Ny Hard Rolls

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Ny Hard Rolls

Chris,

I hear you. The majority of food produced in my oven has been pizza, but I am steadily accumulating a list of other foods and dishes that I cook 'ala woofer' (lasagna, pot roast, roast chicken, stuffed peppers, etc).

What I have found was that my oven dome radiates an incredible heat source and tends to over-brown everything. I attribute this to my lack of skill gauging the oven's temp. How do you determine the temp of your oven, especially for bread? I only have an IR gun, but suspect that I need a stand-up oven thermometer, however off-calibrated one might be.

The other thing I've found is that food tends to cook more quickly in the oven (partly because its probably hotter than I think it is). Be that as it may, like you, I am discovering the joys of WFO-cooked dishes, and kind of wish I had originally added a tad more thermal mass in the dome to achieve a more-prolonged cooking window. My oven floor is 3.75" and stays pretty hot for a long time.

I'm with you: each time we've tried some other 'healthy' alternative, we always return to and enjoy real butter. I will report hard roll results once I get 'em.

Happy Cooking,

John

[hodgey1]

Re: Ny Hard Rolls

What I have found was that my oven dome radiates an incredible heat source and tends to over-brown everything. I attribute this to my lack of skill gauging the oven's temp. How do you determine the temp of your oven, especially for bread? I only have an IR gun, but suspect that I need a stand-up oven thermometer, however off-calibrated one might be.

The other thing I've found is that food tends to cook more quickly in the oven (partly because its probably hotter than I think it is).

John,

I'm currently only using the IR gun with great results, I've baked bread/rolls in it now twice and both time the cook time seemed to correspond correctly with how recipe bake time said they would. Sunday when I baked for the first time after the door had been in place all night, pretty much everywhere I took a reading the temps were fairly close to each other telling me that over night the oven temps really stabilized themselves from being sealed up.

The design I'm working on for my door will have a long stem thermometer also to help with temp monitoring.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Ny Hard Rolls

So last night I baked up my first batch of hard rolls using the King Arthur recipe here.

They once were lost, but now they

I followed the recipe exactly, using KAAP flour, and was initially concerned because the dough balls initially flattened out and formed a thick skin on them during the first rise, which I attributed to the 97F temp that rolled in to start this latest heat wave.

Luckily, the oven was cooperating and once removed from the refrigerator, the plastic-wrapped dough balls had conveniently lost their skins. The walls/dome registered 450F (instead of the recommended 425F) so I ended up baking them for 18min instead of the 20-25 the recipe calls for. I injected steam into the oven with a sprayer at loading, 5min and 9 min.

The rolls smelled quite heavenly when I pulled them and I couldn't help but cut one up and eat it while still hot with some butter. The crust was thin-walled, crunchy, and delicious. Exactly what I had envisioned it would taste like.

This morning I sampled another one and the roll had lost its toasty, aromatic crispness and creamy crumb. It was still good, but nothing like fresh out-the-oven.

Well, at least its a start. Next time I'll augment the recipe (cake flour?) to see if I can't make the crumb a little more delicate and cloud-like.

John

[hodgey1]

Re: Ny Hard Rolls

John, they look amazing! The golden brown color is beautiful and the crumb looks great. Please email one to me when you have a chance.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Ny Hard Rolls

Thanks, Chris. They still didn't look as good as yours! I'm going to keep working on 'em.