I'm totally, completely confused on butter
We (hubby and I) are at present making Casatiello bread. We have done fine until I got to the butter part. I used real butter, and the recipe calls for 1/4 cup or 6 oz. of butter.
Here is my confusion. The package of butter says one stick is half a cup. That is more than 6 oz. Hubby was measuring (weighing) it for me and so put in the measuring cup on the scales. He used the one stick and half of another to get the total 6 oz.
Okay, that gets the amount of oz in the recipe. But after putting in most of the butter, probably 5 oz it was spinning and spinning around and not mixing it any. I was going that has to be too much butter. Took some paper towels and wiped off as much of the butter as I could on the sides of the mixing bowl. Added about four tbs of flour after a couple more minutes of spinning and spinning but no mixing.
It then picked up the flour and the dough looked like it was supposed to in the description. We switched to the dough hook, kneaded it and then added the cooked salami and then the cheddar cheese (hubby doesn't like provolone). It is now in the laundry room and we are waiting for it to rise. If it rises and does what the recipes says, we will put it into loaf pans and bake them and if one taste good give the other to our neighbor, he is elderly and his wife died a couple years ago.
So, I guess later on I get to say if we ate it or tossed it. LOL
However, I would like to know, how do you measure butter and does real butter or the "fake" butter (margarine) make a difference in making bread?
In the United States of America, in all of the packages I have seen, a pound of butter (16 ounces) has four sticks. A stick of butter therefore weighs 4 ounces (Avoirdupois), and has a volume of about 1/2 cup (4 oz by volume). A cup is 8 fluid ounces, therefore 1/4 cup is 2 fluid ounces.
There is something wrong with your recipe!!!!! Does it call for 2 fluid ounces, or does it call for 6 ounces by weight??? There is a BIG difference!!!!
Foird
I checked the recipe and this time I didn't use just my eyes, I used my brain and got a magnifying glass. This is the part of getting old I hate. The magnifying glass shows it as 3/4 cup, which would be 6 oz. The books is the Bread Baker's Apprentice, so if it was wrong it would be a typing error, I am sure.
I still don't understand why it was so messy and the dough just kept spinning and spinning, not mixing at all. And it wasn't just a few seconds, but over a minute. Recipe calls for dividing the butter into four parts and putting one in at a time. I put in one section and it mixed for around 30 seconds, and I stopped it and moved the dough off the paddle and started it back up again. It still was spinning and I waited for a bit, turned it off, took it off the paddle and added most of the butter. Hubby was going put the dough hook on and see if that will mix it better. Went to double check the book, still saw it as 1/4 and was worried and so wipped down the sides of most of the butter, added two tablespoons of flour and mixed it for another minute then put the dough hook on with another tabs of flour and it mixed up fine, pulled everything in like it was cleaning off the remaining butter and flour off the sides of the bowl, continued with the recipe adding the salami and let that mix then the cheese and let it mix and just checked and it is rising in the bowl.
It is a learning experience. I do wish that when they typed the ingredients that they would make them big enough to read. I have to type things at font size 14 to see it clear without straining. I think I will now copy and then enlarge the recipe so I can see the amounts correctly.
look up the recipe. I'm so fortunate to have a borrowed copy and enjoy reading the BBA. Looking up the recipe pushed me into the recipe sections, more so than hubby finding the Kaiser Roll recipe. I did try the rolls without the sugar and I have a happy man. I just ran out of malt so I'm soaking naked barley to sprout and make some more. (the last jar was dated 2007!)
Anyway the recipe looks in order and with a pair of reading glasses, the 3/4 is easier to see. (I agree with you, using 3/4 is a lot easier to see than ℅, the difference of two more characters in the line.) I know it goes against what we were taught about writing in books, but now that you have your magnifying glass handy. Go thru the recipes and enlarge the fractions with a pencil or pen. There is plenty of room to do so in most of the recipes either before or after the measurement. Be sure to mark this recipe. If you don't own the book, as you suggest, enlarge and make notes on the recipe. My son's trick is to photograph with his telephone and then enlarge as needed.
One tip with the butter, try cutting it up a little bit with a sprinkling of flour, it should grab and blend easier when tossing it in slowly. Sounds like the butter was a little too soft when added. Try it a little bit cooler or firmer, aim for the same firmness as the dough. Wait for the last addition to be blended in before adding more. The soft butter (or mixer bowl) can quickly be submersed in ice water or stood in the freezer for a few minutes before adding if room temps are a bit warm.
Thanks for the tip on getting the butter colder so it would mix better. We leave our butter out as I don't like to try and spread cold butter and at 67 degrees in the house it feels pretty cool.
But, it seems not cold enough for the butter, it was real, real soft. Next time, put it in the fridge to get it a bit colder.
The bread is out of the oven, and it didn't turn out too bad. The recipe made two loaves and we tried one and hubby and I shared a slice. I have never had this type of bread so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it was good in my opinion. It will do as a nice snack when you are hungry but a sandwich is too much. We put in it salami and cheddar cheese that had a nice flavor to it.
The third rise had it to the top of the loaf pan and we were tired of the waiting so I stuck it in the oven and baked it. I had forgotten it had to rise three times! Next time, it will be pepperoni, not salami in for the meat and I might try it with mozzarella. And less salt, too much salt. I'm not a fan of salt.
Tomorrow, hubby wants to try either cinnamon rolls or sticky buns! ! ! Our neighbor will be getting some of that too I bet. Hubby sliced some of the bread and took four thick slices over for him to (I hope) enjoy.
Why I avoid imperial measurements - they drive me insane. Metric all the way !