Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: Washington Post on the influx of new bakers #23046
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      I think I've ordered from Honeyville once, Sara Wirth orders from them a lot, though. I'm outside of their truck route area, but I think you're in it.

      I've ordered from Country Life Natural Foods several times, but their website suggests that they're having stock issues and are way behind on shipping, like nearly everyone else.

      in reply to: Washington Post on the influx of new bakers #23041
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        This place (Supermarket Italy) has Caputo 00 for about $2 per pound, and if you order $50 or more shipping is free.

        Supermarket Italy

        in reply to: Washington Post on the influx of new bakers #23040
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          Honeyville has $8.99 flat rate shipping so a 50 pound bag of whole wheat flour winds up being a little over a dollar a pound. I'm thinking about possibly ordering 50 pounds of semolina from them, the landed cost would be about $1.50 per pound, and I've been paying $2.50 or more locally.

          I did a search on 'bulk flour indiana' and some places came up that might be a day-trip away. As I recall, there are some Mennonite communities in Indiana and Ohio, they often repackage bulk flours into sizes more appropriate for home use.

          Too bad we don't live near each other, we could put together a pretty good bulk order. But shipping from point A to point B is really expensive unless you do enough of it to get the good rates.

          I generally don't worry about whole wheat flour any more, because I've got a flour mill and several types of wheat berries on hand. Finding wheat berries is sometimes even more challenging than finding whole wheat flour, though.

          I'm starting to get low on semolina, and I don't know if the place I've been getting it from locally is able to sell from their bulk bins right now.

          in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of April 19, 2020? #23030
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            It'll probably depend on how you store them overnight. I store mine in a plastic bag, but I always toast them, so if they get a little soft on the outside the toaster takes care of that.

            I've made bagels with everything from private-label AP bleached flour which was almost certainly at the low end of the scale for protein to very high-gluten flour that my neighbor said was only good for pizza. Once you get the dough right, everything else seems to fall in place.

            in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of April 19, 2020? #23029
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              We had fish with broccoli tonight.

              in reply to: Daily Quiz for April 21, 2020 #23021
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                I think the reason is because semolina isn't ground as finely. The more finely you grind a flour, the less it weighs per cup, cake flour being a good example. (Powdered sugar is another good example, it is much lighter per cup than granulated sugar.)

                A cup of durum wheat berries is 192 grams, other hard wheat berries are about the same, soft wheat berries are a bit lighter, 168 grams per cup.

                in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of April 19, 2020? #23015
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  There are many good ways to create a starter, some ways, like the pineapple juice method, may succeed where others fail. I guess it's somewhat dependent on what micro-organisms are in your environment. I've created a total of 3 wheat-based starters using 2 different methods and one rye-based starter (with a second one under way), all of them worked, some much faster than others. The first rye starter was ready in about a week, for example.

                  I stopped maintaining the wheat-based ones because my wife was having problems with the breads I was making, too sour for her, I think. One of these days I'm going to try a variant on Chad Robertson's method, as detailed in the Tartine cookbooks, adapting the feeding schedule so it doesn't require throwing out 95% of your starter frequently. His method is supposed to produce a starter that generates less lactic acid.

                  in reply to: What are you Baking the week of April 12, 2020? #23012
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    Hamelman's 'Soft Butter Rolls' recipe made excellent burger and hot dog buns, I'll make these again. The poppy seeds didn't stick on as well as I would have liked, I tried a little diluted honey to get them to stick, maybe next time I'll use a little egg white. I've used a honey-and-milk solution a few times, that seemed to work fairly well, too.

                    in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of April 19, 2020? #23011
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      I started a new rye starter today, using Ginsberg's instructions again.

                      I remember when I was testing Peter's starter instructions for ABED, it took FOREVER before I saw any signs of activity. However, that was in December/January and it was usually fairly cold in the kitchen. After three weeks, I was about ready to give up and start over again, but Peter advised me to just give it another few days, and it started to bubble during that time.

                      Deb Wink's 'pineapple juice' approach is pretty reliable. She's an expert in micro-organisms who decided to put her training to use in the kitchen. It has the advantage of creating a low pH environment faster, thus discouraging some of the less desirable bacteria from getting a foothold in your starter. I'm hoping that after the world re-opens they can reschedule her sourdough class in a place and time I can attend, I was really looking forward to it.

                      in reply to: Daily Quiz for April 20, 2020 #23009
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        My guess is both the whites and the yolks would heat up to the point where the egg explodes, the yolks have their own separate membrane which is why they'll explode even if the egg is cracked into a dish but the yolk isn't broken.

                        Eggs without a yolk are very rare, and they never make it to the grocery store these days due to automated candling processes, otherwise someone could test this.

                        in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of April 19, 2020? #23004
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          I started a big batch of sauerkraut in my new 4 gallon crock on Sunday, I've got between 11 and 12 pounds of cabbage in it, as it compresses down I plan to add more cabbage in the next day or two. It started out about 3/4 full, by this morning it was below half full. I've got around 30 pounds of cabbage to work with, I may wind up starting another batch in the 1 gallon crock just to use more of it up.

                          in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of April 19, 2020? #23003
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            I'm making a batch of bagels today, using 75% bread flour and 25% first clear flour. Next batch I may throw in some triticale.

                            I'm also making the box brownie mix I got out a week ago. I figure the oven's already hot, so why not do them now?

                            in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of April 19, 2020? #22995
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              French law is pretty specific about what bakers can sell as 'French bread'. It must be a lean dough, ie, the only ingredients are flour, water, salt and yeast or levain. (A little dough conditioner is allowed to compensate for certain flour conditions, but the list of conditioners allowed is short. Prof. Calvel's book goes into the history of dough conditioners in France and how they impact the quality of the bread.)

                              Every recipe I've seen for Vienna bread is an enriched dough, usually with egg and oil/butter in it, and often a little sugar. As a result, a Vienna bread generally has a much longer shelf life than a French baguette, which goes stale in a day. That's why there are so many French recipes for using up old bread.

                              in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of April 19, 2020? #22994
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                We had artichokes for supper, a bit light on carbs but delicious.

                                in reply to: Kitchenaid Stand Mixer #22993
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  One possibility is that the beater is is too close to the bowl, it won't lock if it isn't all the way down. See if it locks without a beater in place. If so, you need to do the height adjustment stuff.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 4,411 through 4,425 (of 7,574 total)