WineLovers Discussion Group

Raw state: once mixed, the batter turns into cement. Adding more milk might help somewhat but this can only be done with the power assist of an electric mixer. By hand, the already-mixed batter is impermeable and will not absorb more liquid.

After cooking: you have baked a brick. Make 2,899 more and build a an adobe hut. If not in the mood for more Fun With Flour, stick a big umbrella in it while it's still warm (it will not be penetrable later), and voila! Patio furniture. If you don't need a hut or patio furniture, throw away. This is not food.

Next day: Go dig brick out of the trash because, understandably unable to tell cake from hardware, husband threw bottom of springform pan away.

Just remember what Thomas Alva Edison said about all those experiments with material for light bulb filaments. At least he learned what didn't work!

I killed my Braun 200 Watt stick blender when I tried to cream sugar and not quite yet room temperature butter. Lessons learned ...

Isn't gluten wonderful.

-Paul W.

I knew it wouldn't work out well, how far from 'well' was the unknown. And since I didn't have any AP on hand (two bags of bread flour, though) and had already measured out the other ingredients (mostly just sugar and butter, it was to be a Tuscan apple coffee cake), there was really no reason not to go ahead with baking something.

Glutentag, Jenise: if you really want to make adobe bricks, I'd suggest adding some straw to your flour mixture. Even so, I'm not sure that an adobe structure would last long where you live.

We like to tell stories about the adobe submarines that prowl the Rio Grande keeping our country safe.

If you use King Arthur flour like I do then it is good to keep in mind that their AP flour has more gluten content than most bread flours on the shelf.

When I am making things like sugar cookies or something that just needs less gluten then I will use another flour. Something like Baker's Gold has produced some nice things for me. But for bread I always use King Arthur.

rwj

Larry Greenly wrote:We like to tell stories about the adobe submarines that prowl the Rio Grande keeping our country safe.

Well, there was a US submarine named the Albuquerque....

There is a story that when they were commissioning the sub there was quite a competition among cities for the honor of the name. City officials from all over the place were making promises and courting the naming commission and officers. A car dealer from Albuquerque promised the Captain a luxury auto..... that he could collect when he sailed the sub into town!

I miscalculated on the proportions once for some dough I was making for Chinese wonton skins. I actually tried to persevere by finishing the kneading process using a ball-pean hammer. I eventually gave up, but only after breaking my mother's ball-bearing rolling pin trying to roll out the dough.

I now buy wonton skins ready-made at the store.

-Paul W.

Funny story, Paul. This dough set up like plaster of paris and pulled the head off my spatula, but at least that was repairable.

Jenise wrote:Funny story, Paul. This dough set up like plaster of paris and pulled the head off my spatula, but at least that was repairable.

My mom wasn't too amused . . . .

Won ton skins aren't really that big a deal in the pasta department, if you know what you're doing--which I didn't--big time!

I also broke a cast-iron tortilla press on the same futile venture. The dual experience has made me swear off even low-tech aids to manually rolling out Chinese pasta doughs. Either I buy the stuff pre-made, or I work it and roll it out entirely by hand, using a simple long dowel as the rolling pin.

-Paul W. (Chinese pasta Luddite)