Mike Nolan
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My wife has requested pizza bread in addition to a pizza on Saturday, so I've started a levain so I can make baguette dough in the morning.
I may do one thin crust pizza and one double crust stuffed pizza, something I haven't done in a long time but is REALLY good. I'd need to get some ricotta and some spinach for the bottom layer. And some good pepperoni if I can find it. (The brand we've been using for the past several years has changed its formula and now includes garlic, haven't found another one we liked yet, most are too strong.)
My wife wears one of those continuous glucose monitors, you get really interesting information from them about how your body deals with carbs, you can see her blood sugar spike up after a meal that is heavy on carbs. But a pasta meal made with my semolina egg pasta doesn't cause a big spike, it goes up, but over a longer time frame and not quite as high.
I believe the sourness also has to do with whether it has a microculture that is dominated by lactic aid producing bacteria or acetic acid producing bacteria. My starter is running a pH of about 3.5, which I believe is fairly sour for a starter, but it doesn't have a really sour smell to it. The wheat-base starter I kept in the fridge back when I was testing recipes for ABED had a vinegary smell to it, this one doesn't.
When I feed my rye starter, it start out with a color that is sort of a light grey with a hint of brown in it, but after it has aged a day or two it develops a color that definitely has some red in it.
Most cell phone plans no longer pay attention to whether a call is 'local' or not.
My wife uses Zoom a lot these days, if you've got bandwidth issues, just turn off the camera.
Tonight we had pizza bread made with several day old baguettes that had been sliced lengthwise and some of the pizza sauce I made today, with cheese, artichoke hearts, tomato slices and mushrooms.
Sams Club had their usual assortment of flours today (all bleached), and they also had Fleischmann's IDY in 2 pound sets, so I got one and now I've got enough yeast to get me through the rest of the year and probably beyond.
Sourdough is one of those things that can be really good or really bad, and the really bad ones seem to dominate the market around here. Sometimes I think they just throw a handful of citric acid powder or vinegar in the dough and call it sourdough.
My wife can't tolerate the local sourdoughs, though she does just fine with the breads when we've been in San Francisco, where our younger son lives. So far she hasn't had a problem with the sourdough baguettes I've been making, they're not heavily 'sour'. I need to make a batch that doesn't also use some commercial yeast and see how those come out.
There is a fair amount of research on sourdough and glycemic index, it can temporize the peak in blood sugar associated with eating carbs. (Semolina has similar tendencies.)
The best pancakes I've ever had were at a pancake chain in Indianapolis. We concluded that there was a splash of orange juice in the batter.
Starters really run the gamut of possibilities, the one Aaron was talking about on yesterday's test Zoom call with milk, sugar and flour has been around since the 50's, and while it works, sometimes I really wonder how. There are starters that use grapes, raisins, potatoes and a few other fruits and vegetables as source material for yeast and possibly other microbes.
There was an interesting question on one of my cell phone news posts recently about who has the oldest starter. I know some of the San Francisco bakeries claim to have kept their starters going since the Gold Rush days (1849), but that may not be the oldest starter still going.
The test for the virtual pizza party went well, so I've asked Aaron to post a link everyone can use on Saturday at 6:30 PM CT.
If your computer doesn't have a camera or you have bandwidth issues, you can always join us audio-only. That should even work for many cell phones.
Don't worry if the computer doesn't reach the kitchen, set it up so we can see you and your finished pizzas on the table.
As we cut further into the chocolate chip challah, we're finding that the center is a little underdone, so if you make it, keep the size reasonable; a long loaf is OK, a fat one could have the same problem. Any time you bake with chocolate, you're always dealing with having the dough done without scorching the chocolate.
I like the taste of this bread with just a touch of cinnamon in the dough, I'm thinking I may try to convert this recipe into a cinnamon-raisin version.
We seldom bother to frost a crazy cake/cake-in-a-pan, angel food cake is another one that really doesn't need frosting. A white or yellow cake is pretty dull without frosting.
Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake really needs the frosting, it is an integral part of the experience. I think I finally managed to make one with too much frosting on it, for a long time I wasn't sure that was even possible.
I ordered the mold I linked to upthread, and it is actually about 4 inches long (I updated the earlier post), which makes it much easier to use for making your own chocolate batons for pain au chocolat. Next time I create a pot of tempered chocolate, I'll make some of these.
I think the downtown farmer's market on Saturdays here is planning to open either this weekend or next. The Sunday one that is a lot closer to us (and has free parking) is still talking about opening in early June.
The recipe I've been playing around with lately uses both some starter and a small amount of commercial yeast. I may try a 100% sourdough bread next time.
What I've been doing is creating what Chad Robertson calls an 'immature starter' by taking a very small amount of my rye starter and inoculating enough wheat flour and water to do the recipe, then letting it sit overnight, by which time it is quite active.
His method, with a non-refrigerated starter, tends to favor lactic acid producing bacteria over acetic acid producing bacteria, which will tend to dominate in a cooler environment. I think it makes for a less sour tasting bread but still with the benefits of a sourdough.
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