I enjoy making bread-sorts-of-things from scratch, though I have a lot of practicing to do before I get very good at it. One thing that has given me pause is how to figure out when dough has risen to double. Usually it's in a bowl that is smaller at the bottom than the top, and my eyeball is not very accurate at measuring stuff anyway. Enter this tip from Alton Brown:
I use a container like this that is nearly the same size at the bottom as it is at the top. I also actually use a ruler to figure out how tall the dough is, and place a rubber band where the dough needs to get to be double. It's easy to tell at a glance as I'm walking by if it's there or not. Since there is a whole lot of air between the dough and the lid, I still use a piece of plastic wrap to cover my dough and make sure it doesn't dry out.
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Brilliant idea. I remember my Mom asking me to eyeball it and give her my opinion when I was growing up. My Dad is the breadmaker now and he does the same thing - asks Mom to eyeball it.
ReplyDeleteAwesome tip!! I'm still working on not killing the yeast - but my husband just got home with 2 lbs of yeast and a 5 lb bag of flour. I'm ready to get practicing!! I'll be using your tip when I finally get the stupid dough to rise ;)
ReplyDeleteGreat tip! I'm like Melissa. I just eyeball it.
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