Recipe & Video Garlic & Scallions Cheese Bread

Hemulen said:
I never cover a rising dough with gladwrap although I know it's a common solution; I place a cotton kitchen towel loosely on top of the bowl.

The temperature in my kitchen varies but that has never had a great impact in baking. I tend to keep the window closed (= draft free) and the bowl on top of the warming oven as you do - at least partly/for a while.

The yeast - whether fresh or dried - has never died of warmth in my experience although I warm the liquid by gut feeling - not with a thermometer - before adding yeast. Fresh yeast = body temp liquid, dry yeast/active yeast = slightly warmer but not hot liquid.

There might be site-, yeast brand-, flour- or handling-specific reasons for Hungry Man's recipe not to work out in your kitchen. You could try my Christmas Flatbread to experiment with working with dry yeast if you feel industrious. In that recipe, the dry yeast is mixed with just room temperature ingredients without warming. Soft flatbread forms after hours of rising. Thus, much more time is needed compared to Hungry Man's recipe. The Christmas flatbread recipe can be converted in to a savory cheese flatbread by reducing the amount of syrup, changing the blue or feta cheese into mozzarella, leaving some spices, seeds and herbs out and adding garlic and scallions instead. The dough is completely different: soft and sticky and has to be flattened with floury fingers - but at least the end result is soft.

Dry yeast/active yeast works best if you let it wake up and form bubbles for ~15 minutes by adding all of the liquid, (some sugar/syrup if included in the recipe) and half of the flour - or by following brand/active yeast specific instructions (with lesser ingredients mixed with the yeast for a start). Subsequently, add the rest of the ingredients and let the dough rise as a solid clump after kneading (if kneading is necessary/included in the recipe; the Christmas flatbread is left unkneaded) until the dough has doubled or tripled.

If gladwrap is used during rising, the wrap is supposed to be set on top of a large bowl, not in straight contact with the dough. Dough is mostly wrapped in plastic only if it's supposed to cool/set in the fridge. For a "normal" yeast bread: when the dough has doubled/tripled, remove excess bubbles by kneading lightly and form the bread/flatbread and let it rise for the second time for ~15-20 min in a lukewarm and draft free place on top of a baking tray with a light towel on top before baking.
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Thanks. I am frustrated today but plan to try your flatbread recipe.
 
mjd said:
Thanks. I am frustrated today but plan to try your flatbread recipe.
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Don't get frustrated (although that's rich, coming from me :)), you'll get it.

Out of curiosity...which yeast did you go with this time, the instant or the ADY? I'll give it a go sometime this weekend and let you know how it works for me.

Hang in there, you'll get it.
 
mjd said:
Update: Still didn't rise. Giving up on this idea. Thanks everybody for your help.
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I haven't read all of this discussion, but would only ask if you first put the Yeast in warm water for a few minutes before mixing it in with the dough? The packages say Active Dry Yeast, but you still need to kick start it and let it begin to multiply.

The trick is to desolve about 2 to 3 packets of Yeast in 110F water with a tspn of sugar or other sweetener and let stand till it starts to foam. That means you got it going. Then you can mix it in.
 
mjd - if you can, post a cross-section of yours. I want to see how it came out, because watching that video...it doesn't really rise like a big loaf of bread. It's more like a pizza dough - it just gets a little puffy.

There are spots in the video where it looks a couple of inches thick in the middle, but then notice at the very end when he pulls a bit out...it's not all that thick.

I'm wondering if you've gotten closer to the mark than you think, and maybe you just have a different expectation?
 
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flyinglentris said:
I haven't read all of this discussion, but would only ask if you first put the Yeast in warm water for a few minutes before mixing it in with the dough? The packages say Active Dry Yeast, but you still need to kick start it and let it begin to multiply.

The trick is to desolve about 2 to 3 packets of Yeast in 110F water with a tspn of sugar or other sweetener and let stand till it starts to foam. That means you got it going. Then you can mix it in.
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Nope. I did it the way it is written and shown. Thanks for the suggestion though. I might get the courage to try again another day.
 
TastyReuben said:
mjd - if you can, post a cross-section of yours. I want to see how it came out, because watching that video...it doesn't really rise like a big loaf of bread. It's more like a pizza dough - it just gets a little puffy.

There are spots in the video where it looks a couple of inches thick in the middle, but then notice at the very end when he pulls a bit out...it's not all that thick.

I'm wondering if you've gotten closer to the mark than you think, and maybe you just have a different expectation?
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I used the Rapid Rise yeast this time.

No pics. I threw it away already. It didn't rise, even a little bit. I had my caregiver help me this time so there were two sets of eyes.

Thanks for the encouragement. I might give it another whirl, but not today. I made a recipe from another poster as well and I'm exhausted.
 
mjd said:
I bought the yeast just for this purpose so it was fresh. I added the yeast to the dry ingredients like in the video.


The second photo is after the egg wash. I should have put that in that post. Or, did you mean it looks greasy in the 1st photo?
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Yes, first one also looks greasy, as if the butter is not incorporated thoroughly. How did it go in the end?
 
Ok, I made this today. Here's what I think:

First off, I made a half-recipe, though I did keep the garlic butter at the full-recipe amount. 😬 Bear that in mind.

I used instant (non-proofed) yeast, following the method in the OP's recipe (mixed in dry with the flour). I did warm the milk for just a few seconds in the microwave, just to take the cold edge off, but that shouldn't really be necessary.

I kneaded it for 8 minutes, and my first question for mjd: how long did you knead yours for? In your earlier comments, you said something like until it looked like the OP's. How long was that? I ask because under-kneaded dough can have a problem rising. Dough usually gets kneaded for around 8-10 minutes.

Shaped out into an 8-inch circle by hand, and you can see it's about 1/2-inch thick:

53146


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I put it under a bit of plastic wrap, then set it near a space heater.

Tick...tock...60 minutes later, and...nothing. No pic, because it looked exactly like how it looked when I put it down. Uh-oh...

So I did what I usually do when dough doesn't show much life...I let it go for another 30 minutes...and there were signs of life!

Another 30 minutes (so two hours total rise time), and it looked like this:

53148



Perspective is a little off, but it did nearly double in size. I probably could have let it go another 30 minutes.

I slashed the top, and like a dummy, didn't take any pics, because that really showed that it did get a lot puffier.

The only mozzarella I have is shredded, and I wasn't going to fuss with trying to cram that in the slashes, so I just topped it with the garlic butter, cheese, and some salami I had sitting around, like a regular pizza, minus the tomato sauce.

Baked per the instructions, but I should have used my eyes because with eight minutes to go, I happened to peek, and it was well past done, so out it came.

As you can see, it did get its oven rise as well, as it puffed up quite nicely. It was over-baked, though, so even with all that butter, it was a bit dry in places, but that was my fault - the victim of "every oven is different."

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So, without actually being there in-person, my guess is your dough, like mine, needed a lot more time to kick in (assuming you pressed on after 60 minutes). Maybe that's down to the different brands of yeast Hungry Man and we're using (I also used Fleischmann's instant/rapid rise dry yeast).

One other personal note - this is tasty, I'll make it again. The dough is very sweet, like halfway between pizza dough and a sweet roll. I might cut that sugar back next time.
 
TastyReuben said:
You can leave it in the