The Fresh Loaf

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July 23, 2022 - 2:50am
doorhinge's picture
doorhinge

Croissant Troubleshooting

Hi there, I'm trying to make croissants using these ingredients from a youtube video:

 

500g flour (12%)

55g Brown sugar

10g Salt 130 g Milk

130 g Water

10-12g instant dry

50g Soft butter 

250g Good quality unsalted butter (82%) for lamination 

 

However whenever I bake them at 200C for 20 minutes, they never seem to brown. They turn out pale like the picture I attached.

Things to note: 

- Where I currently live the temperature is quite high (24-26C), but I take care to turn on air conditioning and frequently cooling my dough between the folds

- My oven is a gas oven, but I bought an over thermometer

- I have proofed this batch for about 3.5 hours (for my previous batches I have tried proofing for 1.5-2 hours)

 

I have tried this about 2-3 times but they always turn out pale and not so different looking from before baking and after baking. The inside seems to also have this semi transparent appearance. 

 

 

Can anyone help me decipher this please? (:

 

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July 19, 2022 - 5:10pm
kesaf's picture
kesaf

Grain Mill Choices

Hi, I'm interested in getting a grain mill for the following reasons:

  1. Health - organic grains milled with less destructive methods than commercial milling are more healthy
  2. Cost - buying bulk grains, storing them long term and milling when needed is less costly over time than buying flour
  3. Supply - grain will store longer than flour. Having grain on hand to be milled on demand will provide fresh flour over a longer period.

I'm mainly interested in the Royal Lee Household Flour Mill, the Mockmill 100, The Nutrimill Harvest, Salzburger MT5 and the Wondermill.

I'm a little wary of the synthetic corundum stone mills because the idea of ingesting these particles do not seem healthy. I'm not aware of any definitive understanding as to whether these types of stones are truly safe. I'm also concerned about how the impact mills heat up the flour, which can cause them to lose nutrients. Information about whether the impact mills get hot enough to cause nutrient loss is all over the place.

With that said, I was going to go with the Salzbuger MT5, which uses natural granite stones, but they are not currently shipping to the U.S. Now, to me the next best is the Royal Lee, which does use synthetic corundum, but is engineered to use air and centripetal force to collide the grain with a stationary corundum stone. This results in virtually no stone particulate within the flour since the stone is not grinding against another stone and it does not heat the flour as much as the other stone or impact grinders.

The question then comes down to the quality of the bread made with the Royal Lee. It's my understanding that the Royal Lee will grind the grain finely together with the brand and germ resulting in a flour that cannot be sifted into an all purpose flour. 

Is the texture of the breads and other baked goods from the Royal Lee more dense because the brand and germ are all present?  Can you create lighter, fluffier baked goods with the Royal Lee mill?  Can I get an all purpose type flour from the Royal Lee if I configure it to a more coarser grain setting and sift?

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July 16, 2022 - 9:32am
HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Honey Ginger and Jasmine Rice Milk Bread Buns

Benny's milk bread and trying to make hamburger buns are two bakes that have been on my list for quite a while.  I've also been wanting to do another round of my Honey Ginger and Jasmine Rice bread.  This weekend I tackled all three at once and used this bake as the basis, but I went with Active Dry Yeast (ADY) instead of sourdough.

Makes twelve buns big enough to easily handle a 1/2 pound hamburger patty (as a size estimate)...

Biga
130g   Bread Flour
84.5g  Water
0.3g    ADY
Combine until all flour wetted and ferment at 70 deg F for 12-14 hours

Porridge
65g    Jasmine Rice
32.5g Honey
13g    Fresh Ginger Root (minced)
97.5g Water
97.5g Whole Milk
Combine water and rice.  Simmer in covered pot until water absorbed.  Add honey, ginger, and milk.  Continue simmering in covered pot stirring regularly until milk absorbed.  Rice needs to be soft.  If still firm, add another 13g whole milk.  Keep doing small milk additions until rice is soft.  Let sit in covered pot until fully cooled.

