT FASHION.

MIKE:
The coal fired ovens in Manhattan (New York, New York) As you already know were put in place during the very early 20th century. They reach as high as 1100 degrees.

Here is a tidbit no one writes about when these pizza's are baked in such hi~heat. the HYDRAYATION level must be increased due to the quick evaporation of the water....that is if you expect a crispy pizza crust.

Here is another tidbit about PIZZA:
Much has been written about "DOUBLE OO" Italian flour for pizza baking,
("OO" denotes the fineness of the flour milled) It's gluten strength is at approx. lower bread flour range...11% / 12% range. You should be advised that in employing this flour it does not do what is promised UNLESS you bake this pizza at or above 725, degrees. It is best you use either un~bleached bread flour or KAF AP flour for your pizza. To make a better pizza you can employ some SEMOLINA flour but not more then say about 1/3rd total.

YOU'LL HAVE A GOOD DAY NOW.

~KIDPIZZA.

[KIDPIZZA]

BakerAunt wrote:

Join me here in wishing Cass (Kid Pizza) a very happy birthday! Many of us have benefited from his baking advice and insights over the years as he brought baking science to bear on our dilemmas with breads and cakes. We miss you, Cass, and we hope that you will check in here again soon.

Happy Birthday, Cass!

Baker Aunt, Chocomouse, Swirth, Joan Simpson, Riverside LEN, Mike Nolan,
C.W. Design.
Good afternoon to you. Thank you for your birthday greetings sent to me. I appreciate them very very much so.
Chocomouse you want to know what I did this past week....Well I worked my butt off. I began Monday doing my prep. for 4 NY cheesecakes.I baked Tuesday it took all dqy because my oven bakes 1 at a time... 1.5 hrs each.
Wed. I released them from the pans after an overnite in the fridge to coagulate them. cut the 7, in cakes into 12 equal slices & the others into less parts.
I celebrated my birthday by domated (1) 7, in cake to our residents with a root beer float donated by the kwanis club. Everyone was surprised here that I was able to bake in my 1 bdrm unit with no oven. I have a c'top electric oven a $99 special. 9 shortbread cookies at a time that takes all day as well to do 21, oz of butter worth cookies. I kept the 5,in cake for myself but I was able to eat 75% worth... utility employees came to my door later wanting to know if they could taste some. So, I gave them my last 2 pieces. All that work for just a taste of my world class cheesecake. Too much work for me I still have about 10, minutes of clean -up to complete. I had this 3,# block of cr. chse from Costco I paid $6,00 for some time ago. I was going to throw it out because I cannot stand anymore. But foolishly I decided to make the effort.
Tonight for dinner my lady friend Gerry is taking me out for a new buffet in a local revamped casino for my birthday. Then Tomorrow morning for breakfast after church at 9:00 am I meet my other lady friend Dr.lauren as her guest.

I am finished now, Thank you for your interest in me & for remembering me. These days it means more than can know.

CASPAR A. AVONA. / ~KIDPIZZA.

[KIDPIZZA]

wonky wrote:

If you have read the posting regarding the braided rolls that I made, I have an interesting little tid-bit about that. As stated, I first made the batch of my white bread, and then the sweet dough for my braided rolls. As per usual, I raise my dough in my oven with just the oven lite on. The bread dough raised beautifully, and I deflated it for a second rise in the bowl, put it back in the warm oven to do it’s thing again. THEN, I made the sweet dough, and put that in the oven to raise. I waited, and waited, and checked and checked, but the dough just did not rise.

I had used the exact some instant yeast, out of the same exact container that I keep in my freezer for the afore mentioned white bread dough. Not wanting to throw out this highly enriched dough, I had a problem. I finally decided to take some action. I dumped the dough out on my counter, and patted it out somewhat. I then mixed a teaspoon of the same instant yeast in approx. 3 tablespoons of warm H2O and let it bubble a bit. I poured the yeast/water mixture over the dough, and spread it around with my hand. I then added a small amount of extra flour, and kneaded the yeast into the dough. I put it back in the oven and POOF…worked like a charm. I have never had an experience with possibly killing the yeast with the warm milk, but the only reason I can imagine is that I must have had the milk to warm.

I was very glad I had saved my dough, especially that the little braided rolls turned out so great. SIGH…………..

WONKY:
Good morning my dear friend. I have read your post with much interest. I have written on this baking dilemma many times before in our old BAKING CIRCLE days as well as other baking sites that I was a member of.

