Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40761
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      I've been in the mood for fried chicken for a few days, so we ordered from Lee's, Lincoln's oldest restaurant. Their onion straws were pretty good too.

      I also ordered a piece of sour cream apple pie, it was a bit of a disappointment, so I took Diane to another restaurant and she got a piece of their sour cream raisin pie, which is really good and something I've not come close to duplicating.

      in reply to: 2023 Garden Plans #40758
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        I froze about 6 pounds of tomatoes from the garden, some cored and peeled for things like soup, some just blanched for things like stock.

        I will probably get a few tomatoes every day or two but I think the bulk of the picking is done, and the two week forecast says we'll dip below freezing next weekend.

        in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40754
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          I baked off the other two trays of sourdough cheese crackers from the dough I made several days ago.

          I used my micrometer to measure the dough as best I could, it appears that both the 5mm and 2mm settings on the sheeter are fairly accurate.

          I also tried an experiment to see if letting the dough sit for an hour after final shaping made any difference in the thickness after baking. The answer is no, I measured about a dozen crackers from both batches, nearly all of them were 3.4mm thick.

          I used my docker on this batch and I also brushed them with grapeseed oil.

          in reply to: parsnips #40753
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            The wine teacher told Diane the parsnip-apple-coriander-cumin soup was very good both cold and warm.

            in reply to: parsnips #40749
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              There aren't a lot of soups that work as cold soups, but there are a few. There are some soups that work as cold soups but not as hot ones, for example, aspics, since the gelling is important to what makes it an aspic and that requires it be cold.

              Soups with proteins in them generally don't work as cold soups, I think because the fats in them have an odd mouth feel when cold.

              I've never tried a cold melon soup, but recipes for those seem to show up every summer.

              in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40745
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                The sourdough cheese crackers that I baked this week are OK, I still think I need to use a finer ground whole wheat flour. I could taste the cheese more, but I think they could be even cheesier. I can't say I could tell there was rye flour in the dough but there wasn't a lot of it, maybe 10%.

                I didn't brush any oil on the top or sprinkle on salt, though I did add some salt to the dough and there's some salt in the cheese as well. They still seemed a bit bland, maybe more salt is needed.

                I might try the Azure Standard durum flour in a batch, it's whole wheat but very finely ground. It'd be nice to have a way to use it up, too, we've decided it doesn't work in pasta or in semolina bread.

                Bakeraunt, do you let your crackers rise after rollout before baking them? I think they rose some during baking but still seemed a bit dense.

                in reply to: parsnips #40744
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  I'm sending a cup of the parsnip-apple-coriander-cumin soup in with Diane for the wine teacher to try.

                  I have to say that it is better several days old and cold that it was the day I made it. The spices have mellowed and the parsnip-apple combination is the dominant flavor profile. I could actually see serving this as a cold soup appetizer now, at the right type of dinner party, possibly using less coriander and/or cumin.

                  in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40741
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    I stopped being annoyed with King Arthur after I realized I could find most of what they sell online, including many of their branded items, sometimes at a cheaper price and/or with free delivery and no minimum order size.

                    in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40740
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      We had eye of round roast with mashed potatoes, gravy, and a salad.

                      in reply to: Challah #40734
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        The general rule of thumb on eggs is that 15% of the weight is the shell.

                        in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40733
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          Yes, I roll them out on the parchment, that way when I'm done I just move the whole thing onto a half size sheet pan for baking. You do need a little flour under the dough so it doesn't buckle as it gets thinner, but that's true when you roll stuff out just using the platform.

                          I use a straightedge tool (like the kind used for painting or wallpapering that are reinforced so they don't bend, see link below) and just press it down firmly into the dough. I start by trimming the edges into a rectangle (the trim gets added to the dough for the next tray), then just work my way across. They aren't quite the same size, but pretty close.

                          https://www.lowes.com/pd/Warner-12-in-Plastic-Paint-Guide/1000024777

                          When I took my chocolate course, that's what they were using as a straightedge. So now I have them in two sizes.

                          in reply to: Challah #40732
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            The package size is another field I'm playing with, it is intended for things that are packaged in multiples, like a dozen cookies or rolls, so I can see the package ingredient cost. For breads it would usually be a 1.

                            in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40731
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              A half inch, as recommended.

                              in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40726
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                My wife loves apple butter, most of the time I find it too heavily spiced. I think the batch I just made might be just enough milder for me to enjoy it.

                                in reply to: Challah #40725
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  Aaron, I went back and looked at the challah spreadsheet I posted on Sep. 21st, it doesn't have post-bake weight information (that's something I'm still experimenting with, along with a way to generate nutrition information).

                                  I don't know where you got 16 ounces as the post-bake weight, unless that's something from an earlier post you made as your target weight. I used 24 ounces in part because that's what it was set to from the spreadsheet I used as the starting point for this one.

                                  I wind up weighing my ingredients when I resize a recipe, including eggs.

                                  The USDA says large eggs are supposed to average 2 ounces each in the shell, but they lose weight through evaporation over time. (That's why there's a bigger air cavity in an egg that you've had in the fridge for a couple of weeks.) I get 1.7 ounces of liquid from a large egg or slightly less.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 1,156 through 1,170 (of 7,560 total)