Small-Batch Dough in Bottom-Mount Bosch Universal Bowl

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Jim — No Comments ↓

Big bowl, small batch!

Continuing my small-batch dough series, I’ve thrown together a challah loaf in my bottom-mount stainless bowl on my Bosch Universal mixer. This dough has 338 grams of flour and is about 60% hydration.

I’ll let you decide how the bottom-mount bowl handles a small batch, but will say the dough turned out smooth, elastic and gorgeous.

Note: always keep your lid on your bowl. I removed it for the video, but notice that it would be very easy for the dough to be slung out onto the floor without it!

Challah

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Jim — No Comments ↓

I’ve finally found a bread recipe I like. I thought I’d share.

I’ve always been intrigued by the thought of baking my own bread. I’ve tried multiple recipes and techniques multiple times, without finding something that I would be willing to eat on a regular basis.

I took a bread-baking class at the University of Tennessee Culinary Institute that featured the basis of this recipe. I’ve tweaked it and resized it and make it in my [easyazon-link keywords=”Bosch Universal mixer” locale=”us”]Bosch Universal mixer[/easyazon-link] rather than by hand.

In class we had access to a high-gluten flour which I cannot find in any grocery store, so I have changed my recipe to use vital wheat gluten with regular bread flour. This produces a product that is close enough to the original for me.

You can make a slightly leaner dough by eliminating the butter. Or you can add a bit more butter, honey and water and come up with a softer dough more suitable for cinnamon rolls.

Substituting 1/3 whole wheat flour for an equal amount of bread flour works wonderfully also.

	1 loaf	2 loaves
	24 oz	48 oz
Honey	38 grams	76 grams
Salt, Kosher	6 grams	12 grams
Bread Flour	338 grams	676 grams
[easyazon-link keywords=”Vital Wheat Gluten” locale=”us”]Vital Wheat Gluten[/easyazon-link]	21 grams	42 grams
[easyazon-link keywords=”Instant Yeast” locale=”us”]Instant Yeast[/easyazon-link]	10 grams	20 grams
Water	112 grams	224 grams
Eggs	2	4
Unsalted butter, melted	49 grams	98 grams

I throw all the ingredients into my Bosch Universal (or Bosch Compact, or DLX Assistent) and, after everything has come together, allow the dough to knead for about 8 minutes or so.

I then lightly oil the dough and cover it and allow it to proof (raise or ferment) until it has about doubled in size. I will then punch it down and roll it into a tight log the length of my [easyazon-link keywords=”loaf pan” locale=”us”]loaf pan[/easyazon-link]. It then gets loosely covered and allowed to proof again until it is about an inch to inch and a half above the rim of the pan.

Then I bake it for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Remove from the pan immediately and allow to cool an an elevated cooling rack.

After 20 minutes, you should have a nicely browned loaf that will sound hollow when thumped on the bottom. For rich doughs like this you would be looking for a temperature somewhere around 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Keeping it below the traditionally-quoted temperature of 195-200 degrees will prevent the bread from being too dry.

My challah loaves as they come out of the pan:

The following two pictures show braided challah that I did in class at the UT Culinary Institute:

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Jim — No Comments ↓

Not mixed by the expected methods, but very nice!

2 sticks butter
1 cup water
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 square bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoons rum
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
13” x 9” pan (or two 9” round cake pans)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In saucepan, melt together, butter, water, cocoa chocolate and rum. Allow to cool slightly.

Sift together all dry ingredients and fold into the chocolate mixture.

Stir in vanilla, sour cream and eggs. Pour into pan and bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Cool and frost with your choice of chocolate frostings.

Big Batch Sugar Cookies in the Bosch Universal

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Jim — 6 Comments ↓

Let’s make some sugar cookies!

12 C flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1.5 tablespoon baking powder
4 C butter
4 C sugar
4 eggs
4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoon either lemon, orange or almond extracts
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350° degrees F. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and other extracts.

Sift, then mix dry ingredients and add to butter mixture. Mix well.

Chill for 1 to 2 hours. Roll to 1/4″ thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake 8 to 10 min.

Cool.

Can be decorated with colored sugars before baking or iced with royal icing afterwards. Use your imagination decorating these.

To freeze: divide dough into approximately 4 rounds and wrap tightly in waxed paper then over wrap in moisture/vapor proof. You can freeze the rounds on a tray then vacuum seal the frozen rounds

Submitted by Miss Vi & the Duckies

Procedure using the Bosch Universal

4 cups butter
(use the pulse feature to start mixing)

Sugar mixed with butter:

Butter and sugar after 3 minutes of creaming: The creamed butter and sugar

Getting ready to change to the dough hook to mix in the flour: Getting ready to switch to the Bosch dough hook to mix in the flour

Adding 12 cups flour using splash ring:

Finished dough:

Chocolate Overdose Cake

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Jim — No Comments ↓

What is better than chocolate? More chocolate. Lots more chocolate. Did I mention something about chocolate?