The culprit is this when employing milk in a either a lean or rich dough recipe that also contains YEAST we must heat this milk to simmer... 190 degrees & hold it for about 20/30 seconds this excercize will destroy the "PROTEASE ENZYME" known to weaken & disable the yeast in a recipe. Cool milk to room temp & proceed with the recipe.

I do not know of your recipe for your rich dough however, when an excessive amount of sugar is employed the yeast must be increased. If the weight of the sugar exceeds the weight of the flour to over 13% you must increase the weight of the yeast because all the hydration in your recipe is being used up by the sugar & flour. SOOOO, add 1,50% as much instant yeast as to the flour in weight.
Wonky if you wish to discuss it further send me a wire.

Enjoy the day my friend.

~CASS/KIDPIZZA

[KIDPIZZA]

Italiancook wrote:

I’ve never made shortbread, but I agree with you. I’ll be interested in knowing what the bakers of shortbread think.

Dear Italian cook, Good morning. You asked for thoughts for "SHORTBREAD COOKIES"....well here are mine.

RE~READ what our member BAKER AUNT wrote in this thread She said it all very well.
Just 4 ingredients...of course in proper ratio (That is my secret) I will say just one secret today. Use only 1, tsp of TABLE SALT per 16, oz (1, pound of butter) or
6 grams worth.
Try not to employ if at all possible SALTED BUTTER...WHY. because it has 04% salt/per 1# butter in it which amounts to approx. 10% more salt than my stated amount. you will taste that extra amount of salt in your cookies.

One or two simple items I can share with you today & it is this, Employ BLEACHED AP flour ONLY. Remove 25% & add in CORNSTARCH or white rice flour... Either will do, I use cornstarch because IT IS LESS EXPENSIVE... (I am as cheap as my baking buddy Miss SARAH WIRTH IS). No need to use powdered sugar, using this culinary choice defeats the function of the vital make~up (GUTS) of this recipe. employ X~tra fine gran sugar run it thru the FP for about 20/25 seconds. No liquids are to be used. But & however POWDERED VANILLA can be employed (KAF sells this ulta~ priced item.
I have only 2 SIGNATURE baking recipes, ie, AUTHEMTIC SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD COOKIES & NU YOLK CHEESECAKE. that means no one bakes those two items better or even as equal as my 2 recipes.

I hope I have encouraged you to bake these cookies.... truly there none better than an authentic SCOTTISH shortbread cookie with just those aforementioned 4 ingredients.
This concludes my thoughts.

ENJOY THE DAY MY FRIEND

~CASS/KIDPIZZA.

[KIDPIZZA]

Italiancook wrote:

Rascals & Cass, below is a link to the chart I use to convert butter to olive oil. I’ve had good success with it. Cass, I’d be interested in your opinion of the accuracy of the chart, if you have time to fiddle with it. I should say that so far, I’ve only substituted in the tablespoons, so my success is limited to those measurements. I haven’t tried it in larger amounts.

http://www.amazingoliveoil.com/substitute-olive-oil-for-butter.html

ITALIAN COOK:
Good evening to you. I did as you requested of me. I examined the "olive oil/butter subst. chart" for you.

It is not accurate. It is off by approx. 33.33%

EXAMPLE:
Notice the 1, cup of butter entry.... the oil should be at 3/4 cup. notice the difference is by mental math is 25%

If oil has no water in it & butter has approx. 17% water in then 1, cup of butter holds only 83& butter/fat. That = to 17% not 25%.

COMES NOW:
FORMULA, 1, cup of oil = 8,oz According to TRADER JOE'S virgin oil jar. Multiply
8, oz by 117% & = 9 3/8ths oz of butter to equal 8, oz of oil. Now we must concern ourselves with the excesive amount of water in this amount of butter to the tune of.... EX:
9 3/8ths butter has approx. 1 5/8ths oz of water in it. this is the amount of liquid you must remove from the recipe... maybe the milk or juice but it needs to be removed.

Yes the subst, can be done in many recipes like in cakes, muffins. But not in cookies, because the concoction would spread too much. Butter is best for flavor but that lends itself to spreading. A combo of butter/shortening works out very well but not oil I think.

Italian cook I hope this info helps you to make the right decision for yourself. I am tired now so I will close now. It's almost dinner time here at the home. My before dinner time of cheap red wine is waiting for me....SALUTE E TOTTI !!!!

~~CASS/KIDPIZZA.

[KIDPIZZA]

Rascals1 wrote:

Italiancook is there a chart you use to convert over to olive oil from butter.

RASCALS,1:
Good afternoon. In most recipes you can convert. Consider this, VEG OIL does not contain WATER in it's make~up. BUTTER does however. It has approx. 17% water.
Sooooo!!!, In subst. we must allow for the additional added oil & or reducing the liquid in the recipe.

