tino27

Clearly it was the oxidation "gremlins" that caused your problems?

Hmph. I always thought that if the recipe didn't specify the size, you should assume large eggs, not extra large. I'm loving the posts, btw. Please keep writing.

Was that Arianne from Top Chef Season 5 as a sous chef on the challenger's team in tonight's episode? It certainly looked like her and she was wearing her trademark cap.

If you are using your KitchenAid to mix and knead the dough, the proper hydration level for a French bread dough would be when the dough pulls away from the sides and the bottom of the bowl as it is spinning around. For me, the flour is the constant. I always add what the recipe calls for. The water is the variable ingredient. Measure out what you think you'll need and use as much as you actually need to get the right consistency. Depending on the age and strength of the flour as well as the humidity in your kitchen, you may need all the water you measured or less (or sometimes more). Also, you may want to employ a hybrid kneading method where you do 80% of the kneading in the stand mixer and then finish by hand on your counter. This will also help you judge exactly how wet or dry the dough is and make any final adjustments. Good luck!

A couple of things: First, post larger pictures next time (they don't have to be mega huge). It's kind of hard to see some of the smaller details on the photos you posted. (That really has nothing to do with the bread, of course). Second, I bake on a stone in an electric oven, too. You will have to get used to baking in whatever oven you use, gas or electric, yours or someone else's. It just takes time and patience and a couple of batches of bread. Third, if at all possible, spend that $30 on a digital scale accurate to 1 gram. It will be one of the best investments for making consistent bread. Almost all digitals scales nowadays will measure in both grams (my preferences) or ounces. Fourth, I looked at the recipe you linked to. I normally do my French style breads at 70% overall hydration. That being said, that is a very wet dough and it can be tricky to work with. There's no reason you can't start with a dryer dough to get the feel of it and then add more water until you get it to where you want it. I would suggest in your case removing 1 ounce of water from the final dough (leave the poolish as it is listed). This will drop the final hydration from 66% down a bit. You may sacrifice some of the bigger holes, but the benefit is that you get dough you can work with. Other than that, the recipe looks fairly solid and not far from what I use. Fifth, what kind of white flour are you using? What brand? The recipe you linked to says "white flour" which can be interpreted to mean All Purpose flour. That being said, All Purpose flours run a range of protein levels that can severely mess with your results. Gold Medal AP flour is different than King Arthur AP flour. The higher the protein content, the more water the dough can absorb. That's why it's always best to use a recipe as a jumping off point. You're going to have to adjust it to make it your own. Pick a manufacturer and stick with them. Buying whatever is on sale that week is the surest way of having too much variation in the final product. That said, I personally prefer King Arthur flours as they tend to be very consistent from batch to batch. You don't necessarily need to use "Bread Flour", but I've used both AP and Bread flours from KA and they both work beautifully. Bread flour has a higher protein content than AP flour, so more water is needed than the same amount (by weight) of AP flour. Sixth, what kind of water are you using? Tap? Bottled? With so few ingredients in a loaf of French bread, everything has to be the best it can be. If you are using tap water, is it chlorinated? If you are using city water, most likely it is. Fill up a pitcher with the water from your tap and let it sit overnight. This will let any dissolved chlorine gas escape. Chlorine can hinder the development of the gluten in the dough. Does your tap water even taste good? If it doesn't, don't expect your bread to, either. Personally, my tap water has too many minerals dissolved in it so it has a metallic taste. I buy gallon jugs of water from the supermarket for my breads. Finally, don't worry too much if your baguettes don't come out well the first couple of batches. Once you slice it up and put it in the bread basket, the only thing people will care about is that it tastes good. You might want to try starting with a simpler shape, like a batard (which is a pre-cursor to a baguette). A little wordy, I know, but hopefully that gives you a few jumping off points to get started.

Brown some butter, toss in some garlic and the cooked gnocchi. Toss until the gnocchi get a little color on them. Finish with some fresh sage. Plate and grate on the cheese of your choice (I like pecorino or parmesan).

