nickgrieve

With modern commercial yeasts I have not found it necessary to proof them.

I use a simple bread recipe: Flour 100% ie 300g salt 2% of Flour weight ie 6g yeast 3% ie 9g water 60% ie 180ml here is how I would make your buns. make the dough, knead for 10 mins (important, you need to develop the gluten, the gluten catches the CO2 from the yeast) Put the dough in a bowl, and cover with cling film and let is rise so it doubles in volume. I used to put my dough in a bowl with measuring marks, and note where it came up to. Then when 350ml of dough rose to 700ml, I knew it was double. Knock back the dough, knead it a bit. Scale off the dough and make little balls for your buns. Lay them out on your baking tray and put them in an oven that been tuned on for 2 or 3 mins (just enough to get luke warm) and put a tray of hot water in the bottom. You want a nice humid oven, you don't wan't the buns to get an elephant skin on them. Let them rise twice in volume again. pull them out an turn your oven on to a good hot temperature, then when its hot, cook your buns. You'll know they are done, when you tap them and they sound hollow... let us know how you get on!

You need the sugar and water to be in the correct ratio, ie equal parts. Get yourself a thermometer. You need to get the jam to 104 degrees C (220 F) for the sugar to react with the pectin and set. You can also try some of the numerous set tests. Here is a trusted (old) Marmalade Recipe (scale to suit) 4 Large Oranges 2 Lemons 12 Breakfast cups Sugar 12 Breakfast cups water one Breakfast cup = 284 milliliters Slice the fruit finely, removing and keeping the pips. Put the sliced fruit in a large basin and cover with the water, tie the pips in a muslin bag and put them in with the fruit. Soak overnight Put the fruit and water in a large pan and bring it to the boil for 20 mins, remove the pips at this point. and add the sugar. Bring the mix back to the boil and boil until it will set when tested. Remove from heat. Bottle. enjoy, and good luck, jam making is a joy! from a google search on jam setting tests (I am lazy ) Jam “set” or “setting point”: Getting the right set can be tricky. I have tried using a jam thermometer but find it easier to use the following method. Before you start to make the jam, put a couple of plates in the fridge so that the warm jam can be drizzled onto a cold plate (when we make jam we often forget to return the plate to the fridge between tests, using two plates means that you have a spare cold plate). Return the plate to the fridge to cool for approx two minutes. It has set when you run your finger through it and leave a crinkly track mark. If after two minutes the cooled jam is too liquid, continue to boil the jam, testing it every few minutes until you have the right set.

A variation of Eaton Mess perhaps?

I think part of it may be your gender, and part of it that your new there. They don't know just how skilled you are yet. In time they will see you can hold your own and back off. 2c

As a child we used to spend the day on the beach harvesting pipis (small flat shellfish) and cockles as my father dived for mussels, scallops and if we were lucky, crayfish. When our shadows grew long a fire would be started and an old sheet of corrugated would be suspended on rocks over the embers where we put our days labor and gingerly picked off the tasty morsels as their shells opened. The crayfish would be gently cooked in an old pot half buried in the embers at the edge of the fire. Mum and dad ate the tails between chunks of soft white Sunday Bread*. Us kids would crack and much on the tender innards of the legs. The last thing I remember on those days was climbing into the car for the drive home, next thing I knew it was time to wake up to go to school. *Sunday bread was a quick loaf made by the small bakeries while they got ready for the next working week.

New Zealand egg sizes. Pullet: Grade 4, Net Weight 35-44g. Average Weight at least 420g per Doz Medium: Grade 5, Net Weight 44-53g. Average Weight at least 528g per Doz Standard: Grade 6, Net Weight 53-62g. Average Weight at least 636g per Doz Large: Grade 7, Net Weight 62-71g. Average Weight at least 744g per Doz Jumbo: Grade - Net Weight 71g Minimum. Average Weight at least 852g per Doz From "The New Zealand Chef" Pearson Publishing 2006