tino27

Thanks for the reply. I do mist the loafs and usually spray water directly into the oven. I didn't include any vital wheat gluten or bread flour. This particular recipe was all whole wheat flower plus some course ground oats (it is from Peter Reinhart's Bread Bakers Apprentice). I'm glad you suggested this because it may also explain why my 100% whole wheat dough never gets as elastic as white flour dough. For example, I cannot get a 100% whole wheat dough to pass the window pane test. I'll try the wheat gluten. Just out of curiosity, how much bread flour would have to be in the dough if I didn't use wheat gluten - would 10% of the flour do the trick? ← In my wheat loaves I normally do 60% whole wheat flour and 40% bread flour (no need for vital wheat gluten at that level). If it were me and I didn't want to use vital wheat gluten, I'd probably start at 75/25 and work your way down from there. Yeah, I also find it pretty hard to get a 100% whole wheat dough to pass the windowpane test.

Does your whole wheat recipe include either vital wheat gluten or some bread flour? If you are going with 100% whole wheat as the only type of flour, you may not be getting the level of gluten development you need to get the kind of oven spring you are looking for. Also, make sure that you are either misting the tops of your loaves with some type of liquid (usually water) or creating steam in your oven to encourage ovenspring -- although you only benefit from this during the first 8-10 minutes of cooking.

What type of yeast are you using?

Although I see your question was posted on December 1st and I'm sure you've fixed the problem by now, I guess I'll just answer for posterity's sake. Yes, if your bread overproofs, punch it down, re-shape, and re-proof. As far as the time it takes to re-proof, it will most likely be about the same time as the failed proof. Once you do your first bulk fermentation (in the big bowl/container, etc.) and punch it down to let the gas out, it also serves to redistribute the live yeast through the dough. Additional risings/proofings won't get you a significant increase in proofing time. In other words, if I do first fermentation / second fermentation / shape & proof, it would probably go something like: 60 minutes / 35-40 minutes / 25-30 minutes. Of course, it also depends on how hot and how humid your kitchen is.

GBC! My nemesis growing up! About 5 years ago I decided that I had had it with the "original" version and decided to make an all from-scratch version. Essentially there are only three components: the green beans, the mushroom bechamel, and the crunchy topping. One of the cool things about this dish is that I can do everything in one pan, my saucier. First, the green beans. Trim the ends and cut into bite-sized pieces. The first version I left the beans whole and it was a mess to serve and eat the beans. Next blanch in heavily salted water for 3 minutes and place into ice water to quickly chill the beans. Do this in batches so as not to overcrowd your pan. After cooled, place onto several layers of paper towel to absorb the excess water. For the bechamel I first start by re-hydrating about an ounce of dried porcini mushrooms with boiling water. I also use fresh shiitake and button mushrooms. In my saucier, I add some grapeseed oil and toss in my fresh, cut up mushrooms, after a minute or two I'll add several minced garlic cloves and a couple of minced shallots. Saute until the mushrooms start to give up their juice. At this point I'll add seasoning, the reconstituted porcinis (chopped up if necessary) and some fresh thyme. Cook until almost all of the liquid from the mushrooms evaporates. Set aside on a plate. In the same pan, add your butter (or oil) and flour to make a roux. Whisk for a minute or two to cook the flour. Then I add 2% milk and the strained porcini soaking liquid to the roux. Bring to a boil to fully thicken. You want it to be a consistency that is heavier than a sauce. Add the sauteed mushrooms back in and a pinch or so of freshly ground nutmeg if you desire. Re-season for thyme, salt & pepper. Combine green beans and bechamel and place in casserole dish. At this point you could let it cool to room temp, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight (which is what I normally do). The final component is the topping. I use my food processor to pulverize about 5-6 slices of sandwich bread (white or whole wheat). To this I add some freshly grated parmesan cheese (the real stuff, not the green can), some more fresh thyme and fresh rosemary (that's been finely chopped). At this point you could put this in an airtight container and placed in the fridge overnight. The last step before baking is to moisten the bread crumb topping with some extra virgin olive oil. Just enough until the topping looks slightly "wet". Spread over the top of the casserole and place in a 375 deg oven for about 20 minutes covered with foil. Uncover and let finish browning up for another 10 minutes. Obviously if you are making and baking the casserole right away, there is no need to keep the bread topping separate from the rest of the casserole. The first year I made this, my grandmother, who epitomizes the target demographic for all of Campbell's soup products, actually asked me for the recipe. Even the die hard old-school GBC fans in my family had to admit that this tasted better. Clearly this takes longer to throw together than the original version, but as a once or twice a year kind of thing, it is so well worth the time and effort. Plus, you can totally do the component parts a day ahead and just assemble and bake on the day of dinner. I've actually dubbed my version NYMGBC -- Not Your Momma's Green Bean Casserole.

A couple of things come to mind: 1) Did you check the expiration date on your baking powder? 2) Since the cookies spread so much, were they too crispy? I've seen where you want to use butter to get a thinner, crisper cookie and shortening to get a moister, thicker cookie. 3) You could probably just bake on Pam covered cookie sheets, but what about using parchment paper? You can reuse the sheets a number of times before having to change them out. Then you wouldn't have to mess with the Pam at all.

