Wholemeal Crank

I've enjoyed the lavender shortbread recipe from The Village Baker's Wife by Gayle Ortiz. It uses dried lavender blossoms, easy to find in the spice racks, and a little goes a long way.

And coffee. Almost forgot coffee. I love the smell, but not the taste, black, with milk and sugar, in ice cream, mocha-flavored anything, all repellant. Oh well. I have managed, on one or two occasions, to find a blue cheese that I like, so there is hope in that department.

Eggs....it rarely comes up, but I can't stand just plain eggs--poached, scrambled, sunny-side up, hard boiled, deviled, omeleted. And though many friends and family would be shocked if they knew, I have never ever fried an egg in my life. I do like some custards, and many other lovely things containing eggs, but just not eggs.

PFTE is teflon, so it makes sense that things linger less on those sheets.

I prefer my honey corn muffins...I've never tried them as a large pan loaf, but they make fine mini-loaves (6x3 size pans). The recipe is here: http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/H...ornMuffins.html I like them for breakfast, with chili, with tomato-basil soup....

I have prepared them many times over an open flame--backpacking/camp stoves and gas stoves alike. If doing them this way, you need good tongs, quick reflexes, and careful attention to rotate them so all areas get equally cooked. They tend to curl as they cook so it's hard to keep all even, but it can be done well with patience. I now have an electric stove and am back to microwaving. It works great, lots easier, not as much fun, though.

I would like to skip the greasing, but have had trouble with releasing if I don't do the bottoms of my muffin tins....and of course the bundt shapes, small and large, have been a mess. Besides using or not using a releasing agent of whatever type, and perhaps the oven temp (maybe it should be moved up a bit for the silicone, like dropping it 25 degrees for baking in glass?), are there other basic factors I should be considering towards a cleaner release?

The greasy feeling I mentioned comes along with the distinct smell of whatever was greasy about what I last cooked in the pan....so I think it's not absolutely clean. Baking at too low a temp....that's an interesting point. Do you change the temp at all for the silicone pans? Maybe a hotter start would crisp and strengthen the crust to help removal? Stiffness of the batter? Hmm....I wonder if I've gone too low-gluten with soft wheat flour for some of the recipes, or am beating in too much air with the Kitchen Aid. Darn....I guess I need to bake another cake this weekend, maybe a little hotter oven, try to increase the gluten a little, find some volunteers to help me eat it. Such a good problem to have.

While I love the convenience of my silpat baking mats, I'm not equally thrilled with all the silicone bakeware I've tried. I still have to grease my muffin tins, but with that caveat find that the muffins bake and come out well. However, despite trying plain, greased, and grease & flouring, I can't get my cakes to come out of the more intricate bundt-shaped tube pan or the miniature versions thereof. The cakes bake beautifully, then when I try to remove them, the bottom of the cake falls separates from the top third or top half, which sticks and crumbles. I've had the same problem with different cake recipes, so I'm wondering if there is a trick I'm missing elsewhere: a particular time after removal from the oven when they'll come out cleanly; a different release agent (I use the 2:1 canola oil:liquid lecithin formula from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book); some special technique of flexing the pans; or perhaps they're not getting clean enough between uses and something is building up on their surfaces (they do seem to stay a little greasy feeling despite copious soap and hot water; or might they be getting scratched from over-vigorous washing (using only a brush with nylon bristles or "non-stick safe" scrubbie sponges)?

thanks for the replies. And I guess that's why cinnamon is usually added to bread in a swirl. BTW, the bread was not very sweet, or very rich, just loaded with the dried fruit and ginger. Still, this time I'll make sure I'm using the Gold yeast, and probably will swirl in the goodies after rising and just before the proof, to minimize any harm they might do. If this works, I'll post the recipe.

I've had some trouble getting a new sweet bread recipe to rise. I've been playing with a recipe including dried pears and crystallized ginger. Anyone know if ginger inhibits yeast activity? Probably the problem lies elsewhere, but I thought I'd check with you smart people just in case.

Hmmm...something padded, maybe, for the banging.... I'll try it!

Are we up for numbers, strictly, or shelf-feet? I have been trying hard to cull my collection to keep it fitting on three 36-inch shelves--and it's crept about another foot onto other shelves at present. Estimating an a little over a inch per book, that would be in the neighborhood of 100 books.

I like vegetables but generally don't like dressings--be they oil & vinegar, cheese, or mayo based. Just one of my quirks. Usually I ignore the salads altogether, but sometimes if the veggies sound good, or I'm craving greenery, I order a naked salad. Usually that gets translated into dressing on the side. And since the dressings are usually high fat and calorie dense, eating them even if I liked them would displace tastier fats & calories in desserts, so I've never been motivated to learn to like them.

For eating raw, do you eat the whole pod? (with salt and puckered lips?) Or do you scoop out the pulp only? And it sounds like I can cook with the pulp as I would if it were dried, but it will be a stronger souring agent. Is that correct? Thanks for all the replies!

