Ann_T

Great looking wings. This is how I serve mine with the sauce on the side for dipping. Not a fan of wings that are tossed with the sauce. Last night`s dinner. Sandwiches on homemade rounds baked on Monday. Pulled roast beef out of the freezer. Vacuumed packed slices from a roast cooked last month. I need to do this more often. The meat tasted like it had just been roasted.

Thanks @Anna N. 🥰

That works. I even have the same bowl. BUT, I want a handle. Makes it so much easier.

Early morning bake. Started two 500g batches last night. One with 50g of sourdough discard and one with 1g of yeast. Left out on the counter all night. At 4:00 AM, I divided the sourdough batch in half and shaped one 16" long baguette. The other half of the dough is Matt's to make a pizza. Each piece just over 450g. Divided the yeast dough into four small rounds. Each just over 200gs. Baked the sourdough baguette on the stone in the conventional oven covered with the bottom of a large KitchenAid roasting pan. Captures the steam just like a Dutch Oven. Removed the lid after 15 minutes and finished baking uncovered. The four rounds were started in the CSO on the bread steam setting and then transferred after 10 minutes to the big oven. The roasting pan isn't quite as cool as the Challenger, but it actually worked well. I preheated the lid on the stone. And it is long enough to make 16" baguettes. I could probably bake two at a time. Instead of the Challenger, I'm now leaning towards a Spun Iron Bread Cloche. Will be about half the price of the Challenger and very light weight. https://breadtopia.com/store/spun-iron-bread-cloche/

Moe's Birthday Dinner. I had planned to make Osso Bucco, but he decided he would be happy with homemade Rye bread with smoked salmon and a bottle of Champagne.

My favourite bun for burgers is a Kaiser. This is a recipe you might like. https://thibeaultstable.com/2016/05/12/home-made-kaiser-buns/

You are correct Dave. I do bake most of my breads in the CSO , or I should say start them in the CSO on the Bread Steam setting and then after 10 minutes I transfer them to the stone in the conventional oven. This way I can bake 6 or 8 baguettes in half the time. This only works for smaller baguettes under 14" long. For larger rounds/boules I will bake in a dutch oven, but I hate having to lower the dough into the high sides of the Dutch Oven. You can bake two ovals or a couple of baguettes in the Challenger. And the lid has two handles making it easier to lift and the lid would weigh under 20 lbs. I had another CT Scan last Wednesday and found out that the dissected artery hasn't healed, it just has no blood flow. So I am still not suppose to lift anything over 20 lbs so the Challenger could work. And besides, I really really like the way it looks. I know. I've thought about the Anova but the price is off putting . Even in Canadian dollars the Challenger comes in with shipping and duty, just under $425.00

@PatrickT, sorry I just saw you message. I'm at work. Yes, between 85 and 100g should work for burger buns. For burger buns I just shape them and put them on parchment lined baking sheet. For the smaller boules/rolls I usually bake them right on the stone.

Has anyone here bought or considered buying the Challenger Bread Baker? https://challengerbreadware.com/product/challenger-bread-pan/ I really want this, but not sure that I really NEED it.

Hadn't baked a rye loaf recently but between @Dave R and @ElsieD's posts as a reminder, I decided yesterday morning to make the dough. I reduced the yeast from 5 to 3gs so that I could leave it out on the counter for a slower room temperature fermentation while I was at work. I thought I had poppy seeds in the freezer, but apparently not. Went with just an egg wash. Baked last night and sliced this morning. It is Moe's birthday today and I had planned to make Osso Bucco but he decided that he would prefer a bottle of champagne and smoked salmon on rye. So that is what we will be having.

So many amazing meals. Not a good idea to look at this dinner thread at 4:00 AM. @weinoothose potatoes look wonderful. I know the method of par boiling and then tossing the potatoes back into the pan to dry and rough up the potato before roasting, but haven't heard of a baking soda method. Grilled one of the NY Strips for dinner last night. Dinner for two. Served with twice baked potatoes and steamed green beans.

