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We are always on the lookout for a good hamburger bun recipe for our monthly hamburger feast.   We saw a post by KMIAA about some buns they baked from here http://www.food.com/recipe/japanese-tangzhong-milk-bread-water-roux-493704

That we thought looked perfect.

Lucy had to mess with it of course and after finding some more panettone YW and SD levain in fridge, who knew there was a ton of the stuff, she converted it from commercial yeast to a SD /YW version with a small 50 g poolish using a pinch of yeast.

She also put in a small amount of rosemary and sun dried tomato to mimic her pizza dough favorite and also added a ¼ C of Parmesan too to make it more like an enriched dough focaccia, if there is such a thing.  We added some potato flakes, oat and corn flour that we ground up in our mini mill because we love what they do for the flavor and rise in breads of all kinds – even in small amouns.

We followed the method pretty much in the beginning using the K mixer, for the ifrst time in who knows how long, to develop the dough to window pane.  We then let the dough sit on the heating pad for 2 hours before retarding it for 12 hours in the fridge to develop some flavor.

It rose about 50% in the fridge and the next morning it went back on the heating pad to finish its first doubling which took 3 hours.  We then knocked the dough back and formed (9) 100 g buns putting (4) in ramekins and (5) were free formed on parchment on a rimless baking sheet.  We did moosh them down to spread them out to bun width.

3 hours later they looked like they were at 85% proof so we started Big Old Betsy at 375 F and did the first brushing of a milk and egg wash.  When the oven beeped that it was at temperature we set the timer for 20 minutes to let the top and bottom stones come uot to temperature.

We brushed them again with the milk egg wash before they went onto the oven rack between the stones.   We baked them for 10 minutes then turned the oven down to 350 F, convection this time.  5 minutes later we rotated the sheet pan 180 degrees.

Wishing everyone a fine lunch of grilled cheese and homemade balongna and the usual fruits ans veggies.

 10 minutes later the (5) free form buns look done and they were removed to the cooking rack.  The ramekin surrounded buns were baked for 5 more minutes, removed from the containers and placed in the now off oven to crisp and color the outside for 5 minutes more before removing to the cooling rack.

Or this lunch with chocolate cherry bread, turkey green chili and potato with giblet gravy.

We won’t use the ramekins again since they take longer to bake and they don’t color up as well.  These buns browned and sprang well in the heat, are light as a feather and soft as could be.   No question about it, these are the best buns we have ever made of any kind, the best looking and we haven’t even cut them open yet. They smell divine and we can’t wait for our hamburger dinner which is show below. 

Sweet and white potato wedge baked fries, caramelized onions and mushoomswith smoked Gouda, pepper jack and cheddar cheese with salad stuffing.  These buns are so soft and moist on the inside and so tasty too!  Just the best all the way around. 

Formula

Totally from scratch loaves! There was no recipe, I used what I had on hand, and went by taste, smell, feel and 30 years of home baking experience to come up with something totally unique.

There's a little yeast, a lot of sourdough starter. I used oat, whole wheat and all purpose flours. Added a little honey and a little turbinado sugar. Mixed in some unsalted nuts and seeds (walnuts, almonds, cashews, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, all unsalted). A touch of walnut and sesame oils.

Three different baking methods and temps, with and with out steam, one loaf in a pan, two on the stone. Not the prettiest loaves I've ever made, but one of the best tasting! Texture is good, butter hold ability outstanding.

Bake on good people, stretch the envelope!

The above breads were made with the same recipe. As I have written before, I was looking for a good sandwich loaf.  The trouble with the round bread is that it is a pain to cut into sandwich size pieces.  The trouble with baking a "white bread" that I have had is that it is so soft that it is a pain to cut into slices without the bread crumbling.

The basic country loaf, when baked in a bread pan, yields a loaf that is both chewy and, as a result, super easy to cut without tearing the bread.  In addition to being easy to cut (and you can cut it fairly thin because it holds together so well), the slices make great sandwiches.

