Ross's Maryland Bakery

[sawhorseray]

Rudy, do I understand correctly that the buns are shaped in the press directly from your mixing bowl, and then the rising takes place. Or are the buns formed after the six-hour rising period? I just found my burger press from Cabelas in the garage, had a pack of 1000 wax paper sheets sitting next to it with only a few missing, so I guess that'll do for now, or forever. RAY

[ssorllih]

There are many fine books about bread making but one of the best that I have found is " The Italian Baker" by Carol Fields. She devotes the first hundred pages to methods and techniques.

[IdaKraut]

Ray,

Sorry for the delay in replying. I mixed the dough in the KitchenAid mixer, then placed it into an oiled bowl to rise for about 6 hours (depends on your ambient temp - mine was in the upper 60's to low 70's during the rise period). After it had risen about double, I then started to divide the dough. I first made the wiener buns like Ross shows on his video. Then I made the burger buns.

Yes, you need to let the dough rise or put it in the fridge before you form the buns. Actually, if you want them to taste better, place the dough in the fridge for 2 or 3 days so it will develop some great flavor (am I right Ross?). I didn't do that. I mixed the dough at about 5 AM and let it rise till around noon. I then divided the dough for the buns and after forming the wiener buns and burger buns, I waited about one and a half hours for them to rise back up again before baking.

I might add that I used Costco all purpose flour that comes in the 25 lb bag for dirt cheap. Also, I buy SAF instant dry yeast in the bulk package and portion out about 4 ounces into a jar with a screw lid which is then placed in the fridge and the remainder is sealed well and put in the freezer. For pizza, I use only Gold Medal Supreme high gluten flour which only comes in the 50 lb bags. I portion that out and keep what I don't use in the next month in the freezer. It's a great flour for pizza and bread. I would have used it for Ross's recipe but I see he used all purpose Safeway flour. I seem to prefer the higher gluten flour myself and will probably use it the next time I make Ross's recipe. Plus, I will increase the salt content to 1.5% since the 1% I used was a bit bland.

[ssorllih]

Rudy is correct about the longer rise times and flavor.
If you like whole wheat bread try a recipe that uses one pound of whole wheat flour and three pounds of white. mix the whole wheat flour with 2 cups of water and about a ¼ teaspoon of yeast and allow it to sit out for 24 hours then finish mixing the bread with the rest of the flour and a total of 44 ounces of water.

That long ferment on the whole wheat does wonders for the taste. If you home brew some malt syrup in place of sugar is good. Sometimes WW flour needs a little more water than all white flour for the same dough stiffness.

The great benefit of using percentages and weights is complete flexibility on batch size. The ratio I used above is 1:3 whole wheat to white and about 68% water with a few practical limits you could make one small roll or fill your largest mixing bowl.

[sawhorseray]

That's what I was thinking from the original post, just wanted to make sure. This last batch I covered with a damp towel and placed in the fridge, then we took off for about eight hours. I was shocked at how much the dough had risen when we got back, at least double, maybe more. I dissolved the yeast into the liquid last time over a period of about 20 minutes, stirring until there were no globs left, figured that helped. I'll do some burger buns in a few days, tho might have to wait a bit longer. My wife's 60th comes up a week from today and that'll require a road trip, thinking Lincoln City, OR. Nice casino there with a great seafood buffet, rooms right on the beach, plenty of comps.

Oh, having been a bread machine guy for years I found this pizza dough recipe. Great flavor, perfect size, too easy to not use. RAY

3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon dry milk powder
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1.Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough cycle; press Start.
2.Remove dough from pan after rise cycle and use for your favorite pizza recipe.

[IdaKraut]

Ray,

Enjoy your road trip. Here's my favorite pizza dough recipe:

High gluten (bread) flour - 11.39 oz (weight)
Water (63%) 7.17 oz
IDY (0.52%) 0.06 oz (slightly more than 1/2 tsp)
Salt (1.6%) 0.18 oz (1 tsp)
Olive oil (5.5%) 0.63 oz (4 tsp)
Sugar (5%) 0.57 oz (4 tsp)
Total 20 oz

This will make enough dough for a 16" fairly thin crust pizza. Use the dough calculator that I referenced in a previous post if you want to use a different size (that's the beauty of that calculator - just plug in the above percentages and tell it the size you want to make).

[ssorllih]

Isn't it interesting how similar those two recipes are except for the lemon juice.
As we go along we will find that the ratio of flour and water stays pretty constant until we get into some of the rustic breads some of those use a very wet dough.

[IdaKraut]

Ross,

I agree. What I've found is that higher gluten flour will handle more water than AP but otherwise, you're right. I prefer the high gluten stuff for pizza but AP for bread and buns.

[ssorllih]

There are baking contests held around the country several times each year and one of the conditions is that all of the competitors use the same flour for all of their efforts. After that the results are judged.

I have used every house brand of AP flour available around here, usually selected by what is on sale.
In the south of Butterbean they sell a self rising flour that is blended for biscuits and it is superb for that and for pie crust but you will not like it for yeast bread.

Whole grain flour is almost never on sale and in those I find a broad range of taste and textures. Hodson's Mills sell a stone ground coarse texture whole grain flour that I prefer for a rustic bread.

[ssorllih]

On Sunday a friend gave me a quart of stewed beef heart, tongue, and tail in a nice dark rich stock. It is delightful and I will get his recipe. In the meantime we have eaten some and I decided to play with some so I made a small batch of bread and rolled some of it out thin and with a slotted spoon scooped out a little of the meat. I chopped it on a knife board and stirred in a teaspoon of flour. I placed little piles of meat on the dough and laid a second sheet on the first and cut them out and baked them. 25 minutes at 375°f

[unclebuck]

Good looking stuff. My German mother made them 50 odd years ago, however, she put sauerkraut into the meat mix. She would serve them up with gravy. We have lived in a community that has a large Lebanese population for 30 years. They call these delicacies "fatires." Unbelievable discovery on your part!!!!!

[ssorllih]

My knowledge of them came from some novels written about the towns on the upper peninsula in Michigan where they are called pasties and were lunch box pies for workers. The more that I read about them the more I am convinced that they were a practical way to make lunch for working men from leftovers from Sunday dinner. I suspect that the choice of fillings is entirely arbitrary.

[sawhorseray]

Ross,

I agree. What I've found is that higher gluten flour will handle more water than AP but otherwise, you're right. I prefer the high gluten stuff for pizza but AP for bread and buns.

Hi Rudy! Now that we've just returned from our little Oregon jaunt I'm thinking burger buns. Any insight as to how thick they are when coming out of the burger press? I know you said about 2.3 ounces, just wondering where to start at for setting the thickness on the press.

Oregon was great, California isn't and getting worse by the day. We're thinking of making a move, maybe around Medford, too far north gets too cold during the winter for us, I hate snow. No pigs there but saw some beautiful elk, they make good sausage too. Wild hog hunts would be just about a six hour drive away , way better tax and future water conditions up north. Oh, they have some decent fishing there too! RAY

[IdaKraut]

Ray,

If I recall, the burger press you have has an adjustable thickness. The one I use (I posted a link so you can see what it looks like) is the kind that just squishes the dough down. I would say if you set your thickness to about 1/2" you should be good. If the dough is not evenly spread out to your liking, just decrease the thickness a bit until you are happy.

[ssorllih]

Ray , there is a dough handling method for such as this that will be useful. When you dump the dough onto the table stretch it into a long strand a little thicker than a shovel handle. Then you can just chop off chunks pretty close to the same size. dust the cut ends with a little flour.