Bread making

So, I thought I would do a sort of  educational post with less technically inclined photos.  I bake quite a lot around here, and have been trying my hand at different bread recipes.  This time around it was a new Dinner Roll recipe I had come across.  So here is a bit of the process in pictures.

First you must let the yeast “perk.”  Dry yeast gets dumped into a bowl of hot water/milk (/sugar mixture), and you wait for it to bubble.  That shows you the yeast is active and alive, as the bubbles are literally the gas given off by the little yeast bacteria (tasty huh) as they eat their way to happiness.

Next you begin to mix in your flour and dry ingredients, about a half cup at a time. I am slowly realizing that the flour is one of the most important parts of bread.  Too little flour, gives you dough that won’t fully rise and is very sticky. Too much flour gives you dense, non sticky, and  sometimes tuff dough.  I usually have the problem of not enough flour.  But at least I am beginning to recognize where I went wrong with different attempts.  Any you mix everything up and then turn it out onto a floured surface and knead a couple times.

Then you place them into some greased bowls, cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise. I didn’t let these rise too long, only about an hour, but they did rise some.  Next I broke them into balls and placed in a pan to bake.

I wasn’t too worried about sizes, as I don’t have a dough knife.  I slathered them with butter and on a whim I sprinkled them with pepper.. Into the oven they went

This is how they turned out.. Pretty darn tasty, but not the texture I was looking for. They were very full, soft, semi dense, and a tad on the sweeter/savory side.  So flavor I really liked, but I have to see if my method of rising and baking could alter their texture a bit. I’m looking for a roll that is more airy and light inside with a slightly smooth outside that’s a bit more crusty.    Overall I still liked these, and am going to try and improve on them. Especially considering how the other half of the batch turned out.  I decided to try and turn the dough into cinnamon bun dough..  pressed it out flat and smeared my concoction of butter, sugar, and cinnamon on it and rolled it back up.

They turned out insanely good, even if they didn’t look proper.  I didn’t roll them enough times due to not thinking before pressing the dough out.  So they sort of smushed/flared out a bit when cooked. but the sugars carmalized, butter melted, and it created a rather awesome little dessert.  What’s not to love when you can get both dinner rolls and cinnamon buns out of the same batch.

Too bad they are all gone.. I could REALLY go for some. Not that I need them after the chocolate covered strawberries and reese peanut butter cake I had yesterday..  A tip for clean up that I have gathered.  I use wash clothes to clean dishes (I feel they are a cleaner/greener method, as you can throw them in the wash as often as you like), and flour/dough does not mix well with them as a means of cleaning. So I find the easiest way to clean bowls, mixers that have dough in them, is to simply let it dry in the bowl, and then crack/wipe it out of the bowl when it’s dried.  That will remove a majority of the dough matter and leave you with an easier clean up.

Anyway, just thought I would share. I don’t get all technically advanced with my food photos. They simply serve as a record of what I’ve made.  I usually don’t have time to properly set up shots of the food I make, due to the need to consume it in a timely fashion. But hopefully you can see past the poor image quality.

Hope you’re enjoying your weekend.

(PS.. kinda funny how spell check doesn’t recognize some baking terms)

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