Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of February 26, 2023? #38586
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      Happy birthday, Joan, hope you enjoyed your special day.

      in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of February 26, 2023? #38575
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        The latest batch of peanut butter cookies also came out a bit crunchy, though not as dark as the previous batch. I took them out of the oven fully 2 minutes earlier. I wonder if my oven setting was a few degrees higher? (It's a dial, not a digital setting.)

        Otherwise, I don't know what I'm doing differently from the first few batches.

        in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of February 26, 2023? #38573
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          I have another batch of peanut butter cookies in. These are a good snack for both of us, because we don't eat half the batch in one sitting.

          in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of February 19, 2023? #38564
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            I did find this Master's thesis:

            Challah and Its Performance of American Jewish Identity
            from the Mid-19th to Early 21st Century
            Gabrielle Adena Hersch
            Brandeis University
            May 2018

            in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of February 19, 2023? #38563
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              I would not be surprised if someone has already written a PhD thesis on challah.

              in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of February 19, 2023? #38560
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                I've always been a bit skeptical of 'the yeast stops working or runs out of sugar' claims.

                Some years ago I took a baguette recipe (probably Reinhart's pain de campagne) and I let it rise for an hour, get punched down, rise again, etc. After 6 hours, it was still rising just fine, so I shaped and baked it. It was pretty good, nice crumb.

                in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of February 19, 2023? #38559
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  I wonder if the tradition for large batches of challah comes from the necessity for community ovens?

                  in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of February 19, 2023? #38555
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    Some days when I go to slash my loaves they slash beautifully, other days the knife or lame just seems to stick.

                    in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of February 19, 2023? #38554
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      Not much you can do in terms of recovery once they're overproofed, my usual sign of that is when they come out flatter than normal. A while back I got distracted by something when I had some loaves in final rise and I completely forgot about them; they went into the oven about an hour late. They started to collapse as I was moving them into the oven and they looked a lot like flatbreads by the time they came out.

                      There's kind of a narrow window between under-proofed and over-proofed, and unless you can control all the factors, like temperature and humidity, dough won't rise at the same rate every time, so you have to just kind of learn to anticipate when it's ready for the oven.

                      The finger-poke method is the usual test for final proof, and the type of dough, including hydration level, is a big factor in how it should respond. Bagels don't look or feel the same as challah, for example.

                      in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of February 19, 2023? #38549
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        We had theatre tickets this afternoon (Legally Blonde) and were kind of tired afterwards, so Diane had some soup and I had some leftover spaghetti.

                        in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of February 19, 2023? #38545
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          They look like they might have been over-proofed a little, but the braiding looks good.

                          in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of February 19, 2023? #38536
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            Could you put something heavy on the lid to hold it down better?

                            We're having creamed tuna on biscuits tonight.

                            in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of February 19, 2023? #38530
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              As I understand it, meat needs to reach a designated internal temperature to be safe, either a sufficiently high peak temperature or a lower temperature for some period of time. With something like a steak, it is usually assumed that any bacteria will be on the surface, which gets much hotter than the innermost part of the steak, which is why a rare steak is generally considered safe, though restaurants may warn about undercooked food to keep the lawyer happy.

                              Sous vide cooking works by keeping it at a lower temperature for a longer time. A similar process is used for pasteurized eggs, they get to some specific temperature (around 123 degrees) and have to be held there for something like an hour.

                              I have a mini crock pot that I use for hot fudge, which needs to be kept at about 110 degrees, or it will separate or scorch.

                              I found a Lutron plug-in lamp dimmer that allows me to set the crock pot to that temperature. I haven't seen any signs of it damaging the crock pot, but I assume it wouldn't work with one that uses electronics.

                              in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of February 19, 2023? #38529
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                Try this picture, it shows the cord better. I measured it at 4 feet.

                                https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0520/3928/6956/products/ChefAlarm_Red-01_1024x1024@2x.jpg?v=1629303753

                                in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of February 19, 2023? #38525
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  I'm planning to make spaghetti for supper tonight

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