devlin

From yesterday's bread, 20 loaves for a wedding (plus 8 loaves left over for us and the dogs).... The lighting leaves a lot to be desired in these.... The rosemary sourdough: and the garlic sourdough:

Kerry, thanks. Yes, that's my oven (designed by Alan Scott), and all the pics on the site are mine, save two or three thumbnails of produce (garlic, onions, and tomatoes, I think) at the bottom of one of the pages which were stock photos from the hosting site.

These are pics I took for my recently-pretty-much-finished-web site for my finally-completed (mostly) artisan bread bakery. The Village Bakery

Depending on the type of cakes, I spray the pan, then put down parchment in the bottom, then give the parchment a light spray. Again, never have I ever had a problem with sticking. A tip that always works for me… I sort of discovered this with my muffin opus. Most recipes say to let the cakes stay in the pan to cool from 5 to 15 minutes, before turning out. I always let them rest 3 minutes, enough to pull away from the sides, then run a knife around the sides, then turn out. More times the most, the knife is not even needed. During the muffin opus, I learned from author and Chef Madeleine Kamman, muffins that stay in the pan after the first few minutes from the oven begin to stick to the pan and are harder to release. I just applied this to my cakes and works perfectly, at least for me. Plus, they do not continue to cook in a hot pan. ← Oh fabulous. I'm gonna try that. Thanks.

Most of the consumer-type non-stick sprays contain something in the propellant that accounts for the sticky buildup over time. ← These were developed for commercial bakers. For a long time the only place I could buy them was at Smart & Final in a very large can. Now they are available in smaller sizes. I have a can of Bak-Klene that is 13 oz. However I still have a 22 oz can of Vegalene. I see it is now available in a 21 oz can and is a different color. My can is plain white with red and gold printing, no graphic. Vegalene I have had no problems with build up since I began using the Dawn Power Dissolver on ALL of my pans as soon as I remove the product. I have found that it works even better if sprayed on while the pan is still warm. I rarely have to do more than just rinse it off with hot water and I rarely put them in the dishwasher. ← Can I use these instead of parchment paper?

Wow. Really? Hm. That's precisely the opposite of everything I've ever learned (which, admittedly, is very little) about freezing, which has always insisted that one must wrap, wrap, and then wrap again before freezing, otherwise,... well, there's never been much explanation of the apparent "otherwise," only that it must be done. But I'm feeling way vindicated right about now because I baked a ricotta cheesecake two days ago to experiment with freezing, and because I knew I'd wreck the top if I just wrapped it after it had cooled and had been sitting out for a few hours, I stuck it in the freezer for about 20 minutes praying I wasn't being ridiculously stupid.

How do you wrap a cheesecake for freezing? I'm assuming with plastic wrap, but how do you keep the plastic from messing the finish of the top?

Bourdain in a suit.... He cleans up real nice.

When I bake bread in my small, electric oven (otherwise know as "my goddamned toy oven"), I bake it in the center. I have a square stone from the Baker's Catalogue and I only rarely take it out -- just when I have to move the racks around and the stone gets in the way, which has happened only a handful of times in five years. I suppose the stone is actually sitting on the rack which would normally be considered the lower third of the oven, but the stone elevates the level to nearly the center. Anyway, I bake a lot of bread, I preheat my oven at 550 degrees for at least an hour before I bake and then turn it down to roughly 475 to bake. The bread never burns. It bakes more quickly, but it never burns. My loaves are almost exclusively sourdoughs, which many folks suggest work better with higher heat, but I bake one commercially-yeasted dough the same way with the same results. I can't imagine baking without a stone. I suppose I might worry about burning if I didn't. I guess that's all meant to strongly urge you to invest in a stone. And then simply leave it in the oven. There's really no reason to take it out, unless you need to shuffle stuff for space and it gets in the way. Still, that's not to say you won't have to experiment with placement in your own oven. [edited for clarification....]

This is what I keep telling people who express reservations about "sourdough," people who think the sourdough they've been buying is real sourdough as opposed to the sourdough flavoring that too many commercial breadbakers try to pass off as genuine sourdough breads, and which also use commercial yeast in conjunction with the "sourdough" flavoring agents. And it's why I use the term "naturally-leavened" more than I use the term "sourdough," because too many people mistake the term. The term "sourdough" is simply misunderstood too often as meaning "sour" or very strong tasting bread. It's not. Or not necessarily. And so people are very surprised when they discover my breads have a soft, lovely flavor, not "sour." I love my sourdough starter and I love really good sourdoughs that aren't "sour." I also use the long fermentations (two days), so these aren't quick breads at all.

