I’m too chicken to ever use lye, not worth it.
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there is also a baking soda option in the recipe, which I have not tried
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I tried it once with baking soda, maybe a Smitten Kitchen recipe. I think I remember liking it but never repeated.
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FWIW: I made pretzels in a King Arthur class once. The boil was water and baking soda.
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Focaccia looks gorgeously airy!
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Thanks, it was quite airy. It was high hydration and took 3-4 coil folds to tame it. About 500g dough weight was perfect for a 1/8 th pan.
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I baked the rest of my pretzel dough today, in the form of Kolouri / Simit.
Brushed with grape molasses and dotted with butter.
Baked at 375⁰F Convection on for 14 minutes, internal temp of 210⁰F.
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A question about this for the more experienced bread makers. The recipe is linked below, if you have the chance to review it. This recipe makes an incredibly tough hockey puck of a dough ball, that stresses out my KASM (not that I haven’t stressed it out a lot already, heavy bread and pizza doughs about once per week over ~ 15 years). Anyway, I recently stripped some of the gears and have replacements for them and the grease/gaskets on order, so I’ll be back in biz in a week or so once the parts arrive.
But my question is, what makes this dough so crazy dense and hard to knead in the SM? Is it the heavy addition of honey, the low overall hydration ratio (including honey water at about 16%, it’s a bit under 63% as writ). I’ve increased the hydration to nearly 68% but it’s still a really tough as hell dough in the mixer, and it really taxes the mixer (I tore up two of the expendable gears yesterday and have them on order with new gaskets and food safe grease). Even without the flax seed meal, it’s a really heavy dough and I’d like to know how to improve it. Many thanks if you have any ideas!
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Whole wheat flour tends to absorb a lot of liquid and can make a dense dough. But at 68% I wouldn’t expect the mixer to have too many problems. Have you tried different brands of WW flour? I’m not sure if that will help but maybe worth a shot; I often make 100% WW loaves with King Arthur and my mixer hasn’t burned out…
You could also consider not using the mixer? Stretch-and-fold + time works pretty well, if you’re patient. (I’m not. But I know it does work.)
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I think there are two types of Kitchen Aid Stand Mixers – one with a tilt head that is a lighter weight unit and one with a rigid back where the bowl lifts up. I think the rigid back model is supposed to be heavier duty.
I know there are Hobart Commercial mixers, as well.
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Thanks Adam. I’m milling my own grain from white winter hard berries, then pulling about 1/2 of the bran out (which I then use to load into bran muffins and banana bread etc.), so I’m not sure how adjustments should be made versus recipes for commercially milled grains.
That said, this particular recipe is for freshly milled grain (and she does not mention sifting out the bran the way I do - maybe that’s part of my problem, but I’m not sure - I think heavier bran content might go the opposite direction?)
That’s super impressive and I’m completely out of my depth in that regard. I don’t remember the last time I’ve even laid eyes on an unmilled wheat grain.
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Yeah Dan I’ve got the heavier (750W) lift bowl type. Like I said, I’ve been abusing it for years, running higher speeds on dough (KA says over 2 will kill warranty, but I’m way out of warranty period anyway).
The new gears, gasket and grease should be here within a week, so I’ll be back in business then!
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It’s actually pretty easy! I just got a milling attachment for my KA Stand Mixer (and I am positive this didn’t damage the gears; rather, it was my years of too-heavy doughs, at too high of a speed, and especially recently).
The grain mill was like $100 on sale. It’s amazing how much better bread tastes when it still has all the components (germ, endosperm, bran) vs stuff like King Arthur (which I’d previously always liked fine for bread making) that is absent all most all of the germ, and most of the bran.
There are devotees of freshly milled grain who spin all kinds of health stories about GI symptoms being fixed, skin conditions clearing, or even like warts falling off (I am not kidding about these stories), but all I care about is how it tastes. (Haha - I still have two knee warts, and will let HO’s know if they suddenly subside, at which point I guess I will become “A True Belieber!”.)
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It tastes radically better.
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Intriguing! I’m going to buy some fresh-milled flour and give it a shot. Thanks for the nudge.
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Here’s something new. I made bagels in an airfryer. 2 ingredients - yogurt and self-raising raining flour. Brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with sesame seeds. I would describe them as a cross between a bagel and a pretzel. We enjoyed them with celeriac soup. Recipe is from thebigmansworld.co
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Another round of almond croissants. It’s become a monthly request that I’m happy to bake. But today I tried to be “efficient” with oven time and put all 3 sheet pans in at once, adding the 3rd when it was filled & topped.. Not good - the bottom rack was too hot, even for the shorter baking time, and the bottom of the treats charred. Scraped off (mostly) but those look ugly.. New notes to self - bake one pan at a time.
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