I love it when simple things work out
Feb. 6th, 2020 11:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plonqI made buns to go with yesterday's dinner. Usually I look up a recipe any time I make a bread product, but I was feeling a bit cheeky yesterday and decided to tackle it without a recipe.
I cheated a bit, mind you, because I printed off a sheet with the proportions for making various bread products. For bread, it told me that the ratio should be five parts flour to three parts liquid and that I should have about 2% of the flour's weight in salt, and about 1 tsp of dry yeast per 454g of flour. Finally it gave the internal temp for the bread (180-210F), but I just baked them at 360F and took them out once they were nicely browned.
I decided to use bread flour to make them (though I think I will use all-purpose for the next batch). I dumped the remainder of flour from one of our dry bins into a bowl, refilled the bin with fresh stuff and then dumped the remains of the bag that didn't fit there into the bowl with the older flour. In all, it was 350g of flour, so I measured out 210g of water to go with it. Rather than pull out the stand mixer, I decided to make the whole thing by hand as well. I mixed the wet and dry ingredients by spoon until it became unwieldy, and then turned it out onto the counter so that I could mix and knead it by hand. It was a messy, sticky process at first, but I persevered, using the scraper to get the dough off the counter and my fingers. After a couple of minutes there was the satisfying moment when the dough came together, and I could wash my hands again and then knead it the rest of the way.
When I made the buns, I used a roller to turn each into a long rectangle of dough. I folded those lengthwise, then I rolled them up and put them into a muffin tin to rise. Right before they went in the oven, I brushed the tops with melted butter. I think the results were pretty good.
The other culinary success I had was making broth from Sunday's leftover chicken bones and skin. I had some thigh bones and skin in the freezer that I added as well. I know that chicken broth is a pretty hard thing to mess up, but there is something satisfying in having a batch turn viscous as it cools. This stuff is so much more rich than what you normally find at the store that it's a pleasure to cook with.
I can't believe I used to throw out chicken scraps when I was younger. I was missing out.
I cheated a bit, mind you, because I printed off a sheet with the proportions for making various bread products. For bread, it told me that the ratio should be five parts flour to three parts liquid and that I should have about 2% of the flour's weight in salt, and about 1 tsp of dry yeast per 454g of flour. Finally it gave the internal temp for the bread (180-210F), but I just baked them at 360F and took them out once they were nicely browned.
I decided to use bread flour to make them (though I think I will use all-purpose for the next batch). I dumped the remainder of flour from one of our dry bins into a bowl, refilled the bin with fresh stuff and then dumped the remains of the bag that didn't fit there into the bowl with the older flour. In all, it was 350g of flour, so I measured out 210g of water to go with it. Rather than pull out the stand mixer, I decided to make the whole thing by hand as well. I mixed the wet and dry ingredients by spoon until it became unwieldy, and then turned it out onto the counter so that I could mix and knead it by hand. It was a messy, sticky process at first, but I persevered, using the scraper to get the dough off the counter and my fingers. After a couple of minutes there was the satisfying moment when the dough came together, and I could wash my hands again and then knead it the rest of the way.
When I made the buns, I used a roller to turn each into a long rectangle of dough. I folded those lengthwise, then I rolled them up and put them into a muffin tin to rise. Right before they went in the oven, I brushed the tops with melted butter. I think the results were pretty good.
The other culinary success I had was making broth from Sunday's leftover chicken bones and skin. I had some thigh bones and skin in the freezer that I added as well. I know that chicken broth is a pretty hard thing to mess up, but there is something satisfying in having a batch turn viscous as it cools. This stuff is so much more rich than what you normally find at the store that it's a pleasure to cook with.
I can't believe I used to throw out chicken scraps when I was younger. I was missing out.