I've been exploring the use of tamarind in soups, and have been using whole dried pods tossed into the pressure cooker as part of the stock. I scrape the pulp through a strainer and toss the seeds & husks and have been quite happy with the results. Yesterday I went to my almost-always reliable international grocery and didn't see the piles of tamarind pods in their usual place. I did see some pods that looked similar, labelled "green tamarind pods" but they were in a refrigerated section. I went ahead to buy them, but when I got them home & unwrapped and broke one open, it was not as plump, and the inside was white, not dark brown. Can anyone advise me on what to do with these "green tamarind pods"? Do they have a traditional use distinct from the dried pods? And if dried pods are unavailable, is one or another of the many brands of dried/powdered tamarind, tamarind extract, or tamarind concentrate a good substitute?

Beloved chinese cleaver....spent an hour picking the one that felt "just right" from 40-50 others. Price about $12 but it is right up there on the list of things I would grab were the house burning down....after the cat, but before everything else. Also once had a great $2.98 plastic-handled serrated knife, but my stupid roomate broke it slicing a frozen loaf of bread...haven't had one I liked as much until I was given a quite expensive one as a gift. Still miss the cheapie, though. Small pyrex casseroles (pint size?), $2-3 or less at secondhand shops, great for keeping one-person servings out of reach of the cat. Bamboo rice spoons, 79 cents, for stirring & serving. $1.99 for four bamboo placemats that rolled up for easy storing, washed beautifully, and finally gave up the ghost after more than a decade of almost daily use because their thread finally rotted away. I've paid lots more for similar items in fancier stores but none have been quite so perfectly functional. $8 cast iron chinese wok, after a few hours sanding/polishing/seasoning good for a lifetime of slick, nonstick stir frying not to mention deep frying.

I just made some sweet tamales in which I used two inches of vanilla bean milled into 450g of corn (the equivalent of about 3C cornflour). I was expecting a mildly vanilla-flavored dough, but it was very strong. I think 2 inches per tsp vanilla extract, at least the standard extract and ordinary beans I've gotten hold of, may be a little too strong. I did take some pictures--the blue corn yielded a purple dough which looked quite striking against the mango filling and mango puree topping--and will try to post them soon.

I'm not a professional baker so with that in mind....I scouted a copy of this at the bookstore a week ago, and it does look like a good textbook--lots of recipes but limited introductions and background--presumably the teachers would be expected to give more details on that. But I was surprised to find things like the guide to equipment that just mentioned what the item was and what it was supposed to do--without any guidance to choosing your own: no mention of what variations in composition or design make one tool superior to another. But the food safety section was very impressive, as befits a professional text, and I was impressed by the variety of formulas offered. It looks like a good textbook and reference guide but not a substitute for a good teacher.

I'd rather put the cookies in the jar slightly warm rather than keep them out overnight (and I do a lot of late-night baking!). But I've not had problems with stale or rancid flavors from my peanut butter cookies unless they sat in the jar for weeks (which is a very rare event). I'd guess that something is up with the ingredients (butter or peanut butter most likely), and you just don't notice it when they're warm, but it's obvious when they're not warm & luscious. That, or maybe there's something odd with your recipe that gives a funny flavor. What's the recipe you're using?

Pie crust trick: don't cut the butter in. Start with frozen butter, and grate it into the flour. Stop every tbsp or so to stir it around a bit with your hand so the strands of butter get coated with flour and don't just mat up in the flour. Much easier, and the bits are already the size you want if you use a nice large-hole on the grater. I came up with this trick when baking a pie at the house of a friend who didn't cook much--and have been doing it ever since.

Beautiful loaves. I make all my breads with fresh-milled flour. That includes plain hearth loaves, pain l'ancienne, pizza, foccacai, naan, quickbreads, pitas, cinnamon rolls, fruit & spice breads....anykind. I almost always am starting with white bread or mixed grain recipes and converting them to whole wheat.

I do have Laurel's Bead Book--that was my first and remains a favorite. I'll go back and look it up there. In fact, it has been quite a while since I studied it in detail. I did try the desem, and made some nice desem crackers and one loaf of not very exciting bread. I'm having more fun with pan l'ancienne (with fresh flour, of course). I do take whole grain baking seriously, because I think it's more nutritious, and my gut appreciates the fiber. I eat enough junk food when I'm away from home, so I prefer what I bake to be as good for me as it can be--within reason. I'm not willing to give that up for the ease of use of refined flour, but I my goal is to have my stuff to taste good, not to taste like it's good for you. I've too have had my fill of "wholier-than-thou" junk. Most of the people I bake for wouldn't know my pastries, cookies or cakes are made with whole grain flour unless I tell them. The refined sugars and copious use of butter help!

Thanks for the references and replies. I've sometimes added a bit of ascorbic acid to my doughs, but just as often forget it. I'll keep doing it when I remember and not worry since I like my bread.

I have a small grain mill and prepare my own whole-grain flours for baking. I remember reading once that it was ok to use fresh-milled flour immediately to bake bread, but that if it wasn't to be used in a very short period of time, it would be better to let it age first. There was something about an intermediate period when the inadequately aged flour would not be good for baking bread. But I can't remember now when it was better to let it age. Can anyone here help clarify this point?