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This is the time of year when I adjust, test, convert and create reicpes and formuale. I have no doubt that many cookbook authors lurk these pages, and this rant is, respectfully aimed at you or your publishers, or both.

We all know that scaling ingredients is the way to go, yet most books, and internet recipes etc. insist on providing volume measurements. Some might say this is old... The topic of weight of flour has been discussed ad nauseum here and many other places. Knowing what a cup of flour SHOULD weigh in no way helps in converting recipes.

For those of you who have not read it, Mr. Hamelman blogged quite movingly about how the fraternity of bakers who had participated in La Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie became and remained friends despite their positions as competitors.

Greetings everybody!
Today was 'Fundraiser Day' at the Back Home Bakery in Kalispell, MT with all of the profits from the sale benefiting  the Flathead High School French Club.   A small crew of high school students worked the final shift baking, packaging, and delivering croissants, palmiers, and pains au chocolat for their happy customers.

I have a new, unused Baparoma Steam Baking Master pan that is still wrapped in the original shrink-wrap (never opened).  The recipe and use and care cards are wrapped and unopened.  The instruction book is included.  I am asking $60 and buyer pays shipping.  It is about 5 lbs to ship.  They are hard to find and this one is mint.

I have not made rolls in a while, so I figured it was time to give it a go.  I was going to make some straight onion rolls from the recipe in Inside the Jewish Bakery by Stanley Ginsberg and Norman Berg, but I decided to try something a little different.  I used the onion topping recipe from the book and created a nice soft dough using some smooth style ricotta, whole eggs a

Sticking strictly to the Jewish bialy recipe by using onions, I strayed slightly from the rest of the traditional recipe and mixed it up into a Mexican / Japanese fusion sort of breakfast bread pizza thing that anyone would think is completely natural, if a little strange and weird, for the most part.  OK it is real strange and weird!

I went shopping yesterday at Aldi and found this fantastic cake spring form tin made by Zenker that also doubles as a serving platter and came complete with a plastic lock cover....you just remove the spring form and the cake is ready to be served, great for making cakes and transporting them!

http://aldi.com.au/au/html/offers/2827_21031.htm

http://www.zenker-backformen.de/index.php?id=11&k_id=11&L=5

Sending this toYeastspotting.
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Still keeping on practicing my lamination skills -- butter consumption in Seattle must've increased noticably since I moved here!

Baked off the 20 hour retarded boule that was identical in every way to the non retarded one  baked yesterday.  The crust on this bread is even better than the non retarded one.  But the crumb is more airy on the non retarded one.  The taste is better on the retarded boule but the texture is better on the non retarded one.  I have to call this a draw.  Both have their strong points and both are very good SD breads.  It was a nice experiment to complete and not what was expected.  I though that the retarded loaf would win hands down but this