Are you sure you measured everything correctly? What was the brand of flour you used? Honestly egg size isn’t that big a deal when it’s just one or two eggs in a recipe. It’s a few grams and it’s only when you get into things with a lot of eggs where it can really make a difference. Even if the eggs were smaller, if the dough is as dry as you describe, I’d think there was perhaps a measuring error. Also are you in the USA? If you’re in Europe, a medium egg is a large egg in the USA.
Made a gorgeous no knead fig fennel-seed boule. I haven’t made a loaf in a couple of months and was feeling rusty. Couple questions for the bakers. I want to start trying a batard shape. How helpful is it to have an oval basket? I use a basket for my rounds. Second, I came across advice yesterday, after I already added my fennel and many fig chunks to the autolysed flour, that said adding too early will get in the way of gluten formation and they recommended adding any such at the pre shape stage. Whatever that is. Thoughts?
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thanks and by the way I didn’t realize they were medium as they were given to me not purchased.
I had no idea egg size made such a difference! I know Ina Garten uses extra large and that has been remarked about.
Ina Garten uses xlarge eggs in all her recipes. I always use large and her recipes have been successful
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Yes that is the recipe I used. And I used heavy cream, which may have contributed to the lack of stickyness.
very. While your shaping will certainly have big effect on your final loaf shape, I have found when dough relaxes it wants to be the shape it was. i.e. store your doughball in a round container, it will want to spread into a circle. square container, it will pull more easily into a square or rectangle. So, yeah. Oval baskets. They don’t HAVE to be fancy schmancy bannetons. Mine are a couple of plastic fake-wicker table baskets I got at a restaurant supply house. I line them with tea towels and use them for my batards with great success.
listen to them. Big inclusions (nuts, fruits, seeds, etc) can act as a physical impediment to gluten formation, and, depending on what you’re adding, might affect the pH as well.
The pre-shape is directly after the main bulk ferment. You take your mass, separate it into loaf-sized (or roll sized, etc) sections, and then turn each section into its own boule, and let them rest for 10-15 minutes. This establishes a nice outer gluten network. You can then stretch it flat and fold/roll for batards, do more rolling and pulling for boules, or whatever your shaping preference is. Pre-shape shouldn’t be overlooked, esp. on low/no-knead loaves, since you’re relying on time + shaping to give you structure.
The way I see a lot of folks include bigger ‘bits’ into their loaves is, after bulk and preshape, when you take a piece and spread it out (either to letter-fold it for a batard or to bring in the corners for a boule) you spread your stuff over the dough and fold it in. That way, as you roll and fold, you’re building layers of inclusions so they’re evenly distributed.
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I think the only recipe of hers I’ve used is the lemon loaf cake, but I’ve always used standard large eggs without an issue.
“To make up for the comparative lack of butter, my scones use a lot of cream. Cream is higher in lactose (a natural milk sugar) than butter, which helps the scones brown in the oven. I cut that richness with a splash of milk to hydrate the dough. Using 100% cream would make a dry but rich dough that’s golden and tender, but far too crumbly and dense. Meanwhile, using all milk would make the dough sticky, wet, and lean, producing a pale scone that’s fluffy but chewy, bordering on tough. After much experimentation, I’ve found that a 1:3 ratio of milk to cream by weight is just right, making the scones light but tender and tawny gold.”
That’s Stella’s reasoning for using a combination of milk and cream. So using cream may have contributed to it.
But having looked at the recipe, it’s likely how much you cut in the butter. If you leave the butter more intact, the dough can take more liquid. For scones you want it to basically disappear into a fine meal. The dough when you do that needs less hydration. This is another thing Stella highlights in her scones.
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I use a banneton or a couche for batards with equal success. I typically introduce any add-ins starting with the 2nd set of stretch-and-folds, allowing for some gluten development before they go in.
ETA: your boule is beautiful.
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Appreciate all the tips. The fig version of the bread is the one with the biggest chunks. I’ve also done olive once or twice. I thought it would be too difficult to work those chunks in after the long rise and during the initial shaping. But if it helps give the loaf a better structure, then I’ll give it a try. And I will put an oval basket on my shopping list. Appreciate it!
