In the Kitchen with Donald

[star72232]

I did strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb and blueberry-apricot jam back a month or so ago, when strawberries were in season.

I'm heading to the farmer's market tomorrow for cucumbers, dill, tomatoes and peaches. Pickles, tomato sauce and peach-vanilla jam are the plans for the weekend!

 

[samsteele]

I will turn my oven on to the lowest setting (170F) for about 5 min and then turn it off. Open the door for a few seconds to make sure it isn't too warm, and then I proof my bread in there. If it feels really warm, I leave the door open for a couple of minutes, but it normally doesn't get too warm in that short of a preheat time.

Thank you! Will try this method in early Fall

 

[Donald - my hero]

For all the experienced bread bakers out there, and for newbies ghosting and learning, what is your best tip for proofing/rising bread dough in the winter? I used to have an old Kenmore fridge and it was toasty on the top and so perfect place for bread to rise in the winter. But I replaced it last summer with a new energy efficient fridge so that's gone. Where's the best place to let bread dough rise? Do you heat your oven to a certain temp, turn off, and then let rise in the closed oven overnight? Any tips appreciated by me and sure many others. TIA

It depends on what I'm baking and how many times the dough needs to proof. If it's a quick bread or one that only needs one rising in the pan it will bake in, I don't do anything special, the pan just sits on the counter covered with a piece of parchment paper. If it needs to rise before i can shape it into a loaf I *used* to do the same, bowl sat on the counter until it was risen enough, but now I have a fancy-pants oven that has a proofing setting that I'll use.

If i was in a hurry before i got Owen (my appliances all have names ) I would put a bowl of water in the microwave on high for a couple of minutes until it got nice and steamy in there and then I'd remove the water and put the dough in there, perfect spot if you don't need to do anything else!

All of my go-to recipes that I've used time and time again are both greasy from finger prints and covered in little hand written notes to myself. They all have things scrawled like "30 minutes rise mid-summer" or "preheat oven immediately in July" There's no need to put it somewhere special unless you are under a time crunch, just keep it out of drafts and cover it so it doesn't develop a hard "crust" that will crack when you bake it.

 

[Pinkgurlshubby]

For all the experienced bread bakers out there, and for newbies ghosting and learning, what is your best tip for proofing/rising bread dough in the winter? I used to have an old Kenmore fridge and it was toasty on the top and so perfect place for bread to rise in the winter. But I replaced it last summer with a new energy efficient fridge so that's gone. Where's the best place to let bread dough rise? Do you heat your oven to a certain temp, turn off, and then let rise in the closed oven overnight? Any tips appreciated by me and sure many others. TIA

I'm of no help to you. I always use the 4 hour bake setting on my bread machine no matter the season LOL

 

[Pinkgurlshubby]

Hey so since I'm always jumping on here always late in the conversation because I don't always think of logging in, you all talking about bread. My weakness. We've used this blueberry muffin bread recipe only once. I'll use it again but it's a thick mixture compared to regular bread so I'd hand knead next time.
I'm sure the picture won't really show but the bread is purple because I added the blueberries to the mixture right away instead of in the dispenser.
Here's the list of ingredients in the order that my panasonic takes them. Dry first, liquids last and the yeast has it's own dispenser. And note we only use unsalted butter and bread machine yeast just because that is all we buy LOL

3 cups bread flour, 3 table spoons sugar, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1 egg, 3/4 cup milk, 3 tablespoon water, 2 tablespoon unsalted butter, 1/3 cup dried blueberries (i used closer to half a cup), 1 teaspoon bread machine yeast. Set on regular bread setting.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Success with the freezing of the dough and baking the bread when I have time!

I made the recipe as usual but put one loaf directly into a parchment lined pan before the dough even rose once. I shaped the loaf as I usually do and let the other half rise so there would be fresh bread that day. Wrapped the loaf up and chucked into the bottom of the deep freeze for probably 6 hours.



Once it was frozen solid I pulled it out of the pan, wrapped the parchment around it and vacuum sealed it. Back into the freezer until I was ready to make more bread.


Took the dough out of the freezer and put it back into the same pan i used to freeze it in (greased it well!) and let it sit on the counter until it had risen properly. Once i got it out of the freezer and put it into the fridge over night to start thawing but discovered that it rose fine at room temperature while i was doing other things.


Baked it as I normally do and it turned out perfectly. It was a blind taste test -- didn't let hubby know I had been experimenting until the loaf was baked and he had no idea I'd done anything differently




I currently have 4 frozen logs of dough in the freezer, love that I can pick a day that's not overly busy and have the dough mixed and dealt with in under an hour compared to the 6 or more hours it was taking from start to finish. This eliminates the need to proof the dough twice and I can just put the frozen loaf on the counter to thaw and rise while i do other things.

 

[ottawamom]

So you mixed the dough, let it do it's first rise then punched it down and shaped it. Then froze it? More details please.

