Monday Mix 11/14/22
Happy Mondays, everyone. I hope you all had a nice weekend!
The Bread Baker’s Pocket Companion continues to sell at a nice pace, though things have slowed down enough that I don’t expect to run out of stock anytime soon once the new printing arrives later this month. If you want to order them for holiday gifts, I’d do it sooner rather than later, since I w
Two things to know about it: If you own a retail shop or bakery and want to stock the BBPC in it, or if you want to buy a large quantity (say to give to students as a gift, as a few baking instructors are doing), I do offer a wholesale discount for bulk orders, just reach out to me and I’ll send you the details.
And if your copy gets lost after delivery or gets eaten by your dog Boomer and you need a replacement, we can work something out too.
I made Jennifer Latham’s Molasses & Ginger Spice Cake for my mom’s birthday this weekend, and it was VERY GOOD. It is a “blender” cake that comes together in about 1 minute (the most time-consuming part is peeling the knobs of ginger). The batter is very loose, but it sets up beautifully, giving a cake with a supremely moist crumb. (One that only improves as it sits: it was even better on day 2.) I love this technique, and I plan to mess around with it for other recipes.
Finally, I’ve been making yogurt lately, and straining it, which has left us with a lot of tart, creamy whey. Naturally, I wondered how it would work in a bread ,and the answer is very well! It gives the loaf a pronounced lactic tang, just the sort of thing for those who like a punchy sourdough. It seems to make the crumb a bit chewier than normal, so I need to tweak the formula a bit to counter that, but I’ll share a whey bread recipe here eventually.
See you all on Wednesday, when we’ll have a guest post from one of the internet’s best practitioners of panettone, Olga Koutseridi, something that has been in the works here for a long time.
—Andrew
The molasses and ginger cake sounds delicious. And so right for this time of year. And whey bread—a solution to the whey in my refrigerator from making ricotta. I look forward to that. A question as US Thanksgiving approaches: If you were going to make a sage and onion sourdough bread dressing, which of your sourdough loaves would you suggest using for the bread?
Boomer! That face.
Great suggestion about straining the yogurt and using the whey. I was just wondering what to do with it as I also make yogurt quite frequently.
Thank you.