Final Dough
357.5g    All Purpose Flour
130g       Bread Flour
32.5g      Semolina Rimacinata (Janie's Mill Sifted Durum)
195g       Whole Milk
13g         Sea Salt
6.2g        ADY
84.5g      Butter (Room Temp (soft))
84.5g      Egg (beaten)

1)    Make biga and porridge the night before the bake
2)    Combine milk and ADY.  Let sit for 10 minutes.
3)    Combine milk/ADY, flours, salt, egg, and biga,  Use pinching and squeezing to fully combine ingredients.  Rest for 10 minutes.
4)    Smash cooled porridge with fork, potato masher, or other means to assure there are no full grains of rice (want to minimize large pieces of whole grain in the soft buns).  Combine dough and porridge using pinching and squeezing.  Rest 5-10 minutes.  Add butter in small amounts using pinching and squeezing to fully mix.  Rest 10 minutes when all butter added. Will need to adjust hydration at this point depending on how much moisture was retained in the porridge.
5)    4 sets of bowl kneading to develop gluten.  Dough will be pretty shaggy for first set and will start to develop on the second set.
6)    Bulk ferment until dough doubles (75-76 deg F)
7)    Divide dough into twelve 120g portions.  Degas and preshape into loose rounds.  Rest 5-10 minutes.  Shape into tight rounds using bench scraper and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
8)    Cover dough and let rise at room temp (73-74 deg F) for 1 hour
9)    Preheat oven at 350 deg F.  After final proof, apply egg wash to buns and bake at 350 deg F on center oven rack for 30 minutes (until golden brown).
10)  Fully cool before slicing....  If you can wait that long.  :-)

These turned out GREAT!  Nice and soft with a wonderful blend of jasmine rice and ginger aroma.  I'd still like a bit more ginger in it, but I think that's a bit of a personal preference.  



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July 15, 2022 - 11:50am
SoniaR's picture
SoniaR

Changing Sourdough Recipe to Yeast Recipe

​I’m a sourdough baker but am going to mentor a new bread baker who wants to start with yeast breads. I make a whole grain rye bread that calls for 180g of starter. I typically feed the starter in the evening and it’s ready in the morning. 

 To make it with yeast, I thought I'd make 180g of preferment with 90g water and 90g flour and a pinch of yeast but I have no idea how long it would take to peak. And, how much yeast would I then add to the final dough? Or, do I need to use a preferment at all? Bottom line, I really don’t know how to make bread with yeast or what else to expect when changing my tried and true sourdough recipe to yeast. Thanks for any input.
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July 12, 2022 - 7:08am
Yippee's picture
Yippee

20220704 Instant Vortex Air Fryer Burger Buns and more

 

Hello, friends!

 

I made burger buns in the air fryer on the 4th of July, but I didn't document the process. 

    So I re-baked and took pictures. This is the Instant Vortex Plus Clear model. It has a wider but shorter interior than my Corsori air fryer.  

I used two Target Made by Design 8" pans (online purchase, now on sale for $2.80 till Wednesday 7/13) to prove and bake the buns. During proofing, I used a small glass container to push the pans, making sure they were completely closed to keep the dough moist. Remove the glass container before baking. 

    No opening between the pans during actual baking, it's shown here to illustrate the setup.     

I mixed my daily milk bread dough and bulk fermented it in my Zojirushi bread machine.  After shaping, I proved the buns (covered) in the air fryer at 115F x 40mins using its dehydrating function. 

  90g x 3 buns
   Egg washed
   No preheat  Baked at 400F x 13mins, checked (can bake for 2 more mins for a darker crust like the one I baked on July 4th) 
   Turned the pans upside down, baked at 400F x 5 mins, and checked again. Bake longer if needed. 
   Same milk bread dough baked as dinner rolls. Same temperature and timing. 70g eachtotal flour 260g
    
           To make a boule in the Instant Vortex Clear air fryer  I use the black baking pans shown below to make boules in my Corsori air fryer, but they are too tall for the Instant Vortex.     So I got a German brand springform pan, which is slightly shorter, and covered it with the above black pizza pan to make boules in the Instant Vortex. 
   No preheat  400F x 15minsflip400F x 10 mins, checkbake longer if needed260g flour, ~480g dough    
    Crumb
        Made some rings following Gavin's ideas. 
    