I double checked the ingredients when I realized the dough wasnt working out. Also I spooned the flour into the measuring cup before leveling off and I used recently purchased KA AP unbleached flour.
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Have to agree, very cute cat, gorgeous cakes!
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In this case it’s a KA recipe so it’s formulated to work with their flour, but in general I consider it a bread flour and it can take more liquid than an all-purpose flour like Gold Medal, so that’s why I asked. I’d say the reason for dryness would be how much the butter was worked into the flour. It really does make a big difference in how much liquid it takes to bring a dough together.
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KA recipes expect a different amount of flour (by weight) in “a cup”. I’ve had trouble with their recipes in the past and found (with repeated weighing) that a “KA cup” is more like 3/4 C flour, even when carefully spooned up and leveled.
Their “how to measure flour” page says “All of our recipes assume 1 cup = 120g (or 4.25 oz.) of flour.”
My usual cup of flour weighs 5 oz.
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I like the speed and accuracy of baking by weight, so I avoid recipes specified in cups, unless they look exceptionally interesting, in which case I do the conversion. I once saw a recipe that specified 1-3/4 cups plus 2 Tbsp flour, lightly spooned into the cup. Avoided it; imagine the time to do that!
The book “The Chocolate Bible” says at the start, “To bake is to measure”, then uses cups. One of the recipes calls for a cup of cake crumbs. Crazy!
An in-law once offered to help me bake. She told me that she measures flour using a liquid measuring cup, and shakes it down to level. I asked her to weigh some flour for me; she refused, saying she does not weigh. So I did it. I then asked her to sift it; she refused, saying she does not sift. It was a “get out of my kitchen” moment!
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Ha, I don’t mind things like a cup of cake crumbs, but just said that I hate things like “seven graham crackers” or a sleeve of crackers because what if I have a bunch of graham crackers in different shapes? What if I want to use a crust made with different crackers? What if I have a bunch of crackers in a ziplock bag? Why can’t you just tell me a weight? I’ll even take a cup. I automatically convert everything to weight anyway when I look at recipes, so I don’t mind the cups because doing the conversions in my head is pretty automatic, and for some things a cup measure is actually pretty handy sometimes.
Side note: I’m annoyingly being downvoted on Reddit for pointing out that 2 cups sugar is pretty much equal to 3 cups flour in response to someone saying that 3 cups of flour seems like too much for 2 cups sugar in a chocolate chip cookie recipe. My favorite is getting a reply of “no they’re very different and baking is a science”. 2 cups sugar= 14 oz. 3 cups flour= 13.5 oz, but I say “pretty much” because it can also be 15 oz if the cup is equal to 5 oz as publications like Cook’s Illustrated go by. But the point is given it’s a chocolate chip cookie, it’s pretty standard to have equal weight of flour and sugar, give or take a little sugar.
I don’t know why someone would refuse to weigh if you have a scale there and it’s your kitchen. It’s not as if you told her to buy a scale for her own kitchen.
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I got requests for more marble cheesecake, so I made a 6-inch one since I didn’t want to risk not finding takers for any slices they don’t buy. I’ll propose they buy the whole thing since it’s small.
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No cookies in the freezer, so made a batch of my favourite CCCs: Tara O’brady’s Chocolate Chip Cookies https://www.taraobrady.com/recipes-in-full/2019/5/1/tara-obradys-basic-great-chocolate-chip-cookies . Used Lindt’s Crunchy Caramel chocolate bars as the chocolate… yum!
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In an effort to redeem myself from my earlier cookie fail, I saw a recipe on “Glen and Friends Cooking” (youtube) for some brown sugar brownies. Sunshine liked the brown sugar blondies (I made earlier this month), but told me she likes chocolate brownies better. So that is what I made for her. I tasted this latest creation and liked it. Sunshine is out with one of her girlfriends, so when she gets home I’ll get her opinion.
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Depending upon the type of cake there could be a large variation in weight, hence end result.
Pigheadedness!
Another recipe I saw specified half a can of almond paste. I had to do a lot of investigation to get a weight. Fortunately it worked out okay.
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