MelissaH

I mixed up another batch of dough yesterday. Here's what I did: I measured out three cups of KA AP flour into a 5-quart stainless steel bowl sitting on top of my kitchen scale. I used my one-cup measure, dipping it into my flour container, and shaking the cup slightly to level the top. Measured this way, three cups of flour was 473 grams. (RLB's measurement is within 5 grams of mine.) Then, because I wanted to use part whole-wheat flour, I took out a cup or so of flour. This brought the mass of flour down to 337 g. I then added KA regular WW flour to bring the mass back up to 473 grams. Then I pressed the tare button on the scale. To the flours in the bowl, I added a quarter teaspoon of SAF regular yeast from the red, white, and blue bag. This wasn't enough mass to register on my scale, but I re-tared it again anyway. I also added 2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal kosher salt, which had a mass of 9 grams. I gave the whole thing a bit of a mix. For my water, I used some plain old west-side-of-Oswego tap water from a pitcher that's been sitting on my counter for a couple of days. West side water tends to taste more chlorinated than water from the east side of town, but I've had good results by letting it stand on the counter. I used the same old one-cup dry measure and added a full cup, and then a smidge more than half a cup. This totaled 353 grams. As I mixed it together, it felt dry. I don't know if this is because of the WW flour, or because I wasn't measuring the same amount of water I used the first time around. In any case, the dough wasn't gloppy enough, so I added another splash (24 g), which brought the texture around to match the video. For those of you keeping track, this is a total of 377 g of water, to go with the 473 g of flour. 377 g divided by 473 g is 0.797---or about 80%. I'm now ready to turn out the dough onto a rice-floured towel. This time, though, I'll remember to put it on my peel so I can move it across the aisle of my kitchen to the oven easily! I'm also going to see if I can hunt up one of my hubby's cast-iron dutch ovens to bake in. For next time: sourdough starter, here I come! MelissaH

We're toying with the idea of apple pie with gingerbread ice cream. But we won't be doing turkey; just cornish hens. MelissaH

But if you're looking to fast-freeze a sorbet, you'd be much better off using liquid nitrogen than dry ice. Carbon dioxide dissolves in water to make carbonic acid, which will change the taste of your sorbet mix. MelissaH

Klary, I'd walk through a market with you again any day! MelissaH

To be honest, I didn't plan to keep them quite that long. In fact, I don't know how that happened! Usually, sweet stuff either gets eaten or given away long before getting old enough to grow fuzzy. This one cake somehow managed to get buried on the countertop in a corner, under a couple of printouts of other recipes. I unearthed it yesterday, decided that it looked non-toxic, and then had to make sure. I'm still here, so it must be fine, right? It definitely won't last another ten days! MelissaH

On November 5 I made a batch of the Rum-Soaked Vanilla Cakes (using cream, the way the recipe was written, and soaking the cakes with the rum syrup after baking and depanning). We ate one of the cakes. The other, I wrapped in a double layer of plastic wrap and left on the counter. Until yesterday. The second cake, now a week and a half old, is still quite delicious. It doesn't taste stale in the least, and it's certainly not getting fuzzy or blue. It slices well without crumbling, either thickly or thinly, and this morning it made a terrific breakfast. If you're looking for a good keeper that doesn't necessarily need to be frozen, possibly something that would be suitable for mailing if you wrapped and padded it appropriately, this is one cake to keep in mind. MelissaH

Whose AP flour? It seems to make a difference in this recipe.