    
    
    
    
    
         
    While the buns had a perfect mini-burger shape, the areas covered by the rings didn't brown well, even though I had already removed the rings halfway. 
    
    Made some French rolls in the Instant Vortex. 
    
    I used Baker's Secret pans to bake some rolls in the Cosori.  Target pans are too big to fit there. Generally, Instant Vortex browns more evenly than Cosori.       
    Lastly, make sure not to use stainless steel or any other light-colored pans to make bread in the air fryer.
    
    Almost no browning at halftime, and the finished loaf was very pale.
      See here and here for another air fryer bake    P.S. The air fryer can accommodate two 250g pans,👇👇👇 which are equivalent to one 9x4x4 loaf, I believe.     $11.03 $6.03 new user| 250g/450g/750g/900g/1000g Toast Molds Aluminum Alloy Non-stick Coating Toast Boxes Bread Loaf Pan Cake Mold with Lid Bakeware https://a.aliexpress.com/_mrjp5xq The End
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German bread dumplings (Semmelknoedel)

July 11, 2022 - 12:19pm
Eatforhealth's picture
Eatforhealth

Description

Semmelknoedel is a specialty of German cuisine. Prepare this German pasta with bread, with which you can accompany dishes with roast pork or game, any meat with sauce or with mushrooms in a creamy sauce.

 

Summary

Yield
Servings
Prep time10 minutes
Cooking time50 minutes
Total time1 hour

Ingredients

1⁄2 lb
stale French bread (diced)
1 c
milk
2 T
butter
1
Onion (chopped)
1 T
parsley (chopped)

Instructions

Step 1

Place the bread cubes in a large bowl. Heat the milk until it begins to bubble at the edges, then pour it over the bread cubes. Stir briefly to coat the bread. Let soak for 15 minutes.

 

Step 2

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the onions and stir until softened. Add the parsley and remove from the heat. Pour into the bowl with the bread along with the eggs, salt and pepper. Use your hands, pressing the dough through your fingers until it's smooth and sticky.

 

Step 3

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. The water should be at least 8 to 10 centimeters deep. When the water is boiling, make a test dough about the size of a small orange or tangerine by punching and rolling it between wet hands. Drop them gently into the boiling water. If it sinks, the dough is too wet. In this case, add some breadcrumbs to the remaining batter.

 

Step 4

Shape the rest of the dough into large round pieces and carefully drop into the boiling water. Simmer for 20 minutes, then remove to a plate with a large slotted spoon. They should come out soft, spongy and delicious!

Russian brown bread

July 10, 2022 - 1:21pm
Eatforhealth's picture
Eatforhealth

Description

Try this Russian recipe to prepare brown bread. A wonderful homemade brown bread, which is easy to make and is delicious. Vinegar adds flavor, but trust me, if you pair it with cheese it's great.

Nicely combined with πεσκανδρίτσα

Summary

Yield
Servings
Prep time1 hour
Cooking time2 hours, 10 minutes
Total time3 hours, 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 c
water
2 T
cider vinegar
1 T
salt

Instructions

 Materials you will need:

1 ½ cup water

2 tablespoons of cider vinegar

2 ½ cups bread flour

1 cup rye flour

1 teaspoon of salt

2 tablespoons of margarine

2 tablespoons corn syrup

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon instant coffee beans

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

¼ teaspoon fennel (optional)

2 teaspoons of dry yeast 

 

Execution of the recipe:

Step 1

Place the ingredients in the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.

 

Step 2

Use whole wheat, with normal crust setting.

 

Step 3

After baking, remove the bread from the pan, place on a wire rack and let cool for 1 hour before slicing.

 

Editor's note:

To make this recipe in a stand mixer, first put all the ingredients except the softened butter into the stand mixer bowl. Mix on low speed, scraping the dough occasionally, for 10 minutes. Add the softened butter and mix for another 5 minutes. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel, and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

 

Grease two pans. Deflate the dough and spread it on a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in half. Roll out the dough pieces into squares, pressing down with your hands to pop any air bubbles. Fold the dough in thirds, roll it lightly under your palms to form a loaf, and press the seam to seal. Place the loaves in the pans, seam side down, cover with a floured kitchen towel and let rise again until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. Bake the loaves in a preheated 200 degree oven until the crust darkens and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and cool it on a wire rack.

