Osmotolerant yeast for high sugar doughs

Hooray, osmotolerant yeast available in the UK from bakerybits.co.uk.  Time to start experimenting with sweet yeast breads again.

Stuffed-crust pizza with mozzarella dough

I made a batch of the mozzarella dough but using a quicker technique for a pizza.  I set fingers of mozzarella on the rim of the pressed out disc and covered with more dough, squeezing to join.  I then covered this with tomato sauce, and other pizza toppings.

TT says this pizza is so good we don't need to go to pizza restaurants anymore - though I do need to source excellent topping ingredients now.


Ingredients for dough:
250g flour
125 g mozzarella (grated)
225 water (less water as not leaving dough so long)
1 tsp yeast (double yeast as wanted quicker result)
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp oregano

Mix dry ingredients including grated mozzarella together, stir in water.  Leave to sit, covered, in a warm place until it is clear dough is rising.

Press out onto non-stick sheet, sprinkled with flour or cornmeal.  Make rim if wanted by placing cheese strips along edge and covering with dough. Cover with whatever toppings wanted.

Bake 180C for 15 minutes and lower to 160C for a further ten minutes.

I'll have to see how this works with the lactose free cheese available in the supermarkets - it has little flavour so I haven't been tempted by it, preferring instead the superb artisan Cheddars from the West Country that are lactose free due to the traditional processes and long slow maturation.  If the (rather plastic) cheese can do the textural wonders that mozzarella does it would be very convenient - I ate (no milk products) bread and peanut butter for my lunch while he tucked into this pizza.

Italian meringue as an ingredient in gluten-free yeast doughs

It's the time of year where people write about all the lovely Panettone they make - a light sweet yeast bread that tears easily between the teeth.  I made one once following an immensely complicated recipe supplied by some official Italian organisation - my recollection was that it took days.


Now, of course, the idea of a light, flexible yeast dough seems very nearly unobtainable.  I am working on a cinnamon bun recipe (did you know Oct 4th is Cinnamon Bun day in Sweden? http://valariebudayr.typepad.com/learnsweden/2008/10/cinnamon-bun-da.html ) and striving for softness and flexibility.  Holding together is easy, taste is easy, texture is difficult.


I took to wondering what Italian Meringue would be like as an ingredient in a yeast dough. For those of you that aren't sure what an Italian meringue is, you make it by making a sugar syrup - 115C, medium ball stage, and pouring it onto whipped egg while it is hot and then leaving the mixer running while the mixture cools down.  I tried this version as I thought that the meringue would be more robust in the mix than simply adding whipped egg white.  The other possible advantage to using meringue as an ingredient half way through making a dough as it would give the yeast time to work without too much sugar around - I am still trying to find a UK supplier of domestic quantities of osmotolerant yeast.


I spent quite a while hunting on the Internet for any information on this and couldn't find anything.  I ran a quick test.  Here are the results.  For anyone who doesn't want to read the rest of the blog, I have to say that it isn't worth it -  adding meringue to a yeast dough before baking does change the texture but not in any particularly useful way.


I made a yeast dough with:
150g flour (40%urid, 40%tapioca, 40%cornmeal)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp yeast
20g butter
1 egg
c60ml water to get sloppy dough


While the dough was rising I made the meringue.  You can see from the bubbles in the dough that the yeast was working.  this is a more reliable indicator with my gf doughs than bulk in the early stages.

dough - yeast bubbles

I made a meringue with two egg whites so that I would have enough bulk for the stand mixer to work.  This was 80g.  The sugar syrup was made from 300gm sugar, 25g glucose and 65ml water.  This is enough for a four egg white meringue, but I made a double mixture as my heavy bottomed pan was too large for a half mix.  The spare can be caramelised and made into nut brittle.


Mix the water and sugar and glucose together before applying any heat.  Ideally leave the whole mix to rest for a while to ensure that all the sugar is wet - if you stir once you add heat you will get a granulated mess as I did with my first (half size) batch.  The glucose helps to avoid the crystallisation.  Once you get past the soft ball stage ( a drop of the syrup in cold water forms a ball you can roll between your fingers rather than simply dispersing) whip the egg as in normal meringue.  Then pour the hot syrup in a steady stream into the egg white while the mixer is working, and keep mixing until the meringue is cold.  You will have a lovely glossy meringue that can be used for making Italian ice-creams amongst other things.

meringue

At this point I divided the dough into three.  The first batch had 25g of the meringue added to 75g of dough.  This looked like equal amounts in volume.  The second had 10 g of meringue added.  The third was plain dough.  The remaining meringue was baked in the oven after the breads were complete.