Out of all the sourdough stuff I've read over the past few years, only one source has recommended using anything but flour and water for making and maintaining a sourdough culture (Nancy Silverton -- the grapes method) . It's my experience too, that the development of flavor takes awhile. Like months. Or weeks, anyway. To try to boost the actual culture with anything else will probably just keep your culture from developing properly in the long run. I tried that myself in the beginning and ended up throwing it out finally, even when it seemed to work in the short term. I know a number of bakers who are in the artisan bread business (as am I), and that's how we all do it. Flour and water. We each have different ways of using the actual culture and maintaining it, but the one thing that doesn't vary is the basic composition of the culture itself. One bakery refreshes its sourdough three times a day, another refreshes four times a day, currently I refresh mine once a day, and others have other schedules that work for them.

My first thought too was whether the cake was actually done. Did you test the center before you took it out of the oven? Another observation from my own cakes: I have a baking stone in my oven and have for several years now. It's never had an effect in terms of the issue noted here, and in fact it seems to distribute the heat overall in the oven, or something. I've just noticed everything bakes more evenly and consistently with it in. I only discovered that after I got tired of putting it in and then taking it back out again every time I baked bread.

Is there an Italian equivalent of blood pudding? [Pan, your Prokofiev is so ravishing it made me weep toward the end....]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'd like to find a resource with more actual guidelines and instructions (or actual recipes). Anybody know of any cookbooks that might be helpful in this regard?

An article today in (I think) the Washington Post by a chef whose name I can't remember (how's that for a vague start?), wrote sort of glowingly about the marriage of apples with calves liver and apples with pan-seared foie gras, and it struck me I'm a total hillbilly for not knowing how one might perform those dishes. So, any ideas? They sound fabulous. [edited for clarification]

Galaktoboureko (to die for)....

So much of this depends on how slow or fast you want your breads to rise, and how warm you want your breads as they proof, but the results you're getting with the heating pad is why I use a clamp gooseneck lamp instead. I think you have better control over the temperature all around (short of building an actual proofing box noted in an earlier message). For me, I'd prefer not to have the heat source come into such close proximity to the bread or the culture.

I use Ed Wood's suggestion in his Classic Sourdoughs. It's super simple, and it works beautifully. Simply buy one of those roughly 75-80 quart (or bigger, depending on what size you need) Sterilite type plastic/rubber tubs with a lid at Wal Mart or wherever, a clip-on lamp with a flexible neck, and a cheap plastic temperature guage. Clamp the lamp to the lip of the tub, lower the neck into the tub so you can still loosely cover the tub with the lid, set the temp guage in the box about where you plan to set your stuff to proof, and voila. I use a 60-watt bulb. You can either use a towel over the lid as well if it gets really cold, or in not so cold weather you'll have to experiment a bit with how much to cover the tub. I use it for my sourdough culture, and I usually end up covering about three quarters of the top the tub with the lid only. In exceedingly cold weather, I throw a towel over the lid as well. No holes to drill, no box to construct, no having to juggle time in your oven for other things.

Abra, your savory breads always look so yummy. What's the dough base for that one, just a simple yeasted white bread or something enriched? And the cheese? And can you say more about the marzipan kringle thingie? It looks yummy. What's the center?

Now there's a pretty picture. Looks much like my jar of culture, paste and all.

I got the mold on a batch made with the raisins and yoghurt, so hopefully it shouldn't be an issue next time around. ← Egad!... Next time, yes, only flour and water, and keep the raisins and yogurt for breakfast.

I'm wondering why you're having this sort of response from your starter. Are you using only flour and water? Or are you using something else as well. If you're using only flour and water, there shouldn't be a mold issue at all (or not that I can imagine). I refrigerate my starter (flour and water) in a canning jar with the usual screw top lid. It's the method Ed Wood (Classic Sourdoughs) suggests.

Dan, that's gorgeous, and the tutorial is awesome. A question about blanching the garlic. Is the blanching done only to more easly remove the skins? Or could you just as easily buy the big jars of already-peeled garlic, skip the blanching and then proceed as usual with sauteing? And by the way, if you are ever in the Louisville area and would like to do a bread baking session at my bakery, you just say the word.

Gorgonzola dolce? That would be my choice. Wow. That sounds promising. And thanks to Ling too.

Wow, that's the coolest. I love the sound of the fig and stilton tart. And because I'm always on the look for stuff myself, would you be able to provide a blueprint for that when you get some time? It sounds fabulous.