July 9, 2022 - 3:38pm
BCbreadbaker's picture
BCbreadbaker

Nutella Babka

I made this Nutella Babka last week and it was so good. I used a recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction, which you can view here. I didn’t have any whole milk, so used cashew milk in its place, which worked fine. I really like braided and twisted bread recipes, and while this one gets a little bit messy as the filling spills out, it’s pretty simple. The butter, sugar, and cinnamon topping is SO good; don’t skip it. 

I think I may of rolled the dough out too much, which meant I had a twisted dough that was a bit long for my sandwich loaf pans. Next time I will roll it out a bit less and take more care in pinching the ends together (you can see the end of one of my loaves is kind of misshapen). Overall it was super tasty, and I brought a half loaf on a long hike in the mountains and it was a very good morale booster!



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July 9, 2022 - 7:32am
The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

07/09/2022 Siciliano Pizza Pie

Hello, pizza fans!

 My wife headed out early to visit her mom up the state (slightly) in Putnum county. I decided to make an impromptu, rush job, same-day ferment siciliano pizza pie. The natural leaven was also rushed. I refreshed my stock net 55 grams of starter at 1:1:1. After only one hour on the bench, the prescribed 155 gams of the immature stater was pressed into action. Straight from the mixer (ten minutes #2) The dough ball was placed in the oiled 16X16 pan for one hr. of bulk. After examination, the bulk is now extended for a check at 2hrs. This time under plastic wrap. Stop around later for the epic, Anticlimactic, result? You just never know, with my experimentations.

 

Edited to add.

While the starter came to temperature, the four and water autolyzed (1 hour)

 

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July 6, 2022 - 2:42pm
MTloaf's picture
MTloaf

Yeast water, home milled, whole wheat, pan loaf


This just happens to be the softest, lightest, tallest, least sour WW pan loaf I have ever made. Something I wasn’t sure was possible with my home milled grains. I am not sure I can technically say it’s 100% WW because I sifted out 10% of the bran with a 40# screen but only out of the flour used in the final mix. I left the bran in for lthe two stage levain. This was my first attempt to use yeast water for whole grain after reading something Dabrownman wrote here years ago about how it would lighten up whole grain loaves. Indeed it does!

Crumb
In my weekly rotation of breads I always make a WW pan loaf partly for nutrition but also because I have an abundance of Wheat Montana organic berries from a miscommunication last year when I picked it up at the mill they brought out 50 pound sacks instead of 25. In lieu of today’s grains prices and the cost of shipping I don’t mind having a few extra buckets of grain in the basement. I was using The Approachable IDY version for a while but wanted a naturally fermented recipe to try. I tried Benny’s sweet levain and got good results but more often than not it would start to break down before it was fully risen. I scalded the bran which helped but I didn’t go the Tangzhong route because it is more involved and included dairy. Frankly I am not a fan of the soft tight cotton crumb that reminds me of supermarket sliced bread. I like a roux for rolls and such but I prefer a bread crumb that is less opaque and has a story to tell.
A few months ago I started a raisin YW that I had been using for fruit and nut breads and started using it for country bread when my starter went into a funk. It has gotten better with age and adding a few apple pieces and a citrus peel kicked it into high gear.(Thanks Trailrunner,Caroline) I am not a complete convert and certainly claim no YW expertise but the bread rising ability is pretty incredible. I know that YW responds well to higher temperatures so my back porch which is 90F degrees in the shade has become my latest proofing box. 

When the levain looks like this I have high hopes 

Levain

 

Pullman
I made a long Pullman yesterday to confirm my results. TDW 1150 grams The  spreadsheet is for the 9x4 Pullman. It was Wheat Montana organic Bronze Chief which is a hard red spring wheat that was milled in a Mockmill 100

 

Spreadsheet

 

Egg salad

 Egg salad is one of those sandwiches that are better on soft bread especially when they are farm fresh eggs!


 Happy Baking

Don

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