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The Bread Topic (2016–)

DianaM

By DianaM
in Pastry & Baking

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Matthew.Taylor

Matthew.Taylor

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, Duvel said:


Nice ... which alkaline solution are you using ?

Just 1/4 of a cup of baking soda, with 2 quarts of water. I read about food grade Lye for pretzels in an old issue of Food & Wine, but I don’t know where to get it, and would probably be too skittish to use it.

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Duvel

Duvel

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, Matthew.Taylor said:

Just 1/4 of a cup of baking soda, with 2 quarts of water. I read about food grade Lye for pretzels in an old issue of Food & Wine, but I don’t know where to get it, and would probably be too skittish to use it.

 

Yes, sourcing food grade lye can be tricky. If you want to upgrade, you can try to bake your baking soda (the solid), producing sodium carbonate, which is far more alkaline. It will allow you to shorten your boiling time, thus creating smoother surfaces and gives a better coloration ...

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Matthew.Taylor

Matthew.Taylor

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Duvel said:

 

Yes, sourcing food grade lye can be tricky. If you want to upgrade, you can try to bake your baking soda (the solid), producing sodium carbonate, which is far more alkaline. It will allow you to shorten your boiling time, thus creating smoother surfaces and gives a better coloration ...

Good idea, but I think I’ll stick to just baking soda for right now, though.

 

Made some burgers to try them out. They taste great!  It a little too big. Perhaps O should make smaller ones? Also by the end of the burger, the meat was slipping out some.

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ptw1953

ptw1953

Posted
Posted

Hello to everyone,

 

I hope all is well with you.

 

It has been some 3 weeks since last I baked bread, and yesterday proved to me that if you don't practice regularly, you never improve. I baked two boules for my son and his family, promising my grandsons that I would carve diamonds in the crust.

 

Carving-wise, this was a disaster of a day. Thankfully, my son was unable to collect the boules, so my wife and I ate some with a porcini and potato soup I had prepared, and I sliced the remainder and froze them for eating on another day.

 

My son sent me a text at 7am, telling me that he and my eldest grandson would be visiting me at circa mid-day to collect the boules. I let him know of my carving disaster, and that I had sliced and frozen the loaves, but I'd make another for mid-day. Couldn't bring myself attempt carving diamonds again, so did the usual Saltire instead.  

 

My grandson was not impressed at all...

 

 

Boule 10-11-19.jpg

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heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted (edited)

My "white whole wheat" unintentional accident turned out better than expected. A bit more dense and moist than my usual but good flavor. I usually toast my bread which brings out the nuttiness in this one. This is pre-toasting  

bread.JPG

Edited by heidih (log)
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ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted

I am making a harvest grains loaf courtesy of KAF.  I am using my Zo and plan on baking it in there as well but without the paddles.  I would take those out when?  After the kneading?  Before the final, rise?  It seems to me the blades are needed to punch the dough down which means I would remove the blades after the second punch down and before the second rise?  The manual is not at all clear and neither is the recipe.  Thanks for helping me.

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MelissaH

MelissaH

Posted
Posted
33 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

I am making a harvest grains loaf courtesy of KAF.  I am using my Zo and plan on baking it in there as well but without the paddles.  I would take those out when?  After the kneading?  Before the final, rise?  It seems to me the blades are needed to punch the dough down which means I would remove the blades after the second punch down and before the second rise?  The manual is not at all clear and neither is the recipe.  Thanks for helping me.

I'd think you'd take them out before the final rise.

 

I know a lot of people who will actually remove the dough from their breadmaker at that point, and shape the dough in a regular loaf pan and bake it in their regular oven.

MelissaH

Oswego, NY

Chemist, writer, hired gun

Say this five times fast: "A big blue bucket of blue blueberries."

foodblog1 | kitchen reno | foodblog2

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted

Bread11122019.png

 

 

A promise is a promise but these are perhaps the weirdest loaves I've shared.  And as with everything there is a story...

 

I decided to try my bread machine for mixing.  It had not seen the light of day for many moons.  Not wanting to confuse too many variables I used my usual recipe and mixed to a "shaggy mass" in the KitchenAid.  After thirty minutes I transferred the dough to the Zojirushi.  After some while the Zojirushi was beginning to develop some gluten strength.  But then the machine shut down saying it was hot.  And indeed the dough batter was hot.  Apparently Zojirushi activates the heating element even when preheat and bake are turned off.  Ritual suicide is too good for the designer.

 

Only thing keeping me from hauling the whole mess to the dumpster was the light in the parking lot burned out.  I ran the hot sticky dough several times though my PolyScience 300 to cool it down.  Then in an attempt to dirty every appliance in the kitchen, and some not in the kitchen, I removed the dough to the Precise Heat Mixing Bowl -- not to heat the dough but to mix it in the baby bowl with the teeny tiny dough hook.  Indeed in the small bowl the dough hook achieved some purchase that I can't get with the 8 quart KitchenAid.

 

I then carried on as normal with folds and resting.

 

The resulting baguette was not a pretty sight but it was quite tasty.  Have not yet cut into the boule.

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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lindag

lindag

Posted
Posted

@JoNorvelleWalker said "Apparently Zojirushi activates the heating element even when preheat and bake are turned off.  Ritual suicide is too good for the designer."

Doesn't your Zo have a DOUGH cycle?  Is it an older model?

I just put all my ingredients into my Zo and press the dough option.  In about 90 minutes the dough is ready, I shape it into my loaf pan (or other) let rise and then bake in the big oven.  These days I don't use my KA at all for bread, the bread machine is so much easier with virtually no cleanup.