Rascals, If you ever think of doing this conversion you can post your recipe & your idea to me & we can work it out together very easily.

Enjoy the day my friend.

~CASS

[KIDPIZZA]

Italiancook wrote:

I made Beef Stroganoff from “Cook-Ahead Cookery” for tomorrow’s dinner. I’ll probably serve it over rice instead of noodles. I have a question for those of you who make Beef Stroganoff.

This recipe says to cut sirloin steam into 1/4″ strips, which I do. It also says to soften the onions and mushrooms, then add the beef strips and cook only until they’re brown on both sides. Then the sauce is added to the beef mixture and served.

The consistent problem I’ve noticed with this is that the beef is tough to chew even though it’s sirloin steak. Tonight, I was thinking that maybe the beef strips really need to cook much longer in order to be tender to the teeth. When you make Beef Stroganoff, how long do you cook the beef, and how do you do it? Thanks!

ITALIAN COOK:
Good afternoon my friend. First off, as a option you can cook the onions & mushrooms separately from the meat with flavored liquid of your choice...which I think is best because it gets done much sooner. NOW for the advantage of doing it that way...mix the meat together with the flour, WHY ????? because after you brown the meat about 1/2 way on low/med heat together with with some of the liquid from the onion/mushroom draining ( keep adding liquid from time to time so as not to burn... butter can be added as well) This method provides the automatic desired & much needed "ROUX" for your stew when added to your cooking vessel.

I know you will do it well... EZ enough.

~CASS/KIDPIZZA.

[KIDPIZZA]

Mike Nolan wrote:

I’ve been told that soaking them in buttermilk overnight makes it easier and less messy to bread them, but since I don’t own a deep fryer and almost never fry anything, I can’t confirm that myself.

Good afternoon Mike, Your right on about employing the soaking method for chicken parts for a few hours or so in BUTTERMILK. I just didn't want to add so much all at once, I thought I would work that technique in after our good friend AARON determined what he liked best.

But & However, I might as well drop my other secret technique here. I employ for adding cubed chicken to chicken soup or even pot pies as well just simply employ a
"POUCHING" preparation warm the chicken flavored water with a little acidic ingredient like a slice of cut up tomato slice... this is a Italian trick.

Then cube the chicken with kitchen shears to size.

I hope all my ideas from my culinary imagination helps you all to put on the best table for your self's & your families.

Enjoy the day

~KIDIZZA.

[KIDPIZZA]

aaronatthedoublef wrote:

Hi. I would rather make my own chicken fingers than buy the frozen ones. When I do make them I dredge them in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. Do any of you smart folks have a quicker, less messy, fewer step method?

Thanks

GOOD MORNING AARON:
I love chicken fingers. I am ordering them tonite for my dinner with sweet taters & cold red beets.

Aaron, consider this recipe just once... then report back & let everyone know of what you think. Also consider either bread crumbs, (seasoned ITALIAN bread crumbs OR Japanese PANKO crumbs)...both can be bought at the .99 store.

By hand apply a dollop or two of MAYO to the chicken articles. Then into the crumbs that should be mixed in & blended with a fair amount of AP flour. Then into the egg wash ,then into the oil for frying.

I hope It improves your chicken meal.

Enjoy the day.

~KIDPIZZA.

[KIDPIZZA]

Rascals1 wrote:

I’s good to see everyone’s still cooking and baking. I’ve been in the hospital for over 2 weeks so Ive got a lot of catching up to do. I’ve sure misses all..

RASCALS~1:
Good afternoon to you. So sorry to learn that you have been out of commission of late.
We all hope you are getting better with each day. Be sure to let us know how well you are doing.

Now is a good time to do a few simple recipes like choco pudding, cheesecakes & or apple pies.

Enjoy the day Rascals~1

~KIDPIZZA.

[KIDPIZZA]

Joan Simpson wrote:

Thanks Mike, the only thing different was the flour was bleached.

Good evening Joan:
Yes CRISCO does have a hot line. The toll~free # is listed on the can. I did just that about 4, years ago.

You say you employed a bleached flour...well in a pie it really would not matter as our member ZEN would tell you...although if you have a choice, you did employ the correct flour.

My opinion is it wasn't the flour per se, it is most likely "STALE" flour (RANCID) that was employed Check the shelf~life date on the flour bag package. Joan, keep the flour in your freezer if possible. it is best used cold when doing pie dough in conjunction with butter or shortening or lard.

Good luck & enjoy the rest of the day my friend.

~KIDPIZZA.

[Author]

Posts