The Kitchen: all things delicious and disastrous

Actually made bread with the device. It was a very plain bread with wholegrain wheat flour, sweetener, salt, water, yeast, raisins, a little bit of olive oil and nothing else, but it turned out quite nice.

I'm definitely going to experiment more

My brother loves his bread maker. He's evil with the seeds.

Breadmakers smell delicious And, nothing like a big thick slice of homemade bread with butter and honey.

I like homemade bread — Ringo Starrter is bubbling away in my kitchen right now — but I don't like breadmakers. Of course, I may be thinking of two or three generations back, like the one my parents had when I was a kid.

I am just not good at baking, specifically, at making dough - it always turns out wrong

I've mentioned this cookbook so many times that it probably seems like I'm some how related to the author but I'm not. "Ratio" by Michael Ruhlman is the most significant cook book I own. He breaks the method for making things like bread into a system of relationships between the ingredients and then lets you know how you can play around with them.

This book helped me learn how to analyze and understand recipes, including bread.

Hmmmmm.. Cheesecake-stuffed strawberries, battered and deep fried. I'm gonna have to try that...

...That... sounds so totally dangerous for the poor, old scales.

After nearly two decades of inactivity and five years of cigarettes, I'm going to give that a miss I want to see my 70th birthday.

Okay, so I made probably the best open-faced tuna sandwich I've ever had.

What I did is instead of mix relish or celery into the tuna + mayonnaise, I mixed in brown mustard instead. Then I put it on two slices of bread with the underside buttered. Then I put a slice of mozzarella on each slice over the tuna.

Then I put them in the oven until the buttered side of the bread got golden-brown. I took them out and put two slices of tomato on each piece.

It turned out really well.

EDIT: Although it got kind of soggy after a bit, so one slice of tomato might be enough.

edited 15th May '14 2:20:39 PM by BaconManiac5000

That sounds amazing, Bacon.

Looks like one actually needs refined white flour in order for the bread to form correctly, so one can't really make 100% wholegrain and fancy kind. From what I've read, this can be remedied by adding vital wheat gluten, which makes it possible for the wholegrain flour to act like a white would.

Now if only I could find some...

My dad keeps saying he wants to write a cooking science book, or however you'd classify it, where the point isn't the recipes but learning how to improvise your own recipes. I may need to point him toward this.

One thing I have a question about.

I use a toaster oven and it takes a long time for the underside of the bread to get done, while the top gets done fairly quickly.

Any suggestions on how to fix that?

Ditching your toaster oven for a real toaster. Toaster ovens are no good at toasting bread in my experience. Which defeats their entire purpose.

So I toast the bread before I make the sandwich?

Toaster ovens generally only have a heating element on top. You'll need to toast the top side, then turn the bread over and toast the bottom side if you want bread toasted on both sides. Same for a toasted sandwich. If you don't turn it over, it will only be toasted on the top side.

Personally, I actually find it easier to just dry-fry toasted sandwiches in the pan.

Mine has ones on the top and the bottom, but I can turn off the ones on the bottom and not the ones on the top.

"Toaster ovens"... aka "grills". <_< They're good at what they do... which, can be toast. If you know how to use them.

But, frankly: a dedicated toaster is always going to be quicker for sliced bread. Grills are what you use if you're going to go for something a lot more convoluted. Like, grilled, stuffed mushrooms.

Yup — "toaster oven" or, if you're British "table-top, portable death-trap of a grill: best to stick to the main oven grill, if possible". And, most of the other stuff? Are also "grills", too. Just, different types (and, for those very much used for open air BBQ? "Barbecues — which have grills on them".). Except for toastie-makers aka "toasted sandwich makers". Those are toastie-makers. Unless you're being posh and going for a "panini grill"... which is just Expensive for "toastie-maker".

edited 16th May '14 1:31:46 PM by Euodiachloris

And once again we have demonstrated for us the divide caused by two countries sharing almost the same language.

In the US, a "grill" has the heat source (generally charcoal or LP gas) below the cooking surface. The cooking surface itself is expected to be steel rods forming an open rack, unless you're specifically talking about a restaurant grill, when it may be a solid metal plate (although that's more often called a "griddle" or a flattop"), or an electric "grill" like the George Foreman Grill^TM, which is really a cross between a waffle iron/panini press and an electric frying pan. Real grills are generally used outdoors.

this is a grill◊.

So is this◊.

This is a restaurant grill◊.

So is this. This type is also called a "flattop"

This is a George Foreman Grill◊.

THIS is a toaster oven.

edited 16th May '14 1:23:14 PM by Madrugada

So, um, I'm using a toaster oven.

Should I not do that to brown my bread?

No, you can. It just won't be as evenly toasted or easy as using a toaster (if you have one.) The heat in most toaster ovens is unevenly distributed between the top and the bottom, generally with more coming from the top.

Which is why the only time I use toaster ovens is when I can't put whatever I want to toast sideways into the toaster.

So, I'd just use a toaster and then the toaster oven?

Is that what you're saying?

edited 16th May '14 1:28:07 PM by BaconManiac5000