Dave R

I know we've all probably bought something on impulse that we weren't sure what we needed it for. This was just for fun. I bought a USA Pullman pan because it was priced under $30 and I couldn't resist. I've had no experience with this kind of pan. I was going to try King Arthur's Icelandic Rye Bread but no milk, other than powdered was on hand (I'll get some later). So I decided to wing it with my go to bun/roll recipe that I used on the previous page just to try the pan. All I added was about a tablespoon and a half of powdered milk. This is about a 60% bread flour and 40% whole wheat recipe with a crispy crust, so it couldn't really be called a Pain de Mie. Total flour is 16oz and I could have probably adjusted it up a little to get a completely square loaf. It did turn out to be pretty tasty though. Pre-sliced cheese would probably be perfect for it! Dave

@Ann_T another bake well done! You obviously have your shaping perfected. The rye pan loaf was what started me baking in pans at the end of last year. Prior to that all my daily loaves were baked on my stone. I baked without steam, just a light spritz before going into the oven. The crust was nice and crisp, something the pan loaves don't quite achieve, although they do have a crackle of their own. Here's a picture from last year of one of my basic loaves baked on a stone. I will be resizing this formula for my next pan loaves. A mix of bread, ww and rye flour with some added wheat germ. Dave

When I first started out with this rye bread recipe I wanted it to be 50/50 bread flour and dark rye. It's a yeasted loaf, so to get the right acidity for our tastes I added a whole wheat poolish/starter which is cold fermented overnight. The finished dough is also bulk cold fermented overnight. It's a nice heavy rye, with some caraway to fit family tastes. The final percentages ended up being bread flour 52.17%, dark rye 34.78% and whole wheat 13.4%. A little screwy but just how it worked out. Dave

@blue_dolphin thanks for that link. I've got it up on my computer now. The food processor really is a good way to make the smaller batches of low hydration doughs. Bagel dough was what killed the last KitchenAid I owned in the late'90s. I'm going to give that recipe you linked a serious read. I've never done a dough using pregelatinizing of the flour. Many years ago I made lots of Choux pastry but that's the extent of my flour cooking. Thanks! Dave

@ElsieD Basically, yes. They use a boiled down version of calculating your friction factor. The book goes into more detail but in the recipe link it's made pretty simple. " adjust the water temperature so that the combined temperature of the flour and the water is the base temperature for your food processor, between 130°F and 150°F. (We have found that 145°F works well for most machines.) With the machine running, pour all the water through the feed tube. Process for a total of 45 seconds." Dave

@rotuts that's really interesting that Van Over was doing the demo. I some how missed the entire food processor bread baking phase. I guess lack of internet may have caused it. And now I find I've also missed baking in Dutch ovens. Might be time to trade in my flip phone! Those loaves look great, even though they've been eaten long ago! Dave

@rotuts the lack of oxidizing that first interested me, since I try to use my mixer only to incorporate ingredients and rely of stretch and fold to develop the dough. I've got a Breville 16 cup processor that will power thru just about anything, and did in this case, but I don't think it will replace my normal process. Still, an interesting book to have. Dave

Even though I have favorite bread baking authors, (Jjeffrey Hamelman, Maggie Glezer and Ciril Hitz) I rarely use a recipe from their books. I just stick with my own formulas. But last winter I picked up a used copy of "The Best Bread Ever" by Charles Van Over, in which he uses a food processor to make the dough. I've used a small processor for pizza dough but that's about the extent of it. I finally worked up my nerve to try someone else's recipe. " New York Chewy Bagels Food Processor Mixing Method" by Priscilla Martel (wife of Charles Van Over). I actually used the recipe from the book because it has a cinnamon raisin version, but the recipe link is much the same. The only things different are 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and 1/2 cup of raisins. The only thing I changed was using 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. The one thing I should have changed was to up the instant yeast a bit to counter the negative action cinnamon has on yeast. I didn't get quite the oven spring I expected. They are still very tasty, even though they don't look perfect! Dave

@Ann_T Beautiful! You've obviously got your process down. They look just perfect! I found that perfecting a baguette is like trying to perfect a croissant, which I had to stop when my wife had to start taking cholesterol meds. Dave

@BetD thanks for those links. I haven't made them in a while but I learned from the , '90s "Yan Can Cook" TV show and cook books. Dave

Yes, sorry. It's an older term I sometimes use. Now you can see what my wife was talking about! With all bread flour you may need a bit less liquid. Just hold back a little water during the mix. You want a soft dough but not sticky. Dave