I originally found this recipe at Annie’s Eats and I just Had. To. Try. It. Out. Almost two pounds of chocolate? Who could say, “no” to that?

It has a chocolate-brownie base. Then there is a layer of chocolate mousse. Then a chocolate cake layer. The entire thing is then covered in chocolate ganache and decorated as you see fit.

Ingredients gathered and ready. Softened butter and warm eggs.

The Brownie

Brownie Ingredients:

1/2 cup plus 2 T cake flour
1/4 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
6 T unsalted butter
1 T dark rum (because Julia did it)
1 1/8 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 t vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Prepare a straight-sided [easyazon-link asin=”B0006GNPP0″ locale=”us”]9 x 2 inch round cake pan[/easyazon-link]. You can line the bottom with parchment if you like, while buttering the sides. Or you can cheat and spray the entire thing with one of those flour-containing baking sprays like [easyazon-link asin=”B00473NTB8″ locale=”us”]Baker’s Joy[/easyazon-link].

Mix together the dry ingredients and set aside (remember, in baking, sugar is almost always considered a wet ingredient). Melt the butter and chocolate together with the rum. (You can use a double boiler or microwave – if using a microwave, only heat the chocolate for short times, stirring frequently until smooth.)

When the chocolate is completely smooth, stir in the sugar. Then stir in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. When the eggs are thoroughly combined, mix in the vanilla extract.

Fold in the flour mixture until no white bits of flour remain.

Transfer batter to prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (You can set the pan aside at this point and prepare the cake layer and bake them at the same time if you like.)

Butter and chocolate getting ready to be nuked:

Fold in the flour:

Don’t leave any bits of flour in your batter:

The brownie batter ready to go into the oven … please ignore those bits of flour, thank you:

The finished brownie base waiting for assembly!

The Cake

Cake Ingredients:

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/8 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
1/4 cup hot water
7/8 cup sugar, divided
7/8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 t vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
6 T unsalted butter, soft

Prepare a [easyazon-link asin=”B0006GNPP0″ locale=”us”]9 x 2 inch round cake pan[/easyazon-link], by buttering and flouring, or spraying with your [easyazon-link asin=”B00473NTB8″ locale=”us”]favorite pan spray[/easyazon-link].

Melt chocolate together with the cocoa powder, stirring until smooth. Add 1/4 cup of the sugar, stirring to combine. Set aside to cool.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt.

Combine buttermilk and vanilla.

Beat eggs together until combined, increase speed and add sugar. Using the whisk attachment beat until fluffy and light in color – about 3 full minutes.

Using the paddle attachment, add the chocolate mixture, mixing well. Beat in the softened butter one tablespoon at a time, mixing about 10 seconds between each addition.

Starting with the flour, alternate adding buttermilk and flour, ending with flour. Mix about 20 seconds, to make sure everything is combined.

Pour into pan and smooth batter.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until done.

Water, chocolate and cocoa powder.

The melted chocolate – cocoa powder mixture:

Eggs:

Beaten eggs with sugar:

The sugar beaten in:

Adding the chocolate:

The chocolate mixed in:

Whipping the chocolate:

The whipped chocolate mixture:

Alternating the flour …

And the milk …

My pan is only 1.5” high, so I added a parchment paper collar:

The batter ready for baking:

The baked cake layer, collar removed, ready to be removed from the pan:

The cake layer cooling:

The chocolate mousse

Mousse ingredients:

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, broken into 1/2-oz. pieces
1 7/8 cups heavy cream
1 tbsp. sugar

Melt chocolate and cool.

Whip cream and sugar together in a chilled mixer bowl, until stiff peaks form.

Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate in three additions.

The completed chocolate mousse:

The ganache

Ganache Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
18 oz. semisweet chocolate, broken into 1/2-oz. pieces

Heat the heavy cream to boiling. Pour over the chocolate and butter and stir until smooth.

Chocolate and butter ready for melting:

Heated cream:

The completed ganache … silky smooth goodness:

The assembly

To assemble:

Top the brownie with the chocolate mousse. Top with the cake layer and press firmly to level.

Use the mousse that will ooze out between the brownie and cake to skim coat the brownie and cake layers. Refrigerate until the mousse has firmed up, making the ganache at this time.

Pour the ganache over the chilled cake, spreading with an off-set spatula to smooth. Decorate as you desire.

A thick layer of mousse on the brownie layer:

The completed layers:

I gave the whole cake a skim-coat of mousse and then refrigerated it to set up a bit:

The completed cake, with ganache shells and rosettes, with a ring of mini chocolate chips:

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