Zo Ingredient Order
I recently upgraded to a Zo Virtuoso (thank you, Mom!) and have a question about the order of ingredients. Zo seems to basically adhere to the wet, then dry approach, with the exception of fats, which go in last before yeast.
Does anyone know why they do it this way? I normally use melted butter or oil in my sandwich breads, and my other machines had those added with the liquids. Do you think it will make a difference in the final loaf? My only thought is that fat floating on the water might act as a barrier between the liquid and flour, possibly preventing some early happy-to-meet-you interaction during the Rest phase.
I'm loving my Zo, but this one little change is giving me fits, as I'd become so used to adding things in a certain order. It made sense to me because I've always though of fats as semi-liquids. I'll get used to it soon enough, I'm sure, but have noted that most machine recipes seem to call for fats before dry ingredients.
In the meantime, I keep reminding myself how much better the Zo is at baking soft sandwich loaves. I can bake them right in the machine, even with the delay timer, and they come out perfect, not over-baked and crusty like bread from the other (bye-bye!) machines. Sweet!
I also have a Zo Virtuoso and I thought I was following directions when I put in the fats with the liquids for breads. (followed by flour and then yeast on top)
I guess I wasn't (should have read the directions better).
Apparently this has caused my breads no harm - but I do write my own formulas rather than use the ones in the books.
I would say to try your old method and see if there is an issue... It's only one loaf, right?
For cakes, I think I do add in the order given and I use the Zo recipes.
Hope this helps.
Hi proth5,
You didn't read the manual? *gasp!* I always RTFM. Unless it's something easy, like phones, computers and the like. Those are easy. Bread machines are from another planet.
I think you're likely right, that it shouldn't matter. If I add the flour right after the fat, there won't be enough time for all the fat to spread out over the liquid before the flour hits it. *Some* of the flour will contact the fat instead of the water, but certainly not all.
I'll sure give it a try. I'm new to machines, with only 3 months experience. Creating the "store equivalent" loaves my family wants have been a trial. The crumb was easy, once I found a few recipes, but it wasn't until the Zo (after 2 machines that I returned) with it's much lower baking temps that I got the crust right. Now I'm ready to play a little, but still need permission, it seems. I'm sure there's a phrase for this. "You can give the NewB a better machine, but..." Well, something like that.
It's interesting how different machines require a different sequence for adding ingreidents.
In principle, it's either a) dry ingredients first and wet second, or b) wet ingredients first and dry last.
I have a Panasonic and I add the yeast first, followed by the flour and any other dry ingredients. On top of those I add any wet ingredients, ususally water or milk first and then any butter. I never melt my butter and just put it in.
Any good bread machine will mix everything just fine. Personally, I've never had a problem. Crumb is always nice and even.
Hi Ingrid,
Thanks much for the further validation.
If I'm using soft (solid) butter it goes on top of the flour as specified by the manual. However, I usually use light olive oil, and it goes on bottom with the liquids - no problem, excellent results every time. I don't recall if the manual actually adresses liquid fats, I think mine may only mention butter.
Enjoy your new toy!
Hi maggi,
I had to do some deep diving in the manual to find liquid fat, and Zo is completely inconsistent. In Pizza Dough, oil goes in after water. In Italian Wheat Bread, oil goes in almost last.
Because that's not odd enough, in cakes *melted* butter goes after the flour but before sugar and lots of other things, while in pasta the oil goes in dead last.
Oh, yes, one more thing? In all recipes but one, eggs go in with liquids. For meatloaf (arguably one place it should matter least), eggs are last.
I'm beginning to think Zo is just screwing with us for grins and giggles. But at least it's fun!