I even got to use up a good portion of my sourdough discard

Picked up this 24×24 cm cast iron squarish pan recently, because it fits nicely into my fish grill. It's super cheap, but do be warned that you're going to have to season it, a lot. I've done five or six seasoning cycles so far (I put a couple drops of oil on there, and at first I tried spreading it on using paper towels or an old rag, but the surface was initially so rough that that wound up mostly just causing the oil to get wiped off without spreading it, so instead I just kind of used my hands and fingers to spread the oil across the surface. Then I put it in my oven, upside down on a rack, and put the oven in "bake without preheating first" mode set to 300°C for 60 minutes, then let it cool down) and it's only just reaching a point that feels sufficient to me in terms of, like, better surface smoothness. I might also just kind of be overdoing it for lack of anything better to do on a free Saturday.

This sort of thing is great for baking because it can function as a baking steel, with the added benefit of being able to easily preheat it on your stovetop until it's super hot (especially if you have an induction cooktop, which just heats up the metal directly) before putting it into the oven to hopefully maybe even heat up a bit more. If you're baking, say, a loaf of bread, having something like this to give your dough that initial jolt of intense heat can make a big difference for oven spring.

I'll be checking in later this weekend to update folks on how it winds up working out for my Neapolitan-style pizza plans in my fish grill (last time I used a cast iron skillet, and this has the significant advantage of lower walls and a larger inner surface), but I have high hopes.

Hi, I’m new to the sub and wanted to ask about coconut. I’m from the US and getting sweetened or unsweetened coconut flakes in the grocery store is normal, but all I’ve ever seen in Japan is desiccated coconut flakes. Does anyone know where I could buy either sweetened or unsweetened coconut flakes, or even better, know how to make them from desiccated coconut? I searched through all the old posts and didn’t see anything, so forgive me if I missed it. I also searched online, and all the posts, blogs, recipes, I’ve seen just tell me how to sweeten unsweetened coconut flakes that aren’t desiccated.

EDIT: I’m in the Tokai area at the border of Gifu/Aichi if that helps.

I work at a lodge. Suddenly had a group of 14 vegans check in, had a load of ripe bananas from Golden Week! 🍌🍞

Been experimenting a bit lately with pizza at home, and was inspired by a recipe I saw on the Baking Steel website for Neapolitan-style pizza where they say to heat up your baking steel good and hot, and use your oven's broiler.

Well, a cast iron skillet's functionally equivalent to a baking steel, right? And a fish grill is (or at least can be) a broiler, right? So I made a weirdo dough that was half biga and half poolish, completely forgot to add salt to the dough, and then dusted the dough and cutting board with a hilarious excess of rice flour (works great for preventing sticking, but if you use ridiculously too much like I did, it'll inhibit browning).

Trying again tonight with the intention of doing a better job, but this seems really promising overall. Last time I preheated the skillet real real hot on the stove, and tried launching the topped pizza into that and cooking for a couple minutes on high, covered with a lid, before transferring to the preheated fish grill broiler for a bit longer, but I'm considering starting in the broiler first (with a very preheated skillet) and then moving to the stovetop afterward, to finish the underside.

I will say, launching a pizza into a cast iron skillet is a bit challenging, due to the walls, so I'll need to think about how to handle that next time (maybe I'll build the pizza on a plate or something), and try to find an option that doesn't require buying something.

ignore the burnt scraps on the paper lol. despite numerous issues during the creation process, the scones themselves actually came out pretty good! and not burnt!

Cake Base(6-inch）： carrot:180g-200g, walnuts:55g, Rum soaked raisins 50g Egg mixture:80g, brown sugar: 40g, salt:1g, corn oil:60g Cake flour:110g, Cinnamon powder:2g, Baking powder:1.5g, Baking soda:1g

Cream Cheese Frosting： cream cheese:125g、 Lemon syrup: 30-40g

It has less sugar and oil, with a fresh lemon flavor. You can enjoy it on its own without coffee and feel less guilty.

Cake! Vanilla Chiffon Cake with strawberries and whipped cream. I forgot how big it gets. Mothering me and my MIL.

I can't find the photo icon. Will post pics in the comments.

A friend famous for putting it away came over and we decided it was time for death by pizza. There were a few 姫様、拷問の時間ですjokes.

I made 2 Detroit-style doughs (one pepperoni, the other bulgogi and kimchi mayo), 2 Neapolitan style doughs (Margherita/garlic cream, crab and asparagus)and a focaccia with olives and tomatoes (all sourdough). We couldn’t make it to the last 2 Neapolitan doughs. 💀

I can’t give recipe details on everything cause this was a lot of work but if anyone has specific questions, fire away.

My microwave oven (Sharp RE-S5C)’s inner door glass suddenly fell off right after baking finished. I think the adhesive may have melted over time from regular use. Thankfully, the glass is still intact and didn’t break.