 

[Donald - my hero]

So you mixed the dough, let it do it's first rise then punched it down and shaped it. Then froze it? More details please.

nope, I mixed the dough, divided it into 2 balls [always make a double recipe] shaped it into 2 balls and let them rest for maybe 5 minutes to relax. Then shaped into loaves and froze immediately. I add just a tad more yeast to account for the stuff that will die off by freezing - instead of the 1 TBSP it calls for I just use a heaping TBSP and that's perfect. I use this technique on rolls all the time as well since I can't eat them and hubby can this lets him have fresh ones wherever he wants. I find it easier to freeze the dough instead of needing to freeze it after it's baked, that just leads to squashed bread, and i can get about 6 logs of dough in the same space as 2 fully baked & sliced loaves.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I’ve got the recipe for MK Main St Bakery original cinnamon rolls and have been wanting to make them for ages. I’ve given myself a long weekend from work and today was the day for the cinnamon rolls. It’s been a bit of an all day project and the final results won’t be known until tomorrow but here’s what I’ve got so far.

They are huge now....I can’t imagine how big they are going to be after they are baked. All 12 are suppose to fit in a 9x13 pan and I could have gotten them in one but they would have been squeezed in. So I put 4 in a 7” pan and the rest in the 9x13 and then put in the wonky end bits.

 

[ottawamom]

I can't wait to see the finished product. My mouth is watering already.

 

[quandrea]

I’ve got the recipe for MK Main St Bakery original cinnamon rolls and have been wanting to make them for ages. I’ve given myself a long weekend from work and today was the day for the cinnamon rolls. It’s been a bit of an all day project and the final results won’t be known until tomorrow but here’s what I’ve got so far.
View attachment 524339
They are huge now....I can’t imagine how big they are going to be after they are baked. All 12 are suppose to fit in a 9x13 pan and I could have gotten them in one but they would have been squeezed in. So I put 4 in a 7” pan and the rest in the 9x13 and then put in the wonky end bits.

Impressive roll on those buns.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Stand by....they are in the oven!
They continued to rise over night and they completely filled the pans.

 

[dancin Disney style]

So I’m not sure that they turned out well. The recipe said to bake 15-30 minutes depending on how hot your oven runs but I felt like 30 minutes was not going to be enough. At 20 min they hadn’t fluffed up at all or started to brown. I left them in for 40 min and they are barely brown.

 

[ottawamom]

OMG those look so good. The amount of browning in perfect. Too much and the outer layer will dry out.

Now the important thing. How do they taste? Texture, enough cinnamon? Can you share the recipe?

 

[dancin Disney style]

They are just ok. Maybe I over baked them, I don't know. I checked them every 5 minutes after the first 20. I expected them to fluff up in the oven and that didn't happen at all....they came out the exact same way they went it. They are rather dense. While eating mine I recalled that I didn't think the Main St. Bakery ones were what everyone raved about......so maybe they came out perfectly I just asked DD what she thought. She thinks they are really good but too big. I told her we have knives and she could have cut it in half. She said she wanted the whole thing. She also does not think they are over baked.

Baking with yeast is not something I've done very often....maybe 4 times in my life. I really know nothing about it. With that in mind I honestly can't say if this was a success or not. I might try it again some time but for sure I would cut the recipe in half....it really is way too much.

I will happily share the recipe but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post it here. It comes from another Disney blog. The recipe comes with detailed instructions and pictures of every step. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Can I post that link? If not PM me for the link.

 

[Debbie]

I did cinnamon buns early in the pandemic. It's post 110. Since I haven't done them before, I want to say they were easy and delicious.

 

[Donald - my hero]

there are a few things that will lead to what you experienced with your cinnamon rolls. You are talking about what's called "oven spring " the final rise that happens when you put your yeast item into the oven and when you don't get what you'd like to see the following things can be the reason,
your yeast is "dead" but since your rolls filled the pans, that's not the problem
you let it rise too much before you put it either in the pan or into the oven and the yeast had no oomph left, hard to judge this, it's a matter of watching the dough and not the clock during proofing, recipe might say it will take an hour but in your kitchen it could be done in 20 or not until 90 minutes, gotta go by looks
you didn't cover the dough during the last rising and it developed a skin that's hard to break thru
you used the wrong sized pan and then your dough ends up spreading instead of rising up.
personally I think they look delicious!!

 

[Donald - my hero]

forgot to add that the easiest way to check if a link is allowed or not is to just post it. If it's not allowed then a bunch of stars will appear instead of the link. Just go for it!

 

[dancin Disney style]

there are a few things that will lead to what you experienced with your cinnamon rolls. You are talking about what's called "oven spring " the final rise that happens when you put your yeast item into the oven and when you don't get what you'd like to see the following things can be the reason,
your yeast is "dead" but since your rolls filled the pans, that's not the problem
you let it rise too much before you put it either in the pan or into the oven and the yeast had no oomph left, hard to judge this, it's a matter of watching the dough and not the clock during proofing, recipe might say it will take an hour but in your kitchen it could be done in 20 or not until 90 minutes, gotta go by looks
you didn't cover the dough during the last rising and it developed a skin that's hard to break thru
you used the wrong sized pan and then your dough ends up spreading instead of rising up.
personally I think they look delicious!!

The first rise the instructions said to let it double in size. That I did but maybe it was a tiny bit more than double. I kept checking it and it was very slowly going and then bam it filled the bowl right to the top. It then said to punch it down and let it rise again but didn't say how much to let it rise. It went very fast and doubled in size again. Did I let that rise too much? I'm also wondering if rolling out the dough killed something or putting it in the fridge over night before baking.

I will try posting the link but it's on my phone so I'll have to do that later.

 

[dancin Disney style]

So here it is....
https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2019...f3oELgLQ46XV7a8MqrFQFvH9mNpT9nLYHzCoTccqwyJ2g