March 10, 2012 - 8:59am
Egg Bread - Super dissapointing. Anyone have a better recipe?
Hey all, I woke up early, and made pizza Dough, and egg Bread. The pizza dough turned out AMAZING.
Egg Dough... not so much.
Heres the recipe I followed (more or less)
http://www.takebackthebread.com/printegg.html
Where I differed, is that I Did this all in my kitchenaide with the dough hook.
I'm wondering if I over-kneaded?
as well, the flavour is VERY bland. The Crumb is very uniform and not flaky/bubbly like I was hoping for. The outside of it exploded (which gave me hope for the crumb) but overall, this is a very Bland, Boring bread. Did I do something wrong? or was I hoping that the bread would be more than the sum of its ingredients?
Here's the picture.
Any Advice?
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I would say the recipe is very basic and I have made a similar bread in the past. I don't think you baked it long enough as your crust color is very bland looking. You should bake it until the internal temp. reaches at least 200 degrees to 210 degrees F.
If you want to develop more flavor I would suggest you retard the bread overnight. After you shape the dough you can cover it with greased plastic wrap or a plastic bag and refrigerate overnight.
Let it come back to room temperature before you bake it.
You can also put the dough in the refrigerator overnight for up to 3 days before you shape the bread. If you decide to do this, cut back on the yeast by about 1/4 less. When you are ready to bake take dough out of the refrigerator and shape the final bread. Let it sit and rise for about 2 hours before you bake.
The longer the dough as to develope the more flavor you will get.
I didn't notice any salt in the ingredients list of the recipe....bread without salt is going to taste like baked library paste.
You're right...I just noticed that also. I'm sure that was the main reason why this recipe didn't turn out very well.
Also, salt helps to retard the yeast action so it won't 'poof' up so much and give you a better looking loaf.
Some time ago I posted this recipe on my blog, here. As I said in my blog, the original recipe card is in volume measures, but I converted it to metric through math and numerous test bakes. I think it is very tasty, but many shy away from this formula because of the Crisco shortening. I grew up on the stuff and I'm still kicking, so I still use it, but I understand why others may choose not to.
Best of luck in your search. If you bake this one, let me know how it turned out.
OldWoodenSpoon
I once did experiments with different types of oils in bread (butter, margarine, different types of veggie oil, shortening) and found that shortening such as Crisco made a lighter nicer bread than bread made with vegetable oils. Butter is still king though. I also experimented with sugars and oils together and found that if the bread contains water, that it came out lighter, more delicate, and nicer if you boiled the sugar in the water (and dumped the oil directly into the hot water the second it comes off the burner) and then let it cool to be used in the bread. Finer sugars, say Super Fine rather than the normal granulated types, also produced a more delicate crumb. My experiments did not include confectioner's sugar at the time. Interesting stuff... no clue at all on why the differences exist. That said, I can see why Crisco is a good choice for an egg bread... empirically that is.
Brian
Any bread made with a full tablespoon of yeast and short rise times, it will appear pretty and taste bland. The great thing about this recipe is the short time frame it takes to make. The trade off is the bland taste.
Also-where is the salt? Add about 1-2 tsp salt and a lot of the blandness will disappear magically! Salt also helps to control yeast growth a bit.
Here are some suggestions for you:
1.Reduce the yeast to 1-2 tsp. This will increase the bulk fermentation time (probably take 2-3 hours,depending on the amount of yeast). and improve the flavor significantly. Also, you really don't have to "proof" instant or dry yeast with the sugar and water,etc procedure. I would just skip all that and add it all to the mix.
2. Increase the honey to 4 tbsp. I like a little sweeter egg bread-this is more a matter of personal preference.
3. Develop this dough to a good windowpane-use the search box, if needed.
4.Rise to double on the first rise.
5.Proof a little longer after shaping-search for "finger poke" in the search box. It may have "exploded" due to a short rise time,lack of salt, a high amount of yeast, and underproofing.
6.Alternate recipe suggestion: Floyd's "Lazy Man's Brioche" Great recipe that has never failed me. and "Hokkaido Milk Bread" a great,rich sandwich bread. Both of these have a great set of posts. Just "Search"
Not an expert at the Jewish faith, but I know that passover bread contains no yeast (symbol of sin) ...but wasn't there something about Challah being made without salt? Seems like I read something about it being used in some type of ceremony without salt, but when used at the dinner table they sometimes shake a little salt on the outside? Anyone? I know there are some Jewish people here...
Brian
I don't claim to be a devout Jew...but I have never heard of making Challah without salt. It would basically taste like eating cardboard without salt.
Although the ingredients in the recipe in the OP (http://www.takebackthebread.com/printegg.html) don't include salt, the instructions call for adding salt:
"Once the yeast has a scum on top, add the eggs, the honey, the salt and the slightly cooled butter. Mix it all together."
I think the omission of salt in the ingredients was an oversight. I emailed the site owner to point out this problem.
Humans ...sigh, what can you do? Wherever you find the darned things, you find mistakes ...but they are everywhere!
:*)
Brian
I didn't see that!
I thought it was odd to have it without salt as well, but I figured the 1/4 cup of salted butter would do the trick.
Thank you all for the suggestions. I'll try the other recipe as well, as this one (even with salt i'm sure) didn't provide the texture I was looking for.
On the plus side, it wasn't a total bust - It does make some pretty good toast!
Sometimes though, I just want to taste the bread, all alone. (not this time! lol)
I'll post my future escapades with egg bread in this thread.
Sudz
Salted butter generally contains 1.6 to 1.7 percent salt by weight, but each manufacturer is a bit different, sometimes very different. 1/4 a cup of butter is 56g (about) so that would be just shy of 1g of salt. The only time I use salted butter in baking is when I make pie crust, where the recipe I use is half lard and half butter, the salt turns out just about right when I use Kerrygold salted butter, but some other brands taste different. Hope that helps.