Ross's Maryland Bakery

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 23:34

Ray I don't see any fault in that plan!!

sawhorseray · Post by **sawhorseray** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 19:06

I went with the plan of attack just as I said I would. Right off the bat I could tell there was too much liquid in the dough, it wasn't forming a ball on the dough hook and there was kind of a little puddle of dough on the bottom of the bowl. I scraped the sides with a spatula, stopped the mixer and turned the dough over, and added more flour as the dough was mixing. All this led to the dough being kneading for a real long time and it was still very loose when I decided enough was enough and stopped the Kitchenaid to remove the dough from the bowl. I worked the dough on my floured surface and added more and more flour till I could form it into a somewhat goopy ball, then rolled it around in some bacon fat and covered the bowl with cling-wrap and a towel. My newest trick is to preheat my oven up to 170°, turn it off to let the heat escape, and let the dough do the first rise in the warm oven, it's maybe 90°. After 90 minutes the dough was pushing over the top of the bowl and when I picked the bowl out of the oven it felt extremely light. I punched down the dough and formed it into some rectangles tho they were still very loose and didn't want to hold shape. The four on the left I brushed with egg-wash before running out, the other two with melted butter, then popped them all into a 375° oven for 18 minutes.

What I thought might become a miserable failure turned out to be the lightest bread I've produced to date. I'm sure the scaulded flour was a factor and I know I'm going to have to adjust the ingredients to avoid all the dilly-dally. Once again Ross' sage advise leads me to another baking break-thru, scaulded flour works! RAY

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 21:09

I just added up all of the liquid that you mention: 4 ounces hot water+ 8 ounces of milk + one egg= about 13.5 ounces of total liquid. 13.5÷16 =85% hydration which means you probably needed about 20 ounces of flour. Did it seem that you added a whole cup full? The ideal hydration is in the high 60's% 67-69% more or less but in that area.

sawhorseray · Post by **sawhorseray** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 22:14

I don't really have any idea how much flour I added Ross. I kept spooning a little in, then a little more. I added even more when I did the hand kneading so I'm kind of clueless. Next batch I'll factor in the egg and go with the percentages you recommend, this was all a nice reminder that I'm not quite accomplished enough at baking yet to think I can be free-lancing. I can tell from the texture of the bread that your advise and techniques are getting me very close to the ideal burger bun-sausage roll. I'll get there, and I'm having fun finding the way.

RAY

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 22:21

Ray as you are finding out there is good homemade bread and very good homemade bread but there is no bad homemade bread. Enjoy the trip. bakers can eat their mistakes carpenters have a harder time getting rid of theirs.

sawhorseray · Post by **sawhorseray** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 23:04

From time to time all carpenters are going to make mistakes, the good ones just know how to hide them so no one notices.

RAY

sawhorseray · Post by **sawhorseray** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 16:50

ssorllih wrote:I just added up all of the liquid that you mention: 4 ounces hot water+ 8 ounces of milk + one egg= about 13.5 ounces of total liquid. 13.5÷16 =85% hydration which means you probably needed about 20 ounces of flour. Did it seem that you added a whole cup full? The ideal hydration is in the high 60's% 67-69% more or less but in that area.

After some early morning experimentation I came to the conclusion that a grade A large egg takes up right about two ounces of liquid volume, maybe a hair under the two ounce line on the measuring cup, but close enough to go with. On the next batch I'll pour four ounces of boiling water onto the pound of flour, dissolve the yeast in five ounces of 110° water, then scramble and add the raw egg. That should put me right about where I need to be. Also thinking about baking at 350° instead of 375°, the bottom of the rolls came out a bit dark last batch, tho I had the oven rack one notch higher than usual. Once I get the ideal burger bun-sausage roll home'd in I can start thinking about loaves of rye and oatnut bread. RAY

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 19:18

Rye flour soaks up more water than all purpose white flour so you may find the need to compensate for that.

sawhorseray · Post by **sawhorseray** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 14:47

ssorllih wrote:Rye flour soaks up more water than all purpose white flour so you may find the need to compensate for that.

