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I'll see what I can find on YouTube. I don't want to use bread flour, since she says that it will make the pastry less tender, and cautions against using it unless the recipe specifies to do so.
BTW--the buns were definitely superior on the first day. There was a drop off in texture and taste when I ate most of the last two on Monday morning. (My husband also sampled a piece and agreed.)
Beatrice Ojakangas does have a WordPress site, so I have posted a question there. The last post was a couple of years ago, so I do not know if there will be an answer, but I will let everyone know if there is.
I would leave the cake flour at 2 cups and see what happens with the other changes. If you change too much at once, you won't know what actually made the difference.
I was just thinking of Livingwell this morning when my husband and I followed the sacred baking oath to do QC (Quality Control) before I took those buns to church. I miss her comments, and how her questions helped us to learn more about baking.
I baked the "Norwegian Coffee Buns," from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book (Little Brown, 1988), p. 95, on Saturday evening into early Sunday morning. I needed a quantity sweet roll recipe that would make 2 dozen for a last-minute announced breakfast event at my church on Sunday morning. I chose this one from the coffee bread section because it made 2 dozen, and it did not require the 4 hour or overnight refrigeration of dough before shaping and the second rise.
Here are the ingredients:
2 packages active dried yeast (I reduced to 4 tsp. from that 4 1/2 tsp.)
1 cup warm water (105-115F; I used 110F)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup melted butter. (I melted a 4 oz. stick), cooled
1 tsp pulverized cardamom seed. (I crush with a mortar and pestle; I used 3/4 tsp.)
2 cups milk, scalded and cooled to lukewarm (I used 2 cups buttermilk and did not heat it.)
6-6 1/2 cups flour (I used KAF AP, and ended up using 7 cups)I used my Cuisinart 7-qt. stand mixer. I proofed the yeast as directed, then I added the rest of the sugar, the cardamom seed, the buttermilk, and the melted butter. (I held out the salt, which she added here.) I mixed in 4 cups of flour, using the flat paddle. Then I let it sit covered for 15 minutes. (She actually mixed in 3 cups of the flour, then the rest until the mixture would not absorb any more flour, and then let it stand 15 minutes.) I changed to the kneading spiral, then mixed in the 2 cups of flour combined with the salt. I quickly realized that would not be enough and added the "extra" 1/2 cup, then put in yet another cup. I went ahead and kneaded it for 4 minutes at a speed of 3. It was still pretty sticky, but I figured it would absorb more in the first rise.
I let it rise for an hour, and it certainly did! When I punched it down, it was clearly still a rather sticky--as in all over the hands!--dough. She said to turn it out onto an oiled surface, divide into 24 pieces, and shape "into smooth balls." It was a challenge to weigh out the dough to get even balls, and even with damp fingertips, it was not possible to shape them into balls. I did not use an oiled surface but my silicone mat. I would get them into the best half-rounded shape I could, then use my scraper to plop them on parchment-lined cookie sheets. The second rise was supposed to be 45 minutes, but I only let it go for almost 30 minutes before brushing them with a slightly beaten egg and 2 Tbs. milk (1 %), and sprinkling with pearled sugar. They bake at 375F and had nice oven spring, but they did spread more than I would like to see--and ran together a bit. (Next time, I will use my wide Reynolds parchment.) I baked for 17 minutes rather than the given 15 minutes, since I use heavy cookie sheets that require this adjustment.
This morning, my husband and I did Quality Control on one. They have a lovely, airy texture, and wonderful taste (3/4 tsp. of cardamom was enough), so I took them to my church function, and they got rave reviews. Only two returned home with me. People want the recipe. I had to tell them that it is a very difficult dough to work with (one lady of Norwegian ancestry said that she has a sweet bread recipe that if you are not silently cussing to yourself while shaping it, you are doing it wrong), and I'm not sure that I'd try it without a stand mixer. I told them that I'd like to tweak it and try it again before passing it on. (Only one of these people is somewhat of a serious baker.)
