[Have you noticed a change in King Arthur all purpose flour?]

1 hour ago, Chris Hennes said:

I have not had any changes in mine, but I buy in the 50# bags, which I think are probably less likely to be affected by the current supply issues. I also use the organic stuff, which again is probably less affected.

Chris, how do you store your flour?

[New Toy: Breville/Polyscience Control Freak!]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

What is a GN pan?

A GN pan is a Gastronorm pan... more info on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastronorm

 

The US version is usually called a hotel pan and the standard sizes are in inches (vs. Gastronorm pan are sized in mm). https://www.webstaurantstore.com/52489/stainless-steel-steam-table-pans-and-hotel-pans.html

 

[Salad Books]

5 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

I know from the discussion around rotuts' comment that I'm not the only one to have purchased a copy recently. Has anyone else used it yet?

Haven’t made anything yet from this book but have it on the kitchen table... need to start thumbing thru and picking out some recipes.

[Cuisinart Combo Steam/Convection Oven (Part 3)]

1 hour ago, Okanagancook said:

Hi @curls I am just updating the CSO Spreadsheet and wanted to add your Yorkies.  The Food52 recipe calls for baking at 450F for 20 minutes.  Do you happen to remember what you baked these at?  Possibly Convection Bake at 425F for 20 minutes???

Thanks.

Okanagancook, I checked my notes and apparently I cooked them at 400° F for 20 minutes on convention bake. Wow, I had forgotten that I made these!

[Dinner 2020]

@Kim Shook your meals look great. Sorry to hear Mr. Kim’s family is not doing well. Wishing them all the best.

[Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )]

@RWood thank you very much for the explanation and the progression of photos. It is great to see how you went about making this cake! I did not even know that such substructures were available for purchase. I'll be checking out the Innovative Sugarworks videos that you mentioned. Doubt I'll ever make something like that but I'd love to learn more about how it is done.

[Sourdough Discard recipes, bakes, and cooks]

Another nice sourdough discard recipe from King Arthur Flour, this one for pizza. Crust was browner than it appears in this photo. https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-pizza-crust-recipe

 

[Instant Pot. Multi-function cooker (Part 5)]

Lentils & sausage from Melissa Clark's "Dinner in an Instant". Not the most beautiful plate but it was quite tasty.

[The Bread Topic (2016–)]

Sourdough bread with walnuts, dried cherries, and dried cranberries baked in the CSO using the bread setting. I liked the inclusions but did not know how many to include -- will increase the amount next time I bake this loaf.

 

 

 

[Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )]

@RWood that dino cake is amazing!!! How did you go about designing it and figuring out how to make it stand without toppling?

 

Now, I'm going to post a pic of some brownies that I made... decided to make them in tartlet pans so they were a bit dainty and easy to nibble on. Tasty but not the WOW of a dino cake!!!

[Can a food processor slicing blade be used for]

30 minutes ago, pastryani said:

Thanks I’ll check it out.  Btw, What else can a vegetarian use a deli slicer for besides cookie dough and bread? 😃

Cheese, vegetable slicing (zucchini, eggplant, potatoes, etc).

 

I would also be concerned about the safety issues of attempting to slice a frozen log of dough.

[Cuisinart Combo Steam/Convection Oven (Part 3)]

Got some stones for my CSO and tried baking one of the bread recipes in the CSO manual. Lessons learned:

- only use one stone so that the bread has more room to expand

- preheat the stone before baking. If you don't preheat the stone, it keeps the bottom of the loaf from baking as quickly at the rest of the loaf.

- deploy a foil shield to keep the top of the bread from burning

- if you turn a loaf of bread upside down to bake the bottom of the loaf it may cause the loaf to collapse

- even if it isn't pretty it will probably taste good

 

I'm looking forward to trying this recipe again but with a few tweaks. Nice soft and tasty loaf of bread. Looking forward to baking this one again when the tomatoes are in season.

 

 

[ideas for easy, large sugar sculpture]

@pastrygirl looking forward to seeing your artwork!

[ideas for easy, large sugar sculpture]

Looks cool! I just checked Notter’s recipe for casting sugar and these are his ingredients for a 1,650 gram batch:

sugar 1000 grams

water, cold 450 grams

glucose syrup 200 grams

food coloring optional

 

he heats the mix to 320 F / 160 C

 

I recommend browsing thru Notter’s  “The Art of the Confectioner” for inspiration — he has a whole chapter on sugar casting.

