faultlessrecipes | Entries tagged with baking: bread

oxfordhacker was kind enough not only to make these rolls three times during our week-long visit, but to write up the recipe for me as well. (We like rolls, okay?)

Ingredients
* 1.25 tsp bread-maker yeast [ed: this is instant yeast in the US]
* 600g strong bread flour [ed: just “bread flour” in the US]
* 2 tsp sugar
* 1.5 tsp salt
* 2 tbsp oil (or 25g butter. Doesn't seem to make much difference.)
* 320 ml water (I use warm, but I don't think it matters much)

Oxfordhacker’s bread machine instructions:

* Put in breadmaker on the 'rolls' setting (our one is 2 hrs 20 mins, which seems to be about 10 mins standing, an hourish kneading, then the rest heating & rising). When that's done:
* Put a sheet of grease-proof paper on an oven rack
* Split the dough into ~12 equal-sized lumps (though fewer, bigger rolls also work well) & put on the rack[1]
* Leave somewhere warm for ~20 mins to rise (I usually use our top oven on 50C). They should end up about twice the size they started. OTOH, if you cut this bit short you just get smaller, denser rolls which are still good.
* Shove into oven on 200C for 4 mins
* Turn rack and cook for another 4 mins[2]
* Done!
We find that, stored in an airtight box, they stay good for 5+ days

***

I could've sworn I had a bread machine, but I think I just thought about getting one, heh. But I do have a stand mixer with a dough hook.

Sarah’s stand mixer variation:

* Put all the ingredients except for the bread flour in the bowl of the stand mixer and stir gently. Place the mixer on a scale, tare, and add the flour.
* Fit bowl onto mixer, then attach the dough hook. Stir on the lowest setting until just incorporated, then knead for ten minutes (setting “2” on the Kitchenaid).
* Remove dough hook, then remove bowl from the mixer. Shape dough into a rough ball, cover mixing bowl with a damp tea towel, and place in a warmed oven (~100F) for one hour.
* Place parchment paper/silpat on a baking sheet. Punch down dough, then separate into. dozen chunks. Form into rolls, then back into the warmed oven until about double in size (took 40 min for me).
* Remove tray, let oven pre-heat to 400F, then bake rolls for about 8-10 minutes.[3]

***

Oxfordhacker’s Mods:

* I've had success with mixing some herbs & garlic paste into the dough before splitting it. That'd probably be easier just shoved into the breadmaker with the other ingredients if you wanted a whole batch of them.
* I've also tried mixing in currants or putting a blob of jam in the middle of each roll, then & dusting with icing sugar before baking. They both turned out quite nice, but those felt like imitation pastries, whereas the pure rolls feel like proper rolls, IYSWIM.

Footnotes

[1] If the dough is too sticky to divide up by hand you'll need to use a floured surface or something, but really you need to use less water in the recipe because otherwise it's way too much like hard work.

[2] The recipe suggests slightly longer cook times and brushing the rolls with egg before you cook, which I guess is to make them crustier, but we prefer softer, easier, quicker rolls :)

[3] Sarah brushed the tops with melted butter and dusted with caster sugar before baking, but that’s because she felt like being fancy.

synecdochic

Because I will be baking this in another few hours and wanted to have the recipe with my changes readily at hand.

Adapted from Stephanie Cooks, who adapted it from Taste of Home.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
4.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt ^*
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp The Spice and Tea Exchange's Herb Sesame Spice Blend, divided ^**
1.5 cups milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

(* Last time I made this, I did not include salt, but the result was really deficient in salt to the point where I was sprinkling kosher salt over each slice -- I think it was because the Stephanie Cooks version used all-purpose flour while the Taste of Home used self-rising flour, and self-rising flour includes baking powder and salt. Stephanie added back in the baking powder, but not the salt. The internet is fairly divided as to whether self-rising flour is 1/4tsp or 1/2tsp of salt per cup of self-rising flour; I'm splitting the difference for this next attempt and will report back.)

(Reporting back: yeah, a teaspoon of salt is about right.)

(** The Herb Sesame Spice Blend: sesame seed, garlic, onion, basil, parsley, oregano, paprika, thyme, dill, white pepper, cayenne pepper. Original recipe called for "Italian seasoning" instead, but this worked just as well.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cheese, sugar, garlic powder, and 1/2 of the spice blend in a bowl; mix thoroughly.

3. In separate bowl, combine milk, oil, and egg. Mix thoroughly, then stir into dry ingredients until just combined. (Batter will still be lumpy.)

4. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Top with other 1/2 of the spice blend.

5. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

6. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.

sarah

Detailed instructions per my mom:

1 ½ cups lukewarm water
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon salt
2 pkgs. Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast
4 eggs
½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 box seedless raisins
6 cups flour, tamped down and rounded

Warm-up 1 ½ cups water to a temperature of 110° - 115°. I use a candy thermometer. Sprinkle 2 pkgs. of the active dry yeast into the water. Add in 1 to 2 teaspoons of the 1 cup sugar. Stir the mixture and let sit to activate.

In a large bowl, beat 4 eggs (I do this in my mixer). Add in ½ cup (1 stick) soft butter or margarine. Add the rest of the 1 cup of sugar into the eggs and butter. Then add 1 Tablespoon of salt to the yeast and water mixture, stir, and add to the bowl with the egg, butter, and sugar.