Sorry for the delay. Here is what the inside of my loaf looked like: I did get some nice big holes. The flavor was good, and the crust was wonderful. The bottom was maybe a smidge too black, so next time I'd probably take the heat down a bit, to 475 or so. The interior texture was a bit elastic, but still moist. This was a gutsy bread, to my tongue one that cried out for some WW flour next time, and also some cheese and cornichons alongside. I, too, thought it needed more salt. (I'd used a teaspoon and a bit more of Diamond Crystal kosher salt, but if the original recipe meant a teaspoon and a quarter of table salt, I'd be way low.) The second day, the bread was still quite edible. I'd simply turned it cut-side down on the cutting board, and left it there overnight. The third day, the bread was starting to suffer, but my husband ate a slice without complaining. Today is the fourth day. I think it's time to make bread crumbs. I'll be starting another batch tomorrow afternoon, to be baked on Wednesday. My plan is to measure the flour as the video showed, weigh it out, and then remove some of the white flour and replace it with an equal mass of WW flour. I'll also weigh the water, although the WW flour may need a little more water than just the white flour did. Has anyone tried this in plain old cast iron yet? I think I'm going to need my LC pot for something else, and I'd like to know if anyone's had a problem with stickage (and the accompanying horror of seasoning destroyal) in cast iron. Not to mention the LC knob/hot oven issue.... Oh---the flour I'd used was King Arthur All Purpose. MelissaH

Mine's much more recent, like within the last three years. MelissaH

On my oval LC pot, the handles are metal loops integral to the pot itself. The lid has a black knob on top. Both went into my blazingly hot oven. The only possible effect I noticed was that the screw holding the lid on loosened up a bit, but not to the point where it caused problems. And for all I know, this might have happened even before the pot went in the oven. If the lid turns out to be a real problem, I'll probably find a metal shop to replace the knob with a metal one. Leather elbow-length welding gloves are good to have in the kitchen. MelissaH

I, too, noticed that the printed recipe said one and five eighths, whereas the video specified one and a half. For this first go-round, I pretty much followed suit from the video. But I didn't feel like getting out a half-cup measure, so I just eyeballed the five-eighths part as a little more than halfway full of my one-cup. The dough was plenty gloppy, but definitely foldable this morning. In my photos above, you can sort of see where the loaf split on its own. The split seems to be more or less along a fold (remember, it rises on the towel seam down, but goes into the pot seam up). Ooh, rye flour. Possibly with some sourdough added? Or...I could get some cornmeal that isn't blue, and use that in the loaf! All kinds of possible variations to try, and I bet among eG we'll try most of them. MelissaH

I have a Le Creuset manual from a new pot and it says do not exceed 200C (which would be 392F). Jamie ← Hmm. I just used mine to make Bittman's bread in my oven at 500 degrees without an apparent problem. And all I could smell was the bread baking. MelissaH

The loaf is cool. The crust has cracked a touch, but that doesn't bother me. However, I'm not going to cut it open for a couple more hours. We're hosting a pre-game dinner tonight with a few friends, and I'm keeping the bread whole for the "oooh" factor. (It's going with meat loaf, spaghetti squash, and broccoli.) I will, however, take pictures when I slice into it. Sorry to keep you all hanging. I should add that the bread was really easy to make, and involved less hands-on time than many other recipes I've tried. My house is also at about 65 +/- 1 degree F, so it's a little cooler than the recipe specified, but I didn't run into a problem with this particular dough. As far as the weight, if you watch the video, you can see exactly how the flour was measured by the baker. In this case, he scoops out the flour from a large bowl and then seems to shake the measuring cup to level the top (which would of course pack more flour into the cup). He's presumably using a one-cup dry measuring cup to do the flour. The water also got scooped out of a bowl with a DRY measuring cup. The video's not quite as clear about how the water is measured, but there are clearly two different measuring cups on the bench, so it's logical to assume that the other is a half-cup measure. Next time I try this, I'll measure it as the video does, but add it to a bowl on my scale to get proper mass measurements for easy duplication. I'm curious to hear how the bread does in a dark cast-iron pan. (Maybe that's an experiment I'll have to do myself in the same oven, to get the direct comparison.) MelissaH

