What's the Difference?

[GotGarlic]

I found a Middle Eastern grocery store/café near my GI doctor's office a couple years ago. I had lunch there and shopper the market. They had a large bag of toasted sesame seeds for less than $5, if I remember correctly. If you decide to use sesame seeds regularly, and can get to a specialty store, consider looking for them there. Asian grocery stores often have larger quantities at good prices, too.

And those are super cute cookies! [emoji16]

 

[Andy M.]

I found a Middle Eastern grocery store/café near my GI doctor's office a couple years ago. I had lunch there and shopper the market. They had a large bag of toasted sesame seeds for less than $5, if I remember correctly. If you decide to use sesame seeds regularly, and can get to a specialty store, consider looking for them there. Asian grocery stores often have larger quantities at good prices, too.

And those are super cute cookies! [emoji16]

If the scali bread recipe works out, I'll pick up some sesame seeds in larger quantities than the jar at one of the local Indian, Pakistani, Asian markets within 15 minutes of me.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I;m taking your advise, to make to identical batches of dough, and kneading one batch by hand, then letting it rise traditionally, and using the bread machine to mix, knead, and cook the other batch.

So far, making by hand is quicker, as my method for raising the yeast is faster. I scald the milk from the recipe, then add the flour, sugar, salt, butter, and yest, in that order, to the hot milk. this gives the milk time to cool and not kill the yeast, but is still about 90 degrees F. I then heat a microwave save cereal bowl half full of water in the microwave until the water is just starting to boil. I then place the bowl containing the bread dough on top of the cereal bowl and close the microwave door. The entire dough ball stays warm and the dough rises quickly. When it has doubled in size, I transfer to my bread pan, reheat the water, and place the bread pan on top for the 2nd rise. Then pop it into the oven. It takes a total of about 2 hours from start to finish. The bread maker takes 3.5 hours to do the same thing.

Both breads are baking right now. I let you know which one comes our better.

Seeeeeya'; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Thr crust wasn't nearly as evenly done with the breadmaker as it was from the oven. In fact, it was perfect from the oven. Plus, bith liavrs I have made in the breadmaker have been damaged upon forcing th bread to release from the loaf pan. The stiring/kneading paddles stick badly, tearing out chunks from the loaf bottom. I made sure to lubricate the pan well, the first time with butter, and the second, with cooking spray. This is supposed to be one of the top brands of breadmsker, Zojarushi. I definitely prefer a wuality brea pan for use in the oven. I get very good bread that way.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[taxlady]

Chief, how about a test of how the bread comes out when you let the machine knead it and let it rise, then bake it in the oven?

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Chief, how about a test of how the bread comes out when you let the machine knead it and let it rise, then bake it in the oven?

Ssince the recipe was exactly the same, I;m retty sure that the bread will come out much better when cooked in the oven, as the pan I have is a top quality pan that browns very evenly. I just got it and it is a ting of beauty. Here's the pan - https://www.amazon.com/USA-Pan-Bakeware-Aluminized-Steel/dp/B0029JQEIC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=fsmarfa-20&linkId=43cdb0faba48985f83d4b9b2274735c7 The aluminized steel pan distributes the heat evenly over the whole pan, elimknating hot spots. The loaf I made came out so evenly colored on every side that I was somewhat amazed. And the loaf slid out of the pan effortlessly. I didn't have to run a spatula along the sides at all. t was the easiest pan to use that I have experienced. I am going to just throw away my old steel bread pans. I also have a Wilton Bread pan, all aluminum, that is highly rated. I will try my next loaf in that pan and compare with the USA pan.

Oh, and I found that kneading by hand is fairly easy when making only a loaf at a time. I'd been making a recipe that made 5 loaves at a time, and that was more work. Plus, I can use the exercise to regain some of the strength I lost to various health issues, now that I'm almost ready to start walking again (two weeks and the skin will be strong enough on my heel to bear weight, yay!). I just don't need a bread pan, especially one where I can't seem to get its functions to work. I will be sending it back to the seller.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[taxlady]

Chief, good idea to send it back. I thought you were stuck with it.

 

[pepperhead212]

Chief, Your heating up of that dough reminded me of something that I learned from the second bread book I got in '75 (the first year I was baking bread) - The Complete Book Of Breads, by Bernard Clayton Jr. He had two relatively new (at the time - don't remember when the book came out) methods for making bread, which speeded it up - Instant Blend, and RapidMix.

Instant Blend was put out by Red Star yeast, who was the first (I Think) to put out that instant yeast, that you see everywhere, now. The RapidMix was put out by Fleishman's; they also had instant, even though they still had "active dry yeast" on the packs.

Both methods called for mixing the yeast with some of the flour (as many recipes do now), but then heating the liquid to 125-130°, and mixing it with the flour and yeast, and beating it, with the mixer (this was back in the days when mixers with dough hooks were relatively unknown) to develop the gluten. Then the rest of the flour and other ingredients are mixed in by hand, and a smaller amount of kneading is needed (pun intended). With instant blend, the dough is rested briefly, while heating oven, and getting pans ready, then it's put in the pans, rises to double, which is fast, since the dough is still very warm, then it's baked. The start to finish time is about 90 min. The RapidMix method has two rises, as with usual methods, but is still fairly fast, due to the heat of the dough speeding the yeast up.

When I tested these methods, however, I thought that the speeding up of the rising resulted in a less flavorful bread. Through the years, the best flavored breads I've found were usually the ones that rose at room temp, and took longer - a lot longer! Usually started the day before, or maybe even before - years later they came up with that term pre-ferment, which isn't any more work - just planning. Saves yeast, too - 1/4 tsp a couple days before, will be about 2 tsp today!

You might want to do an experiment and compare the flavor of one of those 2 hr breads, compared to the same recipe, but starting with a biga, poolish, or other pre-ferment. The difference is amazing.