Cooking & Baking
Related: About this forumButter or oil in bread dough?
I just whipped up a batch of basic bread dough - and I kneaded in a couple of TBs of butter just for grins. Forget what it does exactly, but basically it alters the texture right? As well as adding a bit of butter flavor? Anybody like to add butter to their dough? I'm looking forward to the results. Very basic dough - 4 C AP flour, 2 tsp salt, 1.5 C water, 1 tsp yeast, 2 TB butter.
Warpy
(111,359 posts)which roughly translates as "daily bread," is made with a bread dough enriched with butter and whole milk. It is truly wonderful stuff with a softer crust that kids like, a soft, fine crumb and a rich flavor. It's not quite as rich as Sally Lunn but it is much richer than the flour-water-yeast-salt in a baguette.
I cranked out a batch when I first moved here and brought a loaf with me to a dinner at one of the Pueblos. Everybody who ate that bread started talking about his or her grandma. It's one of the best compliments I ever got.
The traditional French pan de mie is made in a covered loaf pan that yields a perfectly square sliced bread for sandwiches. I never had one of those covered pans and just did without.
Blues Heron
(5,944 posts)Haven't been baking much lately Warpy, just dusted off the old breadboard and gave it a whirl. I remember as a kid milk and butter were definitely part of the basic recipe my mom showed us.
I'm using year-old yeast - I wonder if it will have an rising strength left. It's been sealed and refrigerated the whole time. Hoping for the best, fall back is to make pizza if it ends up not rising too much.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Blues Heron
(5,944 posts)Butter - it's what's for dinner!
This will be my first bread in forever and I have high hopes for it, it's all coming back to me now.
Just checked the dough - it's rising! Yeast is still good! Very silky dough. Just gave it a quick knead and it feels good. Fresh bread 2 nite. Can't wait to fire up the oven - it's cold and windy here on the Eastern Seaboard, despite it being bright and sunny out.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Oven on high for an hour? I don't think so.
I hope yours comes out perfectly.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)Which are flour, water, salt, and yeast. In the case of sourdough, the yeast is inherent to the flour so you can get by with 3 ingredients. I prefer to add butter or oil at the table if someone wants it.
Butter is sometimes added to certain kinds of bread, like croissants, but in this case it's added between layers of dough and not really incorporated into the dough itself. For certain quickbreads, like biscuits, butter (and/or lard or shortening) is incorporated into the dough for leavening. In general, professional bakers do not incorporate butter or oil into the dough of basic yeast breads at least at the dough mixing stage.
Here's a few tips on making basic bread.
1) Always measure your flour by weight and not by volume.
It's difficult to achieve consistent results with flour if you measure by volume and a difference of just a few grams can throw off your dough hydration level. Digital kitchen scales are very cheap and you can get a good one for about $10. This is probably the best investment you can make for bread making. I also measure all my other ingredients by weight as well as it just makes your life that much easier.
2) Use the metric system.
Using the metric system allows you to scale your recipe up or down very easily. It also allows you to adjust your hydration levels very easily so you can experiment with your recipes. Assuming the King Arthur standard of 4.25 oz per cup of a/p flour, your recipe would have 480g of flour and 354g of water, which yields a hydration percentage of 74%, which is just about right. Table salt is 6g per tsp, so 2 tsp = 12g. My general rule of thumb is 21g of salt per kilo of flour, so 12g of salt in your recipe is pretty close to what I normally use.
3) Adjust the amount of yeast to yield the rise time that you want.
For dough that doesn't have any whole wheat, you want the volume to increase from about double to triple (ideally) during the ferment stage, regardless of how long it takes. The longer your dough takes to rise, the more flavor it will have (up to a point). The less yeast you use, the longer it will take to rise. I prefer to have no less than 5 hours rise time in the ferment stage which means about 4g(1 tsp) of yeast per kilo of flour assuming a 70F kitchen. For a warmer or cooler kitchen, I will adjust my yeast levels accordingly. Your recipe has about twice that much, so I would guess you are getting rise times of about 2-3 hours. Consider cutting back on the yeast and allowing for longer rise times, unless you just don't have the time to spare. For rise times >= 5 hours, there's no need to knead, which also makes your life easier.