My bread just came out of the oven. When I took the lid off, I set a timer for 15 minutes. When that beeped, I took a peek. Since there were a few little bits up on the top that were turning a very very dark color, I decided it was time to pull the loaf out of the oven. The bread came out of the pot without a problem. I don't even think I'll need to wash the pot, other than maybe a quick swipe with a damp cloth to get a little bit of stray rice flour from my towel dusting. The internal temperature was 208 degrees F right when it came out, and within half a minute, it started making the most delightful crackling sounds. The loaf is oval-shaped, because my pot was oval. It measures about 3 inches high in the middle. And it looks like this: (In the first photo, you can see a bit of the white rice flour I'd used to keep the dough from sticking to the towel. And in the second photo, taken from a different angle, you can see that the top got quite browned.) It's still too hot to cut. MelissaH

Mine's in the oven at the moment, in a 4.5-quart LC oval pot at 500 degrees since the video said to go hot hot hot. I just pulled the lid off, and it was nowhere in danger of hitting the top. (I do have a larger dutch oven in the house, but it's an unenameled cast iron pot from my husband's family, and I wanted to be sure that it wouldn't stick and force me to try and reseason the pot.) I started the dough at a little before 5 PM yesterday. I turned it out of its bowl when I got back from my swim at about 8:45 this morning. I dusted my towels with rice flour, because it doesn't seem to get as goopy as regular flour with a wet dough and I don't have any wheat bran on hand and the only cornmeal in the house at the moment is blue, and I didn't have any trouble with things sticking. My only apparent goof so far: I did the towel rising on the counter on the opposite side of the room from the range, and in the process of transferring the dough into the hot pot, I managed to dust the floor all the way across. (Note to self: next time put the towel on a sheet pan or pizza peel, idiot!) The dough went into the oven a touch before 11. When I pulled the lid off just now, the top was already starting to get brown. I'll be sure to leave it in long enough to get really good and dark, though...and I'll take the temperature of the bread's interior so I know it's good and done. Does anyone else wish the measurements had been given in mass? Despite seeing exactly how the measuring was done in the video? eta: Two modifications I'd look at for next time, if this is as promising as the article made it sound: swapping in some whole wheat flour, and replacing the smidge of yeast with some of my sourdough started. That's where I really miss not having masses. Guess I'll just have to weigh things next time myself. MelissaH

Can you supply addresses, possibly? Would this be good for a family driving by on the Thruway? How far off the highway are they? Do they have any unusual Mexican stuff or just the usual? Thanks for the info. ← Sodus is a ways off the Thruway, so that would not be at all practical if you're looking for a quick stop. (However, if you're coming across on 104, it's just a short detour.) Be aware that the Sodus restaurant is only open Thursday through Sunday, or something like that. The city of Canandaigua is about 7 miles (give or take, depending on which direction you're coming from) off the Thruway, so that's a bit more practical. The restaurant is at 5 Beeman Street (just off Main Street, and right by a public parking lot). There's a bit of an online menu here. MelissaH

When I'm in a good mood, I bake. When I'm in a rotten mood or when I'm frustrated, I bake more. When I'm really frustrated, I tend to make things that need more attention or hands-on work like an apple cake or even thumbprint cookies, rather than simpler things like a batch of brownies or muffins. And when I just want to beat something up, bread dough's good. The people my husband works with sometimes look forward to me being in a bad mood, because they're generally the benefactors of my moods. MelissaH

Just wondering: in your opinion, what's wrong with sour cream in a pound cake? Why are you looking for a substitution? MelissaH

