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Elagins's picture

ITJB Named Finalist for About.com's 2012 Best Jewish Cookbook - Please vote!!!

February 26, 2012 - 3:23pm -- Elagins
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Great news! Just learned that Inside the Jewish Bakery has been named a finalist for About.com's Eastern European Food Best Jewish Cookbook. Please cast your vote for Inside the Jewish Bakery! Voting runs until March 21st. Click here to vote.

Elagins's picture

ITJB Sour Cream Cheesecake and Salt

February 21, 2012 - 9:59am -- Elagins
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hi all,

I just went back to Norm's original bulk formula and recalculated the quantities down to home-baker scale.  In fact, the ingredients and quantities in the book match his formula, so if the quantity of salt is too high, it was too high in the bakeries where he worked also.

However, given that it's obviously a recipe spoiler, I recommend eliminating the salt entirely, and we'll make that change in the next printing.

Stan

loydb's picture
loydb

It's week 8 in the Inside the Jewish Bakery Challenge - Semester 1. This week is Onion Rolls. Sadly, I'll be sitting out the next few dessert-heavy weeks.

Once my confusion over how to deal with the onion mix was clarified (thanks all) this proved to be an easy, fast bake (in terms of actual prep). My notes follow:

  • I used 1 oz of the onion water and 9 oz plain water
  • My egg was almost a full ounce heavier than called for
  • I used 100% milled wheat, a 50/50 mix of hard red and hard white.
  • My cooking time ended up being around 25 minutes.

These are tasty and the outside is crunchy. They aren't overpoweringly onion-y, which I'd been concerned about. I think the flavor would be improved if I make a soaker with the whole wheat next time and let it sit in the fridge overnight prior to adding yeast. I'll make them again for sure.

loydb's picture
loydb

There seems to be some missing information in the Onion Rolls recipe on p. 114.

  • In Step 2, you spread out 1/4 of the onion filling, and push out the discs of dough. This is the last mention made of the onion filling, leaving me with 3/4 of the recipe unused. 
  • In Step 3, do you put them onion-y side up or onion-y side down to proof? 
  • In Step 4, we poke down a hole in the center. Is this when we add the rest of the filling? If so, I assume we leave the onion-y side down during the proof?

Thanks,

Loyd

 

 

loydb's picture
loydb

It's week 6 in the Inside the Jewish Bakery Challenge - Semester 1. This week is Polish Potato Bread.

By procrastinating my bake until the end of the week, I can learn from the experience of those who have their act together and baked earlier! A common theme seemed to be "dough too wet," so I was meticulous about my measuring. The biggest opportunity for adding moisture seems to be during the process of boiling the potatoes. I weighed them prior to boiling, and again after draining, and they had gained a half-ounce. I reduced the potato water in the recipe accordingly.

For the flour, I milled hard red wheat and sifted it to ~80% extraction through a #30 sieve.

As you can see, the dough was still wet, but it wasn’t the batter that some folks have gotten. I was able to more-or-less wrangle it into a shape with well-floured hands.

I would change the following things next time I made it:

First, I would allow the proof to continue until the loaf was higher than the top of the pan. Like many others, I got no oven spring at all. I had gotten such a vigorous rise in the fermentation, I think I could have easily gotten another inch during the proof.

Second, I got burned (almost literally) by putting the pans into the top third of the oven rack. The tops were starting to get really dark at the 40 minute mark, so I pulled the pans. I left the bread in the pan for 15 minutes, then moved to a cooling rack. The bottoms were very undercooked. If you look at the bottom of the slices in the last picture, you see no crust at all. Next time, I’ll put them lower in the oven, and tent with foil if necessary to get a longer bake.

And there will certainly be a next time. The bread is unbelievably soft – the softest milled wheat bread I’ve made. I made potato soup to go with it, and they paired perfectly. I would imagine I’ll make this every time I make potato soup in the future – I’m already boiling them, it’s really easy to add a couple extra for the bread.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

loydb's picture
loydb

I'm almost caught up! It's week 5 in the Inside the Jewish Bakery Challenge - Semester 1. This week was Honey Cake.  

This called for white rye flour. To make it, I milled whole rye and then sifted to 80% extraction. I think the walnuts were a little heavy, the centers never really rose even after 3 hours of cooking. Almonds may have been a better choice.

In spite of it being a really runny, gummy, goopy batter, it baked up incredibly light, and not nearly as sweet as I would have anticipated from the pound of honey in it. There is no gumminess at all.

loydb's picture
loydb

I'm not dead, it just feels that way. I spent the holidays either travelling or cooking for New Year's, so didn't get around to the challenge until 2012. I made a fatal error, as well, relying on memory instead of looking at the schedule. Thus, we have Almond Horns instead of Almond Buns.

Let me start by saying that I think there's an error in the Almond Horn recipe in that it calls for zero flour. Without flour, as written, it makes a soupy, almondy-eggy batter. I ended up adding 1.25 cups of AP, and it was still flat and runny. If it's not an error, then the egg weights are too high or something.

These ended up tasting fabulous -- but they are more like flat almond sugar cookies than anything else.

I'll work the actual challenge -- almond buns -- into the schedule this month hopefully. :)

 

 

varda's picture
varda

The many nice bagel posts lately have spurred me on toward bagel making.    I was excited to see that In The Jewish Bakery has a recipe for Montreal bagels.   I grew up on New York Bagels which had made their way to St. Louis by the 1960s.    It was a revelation when I stopped for a snack in the Ottawa Airport one day to find a bagel that was completely different but quite delicious.   That was almost 20 years ago, and since I stopped working in Canada,  Montreal bagels have been few and far between.   That is set to change.

Ok.   My shaping needs work, but that doesn't interfere with breakfast for lunch. 

These are quick bagels - from mix to plate in around 2 hours, and so not as much flavor as their overnight retarded New York cousins.   But delicious all the same, a tasty treat. 

loydb's picture
loydb

Today was the final stretch before heading to the in-laws for Christmas. I spent pretty much the whole day in the kitchen, minus a trip to the grocery store. The takeaway:

First, this was week 3 of the Inside the Jewish Bakery challenge. I haven't actually gotten to taste the results, so my comments are limited. I did a four-high braid, and had a little trouble getting the ends to stick together. I ended up wetting my fingers and kind of blending it, which seemed to work. There are some shots of the initial braiding and the final rise at the bottom. On top of the two challah loaves, I also did a pullman pan full of PR's pannetone recipe. I used dried strawberriers, dried orange-infused cranberries, and dried sour cherries that I soaked for a day in apple brandy (plus the vanilla and orange extract). For the nuts, I used 5 oz of macadamias and 2 oz of almonds. Finally, another pan of Mohn bars from week one of the ITJB.

 

 



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