[Mike Nolan]

I spent much of the afternoon working on the chili and cinnamon rolls yesterday.

For the cinnamon rolls I added some sugar and vanilla to the 'Holland American' recipe, I used a brown sugar, butter and cinnamon paste filling, and I glazed them with a simple pastry glaze (confectioners sugar, water and lemon juice), which I heated to make it easier to brush on.

I spread the filling on with my fingers, messy but effective.

I wound up dividing the dough into 2 parts, each half filled two 24-mini-muffin trays. I baked them one at a time, so trays 2 and 4 got a longer rise, and I think that helped them turn out better, next time I'll let them all rise longer before they go in the oven.

The first batch didn't come out of the pan well, I think I let them cool too much and they stuck down, so the other 3 batches I took out right after glazing them.

I rolled the first half of the dough out to about 24 x 16 on a silpat, that turned out to be too thick, so I rolled the second one out to about 30 x 9 on the countertop, and after rolling it up I rolled it a bit more so it was more like 40 inches long by the time I started to cut it. I think next time I might roll it out to 48 inches so each roll is cut one inch thick.

The brown sugar, butter and cinnamon mixture produces a butterscotch/cinnamon filling which is very tasty. (White sugar would produce a caramel filling, but the presence of the molasses in the brown sugar makes it technically a butterscotch.)

By the time I got done, I was too tired to clean the pans and start on the banana muffins, so I'll probably do that tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

Most iodized salts have some kind of dessicant in them to keep them from clumping. (I think kosher salts do not.) My mother always put rice in the salt shaker, too.

If you think about it, nearly all salt is 'sea salt'. 🙂 I like the look of the pink Hawaiian salt, but I can't say I could taste any difference in it.

I assume it's possible to have too much iodine in one's diet as well as too little, but you don't find much about that online. There may be other thyroid issues that would lead to a need to avoid iodized salt.

[Mike Nolan]

There are people who claim they can taste a metallic bitterness in iodized salt, but I'm not one of them.

I have wondered whether with my no-added-salt diet if I'm getting enough iodine these days. I still use a little iodized salt when baking, but for most of the things I've baked lately I've cut the salt down, in some cases by 3/4.

If a prepared food just says 'salt' in the list of ingredients, that means it isn't iodized salt.

[Mike Nolan]

I'll make 70-90 mini muffins and most of them will go in the freezer.

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't seen chicken legs here under 99 cents/pound in a long time. I usually buy bone-in breasts, if I want skinless/boneless I do that myself, I throw the bone in a bag and freeze it for my next batch of chicken stock.

Eggs have gotten pricey here, $2.39 a dozen is common. For some reason WalMart is selling them at 37 cents/dozen though.

I did spaghetti squash with meatballs in tomato sauce and cheese toast tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

I made Vienna bread (Clonmel Double Crusty) last night, using just 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Came out great.

[Mike Nolan]

A rest just after initial mixing isn't for the yeast, it's for the flour to get better hydrated and for enzymes to get started. It's similar to an autolyze (which is generally done before the yeast is added and sometimes before the salt is added as well.)

[Mike Nolan]

I've seen this technique a few times, too, I'm not sure it is better than other techniques.

Some bakers get into specific routines because they work for them, that doesn't mean other routines won't work too.

[Mike Nolan]

We had waffles with fruit and low-sodium bacon.

[Mike Nolan]

They're similar to cracked wheat, possibly a bit larger I usually soak them first, I don't always do that with cracked wheat.

[Mike Nolan]

Well, if I buy some rye berries, I can make a pretty coarse rye meal with my grain mill.

But here's another possibility: rye meal

[Mike Nolan]

Yeah, a Westphalian rye sounds like it might be the right sort of recipe. I wonder what it uses for leavening? I assume it must be using some kind of rye starter.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm still looking for an AUTHENTIC recipe for German/Russian black bread, one that doesn't cheat by using coffee or cocoa to darken the interior. I think the way it is done is that the bread is baked for a very long time, like 18 hours, at a low temperature. Not sure I want to crank my oven up for that long very often, but I'd at least like to try doing it once.

[Mike Nolan]

Small cuts always give me problems but top round can be especially challenging, depending on the portion you have and the size. The one I did a few weeks ago had a big fat/connective tissue ridge down the middle.

Meat charts don't always break cuts down into specific muscle groups, I've bought a few books on meat cutting and they seem to do a better job identifying the individual muscles. I need to see what the study materials are for the FFA meat judging competitions, I get the impression that to win those competitions they need to know each muscle. I think there are 3 or 4 separate muscles that make up the top round.

Anyway, I roasted it as one piece, but as soon as I started trying to slice it I wound up dividing it into two pieces, trimmed off the connective tissue, and sliced them separately.

[Mike Nolan]

The veggies might be better off at 300-350, simply because of how various temperatures affect the cooking process. (Baking has similar issues, you generally don't get the Maillard reaction below about 280 and you won't get much caramelization under about 350.)

There was a time when the food safety folks said that you couldn't cook ANYTHING in an oven set below 300, but with the advent of sous vide cooking and other low-temp techniques, I haven't heard that much lately.

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