[Mike Nolan]

I have a 6x6 pan that I got at an auction or garage sale some years ago. I think I made them in an oversized muffin tin once, too.

The challenge with that is that most sources recommend you not leave any of the spots empty, because baking in a pan with some spots full and some empty can warp the pan or damage the non-stick surface (if it has one.) Usually I throw some water in the unfilled spots, but that has its own set of problems.

[Mike Nolan]

There's a macarons class at the local CC in October, I'm planning to take it. Good quality almond flour isn't cheap, and the fillings usually involve a heavy cream ganache.

[Mike Nolan]

I don't make sweet rolls or desserts very often, too many carbs in them. I did find a recipe for just 4 cinnamon rolls that I've made on those occasions where you just have to have a cinnamon roll!

There are quite a few small-batch recipes out there, after studying them for a while, I went with this one:
Cinnamon Rolls for 2 (4 rolls)

[Mike Nolan]

I thought it was fascinating that the professional cut her dough into strips before rolling them up. I may have to try that some time, if I can keep the dough block nicely rectangular so it has clean edges. I assume it would work with non-laminated dough as well. She made a compound butter so there wasn't a lot of leakage along the cuts, that's worth trying as well. She also baked them in separate individual pans, which helps maintain a uniform shape, which is a nice professional touch. (It's hard to read or watch something on baking and not get at least one idea from it.)

I have made cinnamon rolls with laminated dough, they were fantastic. I made them with laminated dough made using soft red winter wheat that I ground myself, so it was whole-meal. That dough made interesting croissants, too.

[Mike Nolan]

I've made pizza dough and let it sit out overnight, but I think it is better if I refrigerate it overnight and take it out about 3 hours before I plan to make pizza. Leaving it out overnight the dough gets a bit too 'beery' for me.

[Mike Nolan]

If you click on the URL in the first post in the thread, you'll see it references recalls by KAF and Aldi that were issued back in June, as well as one for Pillsbury. These all appear to be related to issues at an ADM mill.

[Mike Nolan]

I think it'll be fine left in the bag.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making Vienna bread today. Most of it will go in the freezer.

[Mike Nolan]

Also affects some King Arthur AP flour.

[Mike Nolan]

One reason whole tomatoes take up so much space is that they're round, so if you freeze them you wind with a lot of air gaps. The other is that the juice is mostly water.

I did around 40 pounds of tomatoes last weekend:

I think they would have come close to filling up my 24 quart pot.

I wound up with about 15 quarts of juice and pulp, plus I filled 2 one-gallon bags with the seeds and skin that the Roma sauce maker separated out. (I'll use those to make beef stock over the winter.) The 15 quarts reduced down to about 8-9 quarts of tomato sauce.

The year that I put in several black cherry tomato plants I wound up picking HUNDREDS of cherry-sized tomatoes. I would throw them in boiling water for a few seconds, then bag them for the freezer. I used them to make stock.

I'm running out of freezer space for containers of tomato sauce, but will probably have two more good harvest cycles, depending on when the first frost hits. I might blanch and freeze a few whole tomatoes, though I'm not sure where they'd go in the freezers.

The tomatoes have been fairly small this year, partly because of the varieties I chose. If I get enough larger ones (the Amish Paste ones are great, up to 10 ounces each), I might make a few bags of concassed tomatoes (skinned and seeded.)

[Mike Nolan]

I've got one of those gloves, I find it gets in the way, so I just make sure my knife is properly sharpened and keep the fingers on my left hand tucked safely out of the way.

Having a sharp knife is very important, it is much less likely to slip.

[Mike Nolan]

My favorite whisk is one that ATK rated at the bottom. I have an OXO eggbeater that works well and disassembles for easy cleaning. We still like the old-fashioned sifters that shake sideways for those occasions when we still sift anything.

I've used my KA Pasta roller attachment to roll out cookie and cracker dough, the width limitation is an issue. There are some commercial pasta rollers that support up to a 10" width. With laminated dough, handling it to feed it through a pasta roller would likely fracture the butter. The sheet rollers don't do that, and I don't think the clay slab rollers would, either. But I think it would be hard to make a sheet roller that didn't require 30 inches or more of counter width, though the big commercial ones require more like 8 feet. About the only way I can think of to do it would be for the roller itself to move left and right, and that would be challenging.

One advantage a sheet roller has over manual rolling is that the pressure is consistent across the full width. That means you don't get a lot of spreading as you pass the dough back and forth through the rollers. Lengthening, yes, but not spreading.

I've seen some videos of experienced pastry makers rolling out laminated doughn by hand without losing the rectangular shape, but I've also seen some very experienced chefs who had to fiddle with the shape to keep it rectangular.

[Mike Nolan]

My wife doesn't care for avocado, it's been many years since I've bought or prepared one. I like it but it's not high on my list of choices when we eat out.

Some of the ways to cut it that I've seen chefs do strike me as risky, but I've seen many chefs use a mandoline with their fingers getting way too close to the blade, too. I haven't cut myself with a knife lately, I'd like to keep it that way.

[Mike Nolan]

I've seen artists put clay through a slab roller, the clay gets everywhere and if it dries it is tough to get out, so they're usually relatively easy to take apart and clean.

But cleaning up a dough sheeter can be a bit of work, too.

I'd be a bit more concerned about them meeting sanitation standards, especially in a commercial environment.

[Mike Nolan]

Grains of paradise is an interesting spice. Some people who are allergic to pepper (capsaicins, not sweet peppers) use it in place of pepper in food.

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