Author: Aynaria

Saturday (May 2, 2020) I received a new iPad. I purchased the iPad 10.2 (2019 model, 7th generation) on Friday and received it the very next day. I’m a few months late for its release, but considering I had my original iPad since 2004, who cares? The only reason I’m replacing my much loved older iPad is that it had stopped doing standard functions that I have used it for daily.

I wrote about that iPad, on this website, a little over six years ago. I finally broke down and purchased an iPad since I realized that I did not have a limitless space to store my much-loved books. I also knew this meant that I would have to switch over to ebooks with the majority of my purchases moving forward. In fact, I wrote about it on this post titled, Four years later, I’ve finally purchased an Ebook reader.

I used that iPad a lot and really didn’t want to make an upgrade, even though in the past several months, it was increasingly showing me signs that it needed to be updated. When I tempted to update or add apps, I was unable to do so since my first iPad was now considered too old, and updates were no longer available. Sighs… Also, my iPad would randomly start freezing on me when it was in different applications. Last Friday I, discovered that I was no longer able to access iMessage, and a few other services tied to my Apple ID. I found that a bit odd since I was having no issues accessing these services on my other devices. This was the last straw for me, and I took it as a sign to upgrade. When I told my daughter what I’d done, she said, “It’s about time!” I’ll sit on my wants for a long time.

Initially, I was going to order the Apple Smart Touch keyboard, however, after watching a few reviews and realizing that the keys weren’t backlit, I canceled my order (also on Amazon) and went with the Brydge 10.2 Keyboard for Apple iPad (2019). The keyboard is aluminum and it received great reviews. I purchased it in gold. In fact, I’m using it now as I make the final tweaks to this post before publishing on Celebrate Life. Here’s hoping that I have many wonderful years with this new iPad.

 

Wow, has our world changed in the past few months! Because of the coronavirus, shelter in place has been established in many places around the world, including my state here in the USA. I see a lot of businesses, either being temporarily closed or changing how they operate to adjust to the new guidelines that have been set. Where I live, we have a ‘shelter in place’ order, and so those who can work from home, others are being furloughed, and unfortunately, some have been laid off. I’m seeing all of these events happening at my job.

Naturally, with the number of people that have been furloughed or laid off, we see some shelves within grocery stores empty. It’s cheaper to prepare your own food at home. Also,  restaurants are closed for sit down meals (although some places are offering takeout services.) Grocery shelves are depleted of heat and serve meals, bread, flour, sugar, and yeast are also absent from the stores that I frequent. For home bakers, this is a new experience. The past several weeks, when I’ve ventured out to grocery stores, I haven’t seen any bread flour or all-purpose flour. Also, yeast is missing. Do you want to know what isn’t missing at the stores where I shop? Produce! Since that’s mainly what I purchase, I’ve been able to buy what I want. I won’t need to buy any product from the store once our garden is ready for harvest.

Back in March and early/mid-April, this didn’t affect me at all. I keep a sizeable stash of flour on hand. It makes sense with the amount it gets used in our home. However, I did start to get a bit antsy this week. You see, in addition to baking for my family, I’ve also been baking for family/friends. Because of this, my stash has dwindled more than normal. A few days ago, I looked in the freezer and realized that I only had ten pounds of bread flour left. I use several other types of flour also, and those are fine. However, bread flour is the main flour that I use for bread baking. However, baking for others (along with baking for my family) has added up quickly. So, instead of using three-five pounds of flour weekly, the minimum I’m using is eight pounds of flour.

When I was at the store this past weekend, and earlier this week, I’ve been looking to purchase a few bags of bread flour to replenish my stash. Nope, not happening. Those shelves are BARE. So, earlier this week, I went online and purchased 50 pounds of flour. To be honest, it’s something I’ve been toying with for a while. I store other dry ingredients in bulk, so why not flour also? King Arthur is the flour that I use for most of my flour needs and so it’s what I ordered. King Arthur’s ‘Special Patent Flour’ is their bread flour.

I ordered the bread flour from Webstaurant. I must say that I was impressed with the turn around time. It arrived yesterday.

 

 

This morning I made a sandwich bread.

Just look at it! My inspiration was the fluffy dinner rolls that I had made. They were so delicious that I decided to make a loaf of bread using the same recipe. One of my Instagram pals suggested that I give Japanese Milk Bread a try. Interestingly enough, I’d been seeing recipes floating about for this recipe, and I mentally had added it to my ‘must-try’ list for bread baking.

Looking at the ingredients, they’re the same as the dinner rolls; the only difference is it’s in loaf form after the dough has doubled in size.

I used my bench scraper to cut my dough into

two long strips

and then I rolled them into cylinders.

