[Mike Nolan]

The pecan meal I have is a bit coarse, though it works OK in a pie crust, I usually think of a genoise as a fine-textured cake. You have to be careful when grinding nuts and nut meal not to turn it into nut butter.

[Mike Nolan]

Looks good Len. My wife says it sounds a lot like a quesadilla.

[Mike Nolan]

Strong spices and heavy sauces were often used to cover up spoiled or inferior quality foods.

Also, I think the garlic available years ago was more pungent than many current varieties.

[Mike Nolan]

Personally, I think sugar is sugar. There's not much evidence that I've seen that 'raw' sugars are better for you than 'refined' sugars, they're both sugars! The real problems are that so many things have sugars added to them unnecessarily and that we choose to eat sugary things. (Look at how much sugary candy is sold ahead of Easter.)

My wife has been buying the low-sugar form of Heinz Ketchup, which of course they only sell in tiny bottles at 4-5 times the per-ounce price. I can't tell much taste difference, makes me wonder why the 'regular' Heinz Ketchup has all that sugar in it.

[Mike Nolan]

Sorry to hear of your loss, Sarah.

[Mike Nolan]

Ooh, I need to buy a new jar anyway, I'll have to look at the label carefully. We've been buying Miracle Whip Lite lately, I wonder if it has changed as well?

[Mike Nolan]

I usually keep some bleached flour on hand for cakes and cookies, as well as some even softer cake flour, and most of the time I have some unbleached AP flour, like Gold Medal, on hand because KAF flour is just too strong for many cakes.

Glad to hear you got it to release from the pan well.

[Mike Nolan]

Sad though not unexpected news, but what better day to hear it than Easter?

Rest in peace, Mrs. Cindy.

[Mike Nolan]

Welcome back, Wonky.

I've created a few bread recipes, it can be both a challenging and frustrating process. I look forward to seeing your creation.

There's an interesting article in the latest issue of "Bread Lines", the newsletter of the Bread Baker's Guild of America. A BBGA member was asked to serve as one of the judges in a bread contest. The rules of the contest said that the recipe must be new, original and unpublished. This tended to rule out any lean dough breads, since there really isn't much that can be said to be new or original about a mixture of flour, water, salt and yeast.

As a result, all of the breads were enriched, most laden with fruits, cheese, nuts and other add-ins. The author thought most of the breads were both underdeveloped and underbaked, and thought that the rules tended to favor long lists of ingredients over the baker's skills in developing a good loaf.

The author's choice for the winner was one of the breads that wasn't still largely raw dough.

[Mike Nolan]

Food references as a form of cultural insult have a long history. Think about the Irish and potatoes.

In much French cooking, something is referred to as 'English' when it is considered crude or inelegant.

[Mike Nolan]

The autolyse step traces back to Prof. Raymond Calvel, who was primarily concerned with improving the quality of ordinary (white) bread in post-WW2 France.

However, it can be used with any flour, even non-wheat flours like rye and barley. The point of autolysis is to let the enzymes present in flour begin to break the complex carbohydrates down. Gluten development happens later on.

As I recall, Professor Calvel's autolyse step used just flour and water, no salt or yeast. If you are making enriched breads (ie, adding oil, sugar or milk), I'd do the autolyse step just as Prof. Calvel originally recommended. You can autolyse some or all of the flours, separately or together.

Calvel's book, "The Taste of Bread" (English translation, the original French title is "Le Goût du Pain") is an interesting look into this man's life work.

If your library has a copy, it's worth checking out. It's not an inexpensive book, in either language. You won't find many recipes in it, though.

[Mike Nolan]

I made one batch (24 rolls in 3 six-inch pans) of Hot Cross Buns last night, I think that may be all I do for Good Friday this year.

[Mike Nolan]

Cinnamon is also supposed to have an impact on blood sugar, but the research on that is pretty thin. My wife thinks cinnamon by itself has no impact, but it may work better if combined with other supplements, I forget which ones she's taking.

As someone with training in both hard and social science research methods, it is VERY difficult to do a study of food effects unless you can control someone's diet 100% for weeks at a time.

My 5th grade teacher use to tell a story about some people she knew who were in a controlled dietary study during the Depression. After crying at night over pictures of food (in order to generate enough saliva for testing), one of them ate ONE peanut and was kicked out of the study!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

The relationship between salt and high blood pressure may not be as strong as medical researchers first thought, that's just one of the things that the experts may have gotten wrong, like saying that margarine is better for you than butter.

However, I think there are solid culinary reasons for cutting back on salt, even if the medical benefits may be a bit more tenuous.

[Mike Nolan]

I will make several batches of Hot Cross buns Thursday evening to give away on Good Friday, as I always do, but right now I'm not sure who they're going to, since 3 of our neighbors have moved since last Easter. 2 of the houses have sold, but all 3 are currently vacant. Another frequent recipient is in Japan teaching for 3 weeks. One or possibly two batches will go to my wife's office.

For those interested, after trying a number of recipes I use the Hot Cross Buns recipe in the KAF Whole Grains book, dividing each batch up into 16 parts instead of 12 and putting 8 rolls in a 6 inch round pan. That makes them more bite-sized and makes the batches more manageable in both size and quantity.

For the office batch, I may see how many would fit in my 10x10 pan, which I didn't have last Easter. I'm guessing it'll hold 25, and if I make them even smaller I might be able to get 36.

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