I made hamburger and hotdog buns over the weekend, and thought I'd share my results. I used a soft, enriched, whole wheat sandwich bread recipe that has milk, egg, oil and a little honey. The formula is fairly ordinary for soft, fluffy bread, but the baking pan deserves a mention, so I thought I would post about it here. I actually have a hamburger bun pan, even if it always seems to be my last choice. When I'm making a full batch of 12 buns, I reach for a half-sheet pan. It's the perfect size for the buns to grow into each other just a little and support each other in the oven.

But this time, I wanted to use half the dough for hotdog buns, so I got out the hamburger bun pan, which makes six at a time. Then I spied the muffin top pan that I added to my bakeware collection not too long ago. Surprisingly, the wells are exactly the same 3 1/2 inces in diameter as the bun pan. I like the shape better, and the pan has a non-stick finish with no seams for easier clean-up. So, I gave it a test run. I may never use the hamburger bun pan again. The muffin top pan is my pick for a small batch of burger buns :-)

Hello everyone!

My oven is no longer heating above 350F so I'm trying to get another one...

I found a second hand "miele classic" oven (I don't know the model number) for a good price, BUT it is 7 years old.

Is 7 years is a long time for an oven? As far as I understand Miele is one of the best home oven makers, but maybe 7 years is a bit too much?

I was baking in my mother in law Miele oven and it was great... but maybe becuase it wasn't 7 years old?

Does someone has an experience with that?

Thanks a lot!

Menny

I just got back from a quick trip to Northern California (Sacramento), where I picked up one of those dual perforated french bread pans, made by Chicago Metallic. Anyway, I've got a dough rising and I thought I would try the pan out this afternoon.

Here's my question: usually, I bake my loaves on a preheated baking stone; do I use the stone with the pan, or just put the pan in the oven on an oven rack? The only directions that came with the pan say to reduce the heat 25F less than a recipe calls for (I'm assuming to avoid burning the bottom of the loaf). I usually preheat at 500 and then reduce the heat to 450 five minutes after I put the bread in the oven. I guess I'll reduce the heat to 425, then.

Thoughts, anyone? Thanks.

Ken

My wife got up this morning and decided it was Father's Day 'weekend', so she started making her Krusteaz Belgians with strawberries and whipped cream. She awoke me, very upset that 'something had happened' to the waffle iron. It's one of the Belgian irons that is on a stand and flips upside down. Apparently she blew a breaker trying to run the coffee maker and the iron at the same time, and now the iron was clogged with this absolutely gooey/sticky/warm/moist Ghostbusters ooze. I sighed, unplugged the iron to let it cool down a bit, then started cleaning it. Since this was the first waffle, there was also a coating of veg oil... I threw everything at it that wouldn't harm the teflon coating. I thought I got it VERY clean, but each time it dried, there was this light-gray 'film' in several spots, so I would re-wash. Finally satisfied, we let it air dry about 15 mins and plugged it back in. Once up to baking temp, I oiled it and poured the first waffle. When it was ready, I carefully lifted the iron, but it was sticking fairly bad again. Using the ol' fork trick, we got the waffle out fairly intact. It was good. I poured the second waffle. When it was done, I carefully lifted the iron, and this one was REALLY stuck. The fork trick failed, and it came out in about 20 pieces, but edible. We gave up at that point and just ate what we had. She was very sad...

This iron has served us well for about 4 years now, and I've never -ever- experienced a waffle stuck this bad. The iron is in a box, still completely fouled up from the last waffle remnants, waiting for me to form some sort of plan of attack here... Is there any way I can recover this griddle to its non-stick glory...? I've always stayed away from commercial sprays (our last iron was ruined by them), and using just a bit of veg oil for each first waffle has always left this waffle iron truly non-stick for the entire batch. In fact, this iron still looks almost brand new. Suggestions greatly appreciated! Please help save the waffle iron! ; D

- Keith

I'm excited by the 15" x 20" baking stone at fantes.com, it is slightly larger than mine and I've broken this one in half, so it's time to replace. However my peel is not nearly as wide as my stone already. I like to bake baguettes that are as long as the stone is wide and I've resorted to widening my peel with cardboard to accomodate the additonal width of the stone relative to the peel.  That works OK, but the packing tape that secures the cardboard tends to curl with the heat and it's all kind of ooky.  Anybody have any tips on finding a 20" wide peel?  I'm thinking of maybe creating something with sheet metal...  Thanks,

:-Paul

I've run across a way that allows me better accuracy when weighing light ingredients, such as salt, yeast, etc.

Simply put, it seems that my scale has a range where it is more accurate, so I weigh out my flour, then weigh out my light ingredients on top of the flour. I do this by placing a sheet of paper towel on top of the flour, then add my little condiment bowl on top of the towel. I take a reading, then add however many grams of salt I need, for example. Then I pour the salt into the condiment bowl until I get what I need. My scale seems much more responsive while it is already weighing something that's medium heavy. I used to weigh my flour last, but now I weigh it first. Then I weigh the smaller items on top, remove the flour bowl and move on to the liquids.

I got this from the fact that I noticed when I weigh my water, then add things like sugar, butter or oils, it seemed much more responsive/accurate. It works just as well with the dry ingredients, just keeping them seperated by condiment cups.

Your mileage may vary, of course... but if your scale seems rather quirky when you need 5 grams of something and you're starting from 0 (Tare feature), try putting something around 200 grams on the scale, then a small container on that, then weigh out your 5 grams. It might just work better for you, as it did for me. Last 3 or 4 baking sessions, I have not gotten the Tsp set out of cupboard at all. I like that! : D

I still intend to get a higher resolution scale for light ingredients, and am surfing around trying to find the best value for what I need. If anyone has some experience with a particular brand/model, either positive or negative, please let me know.

- Keith

We don't eat hot dogs very frequently, but with the 4th of July coming up I was thinking about making some buns. I noticed that King Arthur sells a hot dog bun pan. It is kind of pricey but could be used for lobster rolls too (I guess we eat those even less frequently than hot dogs!). Does anyone have any experience with this pan?

--Pamela

I've been hand baking in the UK for about 8 months now and although I've had fun with some of the more "artisan" breads, my basic recipe is still the one from the back of a microlised yeast packet!

Just a few questions, if I may...

1. Do you use microlised yeast in the US? I still find it better, if I have the time, to do a second proving when using the microlised yeast, would you agree?

3. Washing up!..... Dough clogs up sponges, scouring pads, brushes cloths horribly. I end up just using my fingers to get it off my bowls, spoons and scrapers, which takes ages. Any tips?

4. Non-stick loaf pans....
Although I am buying reasonably expensive ones and not scratching them with metal utensils, I'm finding the non-stick coating KEEPS coming off, onto the sides of the loaf! (which certainly wouldn't be heathy if I didn't laboriously scrape it off again!). Have I just been unlucky with my purchases so far?

5. Silicon loaf tins... Are they any good? They all look too shallow to me.

Hi

I just thought I'd see if anyone else here has ever tried this?

http://doodlebread.com

I'm just wondering, since it looks like quite a good idea as I'm always trying to think of things to do with my son...

Imagine my surprise during my morning walk to see a portable pizza oven parked on a street in my neighborhood!

http://portablebrickpizzaoven.com/

Susan from San Diego