I placed them into a lightly oiled pan and let the cylinders double in size again. It took about forty minutes. I placed the Japanese Milk Bread into a 350 F oven and let bake for thirty minutes. I used my thermometer to ensure that the baked bread’s core temperature was 200 F. It was, and so I set aside on a steel wire rack to cool.

I used the tangzhong method,  just like I used for the fluffy dinner rolls. Results? Just like the rolls, this loaf bread is soft

and has many delicate layers of baked goodness.

This recipe for Japanese Milk Bread is perfect as a sandwich bread or toasted with homemade jam. The latter is how I ate my slice this afternoon, but I didn’t toast the bread. This is going to by my “go-to” recipe for sandwich bread.

 

This past Wednesday, I finally got around to making some super soft dinner rolls.

Although I don’t eat too much bread, I really do enjoy baking it and I absolutely adore a soft dinner toll. My daughter does also. After a bit of research, I finally settled upon making the fluffy dinner rolls that were featured on The Cooks Illustrated website. during my quest for the softest dinner roll, I saw it mentioned on a few blogs and so I decided to virtually visit the website and see what all the fuss is about. Andrea, the recipe publisher, mentioned that she used a flour paste technique. It’s an Asian technique called tangzhong which adds additional moisture to the rolls.

I used my Ankersrum 6230 to make these dinner rolls and it did an excellent job. The dough is sticker than the doughs I’m used to creating. The recipe clearly stated this so I was prepared. I rolled out the dinner rolls into cylinder strips and rolled them into cylinders. The recipe calls for putting them into a circular pan, however, since I doubled the recipe. I used my glass rectangular baking dish and made sure that the rolls were touching each other. This helps the dough to rise more.

 

 

Are the rolls soft, flaky, and tender?

I must say that my daughter and I were very impressed with the results and this will become my “go-to” recipe for making dinner rolls.

Yesterday morning,

I made this colorful pizza with a sourdough crust. I added fresh tomatoes, spinach, and cauliflower to the pizza dough. It was delicious. The only thing I would have done differently would be to saute the cauliflower in advance. I added the cauliflower uncooked, but it still turned out very flavorful. When I bake pizza, I preheat the oven to 550 F. I keep it at that temperature while baking the pizza on my baking steel. I bake the pizza for at least 8-10 minutes. The crust is crispy (not cracker crispy) and baking at this temperature yields a delightful char that my daughter and I enjoy.

Last week, I’d made a large batch of pizza dough using wild yeast that I’d made myself. I’d made enough pizza dough to create four crusts. Two, including this one, were pizza crusts. The other two were made into the homemade calzones that I posted about yesterday.

This morning I baked Danish butter cookies. I nixed sprinkling the actual cookie with more sugar. I figured there was enough sugar within the cookie dough. There’s no need for more. Later today, I’ll be making some type of yeasted roll, and I’ll be mixing the bread dough in my much loved Ankarsrum 6230.

Because of the coronavirus, our state is still under shelter in place. I’ll be glad when the order is listed, and we can go back to normal activities.

Last week, I decided to make homemade calzones. It’s been a few years since I’ve made them, and I must say these turned out very well.

I made enough of the calzones so that I could freeze and bring out when I did not feel like preparing a meal.

I prepared this dough a few days before. Because of this, once it produced a flavorful crust once baked. I didn’t use instant yeast; I used the wild yeast that I’d made from flour and water.

The dough was extremely springy

and it created the perfect canvas for adding the filling.

I still need to work on making pretty edges. However, none of the filling spilled out. Once sealed, the calzones were placed onto my baking steel to bake at 550 for 12 minutes. My daughter loved these calzones. I’ll be sure to make them again.

Because of coronavirus, I’m home a lot more than I usually am. I am conducting a few virtual meetings. However, it’s not the same as interacting with people. No complaints here, I’m making the most of the extra time allotted to me at home, and I’m staying busy.

Our state is still under shelter in place, so that means church services are being conducted online by those churches that have that capability.

Shortly before 1:00 PM today, my Ankarsrum 6230 arrived.

As much as I’ve been looking forward to its arrival, I would have thought I’d have opened that box immediately. However, I didn’t do that until a few hours later. My mixer arrived in dual boxes. The one shown above and upon opening the exterior box,

there was an interior box. I was very much impressed with how everything was packaged.

 

 

Ankarsrum USA did an excellent job of making sure the mixer was secure.

It even came with this hardcover cookbook that you see. It’s 104 pages.

Since I already know how to set up the mixer from watching numerous videos on Youtube, I didn’t have any issues and I was able to take my Ankarsrum for a spin.

What did I make? Something simple. I made chocolate chip cookies. The majority of the cookie dough has been placed in the freezer. Perhaps I’ll bake them later this week.

My daughter enjoyed the 15 chocolate chip cookies that I baked today.