Here are the new hot-dog buns:
A close-up shot:
A side view:
With a bit ripped off:
And here are the hamburger buns on their little plates:
A closeup of one of the buns:
And lastly, a "dirty"-keto sandwich (Gruyère, Spanish chorizo, mayo):
The taste of these buns was much improved, mainly thanks to the inclusion of the sesame seeds, both black and white. The fat didn't add much in terms of flavor, but it did make the buns' texture more like that of a crumbly biscuit, so that was a step backward. Lesson learned: dial back the fat, and maybe increase the flaxseed slightly to improve chewiness. The addition of the fat also killed the baking powder's ability to make the dough rise, so as you see, the burger buns in particular showed almost no oven spring; the plates they were on turned out to be too big. I'll try again tomorrow, maybe adding only the butter this time (I used 50 grams tonight; maybe it'll be 40 g tomorrow). The bread isn't bad, taken on its own terms, but it's even less bun-worthy than yesterday's batch was.
I also wonder if the water I dumped in was too hot because the baking powder foamed up when the water hit it. If the powder expends itself before the actual bake, then no wonder there was so little rise. Or is the powder supposed to foam up like that? Duff's recipe calls for "hot water," but I don't recall a temperature being given. The water I used yesterday came from the sink tap, but today's water was warmed for 90 seconds in the microwave, so it was hotter. How much of a difference did this make? I wonder.*
Anyway, I now know to dial back the fat (no sour cream, only 40 g butter), and I might add some herbs along with the sesame seeds to add more flavor to the bread. I should be able to put the same amount of dough into the little burger pans and get better oven spring.
Meanwhile, I now have all this keto bread to get rid of. I'll bring it to work and see if anyone wants to try some. It's not that bad; it's just the wrong texture for my needs.
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*A little reading has led me to the discovery that, with so-called "double action" baking powder, there's the initial reaction with the liquid element of a recipe (first action), then there's the rise in the oven (second action, hence "double action"). This may explain the foaming I saw, and it may mean that any lack of oven spring has more to do with the addition of fats than with hot water being a problem.
Commenting on these in reverse order...
ReplyDeleteYeah, double-acting baking powder does have a double action, but I am suspicious of the idea that fat was the culprit in preventing any rise. I say this because, now that I have a better handle on things, I see that your recipe is basically a cake recipe. Cakes have a ton of fat in them, yet they still rise up to be light and fluffy. It's got to be something else.
The fat will, though (as you noted), have a marked effect on the texture of the bread, so if you didn't like the texture you got, you were probably right to dial it back.
I do wonder why the recipe calls for hot water. Maybe that helps the dry ingredients absorb the liquid? Otherwise I can't see a reason for it.
Neither can I.
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