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It's too bad we're all so spread out, I'd love to taste test your recipes and have you taste test mine.
I've never had any trouble giving away excess bread, several of my neighbors will gladly take it. I will sometimes send in items to my wife's office for taste-testing, but I don't really get the kind of feedback I'm after, they think nearly everything I send in is great. (I'm far more observant of the differences between batches and critical of any flaws. As a thread on the old KAF BC noted, bakers don't taste the bread in a restaurant, they EVALUATE it!)
And all the 'good' baking and cooking classes seem to be on the east or west coast.
When it comes to refined sugars, it is very difficult for me to notice any difference between cane and beet sugar these days.
When I was in grad school, one of my professors told an amusing story. His father ran a cannery. He was entrusted to make a batch of canned corn once and used beet sugar instead of cane sugar. The corn came out with a red tint to it.
I don't know if that would still happen, as that happened many years ago, in the 30's. I've had no problems using beet sugar for cooked sugar candies, though all the books say not to.
I've taken to slicing the marbled rye bread I make (a minor variation from the recipe in BBA) and freezing it, so that if I need a couple of slices for a sandwich or enough for a meal I just take them out and let them sit on the counter for a few minutes.
I'm glad this site does not make the usual claim that unrefined cane sugar is better for you than refined cane sugar. Both are 'added sugars' as far as the new US nutrition label standards are concerned.
If you happen to prefer the taste of demerara sugar or how it works in cooking and baking, fine. I prefer refined sugar for most of those purposes, though I do find I'm using brown sugar more than I used to. But there was a time when I was using Golden Syrup a lot too.
Covering with oil or bacon or barding a lean cut of beef to add some of the otherwise missing fat is a way to use dry methods with a lean cut of beef, but if not done thoroughly the meat can still get dried out and become tough.
A low and slow approach is another way to use dry cooking methods with a lean meat. When I make an eye of round, for example, I often start it in a hot (500F) oven for a few minutes, but then turn the temperature way down (to 250 if not lower) to let it coast for several hours. Some recipes have you turn the oven completely off, but my oven doesn't appear to be well enough insulated for that to work.
Whenever I try a new recipe or vary an existing one, I find waiting for dough to rise seems to take forever, especially if I'm not sure exactly how much it is supposed to rise.
And that's true with old standby recipes, too. Even a few degrees of difference in the room temperature can make a half hour or more difference in how long it takes my honey wheat bread to double--and some days it just doesn't double no matter how long I let it rise.
I have an email address for her from when she signed up for MNK, but I don't think she ever actually logged in.
I've dropped her a note, I'll let you know if I get a response.
Yeah, that's the problem with a lot of breadsticks recipes, they make more than two people can possibly eat.
There used to be a video out on Youtube of an older baker folding Kaiser rolls by hand. (Not the knot method.) I can't find it today but I'll keep looking.
In the mean time, here's another video that shows hand folding of Kaiser rolls:
Folding Kaiser RollsOne of the local cheesemakers who exhibits at our Sunday farmer's market has won numerous awards for her goat's milk cheeses, and deservedly so.
I'm making the 3rd of the 3 pans of lasagna I made a few weeks back.
I won't get it baked this week, but I'm planning to do Jeffrey Hamelman's raisin water bread, from the 2nd edition of his book. I have the first edition, but the recipe (Swiss Farmerhouse Bread) was printed in the BBGA newsletter a few years ago and is also available online here. (It takes 5-7 days just to make the raisin water, which is the only yeast used.)
I haven't decided if I'm going to follow his recipe completely or maybe leave out the walnuts and fold in some cinnamon.
It isn't on that list, but I just ordered Apollonia Poilâne's The Secrets of the World-Famous Bread Bakery. She is the third generation of the Poilâne family to run the bakery, having had to take over rather abruptly after her father's untimely death.
We ordered a miche (their signature bread) from the Poilâne bakery a few years ago, it arrived via Fedex from Paris in less than 48 hours and was excellent!
For some reason I thought you were in New Jersey.
There are a couple of trade magazines for pastry chefs, they're quite expensive but the photography is incredible.
I ran across this article on books recommended by professional bakers and pastry chefs
8 cookbooksI have 5 of the 8. (I have volumes 1 and 3 of the Tartine series but not volume 2.) One of the books listed is by Michel Suas, the founder of SFBI and a James Beard award winner for one of his bakery ventures. I bought his book when I was taking the pastry course at SFBI. I also have the CIA bakery textbook (by Gisslen), Cass sent it to me when he was downsizing apartments and I think of him every time I open it.
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