Just loafing

So I was going to ask a question about fructose, so maybe this is the opportunity... I do some organic baking for a client and have been using organic cane sugar which is very coarse and I'm not satisfied with the results with some items. I saw fructose in the client's (health food) store and it was much finer than the cane sugar. They didn't seem to know whether it could be subbed for sugar in a recipe. Can it be? Thanks, Just Loafing

Ok, this is off topic, but I had a great chuckle reading the flax goop post ... when I was a kid, my mom simmered up flax and water into goop to use as (hair) setting gel. All natural, did a good job and we had bins full of flax on our farm. Susan

Doesn't Scarlett O'Hara give scuppernong wine to her father in Gone With the Wind? Susan

I get Baker's Journal magazine which is Canadian — one of the ads is from Genpak (Mississauga) www.genpak.com 1-800-626-6695 for info and samples. Don't know if this company will have exactly what you want, but if not could probably give you leads. Another might be Westcan Marketing Inc. 403-720-9590. That's Calgary, isn't it? There's got to be more than one source in Vancouver ... Susan

Lemon curd freezes very well and is very handy to have on hand. As I recall my days of needing desserts for divers, frozen, it has the consistency of ice cream rather than ice cubes, so it can be used by the scoopful. Susan

scordelia asked: Has anyone tried Watkins? How are their extracts? Those of us of a certain age remember the Watkins man coming round to the farm door and Watkins vanilla in the cupboard. I haven't used Watkins since then, except for a linament and a salve, but personally, I wouldn't buy a Watkins spice or flavoring without a sample first. Watkins now sell from kiosks at malls from time to time so you could check their products out ... Susan

You can't do anything frozen, but can you freeze the bananas? If I have a largesse of bananas, I peel them and weigh them out in the amount I need for the banana bread we make constantly. Susan

The best bran muffin I've found is Marcy Goldman's in her cookbook BetterBaking.com. (Her Lawsuit Muffins are good, too.) It has a lot of buttermilk which helps keep it moist. I ate one that hadn't sold after about three days and it was quite edible. I find people pay lip service to bran muffins, but if there's any other choice, that's the one they buy! susan

It's not difficult to make your own sourdough starter. Basically, mix flour and water and leave it out at room temperature, feeding it more flour and water every few hours for the first few days, then after it's nice and frothy and cleanly fermented-smelling, refrigerate and feed every day or so, depending on how often you use it. If I'm not being totally purist, I use a grated potato to start ... the starches and sugars helped the starter get started. Never yeast ... that's cheating! Using some rye flour also helps to kick-start. I keep spelt, rye and ubiquitious so-called "french-style" starters on the go — those I inherited with the bakery which we bought, and I developed a kamut starter with kamut flour and water. Haven't tried a 100 per cent whole wheat starter — the french style is 2/1 unbleached to whole-wheat flour, and I use that for whole wheat bread, so it's not 100 per cent ww. Just Loafing

Sounds like really fun, Stephen, and that's what I'd really like to spend my time doing — maybe I'll do so on my Saturday for a time anyhow. But, infortunately, I do have to do some more heavy-duty exploring ... susan

I am to be in Vancouver (from Courtenay) April 1-3 on a quick business trip to attend the Bakery Congress trade show on Sunday, April 3. On the Friday, my plan is to get to suppliers of bakery equipment and small wares that will be closed Saturday, but I know I have to be super organized to optimize my time here. I want to look at ovens and try to find some used bread pans. So far, my list of possibilities includes Nicholson's and Lockwoods, relatively close to each other in Burnaby, and Russells Restaurant Supply. Any other suggestions? On Saturday and Sunday morning, Famous Foods and Galloway's are on my list as well as a look at Granville South and along West Fourth. Is Ming Wo's still the place for all the kitchen stuff you don't need and if so, which is the best one — it used to be Chinatown. It's six or seven years since I've been in Vancouver, after living there for more than 10, so I'm looking forward to seeing what's going on ... but I really feel like the country mouse planning a visit to the big city! (A couple of the threads have mentioned Gourmet Warehouse — is that Carin McSherry's place?) Cheers, Susan

Nestle rep (we sell drumsticks, haagen-daz etc. in our store) just suggested that covering the top of the ice cream with plastic wrap will help keep it from going guppy ... this was in reference to 11.4L dipping ice cream, but makes perfect sense no matter what size of container. I always cover mousse or lemon curd or cream pudding with plastic, don't know why I didn't think of it with ice cream. Susan