In the past I made some loafs of rye in the bread machine that were acceptable at best, suffered from the same "heavy & dense" issue, also very dry. I'll investigate recipes and then incorporate some of the tricks of the trade I've picked up from you and my sister until I achieve the results I want, then just stick with it. I'm so very close to the burger bun results that I want I know it will be soon before I have the exact recipe that I'll use every time in making them. In order to free up space for more experimentation I've been trimming the crusts from the rolls and toasting them for use as croutons in my split pea, my father-in-law loves them in his soup. The centers make for absolutely wonderful French toast, yesterdays pre-Niner game brunch was a big hit.

In the last week I resumed walking to offset the effects of all the flour I've been gorging on. My hips don't seem to mind all that much so far, so whatever doesn't kill me can only make me feel stronger. RAY

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 17:15

I have ben playing with very small batches of bread the last few days and established that as little as 2% cooked flour in a batch of bread has a very profound effect on the texture. I have been making bread dough with 5.5 ounces of flour and 4 ounces of water and a half teaspoon each of yeast and salt. That size batch makes about two hot dog buns. These were two 8 ounce batches the straight loaves were kneaded and the bent one not.

sawhorseray · Post by **sawhorseray** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 16:55

After some initial rye bread recipe investigation I find there are hundreds of recipes, each one with reviews from five stars down to one. I can already tell this is going to be a process of failure and elimination, it's nice to have my father-in-law around here to gobble up the "bricks" that I'm sure to produce starting out on this quest. The first forum I checked out had a lot of folks recommending books to read, but not a lot of solid recipes. I know it's my bad and I'm being lazy, but bread baking ain't meat smoking and I know reading all the technical aspects will bore me so fast getting the book would be a waste of time and money for me. Allrecipes.com has so many recipes with varying reviews by the time I found a keeper I'd have enough stock to build the third little pigs house. As always, when in doubt, I go to Youtube! That led me to another website, www.thebreadkitchen.com, where I found the rye bread recipe I'll use for my initial effort next week some time.

Rye Bread

Ingredients
8 oz rye flour
8 oz strong white flour
4¾ fl oz lukewarm water
4¾ fl oz lukewarm milk
2 tsp dried yeast
1½ tsp salt
1½ tsp caraway seeds (optional)
1 tsp honey
Instructions
Dissolve the honey in the milk. Add the dried yeast, mix and leave for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate.
Mix the flours, salt and caraway seeds in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast/milk and the water. Mix to a smooth dough.
Knead the dough firmly on a floured surface for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Shape the dough into a ball, place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave in a warm place for the dough to double in size. This could take 2-3 hours.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, knock it back and knead for a further 2 minutes.
Shape the dough into an oval loaf and place on a lightly-greased baking sheet.
Cover with oiled film or place in a large plastic bag and leave in a warm place for the loaf to double in size. This could take around 2 hours.
Dust the loaf lightly with flour and make two long slashes in the top of the loaf about 3 cm (1″) apart.
Bake at 375°F fan oven, 430°F conventional oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
Place on a wire rack to cool.

I guess I'm fortunate in that I already have acquired the knowledge of how to produce and utilize mortar. More to come! RAY

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 19:25

By my calculation that will make about a pound and a half loaf. I am having very good results with making small batches in the range of 5 to 8 ounces of total flour.

sawhorseray · Post by **sawhorseray** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 22:27

Thanks Ross, I'll start out by just cutting the amount of all the ingredients in half, boil the four ounces of water to dump into the flour mixture and go from there. RAY

Krakowska · Post by **Krakowska** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 22:29

8 oz strong white flour

Ray, is this high gluten flour?

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 22:32

Ray the amount of boiling water you use varies as to the amount of flour. I have two test batches of rye bread making one with cooked flour and one without. I will post the details and the results when I bake it in a couple of hours.
Ross