March 18, 2022 - 10:08am
Making soft bread baps
I like to make soft 'baps' using a bread maker for the dough. I would like them to be broad and fairly flat, what are usually called baps. After dividing the initial dough from the bread machine into 9 pieces weighing about 100gms, i then flatten each one with the palm of my hand to create the desired shape.
However, when I bake them they always seems to 'bounce' upwards to become rolls, rather than retaining their flattened shape. I have tried adding more water to make a wetter dough and also various efforts at either flouuring or greasing the board that they are on, without success.
For information, my bread maker recipe is:
Teaspoon of dried yeast(about 3gm)
600gm strong white flour
20ml of olive oil
8gm salt and 8gm sugar
340ml water
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Sounds like you may want to try docking your dough. You can use a fork to pierce the dough in multiple places, primarily toward the center but also out toward the edges. It should keep the dough from rising much in the oven.
Dave
Elizabeth David instructs us to poke a finger down into the middle of each bap before baking, which is a simple kind of docking. The baps come out with cute little navels.
She uses milk and water, so the fat content comes from the (whole) milk. That reflects the Scottish source of this bread, but it's a matter of preference. Milk will give you a different crumb.
I suggest (a) higher hydration, like 380 ml water, (b) definitely a bulk rise first, as Mini notes (c) divide dough and shape into ovals as you would normally shape rolls (d) give them a ten minute rest (e) stretch or roll them out to be as flat as you want (f) finish the second rise, and do Elizabeth David's poke before baking.
How many bulk rises (to double the volume) does the dough go through? You might want to add another bulk rise outside the bread machine before knocking down and dividing into rolls.
Try a different way of shaping perhaps. Instead of individual dividing, try rolling or patting out the dough into a square and cutting into squares. The cut edge will expand differently (hopefully more) than a smooth stretched dough edge. or for round baps, try cutting them out of the flattened dough with a donut cutter.
I only take the risen dough from the breadmaker, roll it out and then take approx 100g pieces and shape them into a round. I do slash the top with one cut with a scoring blade. Then leave them to rise. Are you suggesting a second rise before shaping?
Thanks for these suggestions. I will be baking again next week, so will report on progress!
or doubling of the dough volume after removing from the bread machine. Remove the dough from the machine and knock it down to burst any large gas bubbles, flatten into a straight sided container and let it double in volume before dividing into baps.
If you have a problem with this taking too much time, throwing you off with the schedule. You could increase the amount of yeast in the recipe so that the yeast population is further along at the point of removing the dough from the breadmaker. Then maybe you can skip the extra bulk rise. You can try it both ways.
Just an update. I made a batch and did a second bulk rise as suggested. The result was a bit better than previously, although there was still some uneveness of shapes - some were more like rolls than baps..
I have just done another batch using a different recipe from the breadmaker instruction book. This had one teaspoon of dried yeast to 450gm of flour, (whereas mine previously was one tsp to 600gm) and also had one small egg. The results were much better - some really nice baps with good flavour and texture.
I still find that some do tend to be more rounded, roll-like, rather than flatter bap shaped. I suspect this may be because, when I take a piece of dough the right size, some require more handling and shaping into a 'disc' shape.
It's progress anyway, so thanks for your help folks.
Jim