BBA Challenge #8: Cinnamon Buns

For this round of the BBA Challenge, a bread that is borderline dessert (except that we don’t eat desserts for breakfast, so we can pretend otherwise):  Cinnamon Buns!

I meant to start this very early Saturday morning, so that, while not quite ready by breakfast, they could be served for “brunch” and therefore be enjoyed at the appropriate time of the day.  I have been so busy at work I hardly knew what was in the fridge as I only pay attention to having enough milk for little E.  I checked to make sure we could spare a cup for this recipe, I checked to be sure there was enough butter, I checked that there was (barely) enough bread flour and got going.  I did not check to ensure we had enough eggs.

So the buns did not get started until 11:30 after a trip to the grocery store (i.e. when I had hoped they would be ready).  Not ideal, but I think most people can eat breakfast food at any time of day. 

The dough was, as described, soft and tacky.   It was sticky rather than tacky at the outset, but I resisted the urge to add more flour and it eventually achieved the desired “tackiness”.  Still it was so soft I was almost able to pour it into the bowl I had prepped for its first rise.  Not quite a batter, still a dough, but definitely more down on that spectrum than other doughs I’ve made so far from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

 The “heat wave” (that I have NOT been complaining about after what we dealt with in June and July) had finally broke, so there was no exponential yeast growth this time.  Still, the dough rose according to Reinhart’s timetable so there was no need to use my oven as a “proofing box” (those days are just around the corner as we head into autumn and winter, sadly).

 Except for one corner, I managed to get the dough rolled out into a pretty decent rectangle.  I think if I had patted it out into a nice square before starting this would have gone better. 

I’ve made cinnamon bread several times so I was a bit shocked by how much cinnamon sugar this called for–the loaves never used nearly as much!  I finally got to break into my “true” cinnamon that I ordered from The Spice House.  (It turns out most of what we use is not “true” cinnamon but its relative cassia, which has that strong pungent quality.  True cinnamon does not.  You may also have seen it called “Mexican” cinnamon).

I spread all the cinnamon over the surface, surprised to see that it is applied directly to the dough (once again, back to my cinnamon bread experience–my recipe calls for a milk wash to help the cinnamon sugar adhere).  It mostly did stay where it was supposed to, though a fair amount did spill back onto my rolling mat.

I cut the roll in half, then each half into halves again, and then each quarter into thirds.  This mathetmatical procedure (rather than eyeballing) still somehow gave me buns of irregular width, but so be it.  I stuck the punier ones to the end that would go closest to the oven door.  I further used the spilled cinnamon on the two end pieces to make sure they didn’t lack for cinnamon flavor.

It’s fun to see that while they are angular and rather scrawny looking before their rise, they plump up into soft pillows that suddenly start to look very very appetizing.

 Baked, they rise even more.  Time for frosting.

Yet another double-take for me when reading the recipe.  Four cups of powdered sugar?  (I did, believe it or not, have that on hand, with plenty to spare).  I forgot to add the lemon extract as suggested (though in my defense, Peter Reinhart says its perfectly fine to proceed without).  Similar to other glazing experiences, it was nice to have that layer of parchment paper, because as you can see there is a lot of fondant dripping everywhere as it is warmed by buns only ten minutes out of the oven.

I wasn’t in love with the fondant, however.  Have I been corrupted by Cinnabon?  It was just too sweet, and sweet without any other flavors to balance or round it out.  I don’t know if that was because I forgot to add the extract, and if that would have given it a nice flavor other than just pure, overpowering sugar.  I didn’t really sift the sugar as well as I’m sure I should have, and the texture felt a bit grainy to me–I can’t say it was objectively grainy, but subjectively to me it tasted that way, but perhaps it was just the tremendous quantity of sugar.  I’d like to try a cream cheese icing next time (I understand this is the “Cinnabon” way, but if it’s not, I know I like cream cheese icing!).  I think the tang or slight sourness of the cheese would keep the sweet icing from being overwhelming.

None of this to say that these weren’t delicious Cinnamon Buns, and I truly am splitting hairs here.  And if you were wondering, yes, these are good any time of day!!! 

BBA Challenge #7: Ciabatta

We’ve been here before haven’t we?  As you know I’ve tried ciabatta from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice, not once, but twice before!  While both breads certainly were good breads, they weren’t quite good ciabatta.  This time, based on my rudimentary understanding of bread “chemistry” I decided to add the maximum amount of water called for in the recipe–higher dough hydration results in bigger holes in the loaf–I think it’s because of the steam created by the water as it evaporates.  (Reinhart suggests between 3 and 6 ounces).  I was a bit worried this was overkill as it was pretty humid out (not sure how that affects things, but I know it does, and my best guess was that it would only increase the moisture level of the dough), but went ahead–turns out I may have been too timid!

