Mike Nolan
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The first test bake for the rosetta di pane taught me several things, notably that the dough needed to be a lot stiffer. As to the 3 different types of rosetta stamps that my son made for me to test, I'm not sure there was much difference between them, a stiffer dough will be a better test.
Some of the instructions I found online have you final proof the rolls upside down, others do not, so I tried both ways. I don't think this test bake resolved that question, the dough was too soft. (Kaiser rolls are often proofed upside down as well, that's supposed to help preserve the kaiser patterning)
The flavor could stand a boost, too. I may try a different recipe or try adding some rye and/or triticale.
I'm trying an experiment this morning, I took some generic hot dog buns, brushed them with a little egg wash and sprinkled poppy seeds on them, then put them in the oven at 350 for 4 minutes to dry out the egg.
Hopefully, this will make the buns more like Chicago-style hot dog buns.
I'm also making a test batch of rosette di pane today.
We made a quick trip to Pittsburgh this week for our granddaughter's 8th grade graduation, flying instead of driving. I did bring back 3 versions of a rosetta stamp that my son made on his 3D printer, so I'll be making some test bakes with them soon.
As a reminder, facts, like a list of ingredients, cannot be copyrighted.
What is copyrightable with regards to a recipe are the instructions. Even then it is the specific wording that is copyrighted, not the intent.
I find it is useful to know the provenance of a recipe, if only because that often tells you a lot about what went into its creation. Jim Lahey gets a lot of credit for the NY Times no-knead bread recipe, but it appears no-knead recipes had been around for decades. Lahey improved the recipe, clarified the instructions, and popularized the concept, and all of those are worth giving credit for.
The rule of thumb I've always heard is that if you change 3 ingredients in a recipe (different ingredients or significantly different amounts), then it is considered a new recipe. I still find it helpful to know its background, though.
We used a roll-in convection oven for my SFBI pastry course and the instructions they gave us have you do it in a convection oven, but I find it works better if I do just the first half or so on convection mode. I often put a pie shield on top after the changeover to keep the edges from getting too dark.
It took me about a half dozen pies to work out the settings that work best for me. Every oven is just a little different.
Not sure where I read it, but I think you want at least a half inch on the front and back (the back rack usually gives you that) and an inch on each side wall. Having a true circulation fan (with separate air inlets and outlets) would impact that, but I'm pretty sure all the 'convection' fan in my big oven does is blow air across the top. That's probably enough to encourage more circulation providing there are adequate air channels around the pans.
About the only thing I use the convection setting for is for the first 10-15 minutes of pies, then I drop the temp and put it on regular oven mode. I find the time at a higher temp (and with the fan on) gets the crust properly done.
The next time I'm in Pittsburgh I'll probably try to make a trip to Penn Fixtures and Supplies, and I'll see if they still carry a 3/4 sheet pan. I suspect the ones they had were Winware, but it has been several years since I bought one.
I've been looking at flip boards lately, they seem to come in two sizes, 18 inch and 24 inch.
They're good, but so far no 2 batches have come out quite the same, one was too soft in the middle, two were a bit too hard in the middle (the last one about as hard as biscotti), one was probably scorched on the bottom, the first batch was the best so far. I'm going to drop the temperature 25 degrees for the next one.
But if I keep making the ChallaPrince's challah recipe, I'll probably keep making these cookies because he has you use an egg yolk wash on them, and this is a quick way to use up the egg whites.
When I have left over egg whites from Challah, I've been making 'forgotten' chocolate meringue cookies, a Washington Post recipe. I've made 4 batches of them, no 2 of them came out quite the same. Next batch I'm going to lower the temperature a bit, I think the cocoa got a little scorched in the last batch.
We had the last of the French onion soup that wasn't put in the freezer. I used challah as the bread in the first batch, this one used semolina bread, which is better because the challah is just a bit too sweet.
I thought it looked a bit too dark until I read the part about the cinnamon, looks tasty.
2/3 and 3/4 sized pans are not that common, but the 3/4 pan fits my big oven much better than a full sheet pan does, because there's almost no room for the air to circulate around a full sheet pan.
These look like they may be similar to the pans I have:
16x22 sheet panOne of the problem with the 2/3 and 3/4 size pans is that nobody seems to make a raised grid/cooling rack designed to fit in them.
Today I'm planning to make a batch of bagels.
I have 3/4 sized sheet pans (they're about 15 3/4 by 21 3/4) that I get from a restaurant supply store in Pittsburgh (Penn Fixture and Supplies), they are on the web and do mail order. Never had them warp on high heat. Vollrath pans should work in high heat, too. You want pans with an edge that's rolled around a wire frame, that keeps them from warping.
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