Yeah, professional bakers have proofers with controlled temperature and humidity. Higher humidity is better for proofing too, it just isn’t a big deal. And then they use steam ovens to bake the bread, which are the same thing just much hotter.
That sounds not entirely legal. But at least you got to stick your dicks in the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!
It was me and a Mexican janitor. He taught me spanish and I taught him english. He was in love with the Lamborghini Countach. He literally carried a picture of one in his wallet. He swore that one day he would own one. I hope he realized his dream.
The good part of the job was that we could eat anything in the store. And I assumed that this also meant that we could drink imported beer too.
Guess why I was fired. :P
The trick is you drink the beer, then fill the bottles back up with water and put them back on the shelf.
Worked for my little brother when he got into my parents’ liquor cabinet. Not longterm, but it worked for awhile. Little homies were doing shots of Frangelico.
Oh. And they had live lobsters. In styrofoam trays. Wrapped in plastic. I caught one sorta moving out of the corner of my eye one night. It kinda depressed me. So I cut a hole in each one, near the lobster’s face, I guess. And would occasionally spray them with water. Did it help? Probably not. But I felt better for it.
I was also slicing pounds and pounds of cold cuts and cheese for the next shift. Lettuce, tomatoes, onions. I mean like, three full sized hams. Salami. Swiss. Each had to be portioned for single servings with wax paper sheets.
I would put the rolls in sesame seeds and poppy seeds. I actually busted my ass there. But I really enjoyed it.
Except for going down into the basement to get the trays of frozen bread. Had to bring it up a set of fucked up wooden stairs. 20 trays. One at a time. While the rats squealed at me.
My drink of choice? Duval Double Bock. Shit was expensive then. I’d kill a six every night. As soon as I got there I’d put them in a freezer. Someone noticed that they had filled the shelf. Yet there was less the next day. Fucking Sherlock Holmes this guy was. Fuck him.
Ah, one of the prettiest cars ever. I also hope he got one, then I hope he was able to sell it and buy something else. By all accounts the Countach was a piece of junk.
The Anova Precision Oven does a great job as a proofing oven. Wasn’t something we planned on when we got it, but it’s been awesome once we realized it.
Don’t tempt me. I really want one but don’t have anywhere to put it. I guess I could replace the toaster oven and get a regular toaster. I would miss the broiler though. I have a real oven for that, but it’s usually overkill for what I need.
So that worked wonders. Easily my most airy, best tasting bread yet. Thanks again for the idea @stusser and @skipper!
You know you have to post pics.
Hey you gave ME the idea. I’ve never proofed with water in the oven. Just in warmer spots. I’ve gotta try the oven proofing method.
Not a chance, this was my ugliest loaf yet as well. I was working and in meeting but I wanted to get it in the oven. I was rushing and didn’t flour the knife for the scores…
But you said I probably needed more proofing time or a warmer environment. Temperature of my proofing environment seemed to be the issue, so thanks!
No worries at all and trust me, I’m stealing the same idea.
For what it’s worth, I always proof my bread in my oven with just the oven light on… I find that appliance bulb makes it just warm enough for a good rise, and I’m always pretty happy with my bread.
That said, one of these days I’ll have to try the hot water method just to see if the extra humidity makes a noticeable difference in quality!
I’m looking for a griddle. Nothing fancy, a simple slab of metal that covers two burners and also works on the grill is plenty. This is what I’m leaning towards:
Any other recommendations/models to consider?
Weirdly, ATK just did a video on this.
My man. I’ll give it a watch tonight, thanks!
ATK is the bomb diggity!
We got a Quisinart Stainless double burner griddle a while back. We had to get stainless due to having an induction stove, which has paired induction burners on the left side just for that purpose (if you link them.) It’s nice to have but even with induction, there are hotter and colder points within the griddle when you use it. If you can work with that and are okay with it, go for it. If you can’t work with varying hotter/cooler zones on a larger flat surface, skip it and get one single burner griddle instead.
For us, the hotter sections usually have bacon going, while the cooler sections are great for eggs or slowly warming/browning bread. As something gets cooked, you push it towards the in-between section of the burners. The same with hotcakes, you can flip and stack them in that middle area as a method of keeping them warm while the rest get made.
If I were to rate the Quisinart model, it’s not bad. It’s semi-weighty, meaning lighter than my cast iron skillets, but heavier than a stainless saucepan. When ours is out, it ends up becoming used multiple times in a row because it fits so well on the stovetop it becomes part of it. You certainly don’t have to link and use both burners at once either, making it something akin to a graduated cooktop where you can push things to be slightly warm while cooking on the hotter end. Ours is non-stick and it’s a bit TOO non-stick at times, getting kind of slippery to get eggs on things if there is too much grease on the cooktop. I wish it was deeper as well since you can get spatter out the sides of it a bit too easily. Being weighty isn’t really as much of an issue for these things, they stay put, you don’t want them sliding around like a typical cooking vessel on the stove.
If you truly want even temps, or closer to that, you need something with a lot of thermal capacity, which means weighty. Or, you want something like a Blackstone grill/griddle, where the entire device is made that way, or a stovetop that has the same.
When I was a kid my mother had a thick aluminum one. Sucker was heavy. As I got older I realized that I wanted to inherit it. It was that good. One day I was looking for it to make pancakes. She said that she threw it away, it took up too much space in the cabinet.