Wednesday Baking | I am full of baking fails lately
Every Wednesday (ok, most Wednesdays!) I share a baking recipe. And lots of pictures of said baking recipe. I don't call this Wednesday Baking because I bake solely on Wednesdays...no, my oven gets a workout much more frequently than once a week! Wednesday just happens to be the day I share baking recipes with you. All the past baking posts are archived in the Wednesday Baking category, which can also be found in a tab underneath my blog header.
I don't really have a recipe for you today. But I am going to talk about baking.
On Monday, I didn't get around to thinking about dinner until a little later than I should have, so I decided to make some no-knead batter rolls.
They turned out lovely and fluffy, but as I was taking them out of the pan, thoughts of salt began to flood my mind, and I suddenly realized that I had added none to the dough.
Augh!
This has happened to me before, almost always when I'm using a Better Homes and Gardens recipe, because, at least in their older cookbooks, some not-so-bright person decided to only list the salt in the directions, and not in the ingredient list.
Whhyyyyyy, Better Homes and Gardens? Whyyyy?
And not only was I annoyed with BH&G, but I was very annoyed with myself because I've made this same stupid mistake a number of times before.
No more, though! The power of the green ink circle will keep me from committing this error again.
Fortunately, I'd used salted butter in place of the shortening, and when you split the rolls open and spread the insides with salted butter, the lack of salt wasn't manifestly obvious (I said nothing and none of my fellow diners seemed to notice).
So, then yesterday after I taught piano for most of the day, I decided that I'd make some whole wheat rolls to go with dinner (oddly enough, that's the recipe right next to the Batter Roll recipe in the above photo!). I vacillated a bit, not sure I had time to get this done and still get dinner ready on time, but then just decided to go for it.
I ground the wheat, mixed up the dough (I even added salt!), and kneaded it.
To speed things along, I put the dough into a warm oven to let it rise.
After 45 minutes, I checked on it, and was surprised to see that it looked...not much different.
And that's when I realized my yeast container hadn't been used yet.
Whoops.
So, I dissolved some yeast in some warm water, added some flour, kneaded that mixture into the dough, and carried on.
By then, of course, it was too late to have rolls with dinner.
So we had biscuits instead.
And we will just eat the rolls at breakfast and lunch.
I think I need to make some buns for the tonight's shrimp burgers, so I'm hoping to break my string of baking disasters.
I can do this, right? 😉
Today's 365 post: Well, this is new.
I'm so glad you have baking fails too. I am nowhere near the baker you are, I made one batch of good Anzac cookies once with the recipe and decided the next time it had been so easy I'd just wing it, no recipe. Oops. They turned out more like rock cakes. A few days later I offered to make pancakes for breakfast and my boyfriend quipped 'We could use them as plates' ... haha.
When all else fails you try something better and do your best. Good for you. I hope your day is great.
l would never have thought to rescue yeast-fail dough the way you did. As I am sure this mistake is just waiting somewhere in my future, thanks for the tip!
You make me feel so much better!! I had the same problem yesterday, only it wasn't the rolls. The rolls came out beautifully. However, my kid's have been begging for no bake cookies for quite some time. I thought I would make some to surprise them. I didn't measure out the Karo syrup, I just eyeballed it. Well the silly things were so sticky we had to partially freeze them to even be able to get them off the wax paper. Of course, they stuck to each other the minute I put them in the storage container. I now have a giant no bake cookie mass waiting to be eaten! It's silly that I can whip out yeast rolls, no problem, but totally mess up on a level one recipe! 🙂
I forgot the salt one time when making bread. Salt inhibits rising, so it is carefully balanced with the yeast to make the dough rise the right amount.
The dough never stopped rising. It was huge. And while it baked, it kept on rising. The bread was light and fluffy, for sure, but it tasted terrible. And no matter how long I baked it, it tasted under-cooked. In the end, I just threw it out.
I'm glad your rolls were salvagable! I've never tried batter rolls, but if you (Kristen) like them I may just give them a try.
We've been discussing baking disasters at 1SentenceDiary lately. Oddly enough, many of my own disasters are related to salt!
I have the same book and have experienced the same problem with the ingredients list. Sometimes I just write the *missing* ingredients in next to list where it should be. I have another book that does the same thing with recipes such as pasta sauce, where it says to add 1 cup water in the directions, but water is not listed. I don't always need to read the directions and then I wonder why my sauce is so thick!!
Exactly...whyyyy do they write recipes that way??
I agree. Water, salt and pepper should be listed in the ingredients. Makes it twice as hard to prep properly and, as you say, the recipe is more likely to make a mistake.
Same book...I wrote in "salt" next to the ingredients list in big letters. Pumpkin pie just isn't the same without that dab of salt!
I had a day like that yesterday: a whole series of interlocking disasters that feed on themselves and, in all likelihood, make one so frustrated that the chances of another disaster are increased. Unfortunately it was a tricky piece of work so if I put it aside for another day, I'd lose the thread and have to start over again. It took me a long time to thing of something positive about the day, because "Nothing worse happened" is not a positive description.
OTOH, your disaster gave you the opportunity to share with us a fix for dead bread. Just last week a friend was asking about what to do with dough that wasn't rising. Now I can offer him a fix for next time. (He turned the dough into snack bars, and they were very popular with his kids. Now he has to figure out how to make dead dough on purpose!)
