Bread Basket Pt.3 Egg whites in soft doughs

This is a test of two identical soft bun doughs. The only difference between the two is that one has egg whites substituted for the water. The white is around 90% water by weight anyway, so this substitution doesn't require much manipulation of the rest of the recipe.
Bun #1
100g bread flour
18g butter, room temperature
3g salt
3g yeast
40g water, at 40F
18g egg yolk
Bun #2

100g bread flour

18g butter, room temperature

3g salt

3g yeast

42g egg whites

18g egg yolk

Method for both buns:

Mix the salt, yeast, egg, water, and butter together in a bowl. Add the flour all at once and knead until the dough is uniform. Ferment at room temperature for 3 hours, or once the dough doubles in size. Shape into buns and proof for 1 hour. Bake at 400F for 9 minutes, or until lightly brown, egg washing after 3 minutes.

The results were closer in texture than I would have expected. The top bun in this picture has no egg whites.

Even though there wasn't a huge difference, I definitely preferred the bun without the whites. The whites make the crumb chewier, kind of waxy.

Plate it up!

Butter poached lamb flap with cilantro mayo, purslane, pickled daikon, pickled carrot, and chicken liver mousse on a soft, egg yolk only, bun.

There may  be too much fat in these, so much it is preventing the interior from being fluffy. I'll be looking for a lighter, fluffier sandwich bun.

Forcefully,

Adam

Bread Basket Pt.2 Kneading

This is the first of a few tests involving kneading dough. For this test I made 4 identical doughs, all of them comprised of 100g bread flour, 60g of water, 1g yeast, 2g salt. The first, I stirred with a spoon and then worked with my hands until it just came together; a no knead loaf. The second was mixed and then kneaded for 3 minutes; I did not think that I reached full gluten development, but I stopped anyway. The third, I kneaded for 7 minutes, where I thought full gluten development was. The final loaf was kneaded for 20 minutes, hopefully soundly in the realm of overdeveloped. Here are all of them waiting to start fermenting.

You can see how they all have different textures. The no knead is a shaggy mass compared the the super tight 20 minute dough. The 3 and 7 minute doughs are very similar, but I was able to pull the smoothest ball shape out of the 7 minute dough. These sat out for 5 hours. Here is what they looked like after that.

This is where things start getting weird. At this point there is no noticeable difference between the 0, 3, and, 7 minute doughs. Only the 20 minute dough is quite different, it was having trouble rising compared to the others. I took each of these doughs, gently folded them over and then shaped them into balls. I didn't work them at all, only manipulating them enough to fold over once and then shape the ball. Again, the 0, 3, and 7, minute balls all pulled the same and looked the same. The 20 minute dough was a little more difficult to work with and made a tighter, smaller ball.

The only one that is a little smaller than the others is the 20 minute dough, the other three are practically identical.

I let these sit in my oven, which was off, with a pot of warm water in the bottom to warm the air to around 98F and provide some humidity. They rose in this shape for 2 hours, doubling in size over that time. Just before cooking I cut a slit into each one, it looked like this.

I baked them all at 435F for 20 minutes. When I put any loaf into the oven I place a few large ice cubs into the racks below the bread(they drip until they get small enough to fall through, and then they hit the bottom of the oven and turn to steam, and scare your roommate if he doesn't know what is in the oven), which is sitting on the top most rack. I also place a sauté pan, which I preheat on the stove top until it is wicked hot, into the bottom of the oven and throw some water on it, and then immediately close the door. This, along with the dripping ice, creates steam in the oven for the first 10 minutes of baking. After this, the oven dries out and they bake another 10 minutes.

When they come out they look like this.

From left to right, no knead, 3 min, 7 min, and 20 minutes of kneading.

The results were three pretty good loafs and one not so good one. The over-kneaded dough browned faster than the other three, more free protein or simple sugars? I'm not sure why that happened. The winner was the no knead. It rose the most, slightly more than the 3 and 7 minute doughs. It seems to me that 5 hours of sitting at room temperature develops all the gluten you could want in a loaf of bread and more kneading results in denser, heavier, and browner breads.

This is what the crumb looked like.

Clockwise from the bottom left: no knead, 3, 7, and 20 minute kneading.

All but the 20 minute dough produced and awesome crust, check it out:

Crusty, but not too thick!

I need to do some more trials, but basically what I used to know about gluten and kneading seems to be wrong. I'll add to the basket soon.

Crustily,

Adam

Bread Basket Pt.1

In this first bread based entry, I will discuss the effects of hydrating flour before baking without heating. In some previous experience with bread baking I found that a loaf with a water content of 60% of the total weight of the flour had a texture that I liked. I will be using that base water content as the control, but these results should apply to any bread. To test if hydrating the flour more completely before baking made a difference, I pre-soaked three loaves with varying water percentages.

Here is the breakdown:

Loaf 1

100g flour

60g water

2g salt

.25g yeast

Loaf 2

75g flour + 25g before bulk ferment

60g water

2g salt

.25g yeast

Loaf 3

50g flour + 50g before bulk ferment

60g water

2g salt

.25g yeast

All of these were mixed and then left to sit under refrigeration for 56 hours. However, the control, Loaf 4, is the same as all of the others, but was mixed just before bulk fermenting. In other words, Loaf 1 was mixed and then let to sit in the fridge for 56 hours, 4 was mixed just before bulk fermenting. Also, loaf 2 and 3 are the same in that they both have additional flour added after sitting under refrigeration for 56 hours, but they both had different initial water concentrations.

I thought that maybe having the flour sit in a lot of water might affect the hydration(loaves 2,3), but I also considered that these loafs have some flour that does not have any advanced contact with water; they are a mixed bag.

After 1,2 and 3 had their cold resting time, I mixed the additional flour into 2 and 3, mixed all of 4, and briefly kneaded 1 to be consistent. Here is what they looked like at this point (ready to bulk ferment):

Starting at the top right and going clockwise, 1, 2, 4 and 3.

I let these sit, covered, at room temperature for 12 hours, and then gently folded-over and shaped them into loafs.

These fermented at room temperature, covered, for 2 hours.

The final step was to bake, 420F for 19 minutes. However, there are some weird additional steps that go beyond simply preheating the oven. When I place the tray into my oven, I make sure it is on the very top. Right before the bread goes in, I place a large ice cube (about the size of 5 regular cubes) into the other rack, which is as close to the bottom of the oven as possible. I also place an empty, heavy saute pan, that I have heated on high for 5 minutes, next to the cube and toss a little water into the pan. The pan should be hot enough that the leidenfrost effect(this cool article takes about it) takes place and keeps consistent steam going for 10-12 minutes. This combination of ice cub dripping(it eventually falls through the rack and the creates more steam faster), and the very hot pan, steam my oven and bread at home.

Here are the results: all of these loafs were baked in the same oven next to each other for the same amount of time.

Starting at the top right and going clockwise, 4, 1, 2, and 3.

Here are the cross-sections: 4,1,2 and 3 (same as above)

Pre-hydrating dough clearly has an effect. I thought the fully formed dough had the best results, and the difference between 2 and 3 was not noticeable. 4 had the most dense and regular crumb and least browned and crusty crusty. 1 had the most irregular and light crumb, and most browned and crusty crust.

Densely,

Adam