What are you Baking the Week of April 4, 2021?

[chocomouse]

I made whole wheat English muffins. Not really "baked", but griddled. I've been craving bagels, but denying myself the pleasure. I have an appointment with my pcp next week, and don't want to screw up any blood tests with all that cream cheese!

[Mike Nolan]

I've been tinkering around with spreading out butter/sugar/cinnamon paste on waxed paper and freezing it. It looks like it has to be about 1/8" thick in order to be easy to handle while frozen.

I'm going to be testing making a small batch of fan tan rolls using some of the frozen paste in between layers, also brushing the dough with maple syrup.

Whether it's worth the extra effort remains to be seen. Chilling the dough after cutting it into strips might accomplish pretty much the same thing, I may try that with half the dough.

[Italiancook]

I sliced my bread tonight. It was supposed to be for the freezer. But, one end of the bread had 1 medium-sized open air hole in each slice. Anyone know what caused that?

I had a major problem with my stand mixer while kneading the bread. The head bounced up and down like a bucking bronco. I held it down for a bit and then gave up & called the dough kneaded enough. But when I saw the air hole in each slice at one end, I wondered. I'm going to be in the market for a new stand mixer if adjusting the screw doesn't solve the problem on the next loaf of bread. I won't buy the brand I have -- this is the second one the company has sent me that did this.

[Mike Nolan]

Large holes are usually a shaping issue.

It sounds like the lock wasn't fully engaged. See if you can lock it in place without the bowl there.

I'm glad I'm not in the market for a new stand mixer right now, figuring out which KA models are the good ones is challenging, and the non-KA market is not much better, the commercial ones are usually the better ones, but are not cheap.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday (another busy day in the kitchen), I baked Skeptic’s Pumpkin Biscotti, using some pumpkin I froze last fall. As always, I slightly reduce the sugar to 2/3 cup and use white whole wheat flour rather than AP. I also sprinkle the log with demerara sugar before the first bake.

I also made dough for another batch of my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I will bake them later next week.

My final project was to try KABC’s Italian-Style flour, which was a part of a Christmas present from one of my sisters. I found a recipe on the KABC site for Gourmet Soda Crackers. The dough is mixed the night before and rests in a covered bowl in the refrigerator (a dough bucket in my case) for up to 17 hours, so I will shape and bake them tomorrow. I am concerned, since it was a very wet dough, almost like a thick batter. However, I looked at the recipe reviews, and people rave about the crackers, so we shall see.

[Mike Nolan]

Well, freezing the butter/sugar/cinnamon paste works, but I think it is probably easier and faster to lay out a strip of dough, spread some soft butter on it, brush the surface with maple syrup and then sprinkle on cinnamon sugar. Whether that gets as much sugar on each layer is probably something we'll have to determine by taste.

I made a tray of each and am freezing them overnight, since they seem to bake just fine straight from the freezer.

We'll see if I can tell much difference in them after baking.

[Italiancook]

Mike, I admire your persistence with the fantan rolls. I can't imagine I'll ever bake them, but it's fun to read of your adventures with them.

Thanks, Mike,, for telling me why I had the air hole in one end. I can believe it is a shaping issue, because it was the worst shaped bread I've ever had. Both ends sloped downward, and the top had imperfections in it. I don't know why I didn't see all that with the unbaked dough in the pan. Thanks for your input about my buckin' bronco stand mixer. I tightened the screw & will bake bread soon to try it out.

[BakerAunt]

An update on the Gourmet Soda Crackers. Here's the link to the recipe:

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/gourmet-soda-crackers-recipe

When I took out the dough on Saturday morning, it had risen, but it was a gloppy mess, not the "clay-like" the recipe states. There was no way that I could roll it out. I ended up stirring another half cup of the Italian-Style flour into it, and with what I put down on the mat, I probably added an additional ¼ cup before I had a dough that I could roll out. After the first rolling and folding, I did the second roll out directly onto the baking parchment, cut the crackers, and did not try to separate or move them. I dispensed with seeds or more salt on the top.

I used the convection bake on my oven, so I reduced the temperature from 425F to 400F and baked on the third rack up, as I do with my other crackers. I turned the pan around at the halfway point. After 10 minutes, I took them out, turned off the oven, removed the crackers from the parchment and lined them back up on the pan, then put it back into the oven. KABC calls for opening the oven door, but my oven immediately vents excess heat once it is turned off, so I left the door closed and kept an eye on the crackers. They are drying out and not overbrowning. I will see how they are when completely cooled.

