Bread Ingredients and Tools

[BakerAunt]

Bon Appetit emails often mix advertising with advice. I'm posting this link to an article on what is "needed" to bake better bread. Clearly, a lot of it jumps from the beginner to the expert, and leaves out all the people in the middle. However, it does give links to two other flour and grain sources, so I thought people might find it useful or at least interesting.

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/bread-making-tools?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=ba&utm_mailing=BA_ROTD_102920&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5c93032824c17c329bff212e&cndid=44882808&esrc=newsletteroverlay&utm_term=BA_Recipe_Of_The_Day

One tool they did not mention, which has become very important to me is the dough bucket.

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[Italiancook]

I've noticed in your posts, BakerAunt, that you make good use of your dough bucket. Seems to me you have two of different sizes -- am I right? I've seen them on the KABC site but never purchased one. I can't quickly imagine where I'd store something so big. Are they as big as they look in the picture? If you don't mind, where do you store yours when not in use?

Thanks for the article. Out of an abundance of curiosity, I'll probably order the Rouge de Bordeaux flour just to experience flour that has hints of baking spices in the finished product. I'm assuming there will be a recipe on the bag.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--I have three sizes of dough buckets. One is a 6-quart, one is a 4-quart, and two are 2-quart. The largest and smallest came from King Arthur, but the mid-sized one I found at the local thrift shop for 5o cents. I have two of the smallest size because KAF had a better deal on two. I keep them stacked inside each other, with the lids on the top. The lids of the 2-quart and 4-quart are interchangeable. The 2-quart is only about six inches high. It's perfect for pizza dough or a recipe of rolls, or a single small loaf of bread. For a larger loaf or two smaller loaves, I use the 4-quart. The 6-quart is perfect for when I make three loaves. Snap on lids seem to help retain warmth, which I think is lost less quickly than in ceramic bowls. It also cuts down on the need for saran. The 4-quart (size KAF does not sell) is a bit shorter than the 5 lb. flour holders they sell.

You might want to ask if a recipe is included. I am intrigued by the Rouge de Bordeaux but not sure how to use it.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, thanks for taking the time to explain your dough buckets to me. I don't think I have room to store them, but am interested, so who knows! I appreciate you telling me what you use each size for, because that gives me a good idea of what would be most useful in my kitchen.

Because of the time change, I was awake in the wee hours, so I checked out Barton Springs Mill online. They have a wonderful chart that tells in what applications one can use Rouge de Bordeaux and their other products. They sell RdB in Whole Wheat and 00. For medical reasons, I can't use whole wheat, so I was interested in 00. According to the chart, their 00 RdB can be used in many more ways than I'd ever thought of using KABC 00 flour. I wonder if I was selling short the KABC 00 flour by not fully utilizing it.

I read that their flour may need more hydration than store-bought flour. But I don't recall if that applied to all their flours or just Rouge de Bordeaux.

Pricing Rouge de Bordeaux is not for the faint of heart. A 5 lb. Rouge de Bordeaux is $28.00. Clearly, if I buy this, it'd be what my grandmother would call a splurge. I read many of the reviews and people indicate that the hint of baking spices is in the product, so I'm more intrigued than I was after reading the article you posted, BakerAunt. But Grandma taught me to never go on a splurge as an impulse, so I'll think about this until Monday or Tuesday.

They have a rye whose name also intrigues me in that it is an area in Italy. The wheat is grown in Texas, but I'm going to call them to ask about the origin of it. If it hails from the Abruzzo region of Italy, that's another temptation!

[Italiancook]

The Rouge de Bordeaux is also sold in a 2.5 lb. size.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--I measured the 2-qt. dough bucket this morning. It is 4 inches high and 7 inches in diameter. I remember now that I bought two of them so that when we go to my husband's family reunion (with my smaller bread machine in tow), I can make two concurrent batches of cinnamon rolls. I always lightly oil the bucket, with either canola (sweet rolls, most breads) or olive oil (pizza and certain specialty breads). The dough buckets stack inside each other nicely, and the 4-quart (which KAF does not sell, fits nicely with the smaller ones.

