[Mike Nolan]

My son got a baking steel recently, so far he likes it.

I've looked at them a couple of times but already have two baking stones and a box full of unglazed 6" quarry tiles, and I don't bake on them very often.

My problem is I'd like one that is about 22 x 17, a little larger than my 3/4 sheet pans, and it doesn't come in that size.

[Mike Nolan]

It's supposed to rain all night, I doubt spraying them with water will be necessary. The high for tomorrow is about 50, with another cold night tomorrow, but then it's back to the 70's and low 80's for a couple of weeks.

[Mike Nolan]

I keep mine in the freezer. I had some non-diastatic barley malt that got buried in the pantry and turned into a brick. I broke it up some in the food processor, but I think it isn't quite the same as before, so one of these days I'll order a new bag of it. I will probably be making a KAF order some time in the next few months, I just opened my last bag of pastry flour. (Finding a 'white' pastry flour locally is impossible.)

Many flours have a little DBM in them. I've been told that's because most American wheat strains are low in diastase.

From what I've read, it appears rye flour tends to be quite high in alpha amylase (one of the types of diastase), which is why rye doughs can go gummy quickly, because the alpha amylase starts breaking down the starch.

[Mike Nolan]

You should have told him about Jackalopes.

Can't say I know the person who started it though I think I've met his father, who is on the City Council.

[Mike Nolan]

My wife thinks we may lose our tomato plants tonight, the low is supposed to be around 42 with a 'real feel' down to 28 already. Warmer weather will be back on Friday.

I remember one year we lost the garden around our anniversary (Sep 17th), but this would be the earliest ever.

[Mike Nolan]

I think King Arthur has been outsourcing their milling for a long time, probably decades. I know they use several mills in Kansas, because PJ wrote a blog post about their taking several of their bakers and sales reps there each year to see where and how the wheat is grown, handled and milled. (Oh, to be part of one of those trips!)

During the worst of the flour shortages, they were buying flour from some mills they don't normally use, and there were reports of quality/consistency issues that may have been a result.

There's a lot of opinion in that article and not much of it backed with citations, it strikes me as the kind of article that could provoke a lot of passionate discussion.

I know that in France many bakeries have long-standing relationships with their mills, to the point where they know which farmers will be growing their wheat, what varieties, etc. The mills keep in touch with their customers about quality issues during the year, too.

That may happen in some US artisan bakeries with access to local millers and farmers, but most bakers, especially home bakers, have to deal with what we can get.

I've only bought a few bags of whole wheat flour in the roughly eight years since I got a Nutrimill, so I'm not the best judge of packaged whole wheat flour, but I will say that I noticed differences in dough texture and flavor when I started milling my own flour. (To start with, my whole meal breads are a touch sweeter.)

My mill is an impact mill, not a roller mill or stone mill, and there's not a lot of information out there on what an impact mill does to the wheat. I suspect there's a bit more starch damage than with flour from a commercial roller mill, I don't know if that'd be true for stone-ground flour as well. SOME starch damage is a good thing, because that's where the sugar comes from that the yeast feeds on, but too much starch damage is undesirable.

I can also notice a difference between flours made from winter hard red wheat and spring hard red wheat, though its hard to say exactly what. I've also used soft spring red wheat, in fact some of the best croissants I've ever made were made from some freshly ground soft spring red wheat. I've got some white wheat berries but have yet to grind them up and do any test bakes with them. (Some years back I bought a bag of white whole wheat flour, we were not impressed with it.)

The wheat breeder I know seems mostly concerned with things like yield and tolerance for drought, insects and plant diseases. I don't know how much he studies the nutritional aspects of his wheat tests, and it appears he doesn't know much about what happens at the mill. He also grows triticale, but interestingly enough the triticale breads I sent in to my wife's office last school year were the first time he'd actually tasted bread with triticale in it. (I doubt I'll be sending in any baked goods this school year.)

[Mike Nolan]

I'm doing the first test bake in my 13x4x4 Pullman pan tonight, using the semolina/Austrian malt variation I've been making lately. I need to figure out how much dough to put in, I did some volume comparisons and I think it's not quite 2X what I've been making for a 9x5 loaf pan.

[Mike Nolan]

The promised cold rain has arrived. The high for the rest of the day is 49 and the low for tonight is now down to 41.

After this three day cold/wet period, the daily highs are forecast for the high 70's or low 80's and the lows in the 50's for the next two weeks.

The hummingbirds finally arrived in quantities over the weekend, but this cold weather might drive them further south.

No picking tomatoes today.

[Mike Nolan]

My lacto-fermented tomatoes are coming along fairly well, I think. The smell is odd, but the taste is interesting. I'm going to give them about another 3-4 days, I think.

[Mike Nolan]

I started marinating a chicken in white wine earlier today, I plan to cook it on the rotisserie later this afternoon.

[Mike Nolan]

We wound up doing tacos.

[Mike Nolan]

I made Veal Zurich on spaetzle, one of my favorite meals, and a relatively easy one to do once you've got the veal.

[Mike Nolan]

These were made with local (Nebraska City) pie cherries, and it tastes great, though I tipped the pan at some point before it went into the oven, spilling some of the liquid, and that's why one area looks different.

I'm looking forward to another piece after supper.

[Mike Nolan]

The cherry pie is out, and delicious!

I think I got too much nutmeg or clove in the carrot cake, it is good but has a strong spice taste to it.

I used the left over pie dough to make two 4" pecan tarts, but I left them in the oven too long and they are a bit over-baked, though still edible.

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[Mike Nolan]

I made carrot cake last night and a cherry pie today. We also bought a coconut cream pie from Village Inn. My wife won't eat coconut, but several of the people here to help out at the garage sale will, including me.

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