I believe that the pan loaf used about 1/2 the dough or approximately 1000 grams.  I did not weigh it, I just shaped it into a ball and then rolled into a log.  That was not how I planned to do it. I planned to shape it into a baton and put it in the pan, but habit took over and I did it as if I were going to bake it in the combo cooker before I remembered I did not want two round loafs.

I need to take better notes of things like baking times and internal temperatures. I believe the rectangular loaf was taken out before it was as hot as the round loaf, but the thermometer came out dry and the crust was dark enough.  However, the bread is more dense and not as hollow sounding as the round loaf.

So the first loaf was pretty stiff. Upon reviewing the recipe I noticed that the water called for can range between 12 and 14 ozs, therefore the hydration of the main dough can vary between 59% and 70% ... of course the starter can affect the overall hydration and my starter is hydrated at 50% while Reinhart calls for 100% hydration in this recipe.

Oops.

Nonetheless the first batch was good. As I mentioned I gave a loaf to a friend who enjoyed it, and my kids housed the other loaf. A neighbor came over on Saturday afternoon and I gave him a piece and he also enjoyed it.

So I thought it would be interesting to make the next batch with everything the same except a higher hydration. On this loaf I did so by adding 14.5 ozs of water to the main dough, although the starter was still at 50%. (I used 1/8th ww flour, 1/8th rye flour, and the remainder was KAF bread flour).

As you can see the crumb is more open. I attribute this not only to the hydration, but I figured the first loaves could use a bit more proofing so I let these loaves go for 2.5 hours at 80F (first batch in the other blog post proofed for 2 hours at 80F).

I also changed my steaming approach. This time I added a plate of stainless steel on the floor of the oven (1/4" thick ... I made the plate as a heat "spreader" for stewing food). Resting on the plate is a roasting pan. During this bake I used ice cubes, tossing cubes in on 3 different occasions over the first 10 minutes of baking.

Prior to using ice cubes I would dump about a cup of water into the roasting pan (the pan sat on the oven floor).

Compared to the first loaves, these feel light and springy, and the crust on these loaves is thinner than the previous loaves (both cases the bread was baked on a baking stone at 515F for 15 min, then 475F for ~20 min). Not sure if that is an artifact of the dough hydration or steaming method, or both.

I was very focused on the scoring technique on these, trying to achieve an "ear," but was not really successful. (don't let the low-res pics fool you ... the one on the left has a teeny-tiny ear, the one on the right I scored again after ~10 minutes of baking). I re-reviewed the scoring tutorial, and this morning I re-reviewed the KAF instructional videos. I am fairly certain I need to change my technique in this way:

1. Add in preshape and proof, and develop surface tension (Reinhart doesn't call for this step).

2. Develop more surface tension in final shaping.

3. After final shaping, let proof seam-side up on a flipping board.

4. Correct my batard forming technique (I thought I was doing it per the KAF video but I was wrong). I need to get a proper baking couche since I'm jury-rigging using kitchen towels and my assymetric loaves are not of the proper "quality" according to our friends at KAF. Until I can get an order in to KAF or amazon, I saw a linen towel at Crate and Barrel and think that might do the trick for now ...

5. Scoring ... I need to fix this but am not sure how the KAF guys do it ... my dough is too sticky an the blade just drags through the dough. The KAF guys just zoom through the dough like it's not there - amazing!

I gave one loaf to my neighbor.

Regards-
Dave

crumb:

After reading Khalid post on Miche, it really itches me to bake on myself. I didnt use SFBI formula, instead I followed Jeffrey Hamelman -  multi-flour miche to create this beautiful monster.

Before Second Proof

Second proof completed

My pot was a little squashie for my miche. part of it was compressed a bit during the bake.

When it fresh from the oven

Crumb Shot take on the third day, its still moist and soft. It definitely has a very good keeping quality. Im gonna bake it a little longer next time, I think I didnt bake it thorough completely in the oven. It kind of cook itself thu.

This is the second time I've baked a high percentage rye bread. The first was Hamelman's Volkornbrot; I wasn't elated with the result. ( http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14991/christmas-baking-blisters ).  That was four years ago.