Yes, that is expensive flour. I will need to go back to the website and read the comments. Right now, I'm mulling over buying a special flour for a future attempt at the Rosetta Rolls, and I thought that was expensive.

[Italiancook]

The measurements help a lot, BakerAunt. Thanks. When I organized the downstairs pantry, I ended up with part of one shelf empty. I measured, and the small dough bucket will fit. So I'll soon own one. Mostly, I make dinner rolls, and the small size will be perfect for that. I looked on Amazon for the 4 quart dough bucket. Found a 4 qt. container with lid cited for "storage," but a review said it comes with a sticker that says it's not BPA-free. I don't often make a large loaf of bread or 24 rolls, so the 2 qt. will probably suit all my needs. Thanks for your help, BakerAunt.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA and her traveling bakery! FANTASTIC.

I've subbed in OO for other low gluten flowers when I did not have them like pastry flour but it was usually more expensive so I did not do that often. My OO was Caputo and it was a bit over a dollar a pound.

I found RdB at a place called Camas Country. It is a bit over a dollar a pound and they 2.5 and 25 pound bags. The 25 size was sold out.

The one they have is high gluten at 15% so it would not be good for OO uses.

I have one dough bucket and I love it. It is great for beginners or testing a new recipe when you really want to know how much something has risen. And it's lighter than my bowls. I think mine is 8 quarts and it came from KAF because we were at the store and I had credit. If I buy more I will not buy them from KAF because I can find them for less elsewhere and I know what I want.

I also have a square plastic bin I bought for marinating brisket that I bought before I realized how big a brisket really is. It is way to small for that but handles five pounds of dough very nicely. It doesn't have any of the measures but once I know what to look for in a rise it works very nicely.

I did NOT get my 10 quart mixer for my birthday so I am still using bowls and spoons and scrapers.

[Mike Nolan]

If it is a translucent container, you can take a magic marker and make some lines up the sides to help you measure how much it rises. I've used some 1 gallon ice cream buckets for rising dough (I still remember when they were 1.5 gallon buckets), but generally I just do it in the metal bowl for my 4.5 quart mixer, I've done it enough times that I can look at it and come up with a pretty good idea of how much it has increased.

The brand of ice cream we normally use (Blue Bunny) recently went to a square bucket, I think dough rising buckets need to be round.

[Mike Nolan]

Looks like Camas Country is out of the RdB flour in both sizes now.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The bakeries I've worked in all used big, covered rectangular tubs. I do not think they were food safe.

Can't believe Camus is out. That was fast!

[BakerAunt]

I also don't like rectangular containers, as it is easier to get the dough out of a rounded one.

I also have a 1-quart rising container, although I've yet to use it for dough. It was from KAF (before they were KABC) and has the nice older logo.

[Mike Nolan]

When you're bulk rising 100 pounds of dough, it'll rise into the corners, when you only make 2-3 pounds of it, the corners don't always get expanded into.

[aaronatthedoublef]

So I put my dough in a well oiled turkey-size baking bag and then into my container.

They didn't do that at the bakery and as Mike says the amounts of dough were much larger than my five pound batches. I don't think they were 100 pounds based on my ability to carry them. We oiled the containers like crazy and NOTHING stuck.

[Italiancook]

I read an article this evening that listed items expected to be in short supply during cold/flu/covid-19 season. Food items included pasta and baking ingredients. Sorry, I have a bad habit of reading online and not noting which media says what. Because of the article, I placed a KABC order that included semolina and the 2 quart dough bucket. But, I'm going to need dinner rolls before the bucket arrives. I'm planning on making Butterhorns, but it's dependent on when workers arrive to do the last out of the fall outside work.

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