No worries, I do this all the time. If I am going to be baking when I get home from work, I will do my poolish in the morning and let it sit out in a covered container. If I get home from work late or just don't have time to bake, I simply chuck it in the fridge. It will last a couple of days in there (I've never gone beyond 48 hours in the fridge). To use, take out and sit on a counter for about an hour or so to take the chill off. Then use as normal.

I've reshaped an overproofed first rise without too much problem. I'd rather reshape and reproof than give up and just toss the dough.

I think maybe what Randi meant was that, after 5 credit cards being denied, she wouldn't have made the food at all without a deposit. Interesting that he didn't give you the credit card number on the phone when you spoke with him, but chose to email it, generally a less secure option. ← Email is not generally a less secure option. It is NOT a secure option. It wouldn't surprise me if all 5 of those credit card numbers were stolen. I mean, if you have to split a $2k invoice over 3 credit cards (the initial request), perhaps you have better things to do with your $2000. A legally binding contract has to happen before you buy the food and prepare it. Obviously in this case, it was short notice. This says to me: High risk order. With no signed contract in place, your only choice is to get enough of a deposit to cover your risk. I would've asked for 50% on the day they placed the order with 50% due on pick-up. You might not have made any profit when the customer didn't show up, but at least you've covered your food and production costs. Definitely report it to the police. Without a police report, you may be limited in your legal options. As for what to do with the food, I'd agree to freeze it for another day. You are already out the cost of the food and production costs. Turn it into a promotion of some kind. Advertise in your local paper for free sandwiches on a particular Saturday in front of your store. Or maybe sponsor a booth at a local food and wine event. Then at least the expense becomes an advertising cost as opposed to a lost cost.

Sometimes in life, it's all about the order in which things happen. Step 1: Read this thread. Step 2: Look at the Linux kernel website (kernel.org) and discover that there is a new Linux kernel. Step 3: Decide to read what bugs got fixed in order to determine whether to build the new kernel. Step 4: Discover the name of the bug - "wait: prevent exclusive waiter starvation" on the 3rd bug from the bottom of the changelog page Step 5: Profit! (Sorry, bad SouthPark pun in there) OK, so maybe only me in my geekitude finds that oddly amusing. But to finally weigh in on this topic (so that I actually manage to stay on topic), the only two possible questions I can see asking a guest who leaves a poor tip are: 1) Was everything to your liking? If the response is "Yes", then that's all you can say. I suppose in a perfect world you could use that opportunity to educate someone. In the world we live in, however, bringing up the customer's tipping inadequacies only goes to show the customer that they were naive at best, and lying/ignorant/indifferent at worst. And if the response to that is "No", the follow-up question: 2) What can we do to improve your experience? I feel like #2 is a loaded question because there are a lot of people who would offer genuine advice (I know I have). Unfortunately, there are a lot of other people who would use that opportunity to get something comp'd off the check. As with most things in life, damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I mean, you are sort of in the "experimental" phase right now, trying to get all of the parameters correct. Bread making can be endlessly frustrating because even though it is a relatively simple process, there are a lot of variables that can make the different between blah and ZING! When doing any of the following, I always employ my instant read thermometer: * Baking a known recipe but in a new oven * Baking someone else's or a variation of my own recipe for the first time * Known recipe, but different amount (Doing a 1 1/2 lb loaf instead of a 1 lb) Once you learn the dynamics of your oven and your recipes, you can generally put away the thermometer. If you don't have an instant read (which I think the basic analog dial ones are like $5-$7 at most kitchen stores), try baking the bread for an additional 3-4 minutes the next time. Adjust from there. It'll takes you a couple of batches, but you should be able to narrow down exactly how long it will take. This is why having the instant read is so great ... internal temp between 205 and 210? Pull it out 'cause it's done. BTW, 205-210 is for lean breads (little or no sugars or fats).

20 minutes seems like too short of a time to get a fully baked loaf. Did you happen to check the internal temperature of the loaf when you decided to pull them out of the oven? When I do 300g batards (about 3/4 pound), I cook them from 25-27 minutes at 450-475. Regardless, the internal temp should be between 205-210 degrees F. You didn't say that the middle was gummy, just dense, so I don't know if this would be the issue, but it might be.