I went there for lunch today and asked for chilli sauce on the side ... she looked at me the same way as if I would've asked her to write a computer program to calculate Pi to the 56th digit. So, no such luck there. I agree with you 100%. I'm only trying to order things that are already marked on the menu as spicy. Thank you for this. You're right, I will probably need to write it down. As an odd turn of events at the restaurant today, I actually ended up getting what I wanted. After having no luck getting the side of chilli sauce, I almost pleaded with her to make it very very spicy. Twice. Apparently this time I got through as it was much closer to what I was looking for. When I finished my meal I went back up to the counter, gave her a big smile and told her it was very good. When I asked her how to order it that spicy again, she smiled and said, "1/2 spoon". So, 1 restaurant down, 99,999 more to go in the US. However, the general question is still open for discussion in case anyone else wants to weigh in.

This problem seems to plague me the most when I dine at a Chinese restaurant. I have found a little Chinese place (serving mostly American tastes, I'm sure). The food is pretty darn good, but no matter how many "very"'s I put in front of the word "spicy", the food almost always comes out with little to no heat. As in most family run establishments (another reason to frequent their restaurant), the wife is in front taking the orders and calling them to the husband in the kitchen. The one time the husband took my order, he understood what I wanted and it came out better (although still not great), but I think the wife has basically enough knowledge of English to know what is on the menu. Is there a phrase or word that I could use to indicate to the wife that I truly want it very, very, very spicy and not "American spicy"? I know that not all Chinese restaurants are run by Chinese people and I know there are various dialects even within China, but I was hoping there would be some way of communicating what I am shooting for. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Nice interview today on SIRIUS, Fatter Guy. I don't think I've ever heard Frank be that calm for 20 consecutive minutes before. In fact, the show inspired me to stop at a local Thai place for lunch.

Not exactly. In a large egg, the yolk will be about 20 grams and the white about 30 grams. So, 2 to 3.

While I've often given people the benefit of the doubt when I find out they haven't tried a particular cuisine because they didn't have anyone to help guide them through new tastes, I've actually come across several people who won't eat middle eastern cuisine because "that's where the terrorists come from". I wish I could use the smiley face icon to indicate that I'm joking. Unfortunately, I'm not. No amount of intelligent discourse would change their minds.

Could it maybe have something to do with this legend? I can totally see tying the story to a small loaf of bread (like a shoe).

Apparently McDonald's feels that assembling hot and cold sandwiches is novel enough to warrant a US (and European) patent. Make sure to check out the most helpful flowchart diagram on the following page. How to make a sandwich

I can't even recall if they have had foreign chefs before. It isn't as if they said "You know, we finally got a female winner last year, so now we need to fill the foreign quota." ← Apparently New Zealand is now considered domestic. What about Mark from last season? Clicky clicky

Would this be the drunk uncle who starts flinging green beans at other people?

Steven -- The first link is broken ... bringing up a "page not found" type error. Tom

I completely agree with you on that one. Over-saucing pasta and over-dressing salads are two relatively minor pet peeves. Not only is over-saucing at epidemic (yes, I did say epidemic) proportions, but how many times does your pasta come already swimming in a pool of the cooking water because they didn't drain the pasta well enough? Before you can even begin to eat the pasta you have to use your fork and twirling spoon to hold the pasta on the plate while you tilt it so that the water underneath can be drained to a separate dish. Just get the lasagna and be done with it.

I come from a long line of not spaghetti cutters, but spaghetti breakers -- breaking the dried pasta up before cooking it. Now before you condemn me as a heathen, know that I have always supported keeping my spaghetti whole. It's the rest of my family who needs the epicurean help. I'm actually a little surprised by the twirling on the spoon issue. But I've been to a number of Italian restaurants (all here in the U.S.) where they specifically give you a spoon without having to ask for it. If not for twirling long pasta, what other purpose would the spoon serve? Maybe smacking the hand of the dinner companion who tries to take the last piece of garlic bread?

Those chicken livers are one of my favorite things on the Lolita menu (besides ALL of the pizzas ). I almost feel guilty ordering them time after time, but goodness they are excellent.

I did exactly as you said and sure enough, Word did suggest 'prostitute' as the first alternative. To be fair, I then tried the same task in OpenOffice Writer and wouldn't you know it ... prosciutto is a recognized word. Besides being a free alternative to Microsoft Office, it is also foodie-friendly!

I didn't believe it before I saw it, but you can actually peel off both ends of the already hard-boiled egg, place the smaller tip of the egg in your mouth with your hand cupped around to seal it and then literally "blow" the egg out the other end into your other hand. Don't believe me? Type in "peeling hard boiled eggs" into youtube.com's search engine and click on the first result. I actually tried this and I couldn't believe that it worked. Then again, you had to have a bit of lung power, too.

Wouldn't you know it that NONE of the Border's bookstores in my area have the actual book in the store. They could order it on-line for me, but then again, I could order it myself through Amazon and get it cheaper (including shipping). My copy should be showing up today or tomorrow.

I'm assuming that since the 'p' key is pretty far from the 'f' key, you actually meant the word punky. I'm also guessing that punky has nothing to do with this TV character. Would punky be an off color, off smell, or slightly soft texture (as in pre-cursor to rotting)?

Nice article, Steven ... I noticed in the article that it said a publication date of Oct. 21st (next Tuesday). I assume I'll be able to walk into most Borders / Barnes and Noble and find a copy on the shelf?

I agree with muichoi ... if I am roasting them in olive oil, then they work great. But to use them in a fresh preparation where the garlic flavor is supposed to be prominent, it's better to peel fresh garlic. I make a lot of roasted garlic hummos, and the pre-peeled stuff works out real well.