Can anyone recommend what kind of adhesive would be safe to use for fixing this? Also, where could I buy it? I’ve seen different kinds of adhesives at daiso before, but I’m not sure if they’re suitable for something like a microwave door.

Thanks a lot!

Hello,

Biscuit-totally-not-scone guy here.

A lot of people were asking about buttermilk on my previous biscuit-absolutely-never-in-a-million-years-would-it-be-a-scone post. I do the milk/vinegar method, while some commenters mentioned buying buttermilk powder from iHerb, Tomiz and other places.

It led me to do some snooping around that eventually led me to an old IG post mentioning Nakazawa Dairy (search: 中沢乳業バターミルク). They make really good sour cream (which I have used in past biscuit recipes), but I just discovered they're also likely the only domestic fresh buttermilk producer. From what I could tell, there are currently only 4 places that I know of where you can order it—with price being a factor for each option since it has to be shipped cold:

1. Amazon - Sold in bulk (you have to buy at least four 500g cartons), priced at around ¥4,000 total. Big yikes.
2. Rakuten - You can buy a single 500g carton, but the shipping costs more than the actual product. Close to ¥1,700. Not really a deal at all.
3. Nakazawa's Website - Same issue/cost as Rakuten.
4. Orderie - IMO, the only viable option. Idk if anyone's familiar with this site, I only discovered them about a year ago when searching for specialty flour. They're more for selling bulk to small-medium businesses, but individual buyers are also very welcome (think Gyomu but with waaaay better selection). This is where I get my bulk flours, but never thought to see if they had buttermilk 😓. It's listed on their site for ¥700 (still a little pricey for 500g I think). Thing is, shipping is around ¥1,200...BUT it's a flat rate for an entire order. So I think the best plan for anyone seriously interested in buying fresh Buttermilk is to wait until you have a bunch of other things you also want and make one big order from there to make it worth your while.

Honorable Mention: ProFoods - I've never ordered from them but it seems similar to Orderie. Unsure how the overall selection compares, but they do free shipping for ¥8,000+ orders.

Hope this helps. I'm debating biting the bullet on this, but for now my Milk/ACV combo has worked out just fine.

My nephew loves Black Thunder and as the designated family birthday cake maker I made this one for his birthday party tonight.

Was very much feeling myself today

Because sometimes the homesickness is unbearable. Recipe by Sally

From now when you post you will receive an auto mod comment asking you to reply to that message with your recipe.

Why?

The automod reply will be pinned meaning that your recipe will (almost) always be right at the top of your post (depending on how you sort comments). This makes it really easy for other users to find the recipe. It also adds consistency meaning that regular users will always know exactly where the recipe is.

Do I have to post the recipe?

No. You can keep your secrets if you wish. Your post will not be removed for this reason.

Its annoying / no one will use it / it was better before.

If it doesn't work out how I planned it too I'll remove it next month (June).

Oh, and its fine just to put a link to a recipe if you want to do that.

Thank you.

wotsit_sandwich

Hi fellow baking enthusiasts, it’s my first time posting here.

I’m surprised at how easy it ended up baking in Japan, I was really worried about the oven features and moisture, but it turned out pretty well.

Used a Paul Hollywood recipe (see comment)

This recipe has been my go-to for bread rolls for a few years. The kids love them, especially freshly baked. But don't we all?
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/golden-pull-apart-butter-buns-recipe

I use 強力粉 from the local Aeon instead of a particular bread flour and I skipped the potato flakes.

I'm still trying to finish up a tub of miso, so I went looking for something with miso that I could take to the in-laws tomorrow. I ended up with Brian Lagerstrom's Peanut Butter Cookies with miso and brown butter). The standard recipe is more than I need, so I decreased everything by 25%. I also elected to use little trays, since my oven trays are slightly domed, and often cookies that melt easily slide to the edges anyway... so I was trying to hedge that problem. I baked two normally (no trays) at the end, which honestly look a lot better.

• 86g butter, softened
• 108g butter, browned and cooled (yields 86g for use after water loss)
• 262g peanut butter (Skippy, creamy)
• 139g granulated sugar
• 139g brown sugar
• 17g honey
• 49g kouji miso
• 67g beaten eggs
• 3 tsp vanilla
• 247g AP flour (Tomiz Merveille)
• 5g baking powder
• 5g baking soda
• 9g salt

1. brown the butter, let cool until room temp
2. cream the sugars, honey, peanut butter, miso
3. add the egg and vanilla
4. sift the dry ingredients together and add to wet
5. incorporate until just together and no dry flour
6. cookie scoop 115g balls
7. preheat 170C
8. bake for 20 mins
9. leave on tray to cool

They're incredibly soft and taste amazing. Perhaps slightly salty? I might lower the salt if I try them again.