[Mike Nolan]

I saw a few issues in the grocery store, but none of them tempted me to buy them.

Magazine publishing is a tough business these days. Younger people don't read printed material much, they just look online, where recipes are usually free anyway.

I've not found a subscription recipe site that I thought was worth the money. I follow the recipes and reviews on the Washington Post site, which is behind their paywall, but that's not the reason I subscribe. They usually have two dozen or so Christmas cookie recipes that they post around Thanksgiving, I've probably printed out two dozen of them, made 10-15 of them, 3 or 4 were keepers as far as I was concerned.

[Mike Nolan]

I've never used a Kaiser roll stamp, I have made Kaiser rolls using the fold method a number of times, it always takes me 4 or 5 rolls before I get the knack down again, so I usually make a few, throw them back in the bowl and do them again.

I think you don't want to use too strong of a flour for Kaiser rolls, I looked on the BBGA site and the Kaiser roll recipe there is 55% high extraction flour (or sifted whole wheat) and 45% 'bread flour' with a note that says 11.5 to 11.7% protein. The rest of the formula is 61% water, 2% salt, 1% yeast, 4% egg, 2.8% sugar and 2.8% oil. Use 90 grams (3.17 ounces) of dough for each roll and let them rest for 20 minutes before using the stamp. The way this recipe gets the seeds to stick is to moisten the top with a wet towel then dip the roll in seeds.

For those who don't want to do the baker's math, here's the recipe sized for 12 rolls:

341 grams high extraction/sifted whole wheat flour
279 grams AP flour (11.7% protein)
379 grams water
12.4 grams salt
6.2 grams instant dry yeast
24.8 grams egg
17.4 grams sugar
17.4 grams vegetable oil

Not sure about baking temp/time, the recipe calls for 20 minutes at 400 degrees in a convection oven with steam.

[Mike Nolan]

It is pretty close to that, but there are times when the roughly 4% difference might be relevant.

[Mike Nolan]

It is worth noting that 1 ml of water = 1 gram only under the specified conditions of temperature and atmospheric pressure, as well as the purity of the water, including dissolved gasses in it.

For years the definition of a meter was based on a master standard bar locked up in a Paris vault. However, that bar became distorted over time and as a result scientists recently adapted a new standard for length, one based on a reproducible physical property.

[Mike Nolan]

There's snow in our forecast, and the radar screen looks like it'll be here soon, though this is likely to just be a light dusting. We may get 1-2 inches on Wednesday, though, and the forecast for Halloween is more snow in the morning and cold in the evening.

We're having a lavash pizza for supper.

[Mike Nolan]

We had leftover chili with the cinnamon rolls.

[Mike Nolan]

Those are fun.

My wife was suggesting I make a Texas Chocolate Sheet cake and use it as the 'ground' for a Halloween tableau. Not sure my cake decorating skills are up to that, though.

[Mike Nolan]

Here's a photo of my cinnamon rolls, they came out a lot like Chelsea buns.

I'd be tempted to make them a bit smaller next time, maybe 6 or 9 to a batch instead of 4. My wife thinks they need more cinnamon, she thinks most cinnamon goods need more cinnamon.

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[Mike Nolan]

The public schools in Lincoln have served cinnamon rolls with chili for as far back as anyone can remember. Of course the kids dip the roll in the chili. Their rolls are not very sweet and either aren't frosted or don't have much frosting on them.

In any event, nearly every restaurant in Lincoln that serves chili will bring a cinnamon roll with it, because everyone expects that.

I also took a couple of tips from the Epicurious cinnamon roll episode that was in a recent thread:

I made a compound butter with softened butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and spread it on the rolled out dough.

I also used a 24" carpenter's straight edge to make sure I had a nice rectangle (a tool we used in chocolate school), and then used that same straight edge to cut the dough before I rolled it up. That went surprisingly well. They're still rising, I'll post some pictures after they're baked.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making a small batch of 4 cinnamon rolls to go with the chili I made last night, it will not be frosted.

[Mike Nolan]

Here's an interesting though somewhat technical article about heat conduction and bones. Apparently the species, type of bone and how it has been cut all affect heat transfer in bones.

See Heat Conduction in Bones

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not a big fan of pumpkin in general, or most squash. I see white bean chili on menus all the time, but I've never made any. Lima beans aren't something we care for, either.

[Mike Nolan]

The last time I checked, Sams has McCormick vanilla, 8 ounce bottle, for just under $20. I haven't been to Costco lately, their prices are usually similar though often slightly higher than Sams.

Vanilla prices are slowly coming down but food price experts don't think they'll ever get back to the levels we saw 3-4 years ago. I've seen several chefs and food writers talking about what items need real vanilla and what ones are OK with artificial vanilla, which remains fairly cheap.

[Mike Nolan]

Considering that the only difference in the two batches of chili is that one has two cans of black beans in it, the two have fairly different tastes. I'm not sure which one I prefer, I had two small bowls of both for supper.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making chili tonight. I've got two pots on, one is about half black beans the other one has just kidney and pinto beans in it. If we like the black beans one, I might combine the two for leftovers and freezing.

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