If you have suggestions about this recipe, I'd like to hear them. Beatrice Ojakangas does not give detailed instructions on kneading or on handling such a wet dough, nor does she specify what kind of flour she uses, other than an AP flour with a protein of 11-12 grams per cup. Should I add more flour--perhaps bring it up to 7 1/2 cups or 8? Is the issue that I need to find some tutorial on working with a rather slack/sticky dough? I do have a note on another coffee bread recipe in this section that I tried a long time ago that the dough when shaped was so sticky that I really had to flour my surface to shape them, and even then, I recall having some difficulty. (This was before I had a stand mixer or a silicone mat. I've come a long way.)
Cwcdesign, here is what I might do with the recipe.
1. Use extra-fine sugar. The weight is the same as regular sugar. You can either buy it in the store, or process it in a blender or food processor. (If you do the latter, be sure the lid is tight: one of my friends had an issue where it came off, and she had sugar--then ants--all over her kitchen. It's easier to get extra-fine sugar creamed into butter. I use it for all my cakes, and my observation is that it creates a more tender crumb.
2. After creaming in the sugar, I would mix in the honey and the oil. I'd add each egg separately and beat after each one--making sure that I got all the egg white out of the shell. (I use that handy tool--a finger!).
3. I agree that the baking powder and salt amounts seem to be the inverse of what is required. I'm basing that on comparison with a Swedish Rum Bundt Cake that I bake. It also has 4 eggs, but 1 3/4 cups sugar, grated lemon peel, and 2 1/2 cups flour, 2/3 cups milk, and 2/3 cups unsalted butter. It calls for 1 3/4 tsp. baking powder but no salt. (I'll have to add about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp.--that recipe must have once used salted butter.)
4. That bundt cake does bake at 350F for 50-60 min., and I have a note that it is done at 50 minutes. The recipe calls for a 12-cup Bundt pan.
I hope these comments are helpful. Keep us posted!
On Labor Day, I baked two loaves of Grape Nuts bread--my husband's favorite for sandwiches. On Wednesday, I baked Hazelnut Heart Cakelets (the recipe came with a Nordic Ware pan, 5 cups) that has six hearts. I really like the flavor, especially when served with fresh strawberries. Saturday evening, I tried a new recipe, Norwegian Coffee Buns (Hveteboller), from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book, by Beatrice Ojakangas (p. 95). I had some difficulties with the recipe, so I will post about it in a separate thread.
On Labor Day, I made a beef pot roast with potatoes, carrots, red bell pepper, and mushrooms in my crockpot. I seasoned it with garlic, Penzey's beef bouillon, black pepper, a Tbs. of tomato paste from a tube, a bit of Worcestershire sauce, a bit of sugar, and rosemary. (Onions are omitted because my husband does not like them.) 3 1/2 hours on high was perfect in my Montgomery Ward crockpot. We ate it for most of the week. On Friday, I made Dilled Salmon and Couscous (recipe posted on this site).
I've been asked to make this cake again and did a little research on the recipe. And, then I discovered I never followed up on it here. So here's what I learned and here's what I'm thinking.
Ina posted the recipe on food network. The comments were pretty evenly split between too dry and perfect. Many thought it should be baked at 325 instead of 350. I'm definitely going to try that. One person had the same recipe from a 2007 House Beautiful where Ina used less flour. Someone used more honey and vanilla which I'd like to do. I think I wrote in another post how you put the eggs, vanilla and lemon zest in a measuring cup and then add one egg at a time and the other ingredients flow in. I wonder if I could cream the honey with the butter and sugar to get all of the honey in the cake. Oh, I think this same person did some research and thought maybe the quantities of baking powder and salt should be switched.
Here are the ingredients as written with possible changes in parentheses
½ pound butter at cool room temperature
1¼ cups sugar
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons honey (3 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons vanilla (1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 cups sifted cake flour (1 3/4 cups flour or 1 3/4 cup AP minus 3 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (½ teaspoon)
½ teaspoon baking powder (1 teaspoon)Basically cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time. Sift dry ingredients together and add slowly while on low speed.
The person who used the recipe from HB said she used 1½ cups flour
Looking forward to your thoughts. Thanks!
Here are the ingred
