Food

[Dan R]

I live in a near desert, a really cold one, but nearly a desert nonetheless. I have a very large stainless steel bowl that fits snugly on my pizza stone. I put that over the loaf while baking. This uses the moisture coming off the loaf as the steam. I have noticed a significant improvement in oven spring, so the texture and structure of the crumb is better, as well as a thinner, crispier crust that easily shatters when cooling. But, as I said, I live in a ridiculously dry climate.

I admit, every single time a loaf of bread comes out of the oven and it starts snapping and crackling at me I am overcome with delight.

I am wondering as well if it is the recipe. The idea is to mix bread, enough water, flour, salt, and yeast to get an almost non sticky dough. No real kneading. You then refrigerate it after one rise. Each day, you cut off what you want, let it rise, then bake it. It can last up to two weeks if you are making rolls as opposed to loafs. Once I got the flour dialed in, it was almost not sticky to work with and the crumb and texture are perfect or close to it. The crust is not soft, but then again, there is no snap or crackle.

Oh well, it tastes well and with a little butter, the dinners are made even better!

[Henry Krinkle]

I am wondering as well if it is the recipe. The idea is to mix bread, enough water, flour, salt, and yeast to get an almost non sticky dough. No real kneading. You then refrigerate it after one rise. Each day, you cut off what you want, let it rise, then bake it. It can last up to two weeks if you are making rolls as opposed to loafs. Once I got the flour dialed in, it was almost not sticky to work with and the crumb and texture are perfect or close to it. The crust is not soft, but then again, there is no snap or crackle.

Oh well, it tastes well and with a little butter, the dinners are made even better!

It sounds like we are doing something very similar. The big difference might be ambient humidity. I think it's a lot harder to locally remove humidity, which is probably what you need, than it is to locally add humidity, which I definitely need to do.

I do have crispy and crackly down.

Cut the roof of yoru mouth crispy and paper thin



As crackly as a real French loaf



An sourdough experiment in mid crackle. The crust can continue cracking for up to an hour.

[Dan R]

It sounds like we are doing something very similar. The big difference might be ambient humidity. I think it's a lot harder to locally remove humidity, which is probably what you need, than it is to locally add humidity, which I definitely need to do.

I do have crispy and crackly down.

Cut the roof of yoru mouth crispy and paper thin



As crackly as a real French loaf



An sourdough experiment in mid crackle. The crust can continue cracking for up to an hour.

You could be right. I do not get a crust that looks anything like that. I also do not get as distinctive slash marks as well. Then again, it is bread and it is flavorful enough that I would keep coming back for more! And in the final analysis, that is what counts, no?

[Henry Krinkle]

You could be right. I do not get a crust that looks anything like that. I also do not get as distinctive slash marks as well. Then again, it is bread and it is flavorful enough that I would keep coming back for more! And in the final analysis, that is what counts, no?

Always and forever.

[boatme99]

Creamed eggs with cheddar cheese, jalapeno cheddar potato cakes, and bacon to start off the weekend.

[Henry Krinkle]

Vegetarian pancit on the way. Made the toyomansi with limes since I didn't have any calamansas on hand.

[boatme99]

This morning I made some blackberry orange pancakes for breakfast. The berries (frozen) were so big, I had to cut them in 3rds!
Usually with frozen berries I have to add a bit of sugar but this bag was sweet enough to use without it.

[geoffbot]

[skywatch]

Apologies to Geoff for the meat content. I could also have placed this in the "what did you buy" thread. About a week ago I took delivery on a new smoker because my old one had rusted out under the fire box. Today is my first test, simply some boneless chicken breasts to test out the heat and smokiness. Ready to remove from the can just after I post these photos.

[OhDark30]

An old student fave of mine for lunch, banana and beansprout on pitta bread
The cool crunchiness of the sprouts contrasting with the sweet goo of the slightly mashed bananas - yum!