[Chocolate Tempering Equipment for Casual or Beginning Hobbyists]

1 hour ago, drbrenner said:

Hi,

Medium experience - not for enrobing but for molded bonbons - I have been doing MW & bowl and tempering w/Mycryo.

Need to maintain a tempered state.

 

Thx

Then I would recommend the 6 kg mol d’art or the Bakon MTD 123 mini. If you can find then in the used market, even better.

https://www.heritageparts.com/medias/BKN0007.pdf?context=bWFzdGVyfHBkZi1tYW51YWxzfDUyNTYzNnxhcHBsaWNhdGlvbi9wZGZ8cGRmLW1hbnVhbHMvaGQyL2gwZS84OTUwNDkyMzY0ODMwLnBkZnxkZGY5N2Q2NDA2Y2I3Y2U4Zjg0NjA4OWU0MGE4ODdjY2FmODAxYzU1YzgyYWM3Y2E5YjJlMzMxZjczNTYwN2M2
 

Hopefully a few more folks will chime in. Have fun with your chocolate making!

[ideas for easy, large sugar sculpture]

Sounds like a very challenging weather situation! Does your display have to be chocolate or sugar? Does it have to be edible? I’m thinking gingerbread for edible or some sturdy non-edible constructed thing that is decorated with images of your chocolates and pastries.

[Chocolate Tempering Equipment for Casual or Beginning Hobbyists]

@drbrenner please tell us a little bit more about your chocolate making plans. How much experience do you have? How many chocolates would you like to make in a day? What sort of chocolate will you be using (dark, milk, white)? Are you hand dipping, molding, enrobing? The more details you can provide the better chance that someone can provide some helpful suggestions.

 

If your just starting out I don’t think you need any of the suggested options... just a bowl and a microwave or melted chocolate and a slab of marble. Please let us know more about what you do and what you want to do with chocolate.

[Dinner 2020]

On 5/27/2020 at 7:33 PM, liamsaunt said:

 

I am very sorry for the loss of your Mom.  These are strange times, not being able to be there for loved ones at the end.  My husband and I went through the same with his Dad recently.  Like you, no services scheduled as of now. 

liamsaunt and @Kim Shook my condolences to you and your families. 

[Pizza Toppings: Simple/Elaborate, Traditional/Unusual]

Interesting set of experiments for the Cacio e Pepe pizzas. Thanks for documenting this @Chris Hennes.

[Behold My Butt! (2007– )]

@rotuts keep your eye out for your commission check. I just ordered a used copy of Lettuce in Your Kitchen: Flavorful And Unexpected Main-Dish Salads And Dressings.  Thanks for the recommendation!

[How much to feed a 2 oz sourdough starter?]

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

The wheel can only be reinvented so many times..

 

My guess is the issues Janjigian is dealing with have to do with how many ways can Cook’s Illustrated monetize the issue. 

Indeed that is what I would think too but so far CI is providing his sourdough content for free and without website registration. They probably just wanted more website clicks.

[How much to feed a 2 oz sourdough starter?]

@weinoo thank you for linking to this older sourdough topic. When I thought about trying to make sourdough bread I found the eGullet sourdough bread course but I did not find the content you just linked too. Happily going down that rabbit hole of a topic!

 

The Cooks Illustrated author, Andrew Janjigian, wrote about moving from an equal parts refreshments to another ratio (1 part starter:2 parts flour:2 parts water) once your starter was active on his quarantiny starter blog. Sadly the content on his blog and in his instagram posts was pulled (suspect he is dealing with some legal issues with CI). Very interesting to read about the eGullet recommended refreshment ratios from the 2009 topic that you linked to.

 

In case anyone else would like to access go down a rabbit hole the eGullet courses (they can be difficult to find). Here are a few links:

 

[The Bread Topic (2016–)]

Another week, another loaf of sourdough. This was last week's loaf... tweaked the previous recipe by adding some whole wheat flour and upped the hydration from 72% to 74%. Will not be making a loaf this week... have a bit of bread in the freezer that I want to start using up.

 

[The Bread Topic (2016–)]

1 hour ago, Hassouni said:

Does adding commercial yeast to sourdough change the fermentation byproducts for which sourdough is so touted?

Interesting question. My guess is that it would just give your bread extra lift and may mellow out the sourdough flavor just a tad. Would be an interesting experiment... bake two loaves (one with sourdough & yeast / one with just sourdough).  If you like, I can mail you some commercial yeast.

[Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )]

 

My standard fudgy brownie recipe -- using Valrhona unsweetened chocolate. Not as rich or dense as the Paul Young brownie recipe but still very rich and chocolatey.