I am wondering if the flour is not the Italian-Style Flour that the bag states. I do not think that replacing the 2 Tbs. melted butter with 1 Tbs. oil, using active rather than instant yeast, and not using the 1 Tbs. dough improver can account for the gloppy dough. All the reviews are glowing, and the blog shows a completely different dough to be rolled out. I know that my flour measurement was accurate because I measured into the bowl with measuring cups, but I also had the bowl on the scale to check the grams. Indeed, I had a few grams over what the recipe states.

I plan to call the KABC hotline. I have not had much luck with the hotline in the past, but I will see if the person who answers can offer an explanation.

[Mike Nolan]

We tried some of the rolls this morning. Both of us had a slight preference for the ones that were made by spreading butter on the dough then brushing it with maple syrup and sprinkling on cinnamon sugar, so that's probably how I'll do this in the future.

The recipe I'm using is this one from the Food Network:
Fan Tan Rolls, substituting cinnamon sugar and maple syrup for the herbs. This is a pretty good basic dinner roll recipe, I may make it as plain dinner rolls some time, too.

I also took a 13x17 pan and turned it on its side then used it to stage the dough, so that the dough was sitting on the 2" side wall. That way it had a back to rest against and didn't slide around. Made things much easier.

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by Mike Nolan.

[BakerAunt]

I talked to the KABC Baker's Hot Line about the recipe. She suggested reducing the water to 2 Tbs., which I already planned to do next time I bake these, but she too thought it odd that the dough had been so goopy. She said that she would send it in for a re-test. She did not think that there had been a flour mix-up.

The crackers are still in the pan in the still warm oven and have crisped nicely. I tried a couple warm ones, and these crackers are good--think superior Saltines--and I will definitely make them again, especially as I have the Italian-Style flour to use. I did not put any topping on them, but they are good plain and would also be nice with a topping. (I would put the topping on, and press it into the the crackers BEFORE cutting into squares.) My husband keeps opening the oven and sneaking some. It made about 48 2-inch crackers. I plan to try these with some quick guacamole tomorrow.

Now I need to look at the pita chip recipe.

[chocomouse]

BakerAunt, I've wondered what is the difference between the Italian style flour and the 00 Pizza flour. I know the 00 has hard red wheat flour and soft wheat flour, and the Italian has only soft red winter wheat. Odd that both are promoted as great for pizza crusts. I have used both, with pizza and focaccia and maybe one or two other things. I really thought neither was so great, just OK or not so great. I don't remember a lot of detail. I do have some 00 left, so maybe I should use that in another crust soon. At the time I bought the last bag, I was wondering why they would have two different flours with such similar purpose. Confusing!

[Mike Nolan]

Ask three Italians about the right way to make pizza dough and you'll probably get 5 recipes, using everything from a soft pastry flour to a high-gluten flour. My former neighbor sold tons of high-gluten flour (15%) to local pizza chains.

Although we like the pizza crust I've been making lately, I think I'm going to do some experimenting with pizza dough crusts again, I'm still trying to come up with something close to the thin crust pizza we got in Evanston 45 years ago. :sigh:

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--the low amount of gluten in the the Italian-style is supposed to make it easier to roll out the dough so that it does not fight back, I would guess that the pizza flour KABC sells has a little more gluten in it, since it uses some hard red wheat? I have never bought either flour, but since my sister gifted me the Italian-Style, I wanted to find a way to use it. At the KABC site I found a recipe for bread sticks that uses it, and the bag has a focaccia recipe.

I'm wondering if the cracker recipe was originally developed with a different kind of flour--which would explain the odd inclusion of the dough relaxer, which should not be needed (and indeed is not needed) with such a low gluten flour. It's puzzling, since PJ apparently uses the Italian-Style in her blog for the crackers. However, my dough looked nothing like the pictures of hers. I wonder if the recipe originally used that mellow pastry blend--which I never tried.

[chocomouse]

Mike, we never got pizza in Evanston. Our favorite was Buffo's, in Highwood. This was in the 1980s, and my son still says Buffo's pizza is the best, although he has not eaten it for 30 years!

[chocomouse]

BakerAunt, I believe, but not sure, that the 00 flour has been available at KABC for several years, and the Italian style was quite recently introduced. When I first saw it, I thought it was part of their logo change and "new" bag style, and they had just given it a new name. From what you just posted here, it seems that the folks at KABC are just as confused as we are!

I did notice the Italian was advertised to not fight back (perhaps for the new, impatient baker?) - and thought sheesh, just let it rest a couple minutes, or add some dough relaxer.

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