Some Work Elsewhere

And a couple of shopping ideas and deals

Dec 13, 2023

I forgot to mention that yesterday’s cinnamon roll post dropped a day early because I needed it to go live before Anne’s post did, so she could link to it. As penance for the omission, I’ve got another post for you today too, mostly highlighting pieces of mine that I have appeared elsewhere that I’ve not mentioned here yet.

The good sheet(ers)

The first is my extensive review of the Brod & Taylor manual dough sheeters, which I wrote up for Serious Eats:

I’ll let you read the whole thing over there, but the TL;DR is that I love them! No question they are expensive items, but they are a fraction of the cost of an electric sheeter, and take up a fraction of the space too. They come in two sizes, a compact one that can roll out doughs up to 12 inches in width, for $495, and a “folding” one that sheets out to 15.5 inches, for $850. The smaller one comes apart into a few pieces that—other than the sheeter board itself—will fit in a cupboard, while the larger one converts, Transformer-style, into a nifty portable (if a little heavy) briefcase.

Both work great, though I think each one has its own audience. The compact one is, being substantially cheaper and smaller, the sort of thing that might perfect for a home baker on a budget. A professional or cottage baker will probably want to spend the extra $350 for the larger model, because it’s capable of sheeting out almost twice as much dough in one go.

Anyway, if this is the sort of thing you might need, I encourage you to read the whole piece. And if you do decide it is for you, you can get 15% off on either model between now and the end of the year if you use this link†:

brodandtaylor.com/WORDLOAF

Hey, Jan

Another recent Serious Eats item is my recipe for ghapama, the jeweled-rice stuffed pumpkin that is a favorite of Armenians around Christmas and New Years, and should be with everyone. I love this dish, and it is surprisingly quicker and easier to make than its wow-factor would suggest. (Honestly, the hardest part is tracking down the right size pumpkin.)

You got your yeast in my sourdough!

The last “elsewhere” item is my first story for Maurizio Leo’s The Perfect Loaf, all about the whys-and-hows of combining commercial yeast with sourdough, something that you are likely already familiar with since it is a hybrid approach I use here often. This piece (the first of hopefully many for TPL) was a fun opportunity to do a deeper dive on the subject:

Holiday sale on starter whisks (and vintage ones back in stock!)

Finally, I have two bits of news about my sourdough whisks. One: I recently came into a large cache of vintage file handles, so those ones are back in stock again for now (they all look like the ones above, with handles of varying lengths). And two: Both the “new” and “antique” ones are on sale until the end of the year, should you want one for yourself or a friend. Use the code SOURSNOW to get 15% off. (Wordloaf subscribers already get 20% off with that other code I won’t mention here, so use it instead if you are in the know.)

I’ll keep making and shipping these as long as orders keep coming in, but if you want one to give as a gift this holiday season, I’d order one by the end of this week, 12/16. I can’t promise they’ll arrive in time after that.

Speaking of which, I’ve heard directly from many people about how much they love their starter whisks, but if you own and love one, would you mind sharing your thoughts in the comments below so others can read them? They are the sort of thing that you don’t know you need until you have one, so I think it will help spread the word.

Thanks!

—Andrew

Ps. That 30% off sale on Nakano knives was extended until EOD today, in case you missed out on it! Use the code WORDLOAF for the deal.

Wordloaf