So my bread making efforts have been decent.
Banana bread- win. It could be a little sweeter, I need to find the sweet spot for ripe bananas. But hot with butter, it was delish.
French bread- turned out awesome, but doesn't really keep for more than a day.
Rolls for thanksgiving. The dough was awesome, and the rolls turned out beautiful.
I was impressed. They cooked about a minute too long- but while still warm, they were a huge hit. and so pretty.
Lightly flour a rolling pin, and roll one dough half out into a 13×9-inch rectangle. Brush with melted butter. Cut the rectangle lengthwise into 6 strips. Stack the strips evenly, with the buttered side up, and cut the stack into 12 pieces. Repeat with the other dough half. Grease 2 regular muffin pans, and place one piece in each muffin pan cup, with the layers facing up.
This week my attempts were not so good.
I wanted to make a French bread as my inlaws were visiting I wanted to wow them. I thought to just use the dough cycle, and then bake it in the oven so I could shape it like an actual French bread roll.
That didn't happen.
I don't know exactly what happened but maybe I misread the flour, cause it was a sticky mess. Cleaning was a bitch also. And I had dough in my hair many hours after my company LEFT. Bought sourdough rolls instead. Objective: failed
Then I thought I'd make burger buns to go with the pulled pork sandwiches we had for dinner tonight. Again, didn't happen.
The dough cycle mixes for 7 minutes. That's it, then it starts the first rise. So any changes you want to make to the dough has to be done the first 5 minutes or so. I peeked in to look at the dough ball and it was dry. Not even mixed well enough if you ask me. And by the time I tried to add more liquid, the mixing stopped. No fixing it at that point. I took the dough ball out and tried to add more water and mix it with the hook attachment (for dough) on my hand mixer. I don't have a stationary mixer. For this task, I need one.
So picture me, with a huge ball of dough with some added liquid. I put the hook into the dough ball, and turn it on low. The BOWL starts spinning. Liquid flying. Holy shit!! So I hold on to high speed bowl spin, and then the dough ball is spinning. Nothing is mixing. More liquid flying. Shit.
So I flour a cutting board and thump the dough ball onto it. THUMP. It actually THUMPED. I tried adding water but there was just no penetrating this thing. It was just getting messier. My fingers were getting stickier. I heard my friends voice, "bread is cheap to make so it's ok if you fuck up a few batches."
So I threw the whole wet mess into the garbage. Today, I bought rolls. Objective: failed AGAIN
I am not giving up on this. I know I can make dough. I made it for the rolls for thanksgiving. It CAN be done. Also I need to watch the mixing on the dough cycle more carefully. I only have a limited amount of time to correct mistakes. It's all about finding the correct wet to dry ratio. When all else fails, apply math!!!
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