What are you Baking the week of December 6, 2020?

[Mike Nolan]

I"m making Hamelman's soft butter rolls recipe as burger and hot dog buns, I"m going to let them proof a little longer than I normally do.

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[Italiancook]

What's the purpose of the extra proofing, Mike?

I'm going to measure the dry ingredients for Blackberry Muffins into a bowl with a lid. I'll measure out the blackberries and put in a lidded container for fridge. In the morning, I'll make the blackberry muffins for breakfast and the freezer. I'd do it all now, but my husband has a project going in the kitchen. He's roasting country ribs.

[Mike Nolan]

To see if they'll rise more, based on a discussion in the BBGA forum about this recipe. The hot dog buns are currently in the fridge, I'll take them out and let them rise for 2 hours before they go in the oven, most likely in the morning.

[Mike Nolan]

Well, the buns got a bit over-baked, I need to remember that the recipes in Hamelman's book work better for me if I lower the temperature/time a bit.

I'm not sure if the extra proof time worked or not. I'll do the hot dog buns in the morning at a lower temp.

[Joan Simpson]

I read that recipe Mike and 400* seems like a high temp.

I have a question..do you ever use bread flour when a recipe calls for ap?

[Italiancook]

I baked rolls at an even higher temp today. I made Butterhorn Rolls from a Mennonite cookbook. My second time. Unfortunately, I didn't make any notes after doing them the first time. Lived to regret that. Recipe calls for a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. I thought that was too long at such a high temp, so i set the timer for 17 minutes. They came out black, but still soft inside. I gave that pan of rolls to my husband. He just had one and said, "They're good." The reason I didn't toss them in the trash was I thought he'd like them with coffee.

I baked the second pan for 11 minutes, and they're beautifully browned. Soft and light inside. Recipe uses shortening. Recently, I read that shortening in rolls makes them light.

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Italiancook.

[Mike Nolan]

Hard rolls at a higher temp makes sense to me but not buns where you want them to be soft.

I did the hot dog buns today, 17 minutes at 350. Didn't get quite as much rise as I was hoping for, but I made them kind of small (1.65 ounces each) so that probably impacted height somewhat.

I'll probably have one for supper with some vegetable beef soup.

[BakerAunt]

I'm glad that the second pan came out better, Italian Cook. Higher heat can encourage a faster oven spring. I discovered that my sourdough breads do better if the oven is initially at a higher heat, even if I then lower it after the loaves go in.

I promised my husband an apple pie, so I baked one early Monday afternoon, using Bernard Clayton’s streusel top recipe. I used my part whole wheat oil crust. The filling was 10 Jonathan apples, which I bought at the store before I knew we would be going to the apple place. (At least they are from Michigan.) I tried something new with the streusel topping. I made the regular amount, but I used 1 Tbs. melted butter and 3 Tbs. grapeseed oil.

We were also out of bread on Monday, so I baked my version of the KABC Pompanoosuc Porridge Bread. I have figured out that cooking ½ cup of the porridge in 1 cup of water gives the right amount of porridge for the recipe. I replaced 1 cup water with buttermilk and 2 Tbs. sugar with 1 ½ Tbs. maple syrup. I reduced the salt from 2 ½ tsps. (!) to 1 1/2 tsp. and reduced the yeast from 2 tsp. to 1 ¾ tsp. I replaced 2 Tbs. of butter with 1 ½ Tbs. olive oil, which I added after the initial mixing of the other ingredients. I use the Zo to do the mixing and kneading. I had baked this bread last spring, using my baking bowl (original recipe gives it as an option), but it is a lot of dough for the bowl, even if it made a high loaf. This time, I substituted my Emile Henry long baker without the lid. The long baker handles the amount of dough nicely, and the shape is better for sandwiches. I slashed it horizontally and baked for 40 minutes to 200F. I look forward to slicing it tomorrow at lunch.

[Mike Nolan]

Didn't have it with a hot dog, but the buns/rolls went well with the vegetable beef soup I made today. In fact, I had two of them.

[Italiancook]

Interesting you mentioned the oven spring in a hotter oven, BakerAunt. My smaller butterhorns didn't expand very much during the second rise as compared to the properly cut ones. But they rose beautifully in the 425 degree oven. No one would ever guess that they had been cut too small -- I even had a hard time guessing which ones they were.

[chocomouse]

I made two loaves of rye bread today. I got good oven spring (although nothing like the tremendous spring I get on my whole wheat bread) even though I started with a cold oven.

[Italiancook]

My beloved stepmother insisted that bread be put into a cold oven for baking. I've done that all my adult life. Then I came across recipes to preheat the oven. The rolls I made today called for a preheated oven. Is it more correct to start with a cold oven. Or, doesn't it matter if you adjust time?

BakerAunt, when I baked the blackberry muffins this morning, I put Swedish Pearl Sugar on top -- the correct way. They came out of the oven looking much prettier. Thanks, again.

[Mike Nolan]

The challenge with starting to bake in a cold oven is you need to know your oven well, at least for electric ovens.

Some electric ovens turn on both the upper and lower element during a pre-heat cycle, which can cause premature browning on the top.

[chocomouse]

I never use the "pre-heat" function, ever. If I want my oven to be heated up to the correction temperature, I simply turn it on to regular baking. I do usually put bread into a hot oven - unless I'm in a hurry or the bread is over-rising.

[Mike Nolan]

Some electric ovens don't give you a choice, if they sense the oven is cold they use both elements to try to get it up to temp as fast as possible.

That's why I said you need to know what YOUR oven does!

MY son has a Fisher and Paykel dual wall oven that has over a half dozen mode settings, and I have no clue what most of them do.

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