Recent content by Livingston

I think I got what I needed out of this thread but will keep monitoring. As I mentioned in the original post I'm a novice and pretty much limit my baking to a lot of cinnamon rolls annually (although I did try a pita recipe a week or so back). Each year there's an opportunity to learn a little...

JustPlainBill Very interesting post. That's pretty much the method I've used over the years that, this year, had rise problems. I'm beginning to conclude that my original problem was caused because the refrigerator was way too cold (just below freezing). The reason that hadn't happened...

I did some research on yeast and temp and realized I'm dancing very close to the kill zones. From Wikipedia: Yeasts will grow over a temperature range of 10 °C (50 °F) to 37 °C (99 °F), with an optimal temperature range of 30 °C (86 °F) to 37 °C (99 °F), depending on the type of species (S...

Philso, et. al. Thanks so much for the posts. Temperature is a good thing to focus on. First, I must admit I am a bit loose when it comes to liquid temps including the proofing water and the milk. At one time I tested the temperature of the hot water from our tap and decided it was close...

The water is between 110 and 115. The proof is always very good.

One other thing I forgot to mention is pan size. A few years ago I invested in some good quality 9 x 13 x 2 1/4 baking pans. I'm putting 12 rolls in each. One thing I've been thinking about is to increase the total amount of dough and cut the rolls thicker. Liv

I haven't bitten the bullet yet on a bread machine but once I get this recipe to work consistently I'll post it. So, if not ingredients, lets shift to method. I scald the milk and let it cool to 110-120. In the mean time I proof the yeast in water with a pinch of sugar (4 min). I also start...

Thanks Kathy, The reason I’m mixing bread and cake techniques is, as I said in the OP, because I'm a novice and am here to learn. I get that creaming butter/sugar isn’t a bread technique. I’ll not make that mistake again. Thanks for the brief description of your technique. I tend to...

Thanks for the post, and, as you can tell, I'm pretty much a novice looking to learn. I'm just trying different techniques/ratios with one recipe. So, did I just learn that creaming (which appears to be called for when making some cakes or cookies) is specifically for those outcomes? What I...

BTW, I realized after posting that the measures are not in baker's percentages (the flour isn't 100%). I've got some work yet to do to make the conversion accurate. Liv

I'm not sure this is what you were referring to but my mother used an egg in coffee. The reason (I thought) was to gather the grounds so there was less in the poured cup. The technique she used was to place dry grounds in the bottom of a coffee pot, add the egg (mix), pour in boiling water...

Novice baker. For some years now I've been baking my mother's cinnamon roll recipe as gifts for family. I'll crank out 12-14 dozen 2 dozen at a time. To learn, I take the opportunity to work on the recipe and technique each year and this year was no exception. This year's batches didn't get...

Hi CharlieD Would you post your recipe again and compare it to the one you tried. I'd like to understand the basic differences. For me this is not so much a question of which recipe one prefers, but what makes them different. Liv

Thanks so much for an excellent analysis. You were absolutely right. The last experiment produced pretty thin and runny batter. For the next experiement I increased the AP flour to 1 1/2C and used 1 C milk. I also decided to increase the baking soda to a full T but to add 1/4 t baking soda...

I'm back with the results of some testing. Remember, my obective was to learn about how ingredients affected results, not just looking for a recipe. P.S. Thanks for the note on adding blueberries. It's the color and that makes sense. Back to the recipes. I ran four experiments. The first...