[Mike Nolan]

I defrosted some of my apple pie filling for the turnovers, and I've got about half a container left, so I think I'm going to make a small apple galette using some pie dough from the freezer, the apple pie filling, and some Mrs. Richardson's caramel sauce.

The local orchard I usually go to lost its apple crop this year due to wind, but they may have some Winesaps at Kimmel Orchard in Nebraska City, if so I may go out there to pick some apples in early October and maybe buy a 5 or 10 pound container of their frozen pie cherries. Usually I freeze the pie filling in large enough containers that I can do an apple pie with them, which takes about 1100 grams of pie filling, but having some smaller ones for things like apple turnovers seems to make sense now.

[Mike Nolan]

I made the rest of the turnovers today. Had some shaping issues with the 2nd batch, I think I didn't let the dough warm up enough before I started working it, and I wound up with some very not-square pieces.

I made more of an effort to get 3x3 squares in the 3rd batch, and it helped. I think they're a little smaller than the ones I made yesterday, and I overfilled a few of them so they popped open, I'm happy enough with them that I put a tray of them out for tonight's dinner with friends to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.

Next time I'll probably aim for 4x4 squares.

I baked them a little longer than I did yesterday, one or two of yesterday's batch appeared not fully baked.

Cleaning the dough sheeter is fairly easy, but I need to make sure I don't have flour inside the central unit before I store it away. I also need to find a mouse-proof thing to put it in, our annual invasion has started. I might wind up putting it in two separate bags, then in a box.

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[Mike Nolan]

It still isn't clear just what makes some foods lower on the glycemic index than others, it probably has to do with things other than the sugars and starches, like what's in the sourdough culture or the bran and germ in whole grain flours.

[Mike Nolan]

When I took the full-week pastry course at SFBI, we made two laminated doughs on a commercial sheeter. The Brod and Taylor sheeter has many things in common with its big brother, but some differences as well. I'm guessing with practice I'll be able to make sheets of dough in sizes that facilitate the types of pastries I want to make.

The kringle recipe from O&H in Racine that is on the food network site, https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/kringle-recipe0-1941189, has you roll the dough to a 6 x 20 rectangle for filling and shaping, that should be relatively easy to do. I remember that dough being really soft at first and having a strong lemon smell before baking due to the half teaspoon of lemon extract, but the final product had only a hint of lemon in the dough. The butterscotch filling that is part of that recipe is one I've made and used for danish.

Some turnover recipes recommend cutting circles of dough and rolling them out to an oval shape.

[Mike Nolan]

I managed to get in two more single folds then rolled them out to 3mm and cut them into rectangles that were about 4x6. Each got about a tablespoon of apple pie filling, brushed with egg wash after sealing and sprinkled with a little sparkling sugar. They're very tasty!

I was worried I might have screwed up the lamination when making the turns, but the dough seems pretty forgiving.

For my first time with the new sheeter, I'm satisfied with the results. A littler practice and they'll look even nicer.

I posted one shot of a turnover in the weekly baking thread, here's a close-up shot where you can see the layering better.

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[Mike Nolan]

I just took the first batch of turnovers out of the oven, I made them rather small, the baked weight is about 44 grams. The dough puffed up decently and they're very flaky, you can see the layers along the left edge of this one.

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[Mike Nolan]

Well, here's where I stopped for the night. This piece is about 7 x 14 inches and assuming I'm understanding the settings, it is about 5mm thick. It needs to get down to between 2mm and 3mm for turnovers, according to Suas.

Tomorrow I'm going to try one more single fold to try to clean up the corners a bit, then do the final rollout, probably to 3mm. I've got some of my apple pie filling defrosting, I'll use that for the turnovers.

I might be able to tell something about the lamination layers when I cut it, but I suspect I won't really know a lot until after it has baked. But for a first try, it doesn't look bad at this point.

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[Mike Nolan]

We had burgers on the grill and sweet corn tonight.

Saturday is our 50th anniversary. We're having a Valentino's pizza party with some close friends. I will probably make another batch of Thousand Island dressing to go with the salad that comes with the pizza.

I made a Texas chocolate sheet cake in 2 pans earlier this month, the 2nd half of it is defrosting and we'll have it on Saturday, possibly with some apple turnovers if they come out good.

[Mike Nolan]

It works about as well as I expected it to, it doesn't have the range of height and multiple or continuous settings that a bigger sheeter would have (probably including the larger model from Brod and Taylor), and that probably contributed to the dough sticking. Keeping the top floured seems necessary, but I remember having to do that when using a commercial sheeter, too.

I tried to do two turns without chilling the dough in between. Not a good idea. The dough stuck to the top roller. Cleaning it wasn't bad, though.