 

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dtremit

dtremit

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, lindag said:

@JoNorvelleWalker said "Apparently Zojirushi activates the heating element even when preheat and bake are turned off.  Ritual suicide is too good for the designer."

Doesn't your Zo have a DOUGH cycle?  Is it an older model?

I just put all my ingredients into my Zo and press the dough option.  In about 90 minutes the dough is ready, I shape it into my loaf pan (or other) let rise and then bake in the big oven.  These days I don't use my KA at all for bread, the bread machine is so much easier with virtually no cleanup.

 

 

@lindagThe Zo dough cycle does include preheat, at least on the older models -- but only to slightly above room temperature, in my experience. Maybe 85F at the most? If it got hot enough to error out and stop, then I suspect something is wrong with the machine.

 

@JoNorvelleWalker -- what cycle did you use? apparently "preheat off" doesn't work for all of them (though again, I don't think it should have gotten more than slightly warm even with the preheat).

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, lindag said:

@JoNorvelleWalker said "Apparently Zojirushi activates the heating element even when preheat and bake are turned off.  Ritual suicide is too good for the designer."

Doesn't your Zo have a DOUGH cycle?  Is it an older model?

I just put all my ingredients into my Zo and press the dough option.  In about 90 minutes the dough is ready, I shape it into my loaf pan (or other) let rise and then bake in the big oven.  These days I don't use my KA at all for bread, the bread machine is so much easier with virtually no cleanup.

 

 

My machine is circa 1995.  There is no dough cycle.  I was using the homemade cycle.

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted
47 minutes ago, Isabelle Prescott said:

What is the purpose of first mixing the dough in the KitchenAid before putting it in the bread machine?  

 

 

I did the autolysis in the KitchenAid because I wanted to change only one variable at a time.  And a good thing I did because the Zojirushi would have heated up the dough.

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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dtremit

dtremit

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

My machine is circa 1995.  There is no dough cycle.  I was using the homemade cycle.

 

 

The manual for mine specifically notes that the "preheat off" option doesn't work on the homemade cycle.

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, dtremit said:

 

The manual for mine specifically notes that the "preheat off" option doesn't work on the homemade cycle.

 

Thanks.  If I can find the manual I'll try to check on that.

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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lindag

lindag

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

My machine is circa 1995.  There is no dough cycle.  I was using the homemade cycle.

 

It might be a good time to move up to a new Zo.   I think they're fabulous machines, especially the dual paddle models.

I have this one.  Over the last thirty years I've had many different machines and this one is by far the best of the lot.

Think Black Friday on Amazon.

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ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted

This is the one i have and i love it.

 

https://www.amazon.ca/Zojirushi-BB-PAC20-Bakery-Virtuoso-Breadmaker/dp/B0067MQM48/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1TVZRVSMYTN5U&keywords=zojirushi+bread+maker+bbpac20&qid=1573582823&sprefix=zojirushi+bread+maker+bbpac20%2Caps%2C213&sr=8-2

 

Yesterday I made the Harvest Grain Loaf from the KAF site.  I used my bread machine to mix the dough intending to pull it before the final rise, shape it, and bake it in the oven.  I checked on it while it was kneading and it looked like soup.  More flour went in.  Then more.  Still very wet.  Added more until it felt right then proceeded as planned.  As a rough guess, I must have added 1 1/2 cups flour.  I don't know what I did wrong, but something clearly went amiss with my measuring.    I sprayed the unbaked loaf with Pam thinking that the Artisan Bread Topping would stick to the loaf but it  didn't.  How do you get a seed/not topping to stick to the loaf?  The finished loaf is very nice -- had some for lunch.

20191112_123449.jpg

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lindag

lindag

Posted
Posted
32 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

This is the one i have and i love it.

 

https://www.amazon.ca/Zojirushi-BB-PAC20-Bakery-Virtuoso-Breadmaker/dp/B0067MQM48/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1TVZRVSMYTN5U&keywords=zojirushi+bread+maker+bbpac20&qid=1573582823&sprefix=zojirushi+bread+maker+bbpac20%2Caps%2C213&sr=8-2

 

Yesterday I made the Harvest Grain Loaf from the KAF site.  I used my bread machine to mix the dough intending to pull it before the final rise, shape it, and bake it in the oven.  I checked on it while it was kneading and it looked like soup.  More flour went in.  Then more.  Still very wet.  Added more until it felt right then proceeded as planned.  As a rough guess, I must have added 1 1/2 cups flour.  I don't know what I did wrong, but something clearly went amiss with my measuring.    I sprayed the unbaked loaf with Pam thinking that the Artisan Bread Topping would stick to the loaf but it  didn't.  How do you get a seed/not topping to stick to the loaf?  The finished loaf is very nice -- had some for lunch.

 


That’s always an issue for me.  KAF used to have a product called Quick Shine, I still have some and it works fairly well but doesn’t seem to be available any longer.

Have you tried egg white?  Neither milk or butter works for me.

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ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, lindag said:


That’s always an issue for me.  KAF used to have a product called Quick Shine, I still have some and it works fairly well but doesn’t seem to be available any longer.

Have you tried egg white?  Neither milk or butter works for me.

 

No, I haven't tried egg white.   The bread I made called for 1 egg yolks and AFTER I had sprayed and put the seeds on the dough, I noticed the egg white sitting in it's little bowl.  Too late I wondered if I should have used that instead.  I think egg white might be the answer.  I'll try that next time.

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