The only other way I could think to do it would be on a greased (or maybe Silpat-lined) half-sheet pan. Although come to think of it, can a Silpat withstand 450-500 deg F heat? I agree with you that the parchment directly on the stone is probably the best.

I tend to do very wet and freeform ciabattas and use parchment paper. After I get all of my folds done, I do a final "shaping" and place the loaf on parchment (seam side down). The entire lot gets transferred via my peel to the baking stone. About half-way through the baking time, I simply slide the paper out from under the loaf and finish baking on the stone. Works like a charm every time. As for what shapes I personally prefer, I think a lot of it depends on how I intend to use the finished breads. French dough is almost always shaped into batards. If I'm doing breads for a party where I know I'll be doing little sandwiches or the like, I'll pull out my Pullman pans. Otherwise it's mostly boules for me, too.

I personally don't have a microwave above my stove, but my grandmother does. When I cook at her house, it is mildly annoying to use it when simmering pots of liquid or things are sauteing in oil are on the stovetop at the same time. That being said, if counter space is an issue, I wouldn't think twice about putting it above the stove.

You also need to keep in mind that the wetter the dough, the less effective a slash will be as the slash will sort of melt back into the dough. For instance, I never bother slashing my ciabattas. And although I rarely do this anymore, when I first started out, dipping the blade in some water right before I slashed lubricated it enough to cut cleanly through the dough.

You've got half the solution by slashing deeper. Slashing isn't just about a pretty design on the loaf, but also about you choosing where that expansion occurs. If you are still getting tearing, then perhaps you are not sealing a seam during the shaping process. Seams are typically a weak spot on the loaf, which is why they are placed face down in the loaf pan or on the baking stone. Try not to get additional bench flour in the seam when you are trying to seal it.

Agreed, thanks for the link! I had the opportunity to attend a bread class taught by Mr. Reinhart last summer and this brought back some great memories.

I think it may be just particular meat and peanut butter pairings. I know that a nice chicken satay with a thai spicy peanut sauce is quite delicious. Then again, there's more than just peanut butter in the sauce.

Yeah, I picked up on it too. Maybe there's a list, at Craft, etched in stone, beginning with "Thou Shalt Honor Thy Protein". There could not have been a better setting for the chefs, and I think that the food was still underwhelming. Heck, they could do the entire season from there. A soup, in summer? I can see making the pesto, as I'm sure there were plenty of herbs to choose from, but he should've just used fresh-from-the-vine tomatoes (can you get any better?). Sounds like they all could use a week on the farm to learn about butchering, too. ← If they were so intent on doing a soup, given the outdoor temperature and the availability of ripe tomatoes, wouldn't a gazpacho have been perfect?

According to this website, carmelization occurs at 338 deg F. Does a slow cooker get hot enough to accomplish this? And I'm sure the temperature achieved by setting the cooker on "HIGH" probably differs between models and manufacturers.

So how do you think they handled the Jen/Zoe relationship last season? I can't imagine that they were contractually required to not show any sort of affection for each other.

Based on this website, it seems that 1 cup of dried beans would give you between 2-2.5 cups of cooked beans.

This is exactly the same format as the "Holiday Battle" special that Top Chef taped in late 2007 and then aired over the holidays both in 2007 and 2008. Except in Top Chef, they started with 8 chefs and eliminated 2 per round. I wonder if they are going to do this "mystery basket" for every episode or if that was just the gimmick for the first show. The only thing I noticed that sort of perturbed me was that the second chef to be eliminated, during the "duck" course, in his rush to get his dishes plated before time expired seemed to have very sloppy looking plates. And yet, when the camera showed the judges tasting them, they appeared to be all neat and clean. Hmmm ... I'm holding off further judgment until I see another episode or two. I do think I like Ted Allen better as a judge than a moderator, however.

I use macadamia nuts in several of my cheesecake crusts and it works wonderfully. The basic ratio is 2 cups crushed cookies (I use Nilla Wafers), 1 cup finely chopped nuts, 1/4 cup white sugar, and 1 stick (8 ounces) unsalted butter. I do toast the nuts in a 350 deg oven first before crushing in a food processor with the sugar (the sugar helps to prevent you from making nut butter instead of finely crushed nuts). This is enough to coat the bottom of a 10" springform pan.