I think with a little more practice, it'll get a lot easier to use, which is consistent with what people who have used a clay sheeter for laminated dough rolling have said, and this is very similar to one, just probably a bit easier to keep clean. (Oh, dear, an excuse to make laminated doughs!)

I stopped after the 2nd turn to refrigerate the dough thoroughly, I'll try another turn later tonight, I don't know if I can get in a 4th turn, it depends on whether I still have discrete butter layers, which I probably won't know until I make something with the puff pastry tomorrow. (Even if the butter layers are messed up, it may wind up being like using blitz puff pastry.)

[Mike Nolan]

I decided to go with a 500 gram batch of puff pastry to start, mainly because it's hard to get smaller batches of dough to work in my mixer. If I have to, I can split it up for final rollout. This should make around 10 turnovers, if I have the sizes figured out right. It'll depend on how the final rollout goes, Michael Suas's book says to roll it out to 1/8 inch, which is pretty thin.

My plan is to do the lamination this evening, let the dough rest overnight, then do final roll out, shaping and baking tomorrow.

[Mike Nolan]

The dough sheeter has arrived. It's fairly simple, the central section with the gears, two rods that extend to the sides to rest the rolling plate on, the rolling plate and a handle, and it looks well made and easy to keep clean. The rolling plate is small enough it will fit in the refrigerator, which will make chilling the dough between turns easier. (That would not have been the case with the larger model.)

It did not come with any recipes and the Brod and Taylor website doesn't appear to have any recipes specifically for the sheeter, so sizing dough will be a learning process. Their website says it handles 200-300 grams of dough, but that may be based on final rollout thickness and the overall dimensions of the rollout plate. I've used croissant recipes that had you divide the dough into two parts for final rollout, that should work here as well.

I've sized my puff pastry and croissant dough recipes in a spreadsheet table that has 7 columns to make from 200-800 grams of dough. I'll probably start with a 300 gram batch.

I was looking at the turnover recipe we used in pastry school, but it doesn't seem to indicate the size to cut the dough to. Other recipes seem to use about a 5x5 square.

[Mike Nolan]

I used to buy plastic bread bags at the grocery store, but they don't always have them on the shelf and they won't fit a long loaf of bread, like from a 13 inch pullman pan.

Some years ago I bought several boxes of gusseted plastic bread bags at a bakery auction. There were two sizes of them and it took me a long time to use them up.

After that I bought a case of gusseted bread bags from International Plastics. They're big enough to hold most of my free-form loaves as well as the pullman pan loaves which are 4x4x13 inches. They aren't big enough to hold a large Challah, though.

I'll order them again when I run out, probably some time next year, but will probably order the slightly thicker version next time, these occasionally rip along a seam. I haven't priced them lately, but a case of 1000 bags cost me under $50 last time, with shipping.

I also have some micro-perforated bags that are sized for baguettes, I got them from Clear Bags. They're supposed to have breathing characteristics similar to paper bags. Because they're sized for baguettes, they won't fit bigger breads, though I've used them for bagels.

[Mike Nolan]

I may try making puff pastry first, so I can make apple turnovers like we made in pastry school. My first cracker-like project will probably be carta di musica or some kind of lavosh.

[Mike Nolan]

If you've ever read any of Noah Gordon's novels, a number of them have lengthy passages dealing with the complexities of Jewish life and traditions, now and in the past. He seems to do his homework on them.

An older brother worked in food service, including several years working in Chicago-area country club kitchens. He said members would pick up something like a bacon-wrapped scallop at a buffet and ask with a straight face, "Is this kosher?"

I think the greatest food experience my wife and I have ever had is still the bar mitzvah dinner that one of her father's friends invited us to, at Cafe La Tour in Chicago. We lost count of the number of courses at around 15!

From my limited studies of religions, most of the major religions have internal debates over a variety of issues, with experts offering contrasting opinions. Even the Catholic Church has those debates, the Pope either can't settle them or chooses not to get involved in the differences.

I also see a lot of discussion among vegetarians and vegans over what is or is not allowed. Recently, discussions over lab-grown proteins have gotten interesting.

A friend of ours describes her daughter as 'almost vegan'. She also went through a 'mostly gluten free' phase, which I think she's still on, I think it is more a matter of choice than medical necessity.

[Mike Nolan]

We had tacos last night, will be having fish and broccoli tonight, and are still enjoying the last of the eggplant/zucchini lasagna I made last week. I may have to make another batch of that, I've still got plenty of white eggplant left, and there are still blooms on the plants, so they may still be setting new fruit.

I'll take careful notes on the next batch so I can post the recipe with exact quantities.

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