I had a surprising amount of trouble with this basic recipe, trouble which I tentatively blame on the flour combination I used. I've mentioned that I find many of the BBA recipes to need a lot of extra hydration. This one went the other way. I ran out of white flour halfway through, and so the recipe was half whole wheat bread flour, with a splash of fine semolina. In my mind, this flour substitution, especially with the absorption breaks I kept giving it, should have meant the dough was dry, if anything. Instead, it was so wet that I couldn't knead it, and ended up gooshing it around more like the ciabatta dough, after adding a good deal more flour on my hands. I finally just got frustrated and set it to rise, figuring it would be what it would be. I then forgot about it and it got a 6-hour rise instead of the two it was meant to have, and it would have been longer except that I happened to stumble on the bowl on my counter while going to make something else. It had more than quadrupled in size, but luckily the yeast wasn't exhausted and they proofed just fine once I had gotten the cinnamon and sugar and pecans and raisins in, and cooked up ok, though whole wheat dough never bakes as pretty as all white in pastries like these.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Bread Baker's Apprentice: Cinnamon Buns
I had a surprising amount of trouble with this basic recipe, trouble which I tentatively blame on the flour combination I used. I've mentioned that I find many of the BBA recipes to need a lot of extra hydration. This one went the other way. I ran out of white flour halfway through, and so the recipe was half whole wheat bread flour, with a splash of fine semolina. In my mind, this flour substitution, especially with the absorption breaks I kept giving it, should have meant the dough was dry, if anything. Instead, it was so wet that I couldn't knead it, and ended up gooshing it around more like the ciabatta dough, after adding a good deal more flour on my hands. I finally just got frustrated and set it to rise, figuring it would be what it would be. I then forgot about it and it got a 6-hour rise instead of the two it was meant to have, and it would have been longer except that I happened to stumble on the bowl on my counter while going to make something else. It had more than quadrupled in size, but luckily the yeast wasn't exhausted and they proofed just fine once I had gotten the cinnamon and sugar and pecans and raisins in, and cooked up ok, though whole wheat dough never bakes as pretty as all white in pastries like these.
Labels:
BBA,
cinnamon,
pastry,
raisins,
yeast breads
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5 comments:
I bet these were delicious! You must have been surprised to find them after forgetting they were rising. Good thing the dough didn't take over your kitchen!
Looks yummy! I can't wait till I get to the cinnamon buns...they look so delicious!
Even though you say you had troubles they sure look great.
Nice baking along with you,
Susie
looks good! I had to add more flour to mine also... about 6 TBs.
I thought the dough smelled wonderful! (and they tasted good too! lol)
They look yummy! I'm making PR's whole wheat version from his Whole Grains Book. Too much butter for you, too much white flour for me!
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