all of my baking is done with the exception of some rolls for tomorow's breakfast which i will do starting at 4 am along with some fresh danish and puff pastry

this is a picture post and once again if you are in my neck of the woods come on in and sit a spell

the whole 6 foot table

MERRY CHRISTMAS ,GOOD  HANUKAH AND HAPPY HELTHY NEW YEAR TO ALL

IT HAS BEEN MY PLEASURE AND AND AN HONOR TO BE A MEMBER HERE AND I HOPE TO ONE DAY MEET SOME OF YOU IN PERSON

rathar that scater this all over the board i will post all holiday bakinmg pics here and some of the formulas that were used

the picks first and i will edit in the formulas when i have time this is only the start and have many more days of baking left

please do not "reply" to any ot the posts with pictures . that wat i can go back when i have time and edit  in the formulas just add a post at the end of this blog page thanks

White pan bread YES that is my scale in the backround (i have been baking for a long time)

Panatone

i should say that these are all the same wieght but the tall one was in a 6 inch pan and the others were in 7 inch pans  they did not collaps i realy neet to get more 6 inch round forms. no excuse for me not having them.

Checker board Cake

Pound cake

Just got back from the suppler.

picked up everything but the shortening dam i forgot it ill get it in a week or so i do have enough on hand to het stared for the holidays

just so it was not a lost day i made these

 i made a video showing the way to shape  but it did not come out well i will edit it and post it i guess to you tube and link to it latter.

when you see the vid note thst the thumb does not move or come out of the roll untill the last fold. about 1/3 to 1/2 of the dough is folded over the thumb. you will also see that each bloomed in the oven and is  not atached to the other folds. by the look you can tell the roll is hand shapped and not cut or stamped. rye flour helps this with out it the roll will look like the shape is cut into the dough rather than formed.

With Christmas and Thanksgiving right around the corner I thought I would start this blog to let everybody on this site know what an old retired Baker with over 25 years experience in the baking industry does for the holidays.  Well this year I'm going to do pretty much the same thing that I do every year which is come out of retirement.  Even though there are only three people in the house my wife my son and myself my home turns into a small commercial bakery.  I literally produce enough products to feed my entire apartment building.  Being that you can only produce so much product in a home kitchen at one time a production schedule is required and must be kept to.  This is where my experience in professional bakery comes in handy.

While much of the actual baking does not start until the middle of November many things can be prepared in advance and frozen for extended periods of time such as puff pastry pie crust and Danish pastry.  The first step is in obtaining the raw materials. I have planned my  trip to bakery supply house to purchase: 50 pound bags of different flous, fresh yeast, macaroon paste and several other ingredients not available in regular supermarkets.  My shopping list is as follows
one bag king Arthur special patent flour,
one bag all trumps high gluten flour,
one bag pure as snow cake flour,
one to pound block fresh yeast,
one 50 pound cube BBS, [Baker's special shortening],
one cube HiMo Shortening (a special high water and sugar holding shortening that will emulsify rather than curdle)
one 11 pound bar choc coating
and 1 quart egg shade. 
Some of the materials such as macaroon coconut that I need in very small quantities will be ordered by mail order even though it means I need to pay a lot for these few items I just don't have the room to store a 50 pound bag of coconut.  When all is said and done by Christmas Eve I will have produced between 40 and 50 pounds of assorted cookies along with cakes and pastries and Breads.

As I began preparations in my little home bakery I will update this so all that are interested can follow along with the calendar what is made and when

Nov 13 tomorow is starting day

puff pastry dough and pie crust for the frezer and if i have time maybe il do the cheese filling.