Jump to content

Chris Hennes

manager
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    10,190

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Chris Hennes

  1. Chris Hennes
    Finally, an action shot of the buns (BBQ pork smoked and then sous vide with a Carolina-style mustard sauce):
  2. Chris Hennes
    I agree, or at least without a preferment. I think it's good that the book includes a few recipes for direct loaves, but it's no surprise that the vast majority of non-enriched loaves involve either preferments or levains (or both!).
  3. Chris Hennes
    Yeah, I didn't read that instruction (in either place... honestly it didn't occur to me to read the instructions for a loaf pan!), I've got the same pans, and I definitely don't have any release problems (or at least I haven't so far).
  4. Chris Hennes
    I just oiled mine with a quick spray from one of those cans. Is this another case where I didn't even notice the instructions to do something different?
  5. Chris Hennes
  6. Chris Hennes
    You need faster heat transfer at the bottom, to be sure, but properly cooking the top typically does require significant radiant heat from above (which you get in a brick oven naturally, but in a normal home oven needs a bit of an assist). I've done the broiler/baking steel method many times with good success. I've also never really been happy with baking stones at normal home oven temperatures, whereas the steel can give very good results... but not without top heating. That said, there's a huge difference between fresh mozzarella and the bricks of "mozzarella" they sell in the stores here in the US, and I find that they need different treatment.
  7. Chris Hennes
    Aha! So maybe my inability to follow simple instructions is not (entirely) to blame! It also sounds like even when it works it's still a questionable idea. I really wanted to make the cinnamon rolls, but I didn't have the right jars on hand. I'm still thinking about whether to order them or not.
  8. Chris Hennes
    Well, I know it's not a great solution for you because it's so heavy, but a baking steel works wonders for pizza and in my opinion gives a much better crust than a stone.
  9. Chris Hennes
    What chocolate inclusion are you using? I've tried a couple, and really loved the one with the Albert Uster Orchid 74% coins.Bonus points for the coins being smaller than normal so they functioned more like normal chocolate chips.
  10. Chris Hennes
    How's the flavor? I don't recall the method for making that one. Is there a preferment?
  11. Chris Hennes
    @Kerry Beal, that looks excellent. Is that a 1kg loaf, or did you scale it? 4x4x13?
  12. Chris Hennes
    Considering that their non-same-day pizza dough calls for a 1-2 day cold proof, I think you're probably pretty safe here.
  13. Chris Hennes
    Always frustrating when that happens! Coordinate a baking schedule is always tricky. Thank goodness dough is so forgiving!
  14. Chris Hennes
    I was thinking that after inflating it you could displace the air with helium, but I don't know how much the balloon itself weighs so I don't know if that will do the job or not.
  15. Chris Hennes
    Are you dedicated to a sweet balloon? Modernist Bread has a recipe in it for "balloon bread" which involves using hot air guns to inflate a high-gluten bread dough.
  16. Chris Hennes
    Apparently I need to work on my reading comprehension. Or maybe just, you know, actually read the instructions completely before plowing ahead. When you don't, things like this happen: Let me go back to the beginning. Obviously, what I'm making here is one of their canned breads: in this case, pizza dough that is canned along with sauce and cheese. Now, the instructions here are clear (in retrospect): they want you to proof the dough in the jars for a specific amount of time, then bake. Well, I made the Neapolitan pizza dough and let it bulk ferment as usual. Then I divided it between the jars: So far so good. Now, the actual pizza dough recipe calls for a 1-2 day cold proof. I'm a fan of flavorful pizza dough, so without paying any attention to the canning instructions (remember: divide, shape, place in the jars, proof for a short time, bake), I went ahead and did a 24-hour proof in the refrigerator. They came out looking like this: Hmm. Not much headroom there. Well, OK, but it's getting punched down a bit when you add the sauce, so here goes: (The sauce is delicious, by the way). Looking OK so far: But the cheese tends to make things look... less OK: And when they were all sealed up: Yeah, headroom is definitely a problem there. And sure enough, this did not work at all. De-jarred: So please, learn from my foolish mistake: follow the proofing instructions they give! (As an aside, the dough was delicious.)
  17. Chris Hennes
    With the company holiday potluck coming up I figured the Chocolate Cherry sourdough would be well-received, so I made three more loaves...
  18. Chris Hennes
    Any reason you don't want to freeze them? That seems to be the Modernist team's go-to storage solution.
  19. Chris Hennes
    @Anna N, did you see the gorgeous photo spread on 2•423 showing the cereal swirls? It's not how the recipe for the cinnamon raisin bread says to do it, but I bet arranging things like they show there would give a lovely finished loaf.
  20. Chris Hennes
    I think that is a problem for sure. But as we ate the loaf I also questioned the end goal of a single layer of filling running through the loaf. I prefer the swirl approach, I think.
  21. Chris Hennes
    Distribution isn’t a problem, though the technique they suggest is almost the opposite of the gentle approach of folding them in! Believe me, when I was done there the inclusions were included! I’ll try to take a video today to show it more clearly.
  22. Chris Hennes
    I'm finally ready to start a rye levain... got this in the mail today:
  23. Chris Hennes
    Ha! It's not even the weekend yet, I'm just getting warmed up! Today's real project was pretzels, in an attempt to get a more even coating. Here's that attempt:
  24. Chris Hennes
    No, I just used the chocolate I had on hand. I didn't have any problems with it, and it's pretty high-quality chocolate (I normally use it to make molded chocolates). Valrhona 100% cocoa powder (natural). Yes.
  25. Chris Hennes
    Chocolate cherry sourdough By popular request (as in, my wife wanted more!) I've made this one again. I tried to be a bit more careful in the handling and shaping and was successful in producing a slightly more attractive loaf than last time. I also used an even darker chocolate (74% instead of 65%) and tart cherries in an attempt to bridge the gap between sweet and savory a bit more. Both changes were very successful, I thought.
×
×
  • Create New...