Ross's Maryland Bakery

ssorllih
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Post by ssorllih » Thu May 30, 2013 13:19

sawhorseray wrote:I'm kind of ready to get on with this in the morning Ross, your explanations have been clear and I've got everything printed out to help me along. Two questions:

1 : Oven temp
2 : How long

I imagine there will be some trial and error, this sounds like a fun project. Thanks in advance for your help. RAY
oven: 375 to 425 depending on your oven
Time: about 35 to 45 minutes depending on loaf size and moisture level. Wet doughs take a little longer. Rolls and small stuff like bread sticks bake more quickly start watching those after about 25 minutes. The tops of the loaves should brown but not burn. Light brown makes a softer crust.
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Post by sawhorseray » Thu May 30, 2013 16:52

I'm all over it, thanks a lot Ross!!! RAY
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Post by ssorllih » Thu May 30, 2013 18:26

Ray,
Just one other thing you need to do when making bread. Be sure to set out a fresh stick of butter to soften as the bread bakes. I used to time my bread making so it was just out of the oven when the kids got home from school. my son would yell,"Dad made bread" and a loaf of bread and a half pound of butter would vanish.
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Post by huckelberry » Thu May 30, 2013 19:08

Ray, I can't wait to get home from work so I can try some of your bread recipies. We have family coming from all points of the map to visit and I'm planning on having the kids help me make some of Chuckwagons all beef dogs and I'm planning on making some hot dog and hamburger buns with the recipes you have supplied.
Thanks Ray . :grin:
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Post by sawhorseray » Thu May 30, 2013 20:40

Thank Ross, it's his recipes and knowlege that I'll be using, not mine.

I'm a butter guy, never bought anything but the real thing. I take it out of the fridge before cooking brekky just so it spreads better on my toast. I hear ya! RAY
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Post by huckelberry » Thu May 30, 2013 21:31

Well then thanks to both of ya. Ross I'm no bread maker but I can follow directions. Somewhat anyway, so if you have any advice for hot dog buns or burger bun as far as forming, or if one recipe works better than another for the specific type of bun I'm all ears. Who doesn't like to make good food and make people happy. I know I do.
By the way... I do try to give credit where it's due. Thanks to you again Ross. I'm really looking forward to giving my family something that is made at home with a little love not just bought at the local grocery store.
I believe like my grandparents and mother that it makes all the difference.
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Post by ssorllih » Thu May 30, 2013 21:47

Huck, I am still working on getting proper burger and sausage buns. I haven't managed to achieve anything better than a kaiser roll. I have some ideas that I am going to try on my next batch.
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Pot pie from left overs

Post by ssorllih » Fri May 31, 2013 04:54

Change of subject; Made a small potpie for supper tonight. I roasted a half turkey breast the other day and now I have turkey for all of those wonderful things we use turkey in. I made a pastry crust one cup of lard , one third cup of lard, about a teaspoon of salt and after rubbing the flour into the lard about an ounce and a half of cold water to make a paste. Sauted half an onion and about that much celery in some butter. When the onoin appeared to be sorta transparent i took that out of the hot fat and added a little more butter, perhaps a tablespoonful and some flour left on the table from rolling out the pie crust again about a tablespoon. I added the dripping from the roasting pan and about a cup of milk and cooked it until the roux thickened. It was not as thick as I want so i added some leftover mashed potato, about a half cup. Meanwhile I retrieved the leftover green beans with almonds and the mixed veggies. I layered some of the onion celery into the botton of the pie shell added some diced turkey breast, and all of the veggies, then I poured the white gravy over this until the pie plate was full and put on the top crust. Baked it @ 425°F for a half hour and the we had supper. It was very good. This was a 5 inch pie.
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Post by sawhorseray » Fri May 31, 2013 07:17

Sounds like a nice made-from-scratch turkey pot pie!

Now back on subject, things cropped up and bread baking has been postponed a day, maybe two

Egg, milk, and water @ 16oz = 67% flour weight.
24 oz flour = 672 grams
1.5% salt =10.08 grams
2% sugar = 13.44 grams
2% fat = 13.44 grams

Is butter accepable as far as being the "fat", or would Crisco or lard be a more preferable alternative? Gee, I hadn't even thought of the word "Crisco" in maybe 25 years. Maybe I just answered my own question! I really prefer using measuring spoons as opposed to slopping up my bullet scale with a bunch of salt, sugar, and grease. Oh well, whatever it takes I guess. I'm going to experiment with a variety of shapes and sizes, chronicle them on camera and see what they look like once out of the oven Huck's right, there has to be a little involved to go thru all this instead of just going to the store and grabbing some fresh French rolls. RAY
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Post by Chuckwagon » Fri May 31, 2013 09:41

