...dat dough doe - Lesson Three

Foccacia di Recco - 62% hydration King Arthur Bread Flour, Pillsbury Bread Flour, King Arthur All Purpose Flour, Gold Medal All Purpose Flour, Bobs Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (left to right) - July 1, 2017

I really thought The Bread Whisperer was messing with me when he told me to make the same thing again using 5 different types of flour (that I already had in the pantry)... surely I passed the kneading lesson?  Waiting for the "just kidding" turned out to be futile - he was serious, and it wasn't even a punishment for calling him a 50s housewife (oops)!  So with limited time between house guests and a very energetic nearly-six-month-old, it all came down to one evening.  Did I have 50 minutes of active hand-kneading in me?  Would I crack under the pressure?  It was the moment of truth - and I dove in.

Apart from my arms and chest burning worse than they ever have after a Jillian Michaels DVD marathon, and moments where I considered throwing the dough on the floor repeatedly instead of having to roll it out paper thin with weak, exhausted limbs - five glorious balls emerged, and four of them were as soft and smooth as a babies bum.  (HA! Sorrynotsorry.)  I was told I didn't have to bake these since it was about the dough - but after all that work this girl was stuffing them with gooey cheese and sampling every single one (even if it was heading towards midnight).

King Arthur Bread Flour

Easy to knead, easy to roll, easy to eat.  It was a little sticky at first, but after 3-4 minutes of kneading became very pleasant to work with, it was soft and springy and shiny - what I imagine a dough should be.  It was crisp and flaky and just the right amount of texture when eaten.

Pillsbury Bread Flour

  It felt almost exactly the same as the KA Bread (due to my inexperience I'm sure), the only difference I saw was that when rolling it out the dough appeared and acted slightly denser/tighter.  I couldn't get it as thin, and this was notable when tasting too as it was a thicker crust.  

King Arthur All Purpose Flour

I'm sure I will get in trouble for saying this was my favorite (blasphemy!), it was the easiest to form, knead and roll.  It never got as sticky as the bread flours, but was not as dense as the GM All Purpose or the whole wheat flour.  It was light and flaky when baked, and almost came to bed with me for a 2 a.m. snack.

Gold Medal All Purpose Flour

Eh.  Not exciting, but not bad.  Pre-lessons I would have thought this was how it should turn out, and I would've been happy with the outcome yet not thrilled enough to repeat it.  It wasn't as light as the others, the dough took a bit more work to roll out, and took a little extra kneading to incorporate all the flour.  The cheese was still great though... but really, when is cheese not?  

Bobs Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

This was AWFUL.  I mean seriously, I nearly chucked the rest of the container of flour out in a fit of rage.  It was exhausting to knead, so stiff and dry, so unyielding - I nearly gave up.  My rolling pin became a bat in an attempt to flatten this beast, and at first taste the whole thing went in the bin - GROSS, dry, brittle, nothing redeeming.  A miserable end to the experiment, only made better by going back to eat more of the first three!

Sidenote:  The more cheese the better.  The more kosher salt sprinkled on top the better (pink himalayan and regular table salt did not do it justice at all).  Subbing chunks of homemade nutella instead of cheese - sinfully divine.

So now to see how I did, whether there is a lesson four, and whether it is something my arms will be able to tackle any time soon - wish me luck!