Cooking Cheap

From the recipe pamplet of my Bread Machine

2 1/4 Tsp dry Yeast
3 C Bread flour
1 1/2 Tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tbl Sugar
1 1/2 Tbl Dry Skim Milk
4 1/2 Tsp Shortening of sweet butter
1 1/2 C water

I’ll convert it to sourdough and try to make hot dog buns (yes, really). First off, lose the yeast, I’ve got starter.

1/2 C active starter (recently feed and bubbly)
2.5 C bread flour (plus another 1/2 C as needed)
1 1/2 Tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tbl Sugar
1 1/2 Tbl Dry Skim Milk
1 1/2 Tbl melted or soft butter
1 1/4 C water

This is based on the 1/2 Cup of starter being 50/50 flour and water, mine is close to 100% hydration (as of this writing). I want a fairly dry dough without tough gluten which I believe the butter and milk will prevent so the the question is how long to knead (by hand). Other unknowns are the rise times and how many hot dog buns that’ll make.

90g starter (1/2 C)
360g bread flour (2.75C) or
1 1/2 Tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tbl Sugar
1 1/2 Tbl Dry Skim Milk
1 1/2 Tbl melted or soft butter
315g water (1 1/4 C)

That’s what I think I added but its a very wet dough. Too wet. I mixed in another 1/2 C flour (55g) , and almost that much more on on the bench and its was still almost unworkable it was so wet. Makes me wonder how I screwed up. I Hand kneaded for a while, 10 minutes or so. I expect a faster rise with all that sugar.

After 3 hours, I pronounced it ready to shape into buns. It was shapable, so I made some long thin things I hope will fit a hot dog and some round things that might work for hamburger buns. It’s almost an hour into the last rise and the touch test says they’re ready enough for the final “Come To Jesus” moment in the oven. I’m going to bake at 350, no steam making silliness. Bake, Cool and complain.

Sadly, I feel asleep after that and the second rise was 5 hours. I woke up and put it in the fridge and went back to bed. Out of the fridge, they looked OK enough but clearly dry on the top. I let them warm up for 45 minutes and into a 350 oven for about 30 minutes. The look usable but they are a little stiff on the outside. Tastes fine, but a lot drier than I wanted ;^). Good Enough for the freezer.

The error on the water goes way back. The bread machine recipe said 1 1/2C water minus 3 TBL. Oops! I left out that minus part in my calculations. Stupid way to specify ingredients if you ask me. It’s not the first time I’ve missed that minus thing on that recipe. 3 Tablespoons does make a difference.

The bread is OK but I’m going the session a “learning experience”. I learned that fat (the butter) can prevent the most serious effects of over proofing.