subfuscpersona
Sous Chef
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2004
- Messages
- 561
Broosky's bread made by hand
hi Broosky - it's me again -
hey - I just noticed this in your earlier post...
Also, for any of your test batches, after the dough was kneaded did you ever give it a rise in the bowl before letting it rise in the pan?
Anyway, I decided to make your recipie entirely by hand. I used a small battery-powered kitchen scale to weigh ingredients (scale doesn't include weight of container if you put the container on the scale before turning it on). BTW, you said your...
and here are my notes...
prep > Take yeast out of freezer. Put 150gm by weight AP and BR flour in seperate bowls and measure out dry ingredients. Put 180gm water (1 ml = 1 grm right?) in measuring cup (actually looked closer to 200 ml). Get out bowl and sturdy wire whip.
proof yeast > put about 1/4 cup of the water, 2 pinches of the sugar and all of yeast in bowl - give it a good stir and let sit for about 5 min to proof.
make sponge > stir all of the bread flour into bowl and beat/stir by hand for about 5 min - this is actual time (can't include time spent resting my weary hand). Ok - I have errands to run so I'll just leave bowl uncovered on the counter and check it in about an hour. Should have about doubled in bulk by that time.
add remaining ingredients > Hmmm, took longer than I expected for errands (maybe 90 min?) but I made a detour to buy an oven thermometer. Sponge has definitely doubled and kitchen has a pleasant yeasty smell. Stir in rest of sugar, salt, oil. Start stirring in AP flour in small batches. Oops, should have switched to a spoon cuz batter is glomming up inside the whip. Pry out dough; looks like I've added about 1/2 of the AP flour. Time to knead...
kneading > Should start by noting that all flour is coming from the bowl of 150 gm AP flour (not using any extra). Sprinkle a small handful of the AP flour on table, dump dough on top of flour, flour hands . Dough is really sticky and moist at this point so must knead gently. Each time dough starts to stick to my hands, I take a small amount of flour and rub it through my hands letting the rest fall on top of the dough. By the time I've kneaded in 2/3 of the AP flour the dough is taking shape and isn't as sticky. Keep adding a small handful of flour at a time, kneading it after each addition until dough starts to stick to the table at which point I add more flour and resume kneading. After about 7 min all flour well incorporated and dough has a nice "hand" - light, smooth and resilient. Could stop now but decide to knead a little longer (didn't use any more flour!) for a total kneading time of 10 min.
rise in bowl > lightly oil bowl, dump in dough, turn in circle and flip so top is oiled. Normally I cover the top of the dough with platic wrap but, since the dough is a little moister than I'm used to, decide simply to cover bowl with a towel. Set timer for 1 hour. In the interest of scientific accuracy I check the local temperature - http://weather.gov/ tells me its in the low 70's and the humidity is 54%. (This is fun! - I feel like I'm back in a 6th grade science class.)
shape dough and rise in pan > One hour was just right - dough has doubled in bulk and weighs 500 gm. Sprinkle a tiny amount of flour on board, knead about 4-5 turns (notice dough is not as moist as it was before the rise), form into ball, cover with towel and let rest for about 15 min while I grease my pan and tidy up the kitchen. Shape into loaf and put in pan. Hmmm, dough looks a little lonely in there - is pan too big??? Dig around for a smaller pan - find a metal one measuring 7.5" x 4" x 2" deep (capacity 3 cups) - grease pan and in goes the dough - definitely a better size. Check dough after 30 min. Nicely risen. Score top of dough, start oven preheating to 350F. Temp reached after about 10 minutes. On to ...
baking > Set bread pan on rack in middle of oven. Not sure how long to bake so will check progress in 30 min.
...30 min later - bread definitely continued to rise in the oven (looks like maybe an additional inch?) and is just starting to color slightly. Will check again in 10-15 min...
...15 min later - crust hasn't browned much more (the crust of my white bread is usually darker after 45 min baking). Will mimic broosky's aproach by removing bread from pan and setting directly on rack - I'll kick up the heat to 375F too...
...15 min later - bread is a light golden tan - I don't want to over-bake so out it comes to cool on a rack. Finished product is about 4" high and weighs 425gm.
Gotta go meet a friend so will post this now (hope it's not too long). Cheers to all - SP
hi Broosky - it's me again -
hey - I just noticed this in your earlier post...
wow! 90 minutes kneading for a l-lb loaf seems awfully long to me - is this normal for using a bread machine?