The end result?  Closer, but not quite right.  As I hinted, I think I still under-hydrated.  (I wonder if even more is needed than the recipe calls for–check out Pinch My Salt’s ciabatta here).  Still, I got the loaves to stretch out nicely, better than I’ve had before so at least this can be categorized as progress!

I said it was humid right?  That first rise went pretty fast (and got pretty big!)

I was pleased with the “baker’s couche” I formed out of my silpat.

The second rise was also quite robust, and the loaves elongated quite nicely as they were prepped for the oven.

My technique sliding the loaves off the baker’s peel into the oven could use some work, but as they didn’t land on the floor (or the oven floor) good enough.  I didn’t go through the proceudre of misting the oven; as I’ve said before I’m afraid of damaging my oven so would rather let sleeping dogs lie.  It’s already a bit fussy.

My husband kindly compared the look of these guys to a hockey puck and wondered why the ciabatta never turns out quite right.  Thanks hon! Luckily it does not taste like a hockey puck.  And wrapped in plastic, it made great toast even up to four days later!

As a side note, this was my first bread using my oil mister (a birthday gift) and I am quite pleased with it!  Check out the photo–could it be…ciabatta in the background?  Ha, if only this was the secret to a perfect ciabatta.

BBA Challenge #6–Challah

I think the last time I posted I was struggling to catch up on my BBA challenges.  About a month has passed, and it’s the same old story.  This time I can blame (1) vacations and (2) being foolish enough to have taken my vacation too early and therefore trying to juggle everyone else’s work during their vacations!

If you’ve been following others, it’s no surprise that the next bread is Challah.  I have never made Peter Reinhart’s recipe before (though I have made Mark Bittman’s). 

Here’s the first rise of the dough–got some practice forming the boule shape here!  (I think I developed the gluten pretty well this time–look at that bubble trying to burst through the skin of the dough!)

Then, subdividing the dough into three equal sized balls which proof again.  (You can make and extra-elaborate challah with a mini-braid on top of the main braid–but this was enough to handle for me!)  Are they three equally-sized balls?  We shall see. 

 The balls are then rolled out and braided.  Interestingly, you start braiding from the center to one end, then rotate and braid the other side.  I’m not sure why it’s done this way, and I had to look at the photos carefully in the book, but it ultimately worked out.  You then coat with an egg wash.  You can also see from this photo that one “strand” of the braid was a wee bit hefty.

Photos after proofing–um, can I call this an “abstract” challah shape? 

 

 We started eating the brioche before I took a photo of the final loaf, but you can get an idea from this.  The bread turned out well, and evenly cooked despite its lopsided state.  I am not a huge fan of challah personally, it tastes a little bland to me and perhaps a bit too eggy.  Don’t get me wrong, it was eaten pretty quickly.  But if you’re like me, there’s still an excellent way to deal with lots of challah–

Challah French Toast!  (With new england maple syrup, of course).

BBA Challenge #5: Casatiello

I am still very behind in my BBA Challenge postings.  Once again this may be photo heavy and text-lite as  I attempt to clear the backlog!

I was notvery excited about making this bread.  I thought a sausage and cheese bread was going to be an overly salty loaf with barely chewable little pieces of dried up meat inside.  I can’t speak to the last point, because I went ahead and made it without the meat (because I noticed this bread only takes about 5-6 hours to make and I had everything else on hand, and not being very interested in this bread, “wanted to get it overwith!”)

First I noticed just how much yeast this dough requires.  I’m not sure the exact reason, but the one-hour pre-ferment looked almost frothy when it was time to proceed to the next step.  If I left it long enough, would I have wheat beer?

Very fermented pre-ferment

Here’s halfway through the mixing process.  Having just made brioche the day before, I cut the butter in half–when Peter Reinhart said you could do so, I latched on to that.  I didn’t need to make any adjustments to the dough, though he warns it may be necessary if you make such a modification.

 And the dough set to rise.  Because I had deli-sliced provolone, I actually used my kitchen shears to snip them up into small pieces.  It worked well enough, though I didn’t get the pieces nearly as fine as if I had grated.  They were also stuck a bit together and I had to separate them so all in all it may have been less effot to have just shredded the cheese.

With all that yeast and the warm weather, it won’t surprise you to learn that the dough rose pretty fast.

 Since Peter Reinhart calls this a “dreamy elaboration of a brioche” I used my larger brioche tins!

Set to rise:

 Risen and ready for the oven:

 Finished Casatiello

 I was reallysurprised by how much I liked this bread.  (This seems to be a general feeling–other BBA participants initally seemed unenthused about making this bread, yet it seems to be emerging as a group favorite).  Now, perhaps my opinion would have been different if I had made the more carnivorous option, but probably not.  It was deliciously savory, and the cheese melted in little pockets inside the loaf and browned into crisps on the outside.  It reminded me of a bread at one of the “fancy restaurants” in Oklahoma City that baked a log of parmesan cheese into a peppercorn loaf that we just LOVED.  (I say “fancy” in quotation marks because it was, after all, in a mall.  Mall or not, the bread was great!).  I had to take the second loaf to work to stop eating it myself.  Sorry guys.