There is hope for Mexican food in upstate NY. Over the weekend, I found myself at El Rincon Mexicano 2 in Canandaigua. The atmosphere was a little more upscale than at the original El Rincon in Sodus, but the food (although good, and worth going back to) was just a smidge lesser than what I'd eaten in Sodus. In particular, the salsa didn't have quite the flavor (although some of that could be due to the added difficulty in finding good tomatoes in November, compared to a month ago) and the chips were cold in Canandaigua, but warm in Sodus. The rice on Saturday was somehow a bit more boring (the peas and corn scattered perfectly sparsely throughout didn't contrast much in either texture or flavor), but a couple of spots had somehow been juiced with chile heat. The beans and chicken flautas were quite nice. However, as I said, I'd certainly not hesitate to return. If you happen to find yourself in Canandaigua, it's certainly worth also checking out the New York Wine and Culinary Center. It's located down by the lake, and although it's rather commercial, it's interesting to look at. Their Website isn't as complete as it could be, especially the class listing, but if you're there for a Saturday, it's worth doing one of the tasting sessions (either from a demonstration or based on a food or cheese and wine pairing). My husband went to a beer and food pairing session last month, with Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewing, that he enjoyed greatly. They have a hands-on kitchen, but we haven't done any of those classes. And they have a tasting room with selections arranged in flights that change regularly---complete with a nonfermented juice flight for the non-drinkers. MelissaH

I had another go at the rum-soaked vanilla cakes. This time I actually used the heavy cream called for in the recipe, rather than my milk kludge. End result: it looks prettier than before: humps and cracks on both cakes, rather than a flat top with bubbles. I haven't cut into either cake yet; that will happen tonight for dessert, after we teach a couple of students how to make a roast chicken dinner fit to impress a date. I also did the Peanuttiest Blondies. No 9-inch square pan in my house, and the only 7-by-11 pan is Pyrex and not so great for baked goods, so I used an 8-inch pan instead. The end result was fine nonetheless (but it did take the long end of the given time range to bake), and the most troublesome part was cleaning my plunger measuring cup after using it for the peanut butter. (I'd normally toss it in the dishwasher, but we were going away for a couple of days and the DW was already halfway through a cycle so I washed it by hand.) I chopped the peanuts more finely than I should have, because I'd prefer a chunkier cookie, but the taste was divine. They came along for the trip with us, and traveled well without crumbling. Is anyone else finding that their household butter consumption has skyrocketed in the last few weeks? MelissaH

Thanks for taking the time to do this. What is your process for preparing and perfecting a new recipe? Obviously, some of them originate with other people, both professional bakers and those of us not in the business. (As an aside, the notes in your new book do a particularly good job talking about the origins of, or at least the inspirations for, those recipes.) Once you get either a recipe or an inspiration, what happens from there? Do you ever just decide to make something specific and make it up as you go? How many iterations does it take to achieve what you're after? Do you ever find something that refuses to behave the way you want it to? And what do you do with the results of all your testing? (Are your neighbors thrilled to have you nearby?) MelissaH

I'll take these one at a time. We do lots of our shopping at the local Price Chopper. We pretty much ignore the other supermarket in our town because it's regularly more expensive. In season (mid-May through mid-October), we'll get produce at the farmer's market. I'll sometimes get birdseed and produce, especially apples, at the orchard store; I've noticed that their stuff generally brings more fruit flies in than supermarket produce so I'm less enamored of them than many in this area. Milk comes from the dairy store. Stuff that we want to get in bulk comes from BJ's, which is down by Wegman's. (Read on...) Of late we've been finding ourselves driving the 35 minutes to the northern part of Syracuse and the Wegman's there at least once every couple of weeks. Wegman's has more pleasant employees, does a much nicer job of displaying produce, and they generally have a better selection of everything. (Exception: they only carry HUSKED tomatillos, packed in little plastic boxes!) As of next summer, we'll probably be doing lots more of our shopping at Wegman's when one of our two bridges across the river goes down for rebuilding. Right now with no traffic, it's an 8 minute trip across town to the supermarket. We're figuring that will be tripled, at least. Once you're talking that kind of time, we might as well go to the more pleasant shopping experience. My husband's better about clipping coupons than I am. We'll take them along with us most of the time, and sometimes we'll even use them. We have all our keychain discount cards on the same keychain (grocery stores, pet stores, wine store, etc.) and that keychain lives in the car so it's always there when we need it. (Yes, we share a car.) We buy whatever we're going to need for the week. I'll sometimes make a run out mid-week, especially if I'm doing something else on that side of town (like bringing a load of trash and recycling to the transfer station). Usually more produce than meat. Unless something's on sale and we're feeding the freezer. I've never really noticed a reject bin. The orchard store will put produce that's on its last legs on special near the entrance, but the better the price, the more the fruit flies. Yes, we make a list. We generally get everything on the list, sometimes a few extras also. Without a list, we forget stuff that we need. We have a full-size fridge/freezer in the kitchen, a small chest freezer in the garage, and a wine fridge (which currently contains cheese and beer) in the family room. At the moment, our "walk-in" (the deck) is not in operation, since the outside temperature has not consistently been cold enough. Since redoing our kitchen we have much more food storage space in the kitchen, but we continue to use our hall closet as a pantry. We almost always grocery shop together. It wouldn't be as much fun otherwise! If I want to surprise my husband with something, I need to do the shopping for that alone. For that, I always make a list...and stick to it tightly. MelissaH

