[Mike Nolan]

I've never had much luck with those rings, and I don't think they make them thinner than 1/8 inch anyway.

[Mike Nolan]

I've made blitz puff, but to be honest, once you've practiced it, it really doesn't take that much longer in terms of active time (ignoring times the dough is chilling) to make a true laminated dough.

[Mike Nolan]

I was looking at some tortilla presses online, the reviews on them weren't encouraging, some didn't get them very thin, others have multiple reports of the handle breaking. For initial testing, I might just roll them out by hand.

As far as I can tell, none of the tortilla brands available here, including those made locally, use semolina, probably because of the higher cost.

[Mike Nolan]

The Bernard Clayton book on the breads of France has a number of recipes for what in France they call pain de regime (diet bread).

[Mike Nolan]

The eggshell rolls are pretty close on texture, I think after they are allowed to cool and are reheated they'll be even closer. Most of this batch I plan to set aside for Thanksgiving.

I wound up adding a lot more flour than the recipe called for, but I think that's consistent with Bernard Clayton recipes I've tried in the past.

The flavor isn't quite where I want it, I think a little rye flour would bring the flavor up a bit. Another possibility is some whole wheat flour, maybe sifting out the bigger pieces of bran.

Increasing the salt a little might help, too, because of all the extra flour I had to add it wound up at about 1.35% salt.

I will cut back on the yeast next time, they rose way too fast. I'd be tempted to take some of the flour, water and yeast and make a preferment to give it more character. (I suspect the ones I had in NYC were made with a starter.)

I'm thinking they might benefit from an egg white glaze, they have kind of a matte finish. I don't know if that would affect the crispness of the surface.

[Mike Nolan]

I found a recipe for 'eggshell rolls' in Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, I'm planning to try it today to see if it produces something similar to the incredible rolls I had in NYC years ago. (I think those had some rye flour in the dough, but I'll save that for a second attempt.)

You whip some egg whites and mix them into the dough before putting in the second half of the flour. There's also a small amount of sugar and shortening, creamed together before adding. He says the recipe came from a booklet put out by General Mills 40 years ago (which would make back in the 30's or 40's) for commercial bakers.

Surprisingly enough, it does not require refrigerating or freezing the dough before baking, something that PJ Hamel had suggested I try.

[Mike Nolan]

Do you make your flour tortillas or buy them? My wife has been wondering if flour tortillas made with semolina flour would have a lower glycemic index, like semolina pasta does.

[Mike Nolan]

Is Crisco on your list of allowable ingredients?

They're not a rolled cookie, but I've always thought my mother's chocolate chip oatmeal cookies Oatmeal Crisps are better when made with Crisco than with butter. You can leave out the chocolate chips, or just cut back on them.

These cookies are fantastic dunked in milk.

[Mike Nolan]

I grew up in a small town that had two grocery stores, both with a full-service meat counter plus a butcher shop. All have closed over the years. There are a few grocery items at the gas station/convenience store, but most people have to drive to a neighboring town to get most grocery items.

I've lived in Chicago and in Lincoln since the early 70's, I think it would be a major change to deal with small town issues like groceries and meal planning.

Even Lincoln was a bit of a shock after being able to find ANYTHING in Chicago, and a full-service butcher is practically unheard of out here, most things come in a box, if you're lucky they will cut it for you. We knew people who drove to Kansas City (150 miles) once or twice a month just because of the shopping limitations in Lincoln and Omaha.

And small-town medical care is rapidly disappearing, too.

[Mike Nolan]

We have 2 grocery stores close to us, plus a WalMart and a Target superstore a bit further away. I tend to buy our meat at one of the stores and milk at the other (and neither at WalMart or Target.) But WallyWorld has the best price on KAF AP, though they don't always have KAF Bread flour (and Target usually has a better price anyway.)

So I probably hit the two grocery stores once a week each, sometimes twice, WalMart once every few weeks and Target infrequently. There's another grocery store a little further away, the same corporate ownership as one of the two we frequent, but it's their 'full service' store as opposed to more of a warehouse model. I would buy a few things there, including tea, but they apparently no longer carry the type of tea I was buying. (Stewarts, out of Chicago.) I doubt I visit it more than once or twice a year.

There used to be a 'gourmet' grocery store further away that had lots of interesting stuff and was a long-time Lincoln store, dating back to the 1920's. It got acquired by the other 'gourmet' store and IMHO went downhill, but that other store had also declined over the years, it once had the best meat department in the city. Then the acquired store burned down and they chose not to rebuild, due in part to code issues affecting the size of the parking lot. So now someone's building a bicycle shop on that lot.

The best meat market in town is now in the east part of town, a 20 minute drive but the quality is excellent and the prices are usually reasonable. They carry things I can't get anywhere else, like veal shanks, and they can special order a lot of things with a few days notice, like a 40 pound box of chicken backs for making stock.

[Mike Nolan]

The only butter I keep on hand is for cooking, so it is unsalted butter, which doesn't taste that great spread on bread.

[Mike Nolan]

WalMart evaluates what products it stocks almost continuously. Local store managers used to have more discretion as to what they could choose to carry or not, these days they're generally limited to deciding about items of local interest, and even that can get factored into the corporate model. (A WalMart in Nebraska WILL CARRY Husker merchandise!)

I'm having trouble finding Promise margarine. (Although I only use butter when cooking, we prefer a soft margarine for things like toast.) The Promise Activ (high omega-3) product seems to have vanished completely, and now 2 of the 3 stores we shop at regularly aren't carrying any Promise products at all. (WalMart still has it.)

Recently several of the stores we frequent have gone through a reorganization, so it is hard to find anything. In the process, a number of products seem to have disappeared.

I was at a WalMart on the other side of town the other day, and walked through the area for flour and other baking ingredients. It was depressingly small with very limited variety. (No KAF products at all.) On the other hand, there were plenty of box mixes. I guess folks on that side of town don't do much real baking.

[Mike Nolan]

Like many members of the Brassica family, Brussels sprouts get extremely bitter if overcooked, I've never thought they froze well at all, which is kind of odd because they're better if not harvested until after a frost.

They're tricky to reheat, too. I roast them rather than boil them, that keeps them from getting quite as bitter, even reheated.

I've tried some frozen Brussels sprouts with cheese sauce, they weren't worth the price.

[Mike Nolan]

I've bought butter at Sams, it doesn't seem any better or worse than house brands at the grocery store. I was never all that impressed with LOL butter over other brands, the European ones are different, higher fat and somewhat different taste, probably because the cream is cultured before it is churned. (Higher fat is controlled by how much buttermilk you press out, in the USA I think it has to be a minimum of 80% butterfat and most dairies aren't going to go higher unless they can charge a higher price for it.)

[Mike Nolan]

Well, the ones that were plain breadsticks needed more salt, and there wasn't enough cheese in the twisted ones, but enough to tell me that the idea works.

I'm setting several aside for testing in a day or two to see how well they age.

I think I'll try making a full batch of dough and divide it into 3 or 4 parts, with a little extra salt in the recipe. I use less than what it calls for, that's OK for something you're going to put margarine or jam on, or a sandwich bread, but I think for breadsticks it needs more salt, either in the recipe or on the outside of the bread.

I may try mixing in a little rye flour with one part and cheese with another.

[Author]

Posts