Ok, so I made sweetrolls this morning. They were yummy, but I'd like the bread part to be a bit more elastic, or something. You know, like a really good yeast donut.

I bought bread flour (but it was the Western Family brand - maybe it was carpy?). I let them rise twice, that part worked out just fine. I'm wondering if I kneaded the dough enough?

Or maybe I added a bit too much flour? Bread recipes always give you a ballpark flour amount, and you add more in as you need/knead it. (Ahahahahaha! *snort*)

I used my new handy dandy bright red kitchen-aid mixer that I got for xmas. With the dough hook. It worked great, but maybe I should have done it by hand?

Like I said, the sweetrolls tasted great, but there was an ever so slightly cakey texture to the bread part. What should I be doing differently, any ideas?

Jodi (who had to send Mr. Jodi off to work with most of the leftovers so she wouldn't snack on them for the rest of the day...)

Hey! We used to have one of those too!



Now we've got the bigger grey one...



No, I have no idea about the sweetrolls, I just do reg'lar bread

1/2 and 1/2 whole wheat and white flour and orange juice mixed with water makes for a wicked loaf!

Oh - what's the recipe?

I'm eating cinnamon rolls made just this morning before dawn as I type.

My recipe:

Melt two sticks of butter in large saucepan over low heat. Add 6 Tbsp. vegetable oil. Add 12 oz. evaporated milk and 12 oz. water. Then add 3 tsp. salt and 1/2 cup of sugar. Whisk mixture and check temp with thermometer. Bring mixture to 115-120 degrees. If too warm, let cool. When temperature is right, pour into very large bowl. Add 3 packets of quick-rising yeast. Whisk thoroughly. Add 5 cups of all-purpose flour. Whisk thoroughly. Cover with dampened cloth and place in warm place and let rise until at least doubled, preferably tripled. When risen, add 3 1/2 cups of flour. Work in with handy utensil. (I like an old-fashioned potato masher.) When well mixed, you may wish to start kneading by hand. If well worked, mixture will be only ever so slightly sticky. If too sticky, add 1/2 cup more flour. Knead thoroughly. Form a ball and coat with thin layer of cooking oil. Cover again with damp cloth and return to warm place. Let rise to at least double again, preferably triple. (Texture is better for rolls if you let it rise more both times.) When 2nd rise is done, push dough lightly down and set aside for a few minutes to "rest". Roll out dough with rolling pin to about 1/4 inch thick, as near a long rectangle as possible. Coat generously with cinnamon. Coat generously with mixture of brown and white sugar (about 1 cup of each). Sprinkle with chopped pecans, if desired. Roll up tightly. Cut with knife and place rolls in light aluminum pan. Put one *thin* slice/pat of butter in center of each roll. Let rise about 45 minutes in a warm place, covered as before. (Butter will melt down into layers by this time). Preheat oven to 350. Bake 30-35 minutes, covering lightly with foil to avoid excessive browning. While rolls bake, make glaze: melt half-stick of butter in sauce pan over low heat. Whisk in about 2 Tbsp. vanilla. Add about 1 1/2 cups of confectioner's sugar gradually, while mixing on low. When sugar is all moistened, beat on high until smooth. Pour or spread over rolls as soon as they come out of the oven. Makes 2 dozen large rolls.

(Don't skimp on the butter nor skip the oil, and do let it rise as long as you can each time. Those two factors get that elasticity you're after.)

(For good bread, same recipe, but reduce sugar to 1/3 cup and butter to 1.5 sticks.)

Mine's a big one too - where the bowl lifts up and down with the turning lever. It's a monster, and just barely fits under the cabinets!

Here's the recipe for the basic sweet dough (This is a half recipe, it made one 9 x 13 pan of sweet rolls - so double it for the full)

3/8 C milk
1/4 C sugar
5/8 t salt
1/4 C butter
1 pkg dry yeast
1/6 C warm water
1.5 eggs (I used one egg and 1/2 eggs worth of egg substitute)
2.75 - 3.25 C flour (recipe called for all purpose, I used bread)

You melt the milk, sugar, salt and butter, then cool to lukewarm and add the eggs.

You mix the yeast and the warm water.

You put it all in the mixer, add 2 cups of flour, mix a bit, then add part to all of the remaining and let the dough hook do it's job. Then you let it rise, and use it for whatever recipe you need.

Jodi

I bet Doug would have a good answer for you. As an accountant, I'm sure he makes a lot of dough.

quote:

Originally posted by ChickGrand:
hugemongous recipe

Ok, maybe that's what my problem was - maybe the original dough needs to rise twice? (i.e. three times for sweet rolls, since you let them rise again after assembling and rolling and cutting)

So one more rise in between when I added the first bit of flour, and then again after I add the rest? That might help to make it more elastic - giving all those little gluten dudes more time to do their thing.

Jodi

Jodi, your recipe is almost exactly what I used the first time I made bread. It was indeed a very fine-textured bread, with uniformity quite like cake. It sliced beautifully. But I wanted that "elasticity". So I explored other recipes to try to get that. The one above is what I've arrived at after trying several variations on a basic old-time grandma recipe.

EDIT: Yes, three times rising. Twice in the bowl and another in the pan. And, let it rise as long as possible, given your time constraints, with the goal to get it towards tripling each rise.

Holy Carp. This means I'm gonna have to get up at like 3am in the morning if I want sweetrolls. Everybody was whining today because we didn't eat breakfast until 9:30...

I was up at 2 and in the kitchen by 3 and had the first roll fresh out of the oven right at sunrise.

I doubt this would work for sweet rolls, but my improv teacher really likes this this bread recipe. It's easy, and the bread is wonderful (I sampled it a few days ago after class.)

That was fascinating. And here's the article that goes with it, with the explanation:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html

Jodi (off to figure out when the best time to start this 24 hour bread is...)

The crust is great.

We might never help each other play "Chopsticks", but we could help each other get really fat.