BBA Challenge #4: Brioche

As time consuming as bread-making is reputed to be  (it’s not really as most of it is non-active time), it apparently takes much more effort than blogging.  I have made 3 more BBA breads for the BBA Challenge and have yet to post on them.  So without further ado, bread #4, as you readers know, an old favorite:  brioche!

Since I made brioche (yet again) shortly before joining the challenge, I don’t have much new to report.  To “mix it up” (because I’m crazy that way) I used my set of smaller brioche molds to make four more modest size loaves.  (Yes, I have two sets of brioche molds…and?)  I actually thought they were a pretty nice size to slice into and make brioche toast slathered with raspberry jam (my favorite–it seems to re-melt the butter inside all over again, bring out the golden, comforting flavor!)

I think that I may have overbaked them slightly–35 minutes might have been a tad bit too long; note to self for the next time.

I did take lots of photos–and in the interests of getting through a BBA backlog, I’ll let the visuals do the rest!

Brioche Poolish

 

Eggs

 

Setting dough to rise overnight in the refrigerator

Risen brioche dough

Brioche set in molds to rise

Risen dough

Baked brioches cooling

BBA Challenge #3: Bagels

What does one do Friday night but prepare for the next BBA Challenge and pull out your beloved copy of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice?  To try to make myself look less pathetic, I do have a young child so we don’t get out much, and also, starting a BBA bread the night before usually is a five-minute process:  mix up a poolish, let it sit, stick it in the fridge for tomorrow.  The bagels, it turned out, are a little different–almost all the work is done the night before!  (This is what you realize when you don’t entirely read the instructions).  On the other hand, this makes it possible to have freshly baked bagels the next morning without too much effort (read:  without rising ridiculously early) which is a definite perk to this recipe!

I immediately noticed how this recipe was different when I made the sponge–3 cups of flour?  I quickly scanned to the next part of the recipe–how much more was I going to have to add?  The proportion seems to be about 1/4 the total flour, but this time it was more like half. 

After two hours, I did a quick stir of the sponge with my mixer to prep it for its additions:

Sponge

Several more cups of flour later, along with brown sugar (I didn’t have malt powder on hand, unsurprisingly), salt, and more yeast.  This recipe teaches you how little liquid you need, as relative to other breads, this hardly seems to have any (and Peter Reinhart says as much in his introduction).  Here’s a photo of the dough right after incorporating the ingredients but before it’s nicely kneaded.

Rough dough--pre-kneading

 I once again didn’t get the greatest windowpane, but pressed on.  With nearly 8 cups of flour, my kitchenaid motor was really hot, and the bowl was being thrown off kilter over and over, so I ended up standing there to stabilize it (so much for using a mixer to free up your hands!  I think the next time I do this I’d might as well do it by hand).

Windowpane test

 Here’s the completed dough.  Maybe I didn’t get the ideal windowpane, but it certainly is nice and smooth compared to before!

After kneading

 After kneading, you shape into rolls and rest for 20 minutes (you, and the dough).  I accidentally made 13 rather than 12, but they were plenty big.

Shaped into rolls

 Then you shape into bagels (I used the “punch a hole through the center” method, which was actually pretty easy to do and gave nice results).  Once you do this, you drop a bagel into a bowl of water to be sure  it floats.  Mine floated immediately, but apparently if they do not, you have to allow them to proof a little longer.  I guess if they don’t have enough air (released by the yeast as they eat), they will sink–so this step should, I imagine, essentially prevent a hockey puck-like bagel.

Shaped into bagels

 Into the fridge overnight!  The next morning boil them a minute on each side in boiling water, to which you’ve added some baking soda.  Peter Reinhart says this alkalizing of the water helps provide a little more of an “authentic” bagel crust.  (He says he’s not sure how much it adds, but I figure, it’s so easy to add baking soda, why not).  As I did this somewhat backwards (reading the intro after the recipe) I thought that the baking soda was added to “tone down” the boil a bit so that the bagels wouldn’t be subjected to falling apart in too vigorous a boil.  I came to this (erroneous) conclusion by noticing how much the vigorousness of the boil was brought down after the addition of soda. 

These two photos show how much the bagel puffs up during the boiling:

Beginning of boiling

and done boiling

 Then, you bake them for only about 10 minutes minimum, but longer if you like a really golden crust.  I made the plainest of bagels, and even forgot to dust the parchment paper with cornmeal (and can report that they pulled off the paper just fine!)

Into the oven

 Here’s the finished bagels.  They are so delicious warm!  I ended up freezing the majority (and was happy to read that these bagels freeze well due to the extended proofing overnight in the fridge).  My main failing with these bagels?  Not having cream cheese on hand to enjoy them with!