Butter Pistol Roll

This is a very tasty variation on hard rolls. It has a certain flakiness and a delicious butter taste. Oops! I told a part of the secret.... How do we get this flakiness into a hard roll? Well pretty easy. We fold butter into the dough. The trick (if you want to call it a trick) is to give the dough two folds (in 3) with butter after the first fermentation.
After folding the butter in, with a rolling pin, we divide the dough into pieces (I use 50 Grams each.) After that we make the roll shape and let the dough ferment.

Recipe :

500 Grams flour
300 Grams water
8 Grams dry yeast
9 Grams salt
_________________
75 Grams butter to fold in (divide this into two equal pieces)

Mix water, yeast, flour for about 2 minutes in first speed.
Add the salt when the dough comes together.
Mix for an additional 6 minutes in second speed.
Desired dough temperature : 22°C or 71°F
Let the dough ferment for 20 minutes covered in plastic.

Punch down and roll with a rolling pin into a rectangular shape.
Place the soft (same consistence as the dough) butter 2/3th on the dough.
Fold in 3.
Let the dough rest for about 5 minutes.
Roll again in a rectangular shape. Take the second part of the butter and do
the same as mentioned above. Roll the dough and divide into 50 gram pieces.
Make rolls, and slice.

Proof until they are large enough (I guess it took about 45 minutes, I
have a proofer so this might take longer in your kitchen.)

Bake :

230°C (440°F) - 10-15 minutes (Make sure they are well baked! These times are just a guiding line, it might take up to 18-20 minutes to be fully baked depending on your oven.)

Let cool down if you can and enjoy these delicious rolls!!!

A matter of loaf and death!

"A matter of loaf and death" is the new movie of Walace and Gromit which went on premiere last night on BBC One. I was actually surprised when I read the
title that it would have something to do with baking!
The movie was great! I am a huge W&G fan and as soon as the DVD comes out March 2009 I will get it. Meanwhile check out the amazing W&G site!

Christmas '08

Christmas this year was awesome! I ate some great food (I made delicious veggie goulash!) Also I had a great result baking. I made Stollen, brownies (this was a succes!) and a "Buche De Noel" which was also awesome!
Here are some pics :

Merry Christmas!

Soft Rolls (with-without pastry cream)

These look pretty much perfect. Proofing in the proofer sure is a benefit.
I slowly gain control over the new oven, but not for everything. I am kinda
disappointed, because I really seem not to be able to control baking Viennoiserie in it.
This is a real bummer, I think I will use my kitchen hot air oven this weekend to bake the Viennoiserie in. Bummer...

Submitted to Yeastspotting

Recipe :
500 grams flour
42 grams yeast (fresh)
20 grams honey
2 eggs
250 grams milk
7 grams salt
75 grams butter

Mix Milk + yeast + honey + eggs
Add flour
Add the soft butter
Add salt

Knead for about 10 minutes.
10 minutes rest covered with plastic.

Divide the dough into buns 50 grams each.
Make boule shapes.
Rest 10 minutes covered. The ones you want to fill with pastry
cream : take a small cloth, fill with some flour and make a round shape like
a ball. Punch down the dough with it to create a hole to fill with pastry cream,
do this just before putting them in the oven.

Proof for about 20 minutes (this might take longer depending how warm it is in your kitchen), egg wash them and bake.

240°C (460F) for about 10 minutes.

Like I mentioned before on this blog, I usually use cooked pastry cream, but for these ones I made it easy and used a mix. For baked goods that is okay.

Bread

It has been a while since I posted so here's a pic of some straight dough breads.

Proofer

So I managed to get home with the proofer I purchased on eBay (that was the easy part actually). What was not so easy was getting the proofer where it should be installed. It barely could pass through the door opening of the house and we had a lot of twisting and turning to do, even remove the doors to get this giant at it's place.

After that I let it stand for 24 hours to stabilize, as one would do with a refrigerator. Then the most fearing moment, would the proofer and namely all the electric wires have survived the trip and the (difficult) installation?
Yes! I flipped the switch and the red heating light started burning. I poured some water into the reservoir and waited a while. The temperature reader showed the desired (25°C)temperature. All good. When I opened the door I saw the evaporated water filled the cabinet, so it seemed to work okay.

I tested it and the breads I put in proofed okay. Only negative aspect : the top of the dough seemed a bit wet, making it impossible to make a decent slash. I seem not able to control the humidity, so I will need to find a solution.

Here are some pics of the proofer, all in all, it was dirt cheap, 99€ is not that much for this used machine. Proofing conditions will be a lot better than in my house, no doubt about that.

New tools

It is amazing how fast stuff breaks nowadays. I have purchased this machine to cut my slices of bread like a good year ago. It does not work anymore! The Kenwood has died on me. I don't like it. I paid like 40€ for it, which is more than enough and it did last for like a year and some months...
I had been looking to buy a more professional cutter, but the thing is that pro tools cost money, a lot of money! So I told my wife and she mentioned her mum still must have the cutter that her mother used.
She still had it and this piece of equipment is more than 50 years old. It is built to last! I even cut my finger when I cleaned the blade. It is amazing how well this is made. I cleaned it and it looks like it will last for another 50 years! We used it and it works perfect, I could not have been happier with it, just wishing that todays equipment would have the same quality build as this tool from the past.