My second batch of sables, with hazelnuts, turned out beautifully. I made the "rolls" of dough square instead of round, to help distinguish them from the plain round cookies. They, too, were baked both sheets at once with convection on. And the applesauce spice bars are as good as everyone says they are. My husband declared them to be the best thing I've made this week, but then again he loves spicy raisiny things. In his opinion, the caramel glaze is mandatory. MelissaH

It's not completely outside the box, but...I use my potato ricer to squeeze moisture out of blanched spinach. Gets out way more water than my bare hands, and doesn't leave me with a drippy towel. A little more outside the box, I have a large drywall spatula that I use in place of a bench scraper when I want lots of width. Birthday gift from my hubby a couple of years ago. I want a lathe for my kitchen, to quickly and easily remove the skin from butternut squashes. My husband hasn't gone for it yet. MelissaH

Well...in the absence of answers, I tried it anyway. I goofed when I mixed up the batch of dough yesterday afternoon: I put in the flour, noticed that the dough looked really dry and crumbly (more so than I expected), and then realized that the egg yolks, all nice and at room temperature, were still on the counter staring at me. So I just tossed 'em into the mixer bowl anyway, figuring that the worst that would happen is that the cookies would get tougher than they should be. I formed the dough into rolls and let them sit and chill overnight. This morning, I sliced the rolls into individual cookies and baked them. I didn't bother with the egg yolk and sugar on the outside of the rolls, figuring that if they turned out to be terrible, why waste the sugar? Anyway, I lined a couple of half sheet pans with parchment, put the dough pieces on the pans, and baked them in my oven with the convection turned on. I kept the temperature at 350, as instructed, and set the timer for 20 minutes. (That was based on the batch of tollhouse cookies I did a while ago, to prove to myself that it was in fact possible to bake on multiple racks in this oven, something I've never been able to do before with any success. The tollhouse cookies turned out fine, but I think I took them out before they were completely ready.) I did rotate the pans halfway through. My results? No problems, as far as I can tell. I might have been able to leave the cookies in a touch longer (again), because the dough slices that were a little bit thicker didn't come off the parchment as cleanly as the thinner cookies. The only little bit of weirdness was that some of the cookies browned more on one side than the other; I think next time I'll try waiting a little longer to rotate the pans and see if that makes a difference. As for when the next time will be, I currently have two more rolls of dough in the fridge, ready to bake either later today or tomorrow morning. This time, I remembered to add the egg yolks at the proper time. For this batch, I substituted about 2 ounces of hazelnut flour for about 2.4 ounces of flour (since one cup of flour weighs 4.8 ounces, and according to the label on my hazelnut flour a serving of 1/4 cup is 30 g or just a hair more than an ounce, and the Playing Around section of the sable recipe suggests swapping half a cup of flour for half a cup of finely ground nuts). I have some chopped hazelnuts for the outside also. I'll bake this batch all-at-once again, and see how it goes. In the meantime, I also have everything I need for applesauce bars and their glaze. I'm going to be busy for a couple of days! MelissaH