You can mix cooking oil with liquid lecithin (available at health food stores), about two tablespoons to a cup of oil, shake well to combine and apply with a pastry brush. (Be careful with the lecithin as it stains like fury.) You avoid problems with sprays — and with, my big thing, disposal of aerosols. I use muffin papers, but I still oil the top of the pans. I mixed my own for my small baking operation, mainly for bread pans, but couldn't find bulk lecithin in a manageable amount — the thought of dealing with a 25 kg pail of the stuff was too scary for words — and 500 ml at a time is too expensive. However, I discovered commercial pan lube which is canola oil, mineral oil and lecithin, already mixed and which works great. For cake pans, I use pan goop — cooking oil, shortening and flour combined in equal parts and spread with a pastry brush. Cheers, Just Loafing

As a veteran of many ice cream cones, I would concur with jsoloman that the one illustrated (basic, but strong) is the best we've tried. I bought one of the Zyliss that was new out this year and supposed to be the next best thing to sliced bread, but it wasn't ... Cheers, Susan

Lemon Curd: I'm on Vancouver Island and spent some time a couple of years ago locating a western Canadian rep for the Electrolux. She is in — wait for it, Neville, Saskatchewan, has no web site, e-mail or fax. Her name is Betty Reimer and her phone no. is 306-627-3625. She sells both the Electrolux and the Bosch. The DLX is an excellent machine and did what I wanted it to do which was make bread for our store ... six two-lb. loaves at a time and save my thumb from kneading by hand. That said, having expanded our bakery operation to 75-100 loaves twice a week and 20 or so on off days, I now have a 30-qt Hobart which I love. Knowing what I know now about the Hobart, I would have looked for a used 10 or 12 qt Hobart instead of the DLX. I still use the DLX for cakes, cookies etc., but do bread dough in the Hobart which will make 20 two lb. loaves at a time or four. Just Loafing

CB: Have you tried the President's Choice decadent chocolate chips from SuperStore? Lot better than Foley's or the standard bulk chocolate chip, even Callebaut. Price point is probably an issue, for you, however. I do far more bread than sweets, so I haven't needed to buy chocolate chips from my supplier (SnowCap). I do get cocoa in bulk, though, since we go through a lot of brownies. Susan

A few years ago, we were spending our first winter of six as caretakers of remote resorts on the coast of British Columbia. I heard Julia Child being interviewed on CBC radio concerning her then-new book Baking With Julia. She advised new breadbakers to pick a recipe, make it until you got it right, and go on from there. Having lots of spare time, I found a recipe for "Tender Swedish White Bread" and started experimenting. Eight years later, instead of having winters of solitude, filled with reading, sewing and watching nature go by, I'm back in civilization baking more than 200 loaves of bread a week at the small store we decided we should have. Oops! Susan

I would use one or two more eggs for eight popovers and beat and beat. The batter can be let to sit refrigerated for a time — in fact, I think the person who taught me to make popovers believed it should sit for awhile. Then I put a little oil in the bottom of the pans and heat the oiled pan in the hot oven. There should be a sizzle when you pour in the batter. Then put the pan in the oven and DON'T PEEK for at least 15 minutes. Opening the oven door while the popping is taking place is cause for a fall! I turn the oven down to 375 after about 20 minutes. I learned to make these while cooking at a small dive lodge — we did make them in advance and just kept them warm at the back of the stove, then relied on hot gravy to heat them up more. Susan p.s. the pumpkin popovers sound like a fun add-on to Thanksgiving turkey. Of course, I'll have to wait another 11 months to try them...

I agree, Marc A, that A/P flour makes good bread, but we're in Canada and our A/P is a higher gluten flour than in America. I, too, use organic unbleached A/P for my sourdough bread, but for regular non-organic yeasted I use a bread flour ... same price as the non-organic A/P, but a little stronger. Cheers, Susan

We have sold what seems like kazillions of the CI banana bread in our corner store over the past two-plus years to rave reviews and repeat customers. We make them six at a time almost every day in summer, two or three times a week in winter. Susan

Just as a tidbit of information of probably little use to most, the legal term for the situation under discussion is breach of fiduciary duty and long, expensive, and often tedious, lawsuits have been fought in its name, not usually to do with recipes, however. Susan

Spelt is expensive. Period. At wholesale, I pay around $56 for 20 kg of either Nunweiler's and/or Anita's organic spelt. That's compared to (a wholesale price of) about $25 for 20 kg of organic unbleached or whole wheat and $12 for 20 kg of non-organic unbleached or wholewheat. That said, have you tried a bulk place such as Famous Foods or Galloway's? Or you could try to find a wholesaler or restaurant supply place that will sell cash & carry to a non-commercial customer. You could also check out Anita's Organic Flour and Milling web site — the company is out in Chilliwack — they do delivery or you can pick it up there. Anita's has a wide variety of flours and grains.