HungryC

Small cakes and pastries could be baked on a flat griddle on inside a Dutch oven. It's easy to bake round cakes, cornbread, loaf bread in a spider (Dutch oven w short legs) with coals piled atop the lid and beneath it. Have baked Tartine style sourdough in an open hearth this was with great results. Such pots have been in use for centuries.

Yard eggs from arucana/amerucana run $2.50 to $3 at my local farmers markets, direct from the farmer. No hype, no little stickers proclaiming their virtues. Seriously, the individually printed, colored stickers seem like a packaging waste. A single reusable sign at the farmers sales table would accomplish the same marketing goal and not end up immediately in the landfill or recycling bin. Wasteful, no?

That is much closer to what I'm homing in on, with an "it is what it is" acceptance of how the KK works. Your analysis nails it, it's a bottom heat source even if I get as close as possible to the dome and heat-soak the dome as much as I can. I've been wondering about better protecting the Fibrament from heat from below; you saved me a lot of trouble not chasing the steel plate angle there. My Big Green Egg pies never browned on top enough to make me happy....I wanted some true charring in spots. Broiler plus steel yields far superior results, for me. I have an average broiler, plain ol gas. Am upgrading to a BlueStar later this year, and I can't wait to use the steel with the BS infrared broiler.

The big drawback of the larger version is the weight. Unless your oven racks are especially sturdy, the thicker version might collapse them.

Been using it for weeks, it's great. Worth every cent. After an hour of preheating at 550 and 20 minutes with the broiler on high, the steel hits 700-750 degrees. Pies cook in around three minutes. Best pizza I've ever made at home, and I've tried every freaking method you can imagine (big green egg, stones, etc). See a nice pie here... http://bouillie.us/2013/03/06/if-youre-a-pizza-freak/#jp-carousel-4744 I usually use Laheys no knead crust, aged for a day in the fridge.

How did the baked loaf turn out? Thick and sticky batter doesn't automatically mean a bad loaf. Thick and sticky can mean you overstirred the loaf after the flour was added. RE measuring flour by volume, give the flour a good stir in the bag or canister. Sprinkle it into a measuring cup and level off the top. Don't scoop and press.

My grilling season peaks in winter and tapers off during the worst of summers heat, though I keep at it year round. Did a 16 hour brisket this weekend, will be making potato hash with the leftovers tonight. I'm looking forward to more grilled fish and shrimp as the weather warms a bit more.

To me, fake crabmeat/crabstick falls into the same category as your lemon slice. An artificial, synthetic, industrial, inferior imitation of the original.

I'm with Jaymes on the fork thing. If your resto is fancy enough to have multiple courses, then you can buy some extra damn forks and bring me a new one with my entree. RE: consensus: do not scrape plates at the table, ever. Completely and utterly gross. Was sentenced to eat at an airport Tony Roma's earlier this week, and the very sweet, young, recent immigrant waitress collected our plates at the end of the meal, scraping the detritus from two onto one still sitting in front of me. AAACCKK. I wasn't expecting much from an airport resto, but if I hadn't been hustling to a flight, I would have made a discreet comment to the manager. She was nice, but clearly had no training whatsoever.

I go thru 5 lbs of flour a week for much of the year, and it's all KA. I'll buy no-name-brand butter and yogurt and buttermilk, but I'm sticking with a quality flour. I'd prefer something local and freshly ground, but I'm not exactly in a wheat growing region, LOL.

Hungry ... When you say that, do you mean that the flour mixture and the milk should be stirred in separately, or that the combined flour mixture and liquid, together, should be added incrementally? Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, stir to combine, add 1/3 of the liquid, stir to combine. Repeat until you've used all the flour and liquid. This keeps the mixture from developing lumps that would require vigorous stirring to mix in, thus keeping the cake tender by limiting gluten formation created through stirring.

I have a motley collection of loaf pans: fairly flimsy tinned steel pans from Dollar Tree, inexpensive Wilton nonstick from WalMart, unglazed stoneware, plain "sticky" metal, enameled cast iron...they're all useful in various ways. I probably use the unglazed stoneware most frequently of all. You can buy heavyweight commercial metal loaf pans for around $10-$12 each at a restaurant supply house. I think $20 is a bit steep, but King Arthur sells a similar heavyweight pan w/texture for $15. If you're always going to line the pans w/parchment, then the cheap, tinned steel pans at the dollar store will yield the same results as a $20 pan. The tiny amount of oil or spray used to lubricate a pan will not have a noticeable effect on the crust of yeast breads. I do not like glass loaf pans....everything takes longer in glass.

But muffins are made from batter, not dough. Never seen any remotely stiff muffin "dough"....it's always a wetter, thinner mixture that is most definitely batter in texture.

