The reference to the Miller and Paine cinnamon rolls was especially interesting, as we had figured out that Runza was no longer using that long time Lincoln favorite recipe.
The public schools here use a different recipe, but they're making it in really large batches to feed thousands of kids on chili/roll days. Chili is one of their two most popular meal choices, the other is creamed turkey on mashed potatoes.
Coincidentally, I'm making tangzhong cinnamon rolls today, as we discovered after I made the chili yesterday that we had finished off the last of the previous batch from the freezer. We bought some cinnamon rolls from the grocery store, but they're a big disappointment, too sweet to pair with the chili properly.
A lot of whole wheat recipes call for adding extra gluten.
I'm making a big pot of chili today, much of which will go in the freezer.
I actually prefer a lower gluten flour for pizza, but we prefer thin-crust pizza. The ones I was making on the grill this summer were pretty good, I may try that King Arthur recipe indoors over the winter, possibly in a cast iron skillet.
My former next door neighbor (he runs the Sysco office here) used to say that high gluten flour they sold was used mainly for pizza and bagels.
I made over 60 small molded chocolates today, the plan is to put them in an Advent calendar for our granddaughter.
I also made 40 chocolate batons for making chocolate croissants (Jimmy Griffin calls them chocolatines). They're similar in size to the larger ones that Callabaut sells, about 4 inches long.
Hadn't heard of toasted powdered milk before this. I can see how caramelizing the sugar in powdered milk might have an impact on flavor.
The Washington Post has a story today on Julie Powell and how she was one of the persons who revolutionized food writing.
Nearly all food bloggers, including me, are in many ways following in her footsteps, though preferably without the f-bombs.
Although the cause of death was listed as cardiac failure, she appears to have been a long Covid casualty.
Here's a link to the story:
https://wapo.st/3zJre5H
In other words, we're all at the mercy of the seed companies to make sure their seeds are what they say they are.
But did they cross-pollinate?
I have made the Katharine Hepburn brownies a few times, they're almost flourless and really rich, you want them thin and cut into small pieces.
I suspect gluten-free flour could be used with little change in their taste or structure.
Butter has gone up in price, too, the sale price used to be $2.99/pound, now it's $3.99/pound and a limit of 1 or 2.
I wonder if the dairy farmers are seeing any of that increase? Kinda doubt it.
The WSJ has run stories talking about butter shortages, though I haven't seen signs of that here. But I don't buy restaurant/bakery quantities of butter.
Her original blog posts during the year she was cooking from the book are still up the last time I looked, they've been reorganized a little. Warning, the blog posts have a lot of F-bombs. (I think she cleaned it up a lot for the book.)
My older son's house has in-floor hot water heating in the basement, and he recently replaced his water heater/boiler with a tankless system, which is more efficient, but more expensive too. (I don't know if it is gas or electric, though.)
We seem to get 8-10 years out of a gas water heater here. Getting the right type of anode seems to have helped our last longer, but it was a 3 ring circus finding out that the anode was the wrong type based on changes in the city water supply.
I'm tempted to try making both Portugese rolls (not the sweet ones) and the Pao Frances recipe I posted last week and see if they're as similar as they seem. But that's a lot of bread!
