Homemade Bread: The Overnight Method

Ah, How to Be a Domestic Goddess. It's gotten me into trouble before. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic cookbook. I've taken some of my favorite recipes from it, and I'm addicted to the way Nigella Lawson writes. When I read her recipe introductions, I can always taste just exactly how that cake or cookie or loaf of bread I'm baking will turn out.

Unfortunately, Nigella's tricky sometimes. Like any cook, her recipes don't always turn out as easily as she says they will.

This time, she convinced me to attempt my first loaf of homemade bread. Try it, she says. It's easy, she says. Everyone should do it, she says. Just mix the ingredients together, knead for a few minutes, and chuck the dough in a bowl for the night. Give it a slow, cold rise, she says.

But, alas, things didn't turn out quite so simply!

First, the dough didn't behave itself. Mixing it was difficult, much more difficult than mixing the cinnamon roll dough I made a few weeks ago. I had a hard time making the liquids combine with the dry stuff, and I was worried about soaking the dough in too much potato water, so I left it a little dry.

Then, the kneading was rough, which I'm sure was due to the dough's dryness. My muscles actually ached afterward.

 

The dough looked fine after kneading, though, so I threw it in our cool garage to rise overnight.

Lawson suggests that letting bread dough rise in a cold place overnight is the same as letting it rise for a couple of hours in a warm kitchen. However, when I went to check on the dough a few hours later, it was very, very puffy--it had definitely doubled and was ready to be punched down--but since I didn't want to stay up all night to bake bread, I stuck it in the refrigerator until morning.

This, I think, is where things went wrong. The dough was pretty flat again in the morning, and there was no air to punch out. Still, I had hope. I kneaded it for a bit longer than recommended and set the loaf out for 45 minutes for its second rise.

What did it do then, you ask?

Well, not much. Not much at all.

Still, I threw the loaf in the oven on my mom's old pizza stone and hoped for the best.

And, surprisingly, everything turned out okay. The crust was remarkably crisp, and the bread tasted, well, like bread is supposed to taste, only really fresh and rich and yeasty. However, the crumb was very dense, more cake-like than bread-like.

I'm still not certain of the culprit's identity. Was my bread fail due to. . .

A. a lack of moisture in the dough? Did I put in too little potato water at the beginning, which lead my little yeasty friends to die of thirst?

B. the cold rise? Does this method only work if you're a brunette British bombshell with an uncanny affinity for baked goods?

C. the dough rising too much too early? Did I shock the yeast by letting them feast and then shoving them into a cold refrigerator?

I'm leaning toward C. Are there any expert bakers out there who can help me pinpoint my problem?

Despite a so-so first attempt, I'll definitely try homemade bread again--the smell of it baking alone was worth the time and effort!--but I'll skip the cold rise next time and hope that the traditional method serves me better.

Cinnamon Rolls

Warning: The post you are about to read contains food porn. Please cover children's eyes and place a bowl beneath your lip to catch the drool.

 

Homemade cinnamon rolls. Yesssssss.

I've been wanting to make cinnamon rolls for a couple of years now. I decided to try Paula Deen's Cinnamon Roll recipe (from www.FoodNetwork.com) on a whim; I had some free time and a craving and a lot of faith in the way Southern people use sugar. I also liked this recipe because it's very basic--there's no fuss here, no funky ingredients or nutty bits or cobblery little berries secreted away inside. These rolls are made just the way I like them, with good, old fashioned cinnamon, sugar, and butter. And a little more butter. And maybe just a touch more.

Oh, heck, just throw the whole stick in there!

Anyway, I'm especially proud of these because I've never made cinnamon rolls solo before. I've watched other people make them. I've made Pilsbury's sad little replicas. I've made monkey bread and baking soda/baking powder cinnamon thingies. But I've never tackled cinnamon rolls alone before.

I've also never worked with yeast in a rising dough, which means I've never kneaded or punched down dough. I was worried I'd muck things up somehow, but despite my inexperience, I found these to be foolproof yet phenomenal.

These are not the soft, squishy type of cinnamon roll. The filling is rich and dark and sweet but not syrupy. The dough has substance, backbone: instead of being a doughy, damp mess at the bottom, these rolls have crispy, caramelized little bases that come from a well-greased pan sprinkled with white sugar.

My favorite thing about working with yeast was watching the changes the dough went through. I started off with an ugly, unpromising sort of dough ball with lots of cracks and lumps.

After ten minutes of kneading, I had a smooth, moist ball of dough that didn't look nearly large enough for a whole pan of rolls.

After an hour and a half to rise, I had a huge puff of stretchy, almost rubbery dough.

After punching out the excess air (which was extremely rewarding, by the way), I rolled the dough, poured a wide slick of melted butter over it, and sprinkled it very, very (very!) liberally with the cinnamon and sugar.

After it was rolled and cut, I had a very wimpy little pan of raw rolls.

The looked like a hot mess, but after forty-five more minutes of rising, they started to look respectable.

By the time they were done baking, they had expanded to fill the cake pan from side to side, and they grew from one inch tall to two and a half inches high at their centers.

But as fun as these were to make, they were also epic: I started baking at 9:45 in the morning and didn't get the rolls out of the oven until 1:15 in the afternoon. They were worth the time, but I understand why these don't get made fresh too often!

The glaze was good but not amazing. I wish I had made it with less butter, a little milk, and more hot water. Following the recipe, it was just too rich; the cinnamon rolls had such a nice flavor and texture that the frosting glopped on top just weighed them down. (As you can see in the first picture, I kept two rolls at the front of the pan pretty dry for Charlie, who believes in moderation when it comes to frosting. I wish I had done the same for the rest of the pan!)

Besides reducing the amount of frosting on each roll, the only thing I would change about this recipe is the filling. I like my cinnamon rolls to have a dark, caramely flavor that plain old white sugar can't provide, so I would replace most (or all) of the white sugar in the filling with brown sugar. That's it. Everything else here is crispy, sugary, melty, cinnamony, toothsome perfection.

And if you want an overnight cinnamon roll recipe that won't force you to get up at 5:00 a.m. to serve breakfast at 9:00, I've heard great things about Alton Brown's cinnamon rolls!

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Paula Deen's Cinnamon Rolls

From www.FoodNetwork.com

Ingredients 

Dough:

• 1/4-ounce package yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup scalded milk
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter or shortening
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:

• 1/2 cup melted butter, plus more for pan
• 3/4 cup sugar, plus more for pan
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup raisins, walnuts, or pecans, optional

Glaze:

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 to 6 tablespoons hot water

Directions

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. In a large bowl mix milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and egg. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth. Add yeast mixture. Mix in remaining flour until dough is easy to handle. Knead dough on lightly floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes. Place in well-greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size, usually 1 to 1 1/2 hours. 

When doubled in size, punch down dough. Roll out on a floured surface into a 15 by 9-inch rectangle. Spread melted butter all over dough. Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over buttered dough. Sprinkle with walnuts, pecans, or raisins if desired. Beginning at the 15-inch side, role up dough and pinch edge together to seal. Cut into 12 to 15 slices. 

Coat the bottom of baking pan with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Place cinnamon roll slices close together in the pan and let rise until dough is doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake for about 30 minutes or until nicely browned. 

Meanwhile, mix butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add hot water 1 tablespoon at a time until the glaze reaches desired consistency. Spread over slightly cooled rolls.