[Mike Nolan]

I hope everybody had a good Christmas. We woke up to a white Christmas, with about 5 inches of snow through late afternoon.

Our day got off to a fun start when we saw the neighborhood fox running through the back yard this morning. My son managed to catch a picture of it.

I'm still stuffed from supper!

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[Mike Nolan]

A few years back the Washington Post had an article on what to do with left over egg whites, with separate recipes for when you have one egg white, two egg whites, three egg whites, etc.

This includes the Forgotten Chocolate Meringue cookie recipe that I've made several times.

https://wapo.st/48xaxJw

[Mike Nolan]

Today my wife assembled two trifles (a big one and a smaller one with remains of the pastry cream and fruit.)

David is making the potato casserole, the ham will go in the oven around 4:30.

[Mike Nolan]

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of oyster stew and chili, with a relish tray and a dessert platter of cookies and candies. Then we opened one present each. (Diane actually got 2 of them, because one was one I figured she'd want to use tonight and the other was one I really wanted to give her this evening.)

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making a small batch of cinnamon rolls to go with the chili tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

I made a triple batch of pastry cream this evening, so that we can make our traditional Christmas trifle tomorrow. Hopefully that'll be enough to have some left over for snacking. (I made it late enough in the evening that just my son and I were around to scrape the leavings out of the pan.)

[Mike Nolan]

I made marbled rye bread, Diane made oatmeal-raisin-date spice cookies.

[Mike Nolan]

BA, does the sourdough cheese cracker dough have a best-by date on it? I made a batch over a week ago and what with picking up my son and granddaughter and all the other holiday stuff, it's still in the fridge.

[Mike Nolan]

Today's semolina bread, I'm working on making sure my loaves are consistently shaped, these two look pretty similar.

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[Mike Nolan]

I thought the croissants were just a bit overdone, especially on the bottom, but there's only one left after supper tonight, so they must have been OK. It wouldn't surprise me if I make them again in a few days, my son and granddaughter are both here and enjoyed both the chocolatines and the croissants.

I might make bagels tomorrow or Friday, and I'm about out of semolina bread, so I'll probably make that tomorrow.

I was pleased that our granddaughter seemed to enjoy the chicken and mushroom dish I made to go with the croissants, too.

[Mike Nolan]

I've used that method or variations on it. I take a big bowl, heat it with near-boiling water (an instant hot water tap is great for that), pour the water out, then invert it over a platter with the stick of butter on it.

[Mike Nolan]

We had chicken and mushrooms in a cream sauce, with croissants.

[Mike Nolan]

Today's croissants, about 40 grams each:

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[Mike Nolan]

So you would think a 2 hour final proof would be fine under those conditions?

If I was answering a question on the food safety certification exam, I'd hesitate before saying yes, but I think as long as the fillings are cooked to at least 180 degrees they should be fine, and with most breads the internal temperature is more like 190-200.

The general rule of thumb is 2 hours in the danger zone (40-140) is the upper limit, 1 hour if at 90 degrees or hotter.

Would proofing in the refrigerator be possible?

[Mike Nolan]

I've been using sticks I made from Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate (54.5% cacao) but most of the bakeries use pre-made sticks, so I bought a box of 300 Callebaut croissant sticks (44% cacao).

The pre-made ones are a bit smaller, 3 inches long and 5.3 grams each vs 4 inches long and about 10 grams for the ones I made, so I used 2 per chocolatine.

I had enough of the home made chocolate sticks left to make 2 croissants, the other 7 were made with the pre-made sticks. I tried some of both, and found it hard to pick a favorite.

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