JoNorvelleWalker

All is not well with my French Lean Bread experiments. The last loaf I should have pitched. I tried making a half recipe -- 500g. I couldn't get the dough to mix. Only now I realize critical information was omitted from the Modernist Bread eGullet preview recipe. If one is using a planetary stand mixer with an 8 quart bowl you are supposed to scale up the recipe. One kg of dough won't mix properly, let alone 500 g. I switched to my mixer's 5 quart bowl as suggested but that didn't help at all. I even tried the paddle rather than the dough hook. Vacuum mixing the dough just made a mess. In an attempt to compensate I used a two and a half hour bulk fermentation with additional folds. The loaf still didn't bake properly. The bread came out of the oven with a shatteringly crisp crust. But when I cut into the loaf an hour and fifteen minutes later the crust was flaccid and the crumb was still warm. I confess I am more used to my baguettes mixed in the Zojirushi. I have a 1.5 x poolish going as we speak. We shall see. Even if scaling up the recipe is the solution it doesn't solve the problem that I am one small* person who can't eat kilograms of bread a week. I feel a bit betrayed. *OK, medium sized.

Forgive me, I only just realized this was a question...as I recall I proofed for an hour and fifteen minutes at room temperature. The CSO manual suggests steam proofing dough at 100 deg F. for 30 minutes.

Kerry, in the oven picture above, what is the dough resting on? When I bake loaves in the CSO I use a thin sheet of Teflon.

I made another batch of yeast raised batter, but this time charged it in the iSi. Even better results and much easier to dispense. The cooking time had to be reduced to four minutes. Served with breakfast sausage.

From The Taste of Bread, Color Plate 11: "Bubbles on the crust, a result of retarding whole loaves at refrigeration temperatures, are well received in North America. In France bubbles are considered a defect." Modernist bread (4--11) quotes Steven Kaplan: "It looks like it has eczema."

...Contemplates shifting volume of Johnathan Swift over to the cookbook pile.

When one is baking with steam is it really necessary to cover a dish with foil?

Raymond Calvel objects to potassium bromate use on the grounds that "...the gustatory properties of the flour are profoundly changed for the worse, and the taste greatly diminished." The Taste of Bread p18.

I had to contact amazon tonight about a broken piece of culinary apparatus. The representative told me they were doing a system upgrade but she would call me back in two hours. Well it was well more than two hours but she faithfully called me back. When she asked if there was anything else she could help me with I explained I was an old woman without a vehicle who depended on amazon fresh and I asked her to pass my feedback to the executive that discontinued it. She said she would pass my comments to her supervisor. She also said I could keep the damaged strainer. (Though I'm still wondering who in their right mind would pack and ship a mesh strainer in a paper envelope?) My son's family uses Blue Apron. Who am I to judge?

I have no specific experience but a few minutes of steam bake circa 350-375 F. works for reheating bread or just about anything. Steam is your friend.

I am a US Prime member and one can always use another ramen book.

I have to ask...what is "0% RS"?

Welcome, Greg. You might be interested in this thread: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/149448-buying-japanese-knives-online/

Not for Bugialli's recipe.

Pizza Margherita for dinner three of the last four nights. Two, including tonight's, were excellent, one was not that great. I think I now have the parameters dialed in. Of course I am certain I can still do better.

"Autolyse" grates my nerves used as a noun. My bread undergoes autolysis.

If it helps, according to MB (but not Wikipedia) Ho Chi Minh used to be a baker at the Parker House Hotel.

The Fine Art of Italian Cooking: The Classic Cookbook, Updated & Expanded

Leslie, MB calls for adding yeast before the autolysis.

I confess I had to google them...Eat Your Books found me a recipe.

I am sick of bread.

Last night's pizza... Details here: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/155779-modernist-bread-french-lean-bread-mb-contest-topic-1/?do=findComment&comment=2128281

I can't top @Duvel but I too made some of my leftover MB dough into pizza, pizza Margherita, baked on my new DeLonghi... Best pizza this old thing has made. I detest fried pan pizza. Detest I say, Kenji notwithstanding. I couldn't quite achieve char on the upper crust but I got brown spots, and not a few black ones on the bottom! Brings back primordial post war memories -- my first pizza, the most wonderful slightly underdone pizza on the Seaside boardwalk. Back when basil did not exist. Back when one wasn't sure the Neapolitans were friends or foes, the sunken tanker could still be seen off shore, the arcades featured storm troopers, U-boats, and little yellow men in aeroplanes. And if history is to be believed not a few of the patrons a few years before had been U-boat crews on R&R.

Do you dine at many music festivals?* Whilst standing outdoors? How 'bout sitting in the mud. *not counting Glyndebourne.

Hadn't made waffles here for many a long year. But since now I can...last night I mixed up a batch, technically half a batch, of Marion Cunningham's ubiquitous yeast raised waffles, this version from The Cake Bible p105*. From perusing this thread it seems most folks retard Marion's batter overnight in the refrigerator. In contrast Beranbaum instructs: "Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature." Is there any point to refrigeration? Note I did make a change to Beranbaum's recipe beyond cutting quantities in half. I used instant yeast and substituted additional whole milk for the water. Here is the result: First waffle from first batch of new recipe on a new, untested machine. No oil or butter necessary. My standard waffle recipe of longstanding has been the sour cream waffle recipe from Joy of Cooking. Both have nice flavor. The yeast raised waffle is easier. One bowl! And has better texture. Of course the yeast raised recipe requires more elapsed time, yet far less preparation time. Anyhow, every waffle was picture worthy. I lost count of how many waffles I actually ate, but I listened to the Hammer Klavier sonata three times. *credit to Eat Your Books.