@ElsieD, yes, just use whatever rye flour you have access to.

My favourite grocery store with a butcher and a meat counter had their Sterling Silver NY Strip steaks and NY Strip roasts on sale for $10.99 lb instead of $19.99 a lb. The steaks in the display were only 3/4 of an inch thick and I prefer a thicker steak, one big enough for Moe and I to share. They would have cut them for me but instead I bought two of the NY Strip roasts and cut them myself. Six thick steaks just over 1 1/2 inches each. Froze five of them and presalted the sixth and I will grill it tonight.

@ElsieD, I would call this recipe a Lighter Rye. https://thibeaultstable.com/2020/02/14/light-rye-bread/

@PatrickT, I never measure. I just eyeball and divide even for the baguettes, depending on how many I want. If I had to guess and I would say my guess would be pretty accurate because it would have been a 1000g flour batch at 72 to 75 % hydration, and there are 12 buns, that they are around 145 to 150 each. They are bigger than say a kaiser or burger bun. So if you would prefer smaller buns, just divide the dough into 16 pieces. What is nice about this dough is you could make a baguette or a boule and still make some buns as well.

@PatrickT that recipe also makes wonderful crusty buns.

Nice crumb and crust @PatrickT. $3.99. What a find. If you like this bread, just make a larger boule to bake in the Romertopf. If you are interested, here is a video on scoring. There are a number of videos, but I've always thought that this one explained scoring well.

@PatrickT, are you familiar with Ken Forkish's finger dent test to determine "proofed"? If not here is his video:

Last night's dinner. Small presalted Sterling Silver top sirloin roast, with all the sides.

@Anna N, I agree with @Dave R, pizza looks great and I love the colour on your crust. My favourite part of the pizza. His and Her Breakfasts. Moe wanted the leftover roast beef sliced thin and served with toasted baguette. He likes his baguette in slices. I wanted toasted baguette and tomatoes, and I like my baguette sliced lengthwise. I pulled out the Italian meat slicer for the beef. Hadn't used it in a while. Forgot how heavy it is

@PatrickT, I never go by time as it depends if the dough had been in the fridge for a cold fermentation. Takes longer to warm up before shaping and sometimes longer to proof. Also, because I often use very little yeast, the proofing can also take longer. Anywhere from an hour to more than two. Yesterdays yeast batch only had one gram of yeast so it was a very slow fermentation as well, even at room temperature. Same for the sourdough batch. Just 50g of discarded starter.

@PatrickT, thank you Patrick. I'm not good when it comes to doing videos, but I have a blog post with pictures of how I shape. It is what works for me. https://thibeaultstable.com/2020/04/02/shaping-baguettes-pictorial/

I've mentioned often that I think that bread is very forgiving. Hard to screw up. I started two batches of dough on Sunday morning before leaving for work. One was a regular 500g batch with just 1 gram of yeast, 12 gr of salt and 315g of water for 63% hydration. And it was mixed in the food processor for 45 seconds and then given two stretch and folds over an hour before being covered and left on the counter for an all day fermentation. The second batch was processed the same way but instead of yeast, I used 50g of discard sourdough. By the time I got home from work, I really didn't feel like baking but I didn't want to put the dough in the fridge so I put it outside where the temperature was in the 50's overnight. Brought it back into the house before 4:00 AM and left it on the counter to warm up a bit. Shaped four demi baguettes from the yeast batch and four slightly longer sourdough baguettes. I wanted to be able to start most of them in the CSO on the bread steam function. Ten minutes in CSO and then transferred to the stone in the main oven. All but one of the sourdough baguettes fit on the stone in the CSO. So that baguette was baked from start to finish in the conventional oven. I did spray and add steam to the bake but as you will see the crust on the baguettes started in the CSO have a much superior shine to their crust. I did have my doubts about leaving the batch for another 12 hours more or less at room temperature but both batches turned out well.

Pizza Night. Italian Sausage, Mushrooms and Olives. Sourdough Crust.

That looks so good. I think I will need to make that for Moe one morning soon. Moe's breakfast this morning.