Ray, you said:
slopping up my bullet scale with a bunch of salt, sugar, and grease.
The trick is to use paper coffee filters on the top of your scale.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by ssorllih » Fri May 31, 2013 13:35

Ray, the salt sugar and fat amounts are not at all critical. bread needs some salt. The sugar feeds the yeast and helps the browning in the baking and the fat just adds a little flavor and softens the crumb. I don't have any crisco and won't allow it in my house. all other fats are fine, for dinner rolls I use butter, for everything else I use pig fat either from the jar of bacon fat on the back of the stove or lard or when I have it poultry fat.
Table salt weighs 15 grams per tablespoon and Diamond Crystal kosher salt weighs in at 11 grams per tablespoon. If you use too much salt you will find the bread is harsh and too little makes it taste rather flat. Like with sausage making there is a tolerable spread.
I give the percentages so that if you want to scale up to a larger batch you can figure everything against the weight of the flour. This recipe will make two loaves. My oven can accommodate six loaves or two flat pans so I can make larger batches and scale up or down as I wish.
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Post by sawhorseray » Fri May 31, 2013 16:24

Thanks Ross. I see how dealing in percentages makes figuring things out for any recipe easier. I thought butter was the desired fat but wasn't sure, it's what I'll be using. The thought of Crisco made me laugh out loud. I remember the stuff being in the fridge when I was growing up tho my mom was no baker and I've never bought a can of the stuff. Will do on the coffee filters, the new unit is digital and used primarily for weighing precious metals. I quit reloading my own bullets 35 years ago when the house I was living in got burglarized, lost all my stuff. Seems converting everything to grams as the common denominator is the way to go for measuring all this stuff, the scale weighs to a tenth of one grain. RAY
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Post by ssorllih » Fri May 31, 2013 17:33

If the scale has a tare function you can place a bowl on the platform and weigh out your first ingredient and zero the scale and add the second and continue until they are all in there.
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Post by sawhorseray » Fri May 31, 2013 20:03

ssorllih wrote:If the scale has a tare function you can place a bowl on the platform and weigh out your first ingredient and zero the scale and add the second and continue until they are all in there.
Yep, that's what I'll do! Most likely begin this project tomorrow or the next day, wife has a little business trip coming up so she wants to go out to play first. RAY

Side note: my tomatoes and swiss chard are going thru the roof, will harvest first batch of chard this Sunday.
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Post by sawhorseray » Tue Jul 02, 2013 19:00

ssorllih wrote:My favorite dinner roll recipe uses white unbleached all purpose flour. Call any amount of flour 100% Add liquid consisting of one egg one cup of milk and water to make one pint. Or 16 ounces. The liquid will be 67% of the weight of the flour add 1.5% salt and 2% sugar and a tablespoonful of dry yeast. Dissolve the yeast in the liquid and add that to all of the flour,salt,sugar mix along with about 2% melted fat. Stir it to completely moisten the flour and cover it to allow the flour to hydrate. After twenty minutes (about) uncover the dough and knead it lightly for a couple of minutes this completes the mixing. Cover it for an hour or two as it rises. OR put it in the fridge over night. It will rise in the cold and be much easier to shape when it is cold . But after a couple of hours it will be ready to shape and get is final rise for baking. It has a good oven spring.
I finally got around to taking a little stab at this between last night and this morning. I figured to make a half batch just in case things didn't work to perfection, which they didn't. I made a full pint of the liquid-egg-yeast portion, stirred it up real well and poured one cups worth into a bowl and set it aside. Then I set up shop and ciphered everything into gram weights as follows:
Flour............12oz = 340 grams
Salt.............1.5% = 5.1 grams
Sugar..........2% = 6.8 grams
Butter.........2% = 6.8 grams

Of course none of this would have been possible for me without the use of a calculator and gun powder scale

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Once everything was measured I got to mixing and kneading and could just feel I was on the right track

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After letting the dough sit in the fridge overnight was when I think I made my first mistake. It was still kind of sticky and gooey so instead of just trying to shape the dough I added a little more flour by kneading a bit more. Now I was at a place where things just weren't shaping up the way I dreamed

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After 28 minutes in a 400° oven what came out wasn't the ideal product on which to place a BBQ'd Italian sausage with some mustard

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There's always toast!

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All that early morning failure brought on a need for breakfast. A nice 4-egg Canadian bacon-onion-cheddar cheese omlet with a side of what else, Canadian bacon!

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I'll get back up on that horse in awhile, right now I'm stuffed. RAY
“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.”
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