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The King Arthur Baking Companion is easy to read and has good drawings. It also covers nearly every type of baking. Even my wife has taken to using it over The Joy of Cooking. (Although IMHO TJOC has gone downhill since the 50's, the editions we prefer were printed in the 40's.)
It isn't what I'd call a good first book, but Beard on Bread is a book every bread baker should read at some point, I'm one of many bakers who got excited about bread baking by that book. James Beard was one of the best food writers of all time, I have several of his books.
I find myself using Hamelman's book more than any of Peter Reinhart's books these days, though I wouldn't recommend either author as a first book on baking. The front matter of Hamelman messes with my mind every time I read it (which is a good thing.)
I haven't found a book I'd recommend as a starter (pun intended) on sourdough, most of them are better for bakers with some experience.
I have several silicone brushes, I find they work better for some tasks, like brushing on egg wash, than others, like brushing on melted butter. The one I use most is a really small one from Le Creuset.
I have a really soft one that is ONLY used to brush excess flour off. I've been tempted to try my camera lens air blower (sometimes called a lens rocket because of the shape) for that, but if I do that I'll probably buy one just for that purpose as I don't want flour or oils anywhere near my lenses.
I find using boar bristle brushes for oils and butter tends to stiffen them over time, and I have a couple that are probably past due for replacement.
My theory with pastry brushes is you buy 'em when you find 'em. That applies to scrub brushes as well.
The way I currently store them is in a round utensil caddy, that way the brushes themselves aren't touching much of anything other than possibly each other.
Some electric ovens don't give you a choice, if they sense the oven is cold they use both elements to try to get it up to temp as fast as possible.
That's why I said you need to know what YOUR oven does!
MY son has a Fisher and Paykel dual wall oven that has over a half dozen mode settings, and I have no clue what most of them do.
In a pinch, you can use a bit of loosely wadded up paper towel to brush off excess flour. But I'd be lost without my array of pastry brushes in a variety of materials, sizes and stiffness.
The challenge with starting to bake in a cold oven is you need to know your oven well, at least for electric ovens.
Some electric ovens turn on both the upper and lower element during a pre-heat cycle, which can cause premature browning on the top.
Didn't have it with a hot dog, but the buns/rolls went well with the vegetable beef soup I made today. In fact, I had two of them.
I made a big pot of vegetable beef soup today.
Hard rolls at a higher temp makes sense to me but not buns where you want them to be soft.
I did the hot dog buns today, 17 minutes at 350. Didn't get quite as much rise as I was hoping for, but I made them kind of small (1.65 ounces each) so that probably impacted height somewhat.
I'll probably have one for supper with some vegetable beef soup.
No, this was a pretty basic black bean soup: Black beans, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, oregano and sherry. (I'd have added thyme and maybe a little rosemary, I think both pair well with legumes.)
She was trying to stay away from the 'Southwest' flavor profile, so no cumin and, obviously, no garlic.
ATK did a test of beans soaked in water, water with baking soda (alkali solution) and water with citric acid (acetic solution), the ones in the baking soda were the softest and cooked faster, the ones in the acid didn't soften much and took much longer to cook. I don't think they tried salt water, but it would also be mildly alkali.
My wife's black bean soup was a good first try, she thinks it needs more carrot next time around.
I think the beans needed to soak longer (She tried the 'fast soak' method, I think an overnight soak would have been better.)
They had real (Italian registered and stamped) parm reg at Costco the last time I was there.
We had some hard cheese at a farmer's market when we were in Torino that wasn't parm reg (wrong region) but was incredible. I wish I knew what it was.
Well, the buns got a bit over-baked, I need to remember that the recipes in Hamelman's book work better for me if I lower the temperature/time a bit.
I'm not sure if the extra proof time worked or not. I'll do the hot dog buns in the morning at a lower temp.
To see if they'll rise more, based on a discussion in the BBGA forum about this recipe. The hot dog buns are currently in the fridge, I'll take them out and let them rise for 2 hours before they go in the oven, most likely in the morning.
The original alfredo sauce was just melted parmesan cheese, that's REALLY a slow process. Adding cream speeds things up quite a bit and probably lowers the cost a lot, too. (Adding garlic to an alfredo sauce should be
against the law.) -
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