Hi,
I will begin with a question. I have had a repeated problem (not
consistent, but has happened more than once). Using a
bread machine, if my dough starts out really wet and I proceed to add
flour a tablespoon at a time until the dough looks right, on a few
occasions it never quite looks or ends up right. The problem is the dough
starts looking very shiny or very high-gloss - the consistency is really
strange - very rubbery and no matter how much extra flour I add (to a
point i stop) the dough does not seem to improve - once I kept adding
flour and the resulting bread was like concrete even though the dough
never got dry and crumbly. I realize this sounds like over-kneading
but this happened today before the end of the regular kneading on the
standard cycle.
I was wondering if it might be due to some of the ingredients in the
recipe. The recipe I used today was "Honey Mustard Bread" from the bread
machine cookbook "Electric Bread". First of all I should have gone with
my intuition that the recipe contained too much liquid for the amount of
flour called for - 3 cups flour (1 ww, 2 white bread flour), 3/4 cup
water, 1/2 cup veggie broth, 1/4 cup honey, 2 1/2 T wet mustard, 1 t
"salt, 3 t yeast. I don't know why I didn't start out with less liquid, I
just wanted to see what following the recipe would yield. I ended up
adding 1/2 cup + 1 1/2 T extra white bread flour to this dough. It still
collapsed when baked which I feel was a result of the dough being too wet
still.
(I have this false notion that if it is printed in the cookbook it must
be sacred and it must work no matter what - or at least come close. This
is my second disappointment from Electric Bread - btw don't forget to
send in info for the digest bibliography everyone!)
Does honey in that amount (1/4 cup) affect the consistency of dough? Maybe
that is where the high gloss comes from? Is it the experience of most people
that is more difficult to correct an overly wet dough than it is to
correct a dry dough?
Response to Crystalle regarding making bread by hand the old-fashioned way:
I could relate so well to her beautifully told story about the fear of
killing yeast. I have envied anyone who could bake a loaf of bread
successfully by hand all my life. My few attempts resulted in yeast
disasters going back to my clover leaf rolls in 4-H as a child. I have
always considered myself a decent cook and have made quick breads galore
trying to compensate for the inability to make a yeast loaf. Recently I
have gone crazy with my bread machine baking (since obtained in
December). I feel like the machine has taught me so much and held my
hand as Crystalle puts it, and now I am having thoughts of trying a loaf the
old-fashioned way too Crystalle.
I have been taking so much from this list and have not shared much. Here
is one of my favorite recipes:
Cranberry Orange Bread or Bagels (for the Bread Machine)
This is my very favorite bread. We have a local bakery that makes this
bread and I was addicted to it before I discovered a bread machine.
1 1/4 C orange juice
2 T orange juice concentrate
2 T fructose
1 t salt
3 C whole wheat flour fresh ground (reduce liquid about 2 tablespoons
to start with if it is not fresh ground - I think fresh ground is drier)
2 T Vital Wheat Gluten
2 1/4 t yeast (I use SAF)
2 T chopped orange peel (I lightly peel one orange and chop up the peel)
3/4 C dried cranberries (added near the end of kneading)
I prefer to bake this as a round loaf in my oven. I brush the loaf with
egg white glaze - mix orange juice with the egg white if you think of
it. I bake it at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. Of course you can let the
bread machine bake it.
I use this same recipe to make bagels. Follow your favorite bagel
routine. THis dough is stiff enough for bagels using my fresh ground
whole wheat flour, but reduce the orange juice about 2 T to start with if
you are using purchased whole wheat flour. You could also do a
combination of flours and start with the lesser amount of liquid.
Next post I will share my favorite Swedish Rye recipe
Angie