A good day

[Copper]

Pretty picture

The house must smell great

[brenda]

@Copper said in A good day:

Pretty picture

The house must smell great

That's a bonus on baking day, the aroma of fresh baked breads.

[George K]

@brenda said in A good day:

That's a bonus on baking day, the aroma of fresh baked breads.

Looks wonderful.

When we were selling our house, one realtor said that, before an open house, bake some bread...

[Jolly]

Oatmeal honey?

Mmmmmm...

[brenda]

@George-K said in A good day:

@brenda said in A good day:

That's a bonus on baking day, the aroma of fresh baked breads.

Looks wonderful.

When we were selling our house, one realtor said that, before an open house, bake some bread...

Or cookies. Either one works.

[brenda]

@Jolly said in A good day:

Oatmeal honey?

Mmmmmm...

Yes, this will be great for sandwiches. I just got a turkey breast out of the freezer. We'll have one dinner from it, and the rest will be for sammiches.

[taiwan_girl]

@brenda Yum!!!!!

[Friday]

Those look yummy, Brenda.

Since you're the bread expert.....

My husband starting baking baguettes this summer, and has actually become decent at it. But he can never get the crust as crusty as he would like. I think the crust is fine, but he gets anal about food he prepares. He's tried the skillet with ice trick, and baking hotter/longer. We don't have a Dutch oven that would fit.

Do you have any tips?

Do you have any tips?

[brenda]

@Friday
Friday, has he tried using steam? I have a water squirt bottle that I fill with our RO water just for this purpose. (That means I won't let hubby take it out to the garage for any reason. LOL)

Preheat the oven.
Shape the loaves and put in pans or on baking sheets with parchment.
Open oven and squirt water on the walls and floor of it several times. Close the oven.
Get the loaves ready to go in, if you need to do any last steps. This is when I score the tops of the loaves.
Put the loaves into the hot oven. Squirt the side walls, back wall, and bottom of the oven again, and gently spray the tops of the loaves.
Close the oven. Wait about 15 to 20 seconds. Open the oven again and spray again. Close the oven and let it bake the magic.

[brenda]

Friday, I like the Saint Germain bread lame for scoring the loaves. If your hubby doesn't have one, it makes a great stocking stuffer.

[Aqua Letifer]

Holy crap that's some serious bread.

[brenda]

@Aqua-Letifer said in A good day:

Holy crap that's some serious bread.

Baking day is very serious here. Today I had all three ovens going, including the big gas oven.

If you say that last line fast enough, that's true, too.

[Aqua Letifer]

@brenda said in A good day:

Baking day is very serious here.

Here too! When my wife bakes bread, the batch is... seems to be... 1/14th the volume of yours, but the procedure takes 10 hours. The results are awesome but I don't know how she puts up with the time commitment.

[brenda]

@Jolly said in A good day:

Oatmeal honey?

Mmmmmm...

It's terrific for turkey sammiches, toast, or just about anything. Not really sweet, even though it has the honey in it.

[Aqua Letifer]

@brenda said in A good day:

the big gas oven.
If you say that last line fast enough, that's true, too.

To clean out the fridge, I often make SAS: Spicy Ass Stir-fry.

[brenda]

@Aqua-Letifer said in A good day:

@brenda said in A good day:

the big gas oven.
If you say that last line fast enough, that's true, too.

To clean out the fridge, I often make SAS: Spicy Ass Stir-fry.

LOL I'm stealing that.

[Catseye3]

Nothing interesting to add except wow and a question.

That little wheelie thing the KitchenAid bowl is sitting on in the top pic, what's its story? Was it made by the KitchenAid people specifically to lug around the bowl, or made by somebody else for some other purpose and you stole it to use on Bread Day?

[brenda]

@Catseye3 said in A good day:

Nothing interesting to add except wow and a question.

That little wheelie thing the KitchenAid bowl is sitting on in the top pic, what's its story? Was it made by the KitchenAid people specifically to lug around the bowl, or made by somebody else for some other purpose and you stole it to use on Bread Day?

The mixer and bowl are Hobart products, but I'm not sure what company makes the dollies. It could also be Hobart, because it's intended for use with their bowls. That's its sole purpose in life, to roll around large batches of dough, and it works great.

The bowl dolly works with several sizes of bowls, and this one is a 30-quart bowl. It rolls under the bowl while the bowl is still attached to the mixer. I unlock the bowl and lower it onto the dolly using the mixer's lift mechanism, which pops the bowl off the mixer arms and releases the bowl. After that the bowl can be rolled all around in the kitchen.

For the rise period, I roll it next to the built-in bench that has a hot water radiator below it with a wood screen in front. That's a perfect way to help the dough rise, especially on a cold day.

After that, I roll it to the work area, cut off hunks of dough and weigh each one, adding or subtracting dough to get the right amount for the size of pan in use. When not in use, the dolly lives under one end of the island.

I bought it used on eBay, and it's excellent. Even though it's not a thing of beauty, there's nothing that would work better. I'm lucky to have gotten it. At that time, they were hard to find. I wonder if the current economic situation has put more of them, and the mixers and bowls, on the market.

It would be great to have a second bowl. You've made me curious now, so I'll go see what's available. Thanks for giving me the idea to check!

[Mik]

Beautiful loaves, Brenda. I am sure they are as tasty as they look.

[brenda]

@Mik This was a first run at oatmeal bread. I don't know why I haven't made this before. It's very good. Gonna put this in the rotation.