dough and meringue

I made a bun shape and a flat disc from each of the doughs.  Ideally the sugar amount in each dough would  have been made up to the same levels to be sure that any changes in texture were due to the meringue not the ingredients, but I didn't do that.

meringue and dough mix

three doughs, baked - plain on left

The meringue did make a difference.  The one with the most meringue in reminded me of the texture of good rock buns - a slightly crisp, slightly cracking texture with adequate cohesion and large air bubbles.  The medium mix seemed promising as a sweet dough when fresh as it could be shaped when raw and had a good even crumb with medium sized air bubbles.  The plain dough was just a plain dough - firm, with irregular sized small bubbles.  

high-meringue mix

medium mix

plain dough

I didn't leave the mixtures to rise after shaping because I had foolishly started this whole process rather late in the evening.  I just put the buns into a cold oven and set it to 170C and cooked for about 22 minutes.

We tested them when they had just cooled and again in the morning.  They seemed more promising when fresh out of the oven, but had staled quickly and seemed a lot more boring twelve hours later.

 I baked the meringue that was left. I simply put the leftovers onto baking parchment, put in the oven at 170C for 5 minutes then turned the oven off and left it overnight.

The meringue was very good - slightly chewy and without that crisp disintegration into shards that normal meringue has.  Trying to think what I don't like about the usual meringue I make or buy Tolerant Taster and I said at the same moment - "they explode all over you". The chewiness was also quite slight, so it wasn't difficult to eat the way some meringues are that really stick to your teeth.  I would make this again.




So, the reason people don't use Italian meringue in yeast doughs is that it isn't worth it - but I am glad I took the time to find out.

Taralli Pugliesi and Bread Baking Babes

trying out Taralli Pugliesi with Bread Baking Babes - post a link to your efforts by Dec 29th.  Mine are rising in a warm moist oven at the moment so will post later.  Not sure anyone likes fennel flavoured breads so cut the fennel seed (home-grown) down by a fifth.  Always have the wild birds to scoff any failures.


http://www.luculliandelights.com/2010/12/bread-baking-babes-in-december-taralli.html

 --------------------

Taralli - bagel cooler shows how tiny they are

Taralli look like miniature bagels but are made with a lot of olive oil and baked until firm.  Mine have come out with a texture which Tolerant Taster describes as 'a firm doughnut'.  I think they will make an excellent food for dipping in humus or mustard, and I'll put them out before my New Years Day lunch when the hoards arrive and want to eat before the meal is ready.  They always do, while we wait for the last guests to arrive.




Ingredients:
500g flour  (40% urid lentil, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
100 ml extra-virgin olive oil
tepid water to get to soft but shapeable dough
5 g  fennel seeds
1/2 tsp yeast 
1/2  tsp sea salt
1 egg  (the recipe says use white wine if you don't want to use egg)



Large pan of boiling water for initial cooking, oven at 170C for baking.  
Slotted spoon, cooling racks, drip tray, baking trays.


Mix yeast with water or flour depending on type you have. I have the kind you have to mix with a little water rather than putting straight into the flour.
Mix oil and egg and yeasted water together,  
Mix dry ingredients. 
Mix the two together.  I used the food mixer and beat the dough, adding water as needed, until I got a smooth dough that held together and was easily shaped.  Don't make it any dryer than needed as it will rise easier if wetter.  

mixed dough - not sloppy, not dry

Leave the dough to rise for a while in a warm moist place.  When you are sure it has begun rising shape into little rings.

roll little snakes and press ends together

let them rise in a warm moist place.

I put doughs that are rising in the oven with some hot water to add steam.  I also spritz with water to keep the surfaces from drying out and slowing the rise.

When these little rings had risen a bit I put them in boiling water - the original recipe says put in a few at a time and take out when they rise to the surface.  I think this must be different with wheat flour, as these didn't really sink much, so I just boiled for about twenty seconds then drained on a rack.  When they had all been through the boiling water and drained I put them onto oiled baking sheets and baked at 170C for about twenty minutes.

bake in a medium oven

 When they are golden brown and firm put them on a rack to cool.

piles of mini fennel- flavoured bread rings.

The original blog suggests having these with a chili flavoured oil instead of fennel, plain or with rosemary.   I'll see how these age before I decide if they are to be a regular snack food and so worth trying with different flavours. At the moment they are very good, though I do admit I have never tried the original so don't know what I was aiming at.