Also, for any of your test batches, after the dough was kneaded did you ever give it a rise in the bowl before letting it rise in the pan?
Anyway, I decided to make your recipie entirely by hand. I used a small battery-powered kitchen scale to weigh ingredients (scale doesn't include weight of container if you put the container on the scale before turning it on). BTW, you said your...
I had neither soy or gluten flour in the house so I left out the soy and substituted half AP and half bread flour. Here's your recipie again with what I used in italics.
and here are my notes...
prep > Take yeast out of freezer. Put 150gm by weight AP and BR flour in seperate bowls and measure out dry ingredients. Put 180gm water (1 ml = 1 grm right?) in measuring cup (actually looked closer to 200 ml). Get out bowl and sturdy wire whip.
proof yeast > put about 1/4 cup of the water, 2 pinches of the sugar and all of yeast in bowl - give it a good stir and let sit for about 5 min to proof.
make sponge > stir all of the bread flour into bowl and beat/stir by hand for about 5 min - this is actual time (can't include time spent resting my weary hand). Ok - I have errands to run so I'll just leave bowl uncovered on the counter and check it in about an hour. Should have about doubled in bulk by that time.
add remaining ingredients > Hmmm, took longer than I expected for errands (maybe 90 min?) but I made a detour to buy an oven thermometer. Sponge has definitely doubled and kitchen has a pleasant yeasty smell. Stir in rest of sugar, salt, oil. Start stirring in AP flour in small batches. Oops, should have switched to a spoon cuz batter is glomming up inside the whip. Pry out dough; looks like I've added about 1/2 of the AP flour. Time to knead...
kneading > Should start by noting that all flour is coming from the bowl of 150 gm AP flour (not using any extra). Sprinkle a small handful of the AP flour on table, dump dough on top of flour, flour hands . Dough is really sticky and moist at this point so must knead gently. Each time dough starts to stick to my hands, I take a small amount of flour and rub it through my hands letting the rest fall on top of the dough. By the time I've kneaded in 2/3 of the AP flour the dough is taking shape and isn't as sticky. Keep adding a small handful of flour at a time, kneading it after each addition until dough starts to stick to the table at which point I add more flour and resume kneading. After about 7 min all flour well incorporated and dough has a nice "hand" - light, smooth and resilient. Could stop now but decide to knead a little longer (didn't use any more flour!) for a total kneading time of 10 min.
rise in bowl > lightly oil bowl, dump in dough, turn in circle and flip so top is oiled. Normally I cover the top of the dough with platic wrap but, since the dough is a little moister than I'm used to, decide simply to cover bowl with a towel. Set timer for 1 hour. In the interest of scientific accuracy I check the local temperature - http://weather.gov/ tells me its in the low 70's and the humidity is 54%. (This is fun! - I feel like I'm back in a 6th grade science class.)
shape dough and rise in pan > One hour was just right - dough has doubled in bulk and weighs 500 gm. Sprinkle a tiny amount of flour on board, knead about 4-5 turns (notice dough is not as moist as it was before the rise), form into ball, cover with towel and let rest for about 15 min while I grease my pan and tidy up the kitchen. Shape into loaf and put in pan. Hmmm, dough looks a little lonely in there - is pan too big??? Dig around for a smaller pan - find a metal one measuring 7.5" x 4" x 2" deep (capacity 3 cups) - grease pan and in goes the dough - definitely a better size. Check dough after 30 min. Nicely risen. Score top of dough, start oven preheating to 350F. Temp reached after about 10 minutes. On to ...
baking > Set bread pan on rack in middle of oven. Not sure how long to bake so will check progress in 30 min.
...30 min later - bread definitely continued to rise in the oven (looks like maybe an additional inch?) and is just starting to color slightly. Will check again in 10-15 min...
...15 min later - crust hasn't browned much more (the crust of my white bread is usually darker after 45 min baking). Will mimic broosky's aproach by removing bread from pan and setting directly on rack - I'll kick up the heat to 375F too...
...15 min later - bread is a light golden tan - I don't want to over-bake so out it comes to cool on a rack. Finished product is about 4" high and weighs 425gm.
Gotta go meet a friend so will post this now (hope it's not too long). Cheers to all - SP
