curls

Wonderful crumpets made from the King Arthur Flour recipe for sourdough discard! Many thanks to @tikidoc for recommending this recipe to me. This was my first time making crumpets and hopefully I'll get to make these many more times. Served them with Vermont cultured salted butter and strawberry jam.

Dinner from a few nights ago... chicken & rice from Deep Run Roots and a salad.

Joining in on the sourdough starter bread making. Got a lovely starter from @tikidoc and am working on creating one from scratch via a combination of tiny sourdough stater methods. First loaf from tikidoc's starter, tastes delicious, probably needed to take a bit more time to strengthen the starter (my guess at my oven spring issue). Baked in a Lodge Dutch Oven. Links to some of the tiny sourdough projects & use of cold starter for bread baking: https://wordloaf.substack.com/p/quarantinystarter-project-master https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2020/04/06/dont-be-a-bread-hostage https://forums.egullet.org/topic/27634-sourdough-bread/ https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/guides/sourdough https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2018/10/30/maintaining-a-smaller-sourdough-starter https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/2268-make-your-own-mini-sourdough-starter-with-the-quarantinystarter-project

Those bialies look perfect! Would you mind sharing your recipe?

Used some of my precious flour supply to try making the Grandma's French Bread from the Sister's Cafe that @Shelby has posted about a few times. While the bread is quite tasty, I am definitely way out of practice for making bread. Not the prettiest of loaves but the first bread I have baked in my CSO. separating the blobs crumb shot followed by sampling with a nice bit of lightly salted butter

Indefinitely. How does it smell?

Perhaps April 13? Please don’t make me re-live March. 🙂

Another solution for keeping sugar work warm is to use an electric griddle or food warming tray (you can often find these at thrift / goodwill stores). Even better if you use it in conjunction with a silpat. Examples of warming devices: https://www.target.com/p/presto-22-34-griddle-w-removable-legs-07061/-/A-14332099, https://www.walmart.com/ip/Chefman-Electric-Warming-Tray-Chafing-Dish-with-Adjustable-Temperature-Control-Compact-15x12-Inch-Glass-Top-Surface-Black/604850575?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227257488219&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=306827537235&wl4=pla-553069213348&wl5=9007564&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=604850575&veh=sem&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoKyf69fg6AIVDbLICh1QUAxkEAQYAiABEgLnrfD_BwE

@Shelby I'm thinking about baking one (or both) of these recipes in the CSO... does the full batch fit in the CSO? Do you still use these recipes? What size loaf pans do you use for the Walter Sands' Basic White Bread? Any further hints, tips, modifications for these or other bread recipes to try in the CSO? Sorry for all the questions!!!

Gorgeous work @minas6907! Congratulations on re-creating the halva of your childhood!

The bread looks delicious! Would you mind sharing your recipe?

Maybe the packaging weighs a lot and when it is unboxed you can find a way to move it. Perhaps some of your coworkers could help... maybe give them some Rancho Gordo beans. Hope you can make this work out.

@teonzo great idea to use Paragons instead of melters. Do you have any ideas for making inexpensive enrobing units?

Valid point Jim D. I have several melters of different capacities. They work great for having several kilos of chocolate ready for use. After using a 2 quart Pyrex measuring bowl and the seed method of tempering, I progressed to my first melter (still using the seed method). Melters are a lot cheaper than the Rev machines and I find it easier to empty chocolate moulds into a melter than a tempering unit like the Rev where you have to watch out for the machine parts that are dividing the bowl. A few melters and an EZ temper are my current setup — works great for me. Occasionally I yearn for an enrobing line but I’d need a lot more customers and wholesale accounts before that would make financial sense. I also think you get a better feel for each chocolates characteristics when you learn how to work with them without machinery.

If it is the same one I’ve seen, don’t get it. You don’t need the tempering machine since you own an EZ temper and the enrobing belt that comes with the Rev is super tiny. When you need an enrober, some of the folks here can steer you to the good units. My vote is for the 60 quart Hobart.

Ditto. I’ve already decided it would not make sense for me to do Easter production. My Easter chocolates are different moulds and flavors than what I make the rest of the year so it doesn’t make sense to make them & try to store them for a year. When we come out of this thing I’ll consider making some celebratory chocolates & confections. Thanks for the reminder to notify my customers! Meant to do that but dealing with life has gotten in the way.

They look quite yummy. Would it be possible to build more of it in your flexi mold and pipe the chocolate base in prior to adding the marshmallow? Then you would have a solid chocolate base that might make dipping the piece easier. If you could coat the sides of the mold with chocolate too then you’d only have to deal with adding chocolate to the top.

Gorgeous tiles!

Wanted to order seeds for my garden and the local seed exchange has been so overwhelmed with orders that they are steering customers to out of state seed exchanges until they catch up on their backlog of orders! Was able to order seed from West Virginia and New York.

It doesn’t take much melt to glue the egg halves together. I try to attach them as soon as the halves start to melt.

@jedovaty I can help take those off your hands. Wouldn’t want you to have to deal with an imperfect batch. 😉

My favorite chicken wings are smoke grilled on the Kamado, then tossed in some margarine, hot sauce, and spices, put back on the grill for about 5 minutes to crisp the skin a bit. Served with celery & blue cheese dressing or a salad.

I use this IKEA lid holder https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/variera-pot-lid-organizer-stainless-steel-70154800/

@ElsieD so glad that you made them and enjoyed them. Looks like they came out perfect! Now I'm inspired to tried the Welsh rarebit version too!

No batter left, the 1 egg recipe fills an 8 ounce ramekin. I’ll make a fresh batch of batter for tonight’s dinner. I used the following recipe from Food 52 and omitted all the Welsh rarebit ingredients https://food52.com/recipes/78354-welsh-rarebit-yorkshire-pudding-for-one. Also baked at 400 F (vs. the recipe’s 450 F).