We’re working from home, and next weekend is a four-day weekend. So I’ve decided to try eclairs next weekend. I think I have a piping kit. If not, I’ll make do with a ziplock bag.
Between the filling and the shells, I need 4 eggs and 4 egg yolks. Including what’s in the freezer, I think I’ve got enough egg whites for Angel Food cake. Woo hoo!
Here’s an article on egg substitutes from the Washington Post. If you can’t view it, it’s nothing you can’t find elsewhere online, but is here conveniently compiled.
Me!
We’re pretty remote, so it’s at least half an hour drive to the closest small town and if I don’t have to go to town, I’d prefer not to. More so now.
Got lots of eggs from our chickens, so trying to use them up and managed to get a bag of flour from the nearly empty shelf last time I went shopping.
I love my bread machine. $3.99 from Goodwill and it won’t die. I usually just set it to the dough stage because it bakes an awkward shaped loaf and I prefer the two smaller loaves I get when I split the dough into pans. Last batch became a loaf of bread and a pan of cinnamon rolls.
I think there may some cranberry orange bread in my near future.
As a matter of fact, this morning I waked-and-baked. What a beautiful spring day!!
My husband bakes a lot anyway, so under the circumstances we are baking a ton. We have enough flour and yeast for at least a week, but I worry that under the circumstances you have to plan more than a week ahead. I scheduled a grocery pick up for Friday and ordered more; I hope that at that point they will have it in stock. I have no idea if pick up orders end up with priority or what.
I have been making my basic multi-grain bread for decades. I am about to open a jar of yeast but I don’t use much since I leave the bread rise for 18-20 hours. I don’t have a lot of flour but my last supermarket order included a 5 kilo bag of bread (white) flour and I still have an unopened bag of while wheat. I will see whether the flour they had last Monday when I ordered is still in the order I get on Thursday. Aside from that, I seem to do about the same amount of baking as always.
I’ve always done a lot of baking and haven’t changed my habits since the current crisis started. I buy flour 50 lb at a time and I’m in no danger of running out anytime soon.
Yeast is another story. I usually buy yeast one or two pounds at a time, but I happened to be low when this crisis hit. Now I’m down to my last quarter pound or so. My usual sources have dried up. The last time I looked, it was still available at one local store, but at a price per ounce ten times what I usually pay. A few days ago I started trying to develop a sourdough starter.
I’m considering also starting a batch of “witch yeast,” which I haven’t made for decades. Some people use the term to refer to any sourdough starter, but I make a distinction. Unlike traditional sourdough, which contains a mixture of wild bacteria and yeast that naturally live in flour, witch yeast is a way of perpetuating and extending commercial yeast by keeping it fed with water, mashed potatoes, sugar, and salt. Since it’s made with commercial yeast, it’s easier to get it established and makes your dough rise faster. It typically lasts several weeks before the commercial yeast strains are overwhelmed by wild ones that live in your kitchen. Then you start a new batch with a little fresh commercial yeast. I use the recipe from my grandmother’s cookbook, but this one is similar: Sourdough Bread Starter - Witch Yeast
Canadian stores are still well-stocked. I’d be willing to send you some yeast if you are stuck. Of course, it may not make it.
Only thing you can’t easily find here is malt powder for baking in a practical quantity, and fermented sprouted grains.
I’ve been doing more, I’d started playing with sourdough a few years ago, but I’d been finding it hard to work in sufficient use to really keep it going, so being in all the time has been allowing me to do a bit more.
I do have the issue of living by myself, combined with the reduced exercise, so I’m having to be a bit cautious if I want to be able to fit out the door by the end of this.
This is a good one. I’ve done it before and my son kicked it off last night.
Some additional sourdough links:
Fast sourdough by Jim Lahey (guy who popularized no-knead dough with Mark Bittman)
What to do with your sourdough starter that is poured off during the feeding process.Disclaimer, I haven’t actually done this yet but it is akin to a Chinese scallion pancake and should be awesome.
And, finally, 15 mistakes most beginner sourdough bakers make
Good baking all!
Just made this lovely loaf. We stood in the kitchen and scarfed down about half of it while still warm and slathered with butter. Really easy to make, and no yeast involved.
I scored a bag of bread flour today. 
I baked two loaves of 80% Biga bread yesterday. It’s a 18 hour long project that starts the night before and continues through half of the next day with the folding and the shaping and the proofing. So fucking worth it when the house is filled with that smell of fresh baked bread and I’m shoving a still warm slice into my maw.
An update on said loaf. The cat apparently thought she needed dessert at some point last night and chewed her way through the storage bag to nibble on the cake. It didn’t agree with her, of course, and she barfed up most all of her nighttime food. A lovely mess to wake up to this morning. She’s done this before, especially with croissants, which we’ve learned to put in a cupboard if not eaten right away, but I didn’t think a citrus-y cake would temp her. She’s figuratively in the dog house today.
Currently have teriyaki drumsticks in the oven, yellow potatoes sliced up and seasoned to go in next, then the sweet potatoes. Also getting the rice pot going on the stove top. If I time it right it will all be done at the same time. Add in some steamed carrots and I have dinner and enough leftovers to keep munching on the rest of the week.
ETA: I’m currently taking some vacation time, so I’m at home until Friday with the rest of you folks.
No dry yeast, but plenty of fresh.
Forgot to look for flour, but I don’t have to have it. Just prefer to have bit more buffer.
We did a two-week grocery shop this morning and there was no flour in the store. So, not much baking coming up, but a few nice cuts of meat were obtained.
I can’t believe that most of the people who are buying up the flour have ever made bread before, and I also doubt that most of them will actually do it more than once if that.
What I’m afraid is probably going to happen is after this blows over all of it will be thrown away.
I just made something rather similar. I had some whole wheat pastry flour I wanted to use up, so I used that.
I work at a grocery store. All I can tell you is … we can’t keep yeast in stock.
AP flour disappears fast, and I’m tired of explaining what bread flour is. (“No, it doesn’t have baking powder, or soda, or yeast, pre added. That’s quick rise flour, and I haven’t seen that shit on shelves in years. Yes, bread flour has more protein, yes that means Teh Glutenzz. No, I can’t keep chatting about this - do you see the line stacking up behind you?”)
I’m reduced to telling people there’s DIY homemade yeast starter recipes all the fuck over Pinterest. Use “boiled potato” in the search terms, if you can’t find it.
Okay, I leave out the words “the fuck” while at work. But it’s there, in my voice, and in my facial expression if you could see it behind the homemade fabric fucking face mask. Google that shit. Or just Pinterest it.
The dispensaries around here, seem to have a higher than normal flow of traffic. So yes, I’d say more people are baking.