Agree w/Lisa--freeze dried tomato powder seems like an ideal way to flavor the butter. Or puree sundried, oil-packed tomatoes together with softened butter and then strain out the bigger solid chunks. Another approach might be to roast fresh tomatoes in the oven, rather than using commercial sun dried tomatoes. You might want to include a small amount of sugar and perhaps a touch of citric acid in the shortbreads to mimic the sweet-sharp taste of a fresh tomato.

I've had the feminello sfusato straight from the trees on the Amalfi coast....nothing better! Incredibly fragrant with mineral notes. I have a big Meyer tree in my yard, and I don't like the zest much at all. The fruit is large and juicy, but the peel isn't esp oil rich. Going to plant a Santa teresita feminello next year.

I never soak wood chips but simply add them in a spiral pattern atop the coals in my BGE (before lighting). You don't need foil, a smoker box, or anything else--as the fire burns down then outward, additional chips will ignite.

I have no tried and true recipe to add, but if you want a nice crumbly shortbread, then maybe you should try flavoring the butter used in a traditional shortbread recipe. A tomato butter would add subtle color and flavor to a savory shortbread.

The juvenile term "babycake" is often used. I don't like it, personally.

KA is consistent, that's why I buy it. If it isn't readily available to you, I'm sure you'll have decent results with a national brand. Cakes are more forgiving than bread--all the eggs, fat, and flavorings make the recipes a bit more forgiving. (as opposed to just flour, water, yeast, salt) ETA: you said no glaze, but what about a lemon crunch topping? Make flour/butter crumbs, spike with lemon zest and candied ginger, and sprinkle atop the loaf.

I substitute nonfat Greek for buttermilk and sour cream in baking recipes all the time. It works fine as a 1:1 substitution, though the resulting batters & doughs will be a bit stiffer than those made w/buttermilk. If the batter really feels too thick, add a tablespoon or two of milk. I like this swap mainly because it reduces the fat of the baked good while introducing more protein. No, it's not a dramatic health makeover, but it's enough to make me feel better about my frequent baking habit. I bake Dorie Greenspan's french yogurt cake, flavored with lemon zest, over and over again, and it convinced me that you can achieve nice texture with almond flour and yogurt. Here's her recipe: http://doriegreenspan.com/2011/04/o-magazine-bonding-through-baking.html#more but I usually bake the "Riveria" variation, made with almond flour, olive oil, and rosemary or mint: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/the-bakers-apprentice-french-yogurt-cake/ Finally, if you're a curious but beginning baker, the best thing you could ever have is the King Arthur Flour Baker's Hotline telephone number: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/contact/ Real live humans answer the hotline, and they're all proficient bakers and owner/employees of King Arthur. You can ask questions from the downright dumb to the incredibly technical and they'll endeavor to help you out. It's a fantastic service.

RE: zest, yes, just use the back of a spoon to mash the zest into the sugar, over and over, until it becomes very fragrant. RE: lemon oil, definitely reduce the amount. I just noticed that your original recipe calls for 1 1/2 T...that would be WAY too much oil. Try 1/8 tsp to start, or even less. Lemon oil is assertive and using too much can make things taste like cleaning products. A hand mixer will work, it will just take longer. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go. Other substitutions to consider: if you like tangy, then plain yogurt in place of the buttermilk will up the "tart" quotient, and sour cream will give you a richer, denser crumb.

If you want lighter, then don't use whole wheat. But I do have additional suggestions: --to get max flavor out of the zest, rub it into the sugar with a spoon until you can really smell the citrus oils. --change the order of mixing (treat it like a pound cake): cream the (softened, not melted) butter and sugar together first, as with a pound cake. Beat the hell out of it--use a stand mixer and let it roll until the sugar is well on its way to dissolving and the butter noticeably lightens, then beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in part of the flour mixture and liquid in two or three alternating increments. --make sure your eggs are at room temperature when added --ditch the lemon extract and use a food-grade lemon oil like LorAnn and add a little vanilla extract, too --in lieu of a glaze, but how about a lemon-juice soak? Brush the still-warm baked loaf with lemon juice; it will soften the upper crust and add a little zing. This is one of those "plain" cakes where quality ingredients shine. Farm eggs, a flavorful butter, etc. To take it into a different texture & flavor direction, substitute 1/2 cup almond flour for part of the wheat flour.

Enclosed pot breads require high hydration....you can't just put any old bread into an enclosed vessel and achieve stellar results. A typical American slicing loaf enriched w butter, milk, and eggs will not benefit from enclosed cooking. This same bread doesn't benefit from in oven steam, either. It's a matter of matching the technique to the dough and the desired result...one method is not ultimately better than another, they just deliver different textures.

The more I learn about bread, it seems the less I "know". Vigorous kneading is the exception the world over, rather than the norm.

Pierre Herme's books offer lots of interesting compositions, building on traditional french techniques.... Dessert Professional magazine: http://www.dessertprofessional.com/ Pastry & Baking North America: http://pastryna.com/ So Good: http://www.sogoodmagazine.com/