Lately--happy with my progress with sourdoughs, baguettes, challah and deli rye, and motivated by a number of other TFL'er's seemingly annual flurry of activity with Borodinsky rye Ioaves I thought I give it a go.

I read at least two dozen postings from favorite mentors (ananda, varda, Elagins, and hansjoakim to name a few); I searched other food blogs. I paused feeling intimidated. First of all, I didn't have all the right ingredients--malted rye, and blackstrap molasses specifically. I know where I could get malted rye, but it's a hundred-eighty miles round trip to the nearest homebrew shop that stocks it. I hadn't the slightest idea (other than buying online) where I might find blackstrap molasses.

Secondly, although I frequently use coriander in BBQ rubs, and pastrami crusts, I've never used it to flavor bread. I wasn't certain we'd like it. However, we love adding the flavor of Caraway seeds to Deli Rye.

I wanted to bake when the mood struck, not a week or more from now.

I recalled reading Borodinsky is always 80/20: Rye/Wheat flours in one of the many references I perused.

This bread is based (tightly) on Hamelman's 80% Rye with a Rye-Flour Soaker, in Bread.

I made some changes, but not many. I scaled the formula to produce 2kg of dough; enough for a 13" Pullman pan. I also substituted 115g (4.0 oz) of cracked rye berries for the 6.4 oz. of Whole-Rye flour in the soaker. (I had the rye berries on hand, and wanted to use them.) And lastly, I added 2 tsp. of Caraway seeds, 2 Tbls. of barley malt, and two Tbls. of ordinary Mollasses.

All other ingredients and ratios were as published. I built the Rye Sour in the prescribed manner, bulk fermented and proofed the dough at the recommended temperatures, and baked at the oven temperatures directed. Trusting the strength of my Rye Sour's yeast I did not use any optional commercial yeast. The finished paste filled only slightly more than half of the pan's height, but proofing expansion and oven spring pushed the loaf above the top of the pan.

I rested the loaf for 36hrs before tasting it. (I just couldn't wait any longer!).

The flavors are intense. The rye is immediately present on the palette, the Caraway shows itself moments later: not in-your-face, but not timid either. There is a lingering after taste I think is a melding of the barley malt syrup and the molasses; it has a bit of sharpness.

When I first cut into the loaf the center of the crumb felt slightly sticky. I feared the crumb would be gummy. Much to my delight the crumb's mouthfeel is moist but not  gummy. It is chewy, but doesn't have the springiness I find in wheat doughs, i.e., baguettes and sourdough, nor in the higher wheat percentage deli rye. An ocassional rye berry fragment offers a momentary crunch.

The crust is hard, and thicker than I would prefer. You can see the top of the loaf is partially charred (There is no burnt taste). I think this is due to the relatively high initial baking temperature, 480°F and the excess sugars from the malt syrup and the mollasses.

I've cut the loaf into four equal pieces, and froze three of them. I'm thinking this bread will stand up to my favorites for open-faced sandwiches: sardines and onion with Dijon mustard, home cured and smoked salmon, and pastrami with spicy mustard. I'm open to any other suggestions.

I'm ordering some rye malt, and blackstrap mollasses online. My next attempt will be an "authentic" Borodinsky but not soon. I've made a deal with my wife; I won't bake this style more than three times each year--she's not embracing its intense flavor.

David G

Added Monday, January 6

Monday's lunch

Sardines (water packed), onion, celery, salt, pepper (50/50 mix Tellicherry and Szechuan), mayo, and Dijon mustard on bite size, thin sliced toasted Rye with a pinch of paprika for color. De-light-full!

This is the loaf along with two slices ready to eat.  The recipe I used makes 3 loaves. 

Made some Rye bread, and thought I would show you how these came out.  Used a different recipe for this bread than I normally use.  Will Post another photo of the loaf and two slices.

These were 5 oz.  A bit big for burgers but tasty.  Used the Tangzhong method except I didn't add any sugar at all or any milk powder.