[Mike Nolan]

Although I'm not currently creating new quiz questions very often, I've changed the top menu to say 'Take a Quiz!" One of the links there will take you to the latest quiz question, the other will take you to a randomly selected quiz question. Enjoy!

Take a random quiz question

[Mike Nolan]

I make my bagels with about 3 ounces of dough, that's smaller than the standard, which is more like 4 1/2 ounces, but we like them better.

The bagels made Montreal-style (less salt, honey instead of barley malt syrup) are a bit bigger than the ones I get with the recipe as written, I think it's because the lower salt makes them puffier. Traditionally, Montreal bagels also have a larger hole in the middle, that's probably also due to the softer puffier dough.

The conventional wisdom is that blowouts are related to under-proofing, being close to the convection fan could mean they get more oven spring activity. If you've got a 1 or 2 inch deep half sheet pan, you could try baking them in that, it might shield the dough more.

There's kind of a narrow window between under-proofed and over-proofed. Home conditions are generally not as consistent as bakery conditions, so we're always guessing as to when they're ready for the oven.

[Mike Nolan]

I picked a bowl of tomatoes today, not as many as I was hoping to get, if the frost holds off we should continue to get a few tomatoes every day or two for at least three weeks.

We had tuna salad in tomatoes for supper tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

Anodized coatings wear off, I'm not sure if the acid in tomatoes would speed that up.

We have two 9 1/2" Ikea stainless steel saute pans, I like them a lot, but sometimes I wish I had one 12" stainless steel saute pan, though I don't feel like paying $200 for one. (I don't want a non-stick pan for general cooking, we do use them for eggs.)

[Mike Nolan]

We had bagels with cream cheese, corned beef and Swiss cheese. They were pretty good, I used the Reinhart 'Artisan' recipe with 1/3 the salt and honey instead of barley malt. The poaching liquid also had honey. We both like them so much it'll probably be our go-to variant.

I made 9 bagels, slightly under 3 ounces of dough each. I figure they're about 35 carbs each, before adding toppings.

[Mike Nolan]

The Pullman loaf came out good, too, I used the Austrian Malt bread recipe with 28 ounces of flour, 50% semolina. (This is a 4x4x13 pan.)

I took the lid off 5 minutes before I expected it to be done, and the internal temperature was only about 180, so I gave it another 10 minutes, at which point it was 205.

I'll slice it in the morning, but I expect the square slices to be fine.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Mike Nolan]

The Montreal-style bagels are out, and they're definitely fluffier and softer on the exterior. They won't have quite the same taste as a true Montreal bagel, because they weren't baked in a wood-fired oven, but I think they'll be pretty good for supper tonight.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Mike Nolan]

Sometimes I think my wife would prefer I stick to a few proven recipes, but what's the fun in that??

[Mike Nolan]

Today I'm making another semolina/malt bread recipe in the Pullman pan (about 25% less dough this time) and I'm also making bagels--sort of a Montreal-style recipe (less salt, honey instead of barley syrup in the dough, honey in the poaching liquid instead of baking soda.)

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not sure we've EVER had a bag of self-rising flour in the house, but we aren't big biscuit eaters.

[Mike Nolan]

I saw one recipe that said something like: throw whatever vegetables you have in a pot, but not root starches like potatoes.

She doesn't remember who she sent it do, does she?

I've got a book on stocks, broths and soups, I think has several classes of vegetable stocks, one major factor being whether or not there is tomato present. (That produces a dark stock, most other vegetables produce more of a white or clear stock.)

I've got celery, onion and carrot pulp in the freezer from my vinegar trials (the onion one was a failure), I plan to use them to make a stock when cooler weather is reliably here.

[Mike Nolan]

I've never had much luck with whole wheat pastry flour, which is, unfortunately, about the only kind of pastry flour available locally.

I have had better luck with fresh ground whole meal from soft red spring wheat for things like croissants, I haven't tried it for a pie crust. White pastry flour is one of the few things I still buy from King Arthur. (I think the next time I need medium rye flour I'm going to see if I can get it from Sysco, or order a 50 pound bag from Baker's Authority.)

[Mike Nolan]

I don't think I was one of the recipients. Pity, I could use a good vegetable stock recipe.

[Mike Nolan]

I use a dry-roast for eye of round (low and slow) but not for bottom round, I prefer a braise for it. Bottom round is a good cut for Italian Beef, but you really need a slicer to cut it really thin. I generally used bottom round for boeuf bourguignon, though I've used top round for it, too. I like top round for shiskabob.

[Mike Nolan]

Recently I've been making a full recipe of Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake, putting 60% of it in a 10x10 pan and 40% in an 8x8 pan. I make a double batch of frosting and split it the same way. (I actually tried it with a triple batch once, and my wife said I finally managed to make one with too much frosting on it, though I though it was great!)

I usually freeze one of them, it handles freezing very well.

[Author]

Posts