Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: The Baking Circle is gone, in part #823
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      I kind of wondered about that one. I moved it over to the BC threads forum.

      in reply to: The Baking Circle is gone, in part #814
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        My, Sarah has been a very busy beaver today posting recipes!

        in reply to: The Baking Circle is gone, in part #780
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          I didn't save and post the comments on my recipes, but I don't mind if people do that. It's a bit more work, but I'd suggest posting the recipe in one post and the comments in a second post, so that when I eventually get something set up to format recipes for printing nicely, I can offer to print them with and without comments. (BTW, in my testing it looks like Chrome does a good job stripping out the boilerplate stuff on posted recipes, much better than IE or Firefox.)

          As far as the saved threads are concerned, the comments are an important part of the thread.

          in reply to: KAF Cake Pan Cake Variations Thread #747
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            I tried making a cake-in-a-pan in a jack-o-lantern mold one year, I used lots of spray and it still stuck badly.

            If you line the pan with parchment, it usually peels off fairly well. My wife used that trick and several small loaf pans to make a chocolate circus train birthday cake for our son one year.

            • This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Mike Nolan.
            in reply to: The Baking Circle is gone, in part #745
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              I could also set up a separate index for the 'Threads Saved from the BC' forum, at least temporarily, but let's see if that proves necessary.

              I'm also thinking about possibly moving the recipes index to the bottom of the page (at least for a while), and increasing the number of recent entries it shows.

              in reply to: The Baking Circle is gone, in part #719
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                This is a replacement to my earlier reply, since the situation has changed.

                One of the plugin tools I'm using has been updated and it now gives me the ability to exclude a category from the 'recent posts' list, so the recent posts list in the sidebar now ONLY shows the categories other than recipes, and I've added a separate list of recent recipes (and replies to them.)

                So you can upload recipes from the old BC to the recipes category without them drowning out the discussion.

                The top menu item still shows all forums, so I renamed it to 'Latest Goodies'.

                • This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by htfoot.
                • This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by htfoot.
                in reply to: The Baking Circle is gone, in part #705
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  OK, I created a new forum titled "Threads Saved from the KAF Baking Circle".

                  in reply to: The Baking Circle is gone, in part #699
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    Should I create a separate forum for old BC threads? I assume saved recipes could just go in the recipes forum.

                    in reply to: Pastry Cream #695
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      The last several times I've made pastry cream, I increased the amount of cornstarch and left out the wheat flour, so that it was gluten-free. Nobody noticed the difference. Last June I made a batch of gluten-free choux paste, so I had gluten-free eclairs, and they were very good. All I did was substitute a gluten-free flour mix for the wheat flour in the choux recipe I was using.

                      For a somewhat richer pastry cream, use two egg yolks instead of a whole egg. It's the yolk that thickens pastry cream. It also thickens a bit faster.

                      in reply to: Chocolate Frosting/icing? #681
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        I'd hate to guess the number times I've hit the wrong key and wiped out a post I was writing. I've taken to writing them in stages, saving them every paragraph or two. That's one of the reasons why I allow posts to be edited for several days.

                        I have exchanged several emails with Greg on the subject of Boston Cream Pie, he's one of the experts I was referring to. He and I also had a lengthy email discussion on Hawaiian white pineapple, which is, sadly, becoming hard to find, even in Hawaii.

                        Here's another good article on the history of Boston Cream Pie.

                        I've made my own confectioner's fondant several times, and a couple of years ago I made at least six Boston Cream Pies over a two month period to test various types of cakes, pastry creams and toppings. The fondant-topped ones actually got the poorest scores from my testers, I think it's because at least around here a thin ganache coating is what everyone expects.

                        • This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                        • This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                        • This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                        • This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                        in reply to: The Baking Circle is gone, in part #646
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          Zen, Sarah and others have hopefully saved the bulk of the member recipes from the BC. (I think Sarah said Zen saved them all.) Hopefully those who have them saved will start uploading them here or over on Zen's site soon. My offer stands to put up a searchable archive of them if someone has them in bulk, but unless/until I can figure out a way to bulk load them into WordPress, it'll probably be a separate archive.

                          I ported over all my recipes, but I think the only one I saved that wasn't one I originally posted was BigLakeJudy's molasses cookie recipe. I'm probably going to post a shortened version of Griz's spaetzle recipe, because it's the best one I've tried, and Griz said it was originally from CIA.

                          With most GM flour off the market for a while due to the recall, I'm not sure what flour I'll buy the next time I need some. I'm fairly sure there are things I will still order from KAF, like pastry flour and semolina, but with my wife on a low-carb diet, I'm not doing much baking and probably won't make any pies until fall. The local pie cherry orchard is about to open up for the season, but I've still got some pie cherries frozen from last season. But not being on their site every day, I probably won't be doing a lot of impulse shopping on the KAF site.

                          in reply to: The Baking Circle is gone, in part #641
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            I don't know how many regulars there were at the BC, but I do have access to Google Analytics data for my site, and we've got fairly steady group of around 60 regular visitors, though only perhaps about half of have posted more than once. Not a lot of newcomers yet, and a number of BC stalwarts don't appear to be either here or posting on Zen's site yet.

                            Based on my experience with other sites, that's about a third of what we need to be a self-sustaining community. I figure it's my job over the next several months to work on building user counts and traffic, starting with getting into the search engines and doing some promotional work, which probably means working the social networking sites.

                            I've got some notes and a few outlines for about another dozen blog posts so far, I just need to start making time to write them. I will be taking a chocolate class this fall and plan to write a series on that. (And that doesn't count the time I need to spend working on the site itself.)

                            • This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                            in reply to: What Did You Bake the Week of May 22, 2016? #636
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              I like the Farm Journal Canning and Freezing book. I'm not sure if it's still in print but used copies should be available.

                              in reply to: Zen’s site appears to be down #634
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                My site may have been down for a while overnight due to a power outage.

                                • This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                                in reply to: Giant Flour Recall #615
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  If they're unopened bags and are a product that store stocks, I think nearly any chain store will take them, receipt or not, if only because it creates good will with customers. (I'm pretty sure they get reimbursed by the manufacturer, too.)

                                  Without a receipt, they might only issue you a store credit, I think that would be reasonable.

                                  • This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                                  • This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                                Viewing 15 posts - 7,381 through 7,395 (of 7,462 total)