[Mike Nolan]

The questions to ask when making cookies and the texture isn't what you expected:

1. What's the sugar to fat to flour ratio in those cookies? (A classic sugar cookie is 1-2-3.)
2. What kind of sugar is it using (white vs brown)?
3. Is the fat liquid or hard? (If you cream butter and sugar, it's still considered hard, Shortening is also hard, but if you melt the fat or use oil, it's liquid.)

I wouldn't worry about getting eggs fully cooked, by the time the cookies are edible, even soft ones, the eggs are way past the point where they're safe.

[Mike Nolan]

You should at least look at the explanation of the answer, there's always something to be learned.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not sure what we're doing for dinner tonight yet, but I made some hard boiled eggs. Might go on a salad, might go in tuna salad, might be egg salad.

[Mike Nolan]

I made grissini (thin crisp breadsticks) today, I may make a second batch with parmesan cheese in them. This evening I'm going to make a cranberry walnut bread, probably as mini-muffins.

[Mike Nolan]

There are so many different ways to make cheese that even experienced cheese-makers don't use most of them.

Charles DeGaulle once said about France, "How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 types of cheese?"

[Mike Nolan]

We had veal Zurich over spaetzle made with 100% semolina flour, which was less successful than I had hoped. It didn't have enough gluten to hold together, so the texture is closer to a polenta. It was tasty, but it wasn't really spaetzle. A 50-50 blend of AP and semolina might hold together more.

We also decanted the first of the two flans I made yesterday. The recipe I have makes a LARGE flan, it calls for a 1 1/2 quart charlotte pan, and we wound up cooking it in 2 10" pyrex dishes, next time I may just do it in one pan, which would make it a lot deeper.

I forgot to add the vanilla, I think it may counteract the slight bitterness of true caramel, so I'll make a note on the recipe for next time not to forget it. It took a lot longer to set up than I had expected, I think I made a bit too much caramel and that insulated it too much. I may also have not had the water in the bain-marie hot enough.

[Mike Nolan]

We're having lavash pizza for supper tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

I made a batch of rye rolls starting with the Clayton eggshell roll recipe I made earlier this week, subbing in 20% dark rye flour, using molasses instead of barley malt and adjusting the salt and water amounts so the recipe was reasonably hydrated.

I also made a poolish with some of the flour and water and let it sit overnight.

Pretty good, I'm not sure if the surface will harden over time, but I will likely make it again, if only because I want to have a variety of rolls for Thanksgiving and this batch might not last that long. I may freeze a bunch of them so they are fresh on Thursday.

I didn't put caraway in them, I might do that next time. I thought about giving them an egg wash but I'm not sure how that would impact the crust. I may try that in a future batch.

[Mike Nolan]

RLB has silicone pastry wands, a set of 3 thicknesses (1/16, 1/8, 3/16), 18 inches deep, for $9.99 at Bed Bath & Beyond website.

[Mike Nolan]

We had vegetable beef soup from the freezer for supper tonight.

I've got some metal and wood bars I use for setting thickness, too, but I don't think I've got a set that's 1/16" thick, that's only slightly thicker than a dime.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

1/4 tsp of baking soda per cup of buttermilk is what I've always seen, perhaps you needed more to pair up with the cream of tartar? Maybe your baking soda is too old? I've read of that happening but I buy it in huge bags at Sams, it takes several years to use that much, and we have never had a problem with it.

[Mike Nolan]

The ossi dei morti that I made for Halloween/All Souls were unleavened and held their shape and pattern fairly well when I used cookie cutters, stamps and molds with them. I think I liked the taste of the ones I did 3-4 years ago better, though, I need to figure out where I filed that recipe for next October.

[Mike Nolan]

Not only do I still have our two volume OED, I still use it from time to time. We have a second one that is missing the magnifying glass.

Years ago I had a chance to purchase the OED in its original 13 volumes, I still regret not doing that.

I was collecting dictionaries for a while and have a number of very good ones including the 2nd edition of the Websters Unabridged Dictionary, which many people consider to be the finest unabridged dictionary ever published. I have a number of French dictionaries these days to help me with my French studies and I have one Irish dictionary, though I haven't done much studying of Irish in the past two years.

[Mike Nolan]

I think Clayton's complete book of breads is rather like the Joy of Cooking, it isn't intended to be read cover to cover, it is more of a reference for when you're looking for certain types of breads. I glanced at all the other breads in the 'little breads' chapter while I was working on the eggshell rolls, there are a few I might try.

BTW, I entered his eggshell rolls recipe into my baker's math calculator and at 4.25 ounces per cup of flour it came up at about 86% hydration, which explains why I had to add so much extra flour, as Cass would say that's almost soup. I'm going to try a variant on it, starting with a pre-ferment and then subbing in about 20% rye flour. I sized it down a bit, too.

[Mike Nolan]

You can make a pretty good cheddar cheese sauce by starting with a Béchamel (roux and milk) and adding the cheese to that, making it a variant on Mornay sauce.

Since I almost never make my own whipped cream or butter, about the only things I use cream for are Veal Zurich (a white wine cream sauce) and for Alfredo sauce. The original Alfredo sauce was mace just with parmesan reggiano, but you have to melt it very slowly so that it doesn't curdle, cream speeds the process up a lot (and cream is far less expensive, too), so that's why restaurants do it that way. Why they add garlic is a mystery to me, it isn't needed and it isn't correct, either. (And IMHO it ruins the taste, Alfredo sauce should taste like a rich cheese and NOTHING ELSE!)

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