@ElsieD always glad to share. I copied my Excel sheet as a picture, so I hope you can see it OK. I haven't really done much with the sheet since 2016 when I last printed it and my wife is always telling me that I don't put enough detail in my sheets. So, if I haven't put in enough detail I'd be happy to answer questions. Dave

@kaybI know bakers who par bake like you do and others who freeze raw dough with very good results. I think in my case it's more of a equipment issue. I have a very small freezer and opening and closing it doesn't allow for consistent temperatures. I get a variance of 0°F to 20°F. Getting par baked or raw goods down to temperature quickly affects the quality, in my experience. Dave

@blue_dolphin I may not be able to see the lemon cubes, but that's about as perfect a bagel as I've ever seen! Dave

@ElsieD I bake them first and then freeze. I've never had much luck freezing unbaked dough. I know plenty of people do, but I've never been happy with my results. And, once they're baked and individually wrapped, you can have just one or two or a whole batch pretty quickly. Dave

This morning's bake, sandwich buns, is one of my "on hand in the freezer" formulas. It's very versatile in that it can be used for burger/sandwich buns, dinner rolls, breakfast rolls with cinnamon and raisin etc,, With just a few additions to enrich it, an egg wash, seeds of choice and a different shaping and sizing, they can be used for lots of situations. The only thing that they all share is an over night cold ferment, and even that can be eliminated if you're in a hurry. For the sandwich buns I like to flatten them so they are not too puffy. Kind if hard to take an interesting photo of such a mundane subject but I tried. Dave

@blue_dolphin thanks for posting that link. It does shed some light. @PatrickT seeing the picture in the link posted, it kind of looks like yours didn't turn out too far off. Dave

@PatrickT I'll see what I can add here. First, yes you should take the temperature of the water. Common baking standards want you to have your finished dough at 76° to 80° F. So you need to be aware of room temperature as well as the ingredient temperatures. The Ank will also raise the temperature due to what's called friction factor. That is basically the increase in temperature caused by mixing. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2018/08/27/determining-the-friction-factor-in-baking#:~:text=Subtract the actual temperatures of,to yield the friction factor. Instant yeast is fine the way you used it, active dry yeast needs to be bloomed. Salt is also fine the way you used it. I always add it after a couple minutes of mixing. Salt won't actually kill the yeast but it draws moisture away from it and retards the yeasts action. I can't help with the Ank function but it sounds like you used it the way I've seen in videos. I also assume you followed the recipe. That leaves over proofing which may be a problem. Assuming a decent room temperature, three hours sounds like a long time for a yeasted bread. Here again, using your thermometer to take the dough temperature my help. These are all kind of general points. I hope this helps a little. Dave

@blue_dolphin nice crumb on those! I was hoping to see one cut open. Dave

When I was a kid sweeping up in a bakery I saw a newer employee dump a can of sodium hydroxide or baker's lye (recommended by purists) into the boiling vat. Now that was dramatic! No one was seriously injured but the sudden boil over splashed everywhere. Some of it actually ate thru our clothes. Dave

@blue_dolphin those turned out really well! What percentage of rye did you use? Looks like it worked really well. I've tried baking soda but just went back to some sort of sugar for the boiling water, malt syrup in my case. I've never tried baking the baking soda to make it more alkaline, although lots of pretzel recipes use that. Yours look to have a pretty nice gloss to them. Dave

@rotuts thank you. I have to admit that our butter intake has gone up a bit over the last year or so! Its the small indulgences that are so important. Dave

Today's bake is another variation of my whole wheat bread. Has ground roasted walnuts. I have to mention this since I started using loaf pans because all my loaves look the same! This one rose quite a bit higher than the pistachio version from last week. The walnuts are a bit softer and don't puncture the gluten strands like the pistachios did. The 9x5 pans I use don't produce the high crown that 8" pan would, but this style works better for us. Dave

@Kim Shook the waffles were cooked in a Cuisinart Belgian Waffle Maker, but I honestly don't know if it's a true Belgian or just a part of a sales device. The grids of different models all kind of looked alike when I bought it. A big selling point was removable grids and price. Enjoy those beautiful buns! Hope she gave you more than two! Dave

Well, I was inspired to try some waffles after the beauties posted by @blue_dolphin. These are 1/3 each whole wheat, buckwheat and garbanzo flour with about 1/2T each wheat germ and flax meal. A simple banana reduction with a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg, topped with toasted walnuts. More on the sweet side but only because of the reduced bananas, no sugar added. Dave