4) Use instant or rapid rise yeast
All commercial bread yeast uses the same monoculture. So long as your dough hydration levels are 70% or greater, you don't have to prehydrate your yeast. You can just add it directly to the dough. I store my yeast in the freezer, and go directly from there into the recipe at the same time that I add the salt.
5) If you want a nice thick crust, bake inside a dutch oven. I preheat my dutch ovens inside my oven at 475F. I bake covered for 30 minutes and then 20 minutes uncovered. This yields a very dark and hard crust. If you want a lighter crust you can go 10-15 minutes after you uncover.
Blues Heron
(5,944 posts)Normally I do just the four basic ingredients too, but I just tossed the butter in on a whim this time. I'm looking to explore the world of dough additions - honey, butter, milk, eggs, fruit grain and nuts etc. which I've never really done. Past breads have tended to be plain white or wheat/white/rye experiments.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)When you start making additions like honey, butter, milk, eggs, etc. you are really venturing outside the realm of basic bread, not that this is a bad thing, but in essence you are changing the basic recipe.
Perfecting a good basic bread recipe can really take you a long ways. From there you can form it into all sorts of shapes in the proofing stage from a round or oval loaf to rolls or pizza. By changing hydration levels, you can affect the stiffness of the finished product. Bagels for instance, have a low hydration level, a basic loaf will be in the middle, and soft breads will have a higher hydration level. Dry additions like fruit, nuts, and even cheese make great additions to a basic bread recipe.
The most popular breads in the world are mostly made with just those 4 ingredients, so don't underestimate the possibilities. If you really want to have some fun, start a sourdough culture. I haven't made sourdough in a while and I just started a culture yesterday. I should be making bread with it by next week.
Auggie
(31,197 posts)I don't think you'd notice the texture/flavor difference that much.
I make home made hamburger buns using an enriched white bread recipe: honey, butter and milk -- no water. Bake low at 350°f for a softer crust.
If you want to make a texture difference, I suggest using bread flour, a little more water, and an overnight ferment or pre-ferment, like a poolish.
Nac Mac Feegle
(971 posts)There is a reason that in profesional baking, they're called "Formulas", not Recipes. Since consistency is a major goal, everything is to be measured out as precisely as possible. That's why weighing your ingredients is recommended so much. Butter isn't only oil, it has water, milk solids, and salt in it. (unless you use the unsalted kind) These can throw off the 'balace' of the formula, causing inconsistent results.
The water can affect the balance between wet and dry ingredients, salt is bad for the yeast, and the proteins in the milk solids can interact with the flour, too. But that is for large quantities and precision formulas. A home baker can easily afford inconsistency, on the grounds of "Character", but a commercial bakery can't.
In a home environment, there are likeley too many uncontrolled variables to hope for much true consistency; such as humidity, age of the flour, temperature where the dough is rising, age of the yeast, hardness of the water, and the angle you are looking at the measuring cup from, even.
Just enjoy yourself, and try to remeber what you did when it comes out the way you wanted.
Blues Heron
(5,944 posts)You're so right about being able to afford inconsistency on the grounds of character. What a great way of putting it.
I ended up with an excellent loaf, the butter was a nice addition in terms of texture (finer) and flavor. Total of 6 hours from mixing to oven, baked for about 45 mins at 450, reducing the temp down to 375 part way through. I would make this recipe again definitely, it was a big hit around the house this evening!
Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)Since the amount of salt in salted butter can vary wildly. It is typically 1/4 teaspoon per stick, but it can be as much as twice that.
Blues Heron
(5,944 posts)I thought of that just as I finished kneading it in! It wasn't enough to really affect the salinity though thankfully. True story - once on a camping trip it was a friend's turn to make bread, and he followed the recipe to the letter. Almost. Put in two TBS of salt instead of 2 TSP !! That was painful as we didn't realize until we were miles from camp, the fresh loaf and some cheese our only lunch...
sir pball
(4,761 posts)With butter at least, you have to be very careful to not overheat or overwork it, lest the emulsion break and you wind up with a stringy, sticky glob of flour paste oozing yellow oil. Granted, just a couple TB in a regular loaf isn't too bad, but try knocking up a batch of brioche sometime and you'll see what I mean.
And yes, it makes the texture softer, moister, richer and tenderer. Though, in terms of basic bread, I like the basic 4 ingredients.