Yeah...I've used this fix a number of times before. The only downside is that it's sort of hard to get the yeasty mixture completely kneaded through the dough, so the resulting product isn't QUITE up to par. But, our rolls are definitely edible, and I saved the dough from being thrown out. 🙂
You are quiet the Energizer Bunny! And you just have tea for breakfast! I'm so glad you didn't give up after a yucky roll. Good for you! I just had an incident with homemade vanilla pudding. I used 6 organic eggs (from mom's chickens) and old flour! I didn't know there were bugs in them till I started to boil the milk and eggs and sugar together! AAAAHHHHHHH! I was so upset, I literally almost cried! I was like "my mom's 6 eggs!?" "Down the drain!" 🙁 Me being pregnant and all, I ran to the grocery store and bought cooking vanilla pudding. Ugh, it was not the same....
Oh no, I don't just have tea for breakfast! I'd be starving if I did that. 🙂 I drink smoothies, eat oatmeal, eat whole wheat rolls (hee), eat cereal, and so on.
Oh, well I knew you ate! He he! I'm so glad you eat food that gives you an oomph! I don't know if I spelled that right! 🙂 So I see now where you get that energy! I eat better for lunch maybe I need to try to adjust that some more. I also can't take coffee now, it makes me nauseous.
Lol. I just bake it longer and call it pizza. 🙂
What is it with salt? I made your swirl bread (whole wheat/molasses swirled with white) and forgot the salt! fortunately I realized it before I finished mixing the dark half, so I was able to fix half of it. And nobody noticed. AND it was a huge hit anyhow.
And yes, you have salt listed in both the ingredients and in the instructions. I was doing it off the computer rather than printing it out, and I managed to overlook it both times.
By the way, I've never been afraid to bake with yeast, but I've been hesitant about actual LOAVES of bread (I do lots of baguettes and focaccia). Thanks to you, I'm starting loaves...and they're turning out!
A frugal cook is a resilient one. 😉
Even failures turn out right for you!!!!! You are really an amazing person!!! You should do a cookbook about your best loved recipes and what could happen if distracted in the process!! and with humorous mishap illustrations!!!
This post just made me giggle. I can't count the number of times I've left out key ingredients - not because they're not in the recipe, but because I'm just working too fast and not paying attention. Luckily most things can be rescued, but it still makes for interesting results sometimes! Nice to know I'm not alone!
There's much one can do about brownies made without eggs, except call it Chef's Special Fudge. You can only get away with it once. The second time in a week you forget the eggs, people start figuring out what's going on.
i never would have thought to rescue a dough that way, thanks for the tip!
I loved the picture of your tried and true splattered and well loved cookbook! 🙂
ooh, I hate it when that happens! I write salt in up with the ingredients. I've also had to put a comma and the word "divided" for some recipes in older books. Hate it when I toss in the whole amount only to find 1/2 is used before baking, 1/2 after or during. Cook enough & don't always read the recipe instructions anymore, so the ingredient list should state such things!
Hmmm...when things like that start happening to me it's usually a sign that I have too much on my plate and need to look at my commitments. I'm forgetting ingredients because my mind is a million miles away already working onthe next task.
Yep...that's what happened both days. I'm always fried at the end of a Tuesday (I teach piano all day, and I am rethinking that), and Monday was a weird day because I spent my morning getting tires on my van, and then I had a couple of unusual work tasks I had to take care of after that.
So you grind your own wheat?! I've been interested in possibly doing this. Would you comment on where you get the wheat and what use for grinding and your process...do you grind it just as needed or grind ahead and then freeze the flour?
I JUST got this email from my father-in-law (addressed to the whole family). It reminded me of the daily mishaps that I beat myself up for. I applaud your "chin up and carry on" attitude! 😉
When I was al kid, my Mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then.
And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard
day at work.
On that evening so long ago, my Mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely
burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed!!
Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my Mom and ask me how my day was at school.
I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that ugly burned biscuit. He ate every bite of that thing....never made a face nor uttered a word about it!
When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my Mom apologize to my dad
for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burned biscuits every now and then"
Later than night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned!
He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Momma put in a hard day at work
today and she's real tired. And besides....a little burned biscuit never hurt anyone!"
As I've grown older, I've thought about that many times. Life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people.
I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else but what I've learned over the years is that learning to accept other's faults...and choosing to celebrate each other differences...
is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship....
And that's my prayer for you today....that you will learn to take the the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life and lay them at the feet of God. Because in the end, He's the only one who will be able to give you a relationship where a burnt biscuit isn't a deal-breaker We could extend this to any relationship... In fact, understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a husband and wife or parent-child or friendship!
Don't put the key to your happiness in someone Else's pocket......keep it in your own."
So, please pass me a biscuit, and yes, the burned one will do just fine!
And please pass this along to someone who has enriched your life.
Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle!
Please excuse all the typos! I just copied and pasted it! 😉
I dislike recipes that add in ingredients within the directions too. Sometimes I'll just rewrite the recipe out or I'll add it to the ingredient list directly in the book. Come and see my coconut pound cake (okay, my grandmother's coconut pound cake) - there's NO salt in that recipe! 🙂