Meanwhile, mix 1 box of raisins with the 6 cups of flour. Add this to the wet ingredients and mix together by hand. Next, turn this onto a lightly floured surface and mix more by hand, adding a little more flour until the mixture is able to be handled without sticking to your lightly floured hands. This is tricky because the bread dough is a moist dough, but all flour needed for handling the dough needs to be added at this step, and not later. You may find that you are adding another ½ cup flour or more to the dough mixture.

Turn the lump of dough onto a lightly floured board, cover with a tea towel, and let rest for 15 minutes.

Then, knead the dough on the counter/table until elastic. This should take a good 8 minutes of constant kneading. Yes, it is that specific! Too little kneading will cause holes in the loaf after baking, and too much kneading will cause the bread to be tough. You will find the dough become elastic, meaning that as you work it, it will contract a little with handling.

Then, grease a large bowl with shortening, and put the dough into the bowl. Turn the dough upside down so that the top will be greased also. Dampen the tea towel with warm water, squeeze out, and cover the dough in the bowl. Let rise until double in bulk, or 1 ½ or 2 hours.

Punch the dough down on a lightly floured surface and round out. Put back into the bowl and let rise again, until not quite double in bulk, about 45 minutes.

Then punch down again on a lightly floured board. Form into two loaves. I actually use my scale to measure out the dough into two equal lumps. Form two loaves and put into two greased loaf pans.

Brush the tops with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Cover again with the warm, dampened towel and let rise again until an impression remains from your finger, about 1 hour.

Bake both loaves about 50 minutes in a preheated oven at 350°. I have found that a convection oven more evenly bakes this dense bread. Check after about 45 minutes. Test doneness with a cake tester. It is done if the tester slides out clean. (Note from Sarah: cook until internal temp is 205°.)

Note: Depending on the temperature of the room, you might not see a lot of rising during the various steps. It should rise some, but oftentimes the bread does most of the rising in the oven. It’s really quite amazing.

Because I do all my 12 loaves in one day, I have devised a system for each batch. I make up a 3X5 card for each batch to track the time for each step. The cards have the following on them:
Mix & Stand…15 mins.
Knead & Stand…1 ½ - 2 hrs.
Punch & Stand…45 mins.
Punch & Loaves…1 hr.

Then I write in the start time and expected end time for each step. This really helps.

synecdochic

1/4 cup warm water (about 110*)
1 package active dry yeast
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 cups warm milk (about 110*)
2 Tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons salt
6 to 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Pour water into a measuring cup; add yeast and 1 Tablespoon of the sugar and stir until dissolved. Let it stand in a warm place (80*) until light-colored and bubbly with a froth on top.

Pour the milk into a large bowl, and stir in oil, salt, the remaining 1T sugar, and the yeast mixture. Sprinkle in 3 cups of the flour, one cup at a time, stirring until the flour is evenly wet. Add 4th cup of flour, and, with a wooden spoon, beat until the dough is smooth and elastic. (It'll take you about 5m, and your biceps will hate you. Rest when you get tired.) Mix the 5th cup of flour in and beat some more until the dough is stiff enough to pull up on the wooden spoon.

Measure out the sixth cup of flour. Sprinkle about 3/4ths of it out onto a large cutting board/wooden board/corner of your counter or table that you've cleaned thoroughly. Sprinkle a handful of the remaining flour over the dough and begin to knead it.

(To knead, reach over the ball of dough and grab the edge farthest from you; pull it towards you, but not firmly enough to tear the surface, and fold the dough in half. With the heel of your palm, gently roll the ball away from you to seal the fold and to roll it back into a ball and then flatten it out again. Then turn it a quarter turn and repeat, over and over and over again.)

You'll want to knead the bread for at least five minutes, but the longer you spend kneading it, the lighter the bread will be; sometimes I'll spend as much as 20m. Once you're done, take a clean and dry large bowl, spray the bottom with Pam or other cooking spray, and put the dough in it. Then turn the dough over, so what was the bottom is now the top (that way, the top of the dough is lightly greased too). Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm place (at least 80* but no more than about 110*). (What I often do is turn the oven on to warm for about 5m, then turn it off and leave the door cracked open for 5m, then put the dough bowl into it.)

Let rise for 45m-90m. It'll roughly double in size. You know it's ready when you can stab it with two stiff fingers and the dough huffs a little and the shape of your fingers stay. Once it's ready, punch it down with your fist (this is so therapeutic) until it's roughly its original size again, then turn it out onto a lightly floured board again. Knead it again, though you don't have to knead it for more than a few minutes.

(At this point, if you want a lighter loaf, repeat the rising and punching down process; one afternoon when I had nothing better to do, I let the dough rise three times, but that didn't really do anything except waste time. Two is enough.)

Once you've kneaded the dough again, shape it into a smooth oval. With a sharp knife, divide it in half. Form each half into a loaf by gently pulling the top surface to the underside to make the top smooth. Turn each loaf over and pinch the seam down the center, then turn the ends of the loaf under and pinch to seal them.

Put each shaped loaf, seam side down, in a greased and lightly floured 9x5 loaf pan. Cover with a damp towel, and let rise in a warm place until the loaf comes to just the top of the pan (again, usually about 45m).

Bake in a 375* oven (350* for glass pans) for 35 to 45 minutes or until loaves are nicely browned and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from oven. Let loaves cool in pans on a wire rack for 10m, then turn loaves onto rack to cool completely.