December 31, 2006 - 6:11pm
Dough woes
I spent much of today in the kitchen baking. I atempted my grandmother's Cardamom Bread recipe again. Twice before it turned out beautifully. This time, the doe was a disaster. I have no clue as to what went wrong. It was way too sticky. In the mixer, the dough would not set up properly, it looked more like a lumpy loose pudding. It was not a pretty dough. I tried correcting this by adding more flour, but I fearI overmixed the dough. I made the braids for the finished product, Cardamom Braids. but the dough was too elastic, and wanted to flatten.
Any thoughts or correction tips?
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2399843880065247733RjnPjE
Thanks, DohBoy
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I'm no expert by any means, so take this with a grain of salt. I remember reading in a bread book - peter reinhart? - that dough can be overmixed in a standup mixer. It's something like this: mixing by dough hook heats up the dough (whereas your hands almost never would) and once it passes a certain point, the dough turns slack and sticky. The gluten strands have been broken, and in fact, the dough is irretreivable at this point. I noticed in your other post that you recently purchased a stand mixer, so this may have been the problem. More knowledgable people than me may be able to correct/ammend this advice though. Good luck!
P.S. Cardamom bread? Sounds delicious!!!!!
Thanks, good info to know. Yet this leaves me wondering; does anyone else use a standup mixer?
I was able to make my caramom braids from this dough; I was fighting it all through the shaping phase. It's a sweet bread, so it tasted sweet and quite good, but not as sweet as my first batch. One thing I jest thought of, the dough in the first batch was considerably warmer than the second batch. I wonder if I didn't get the milk heated to the proper temp.
I;ll have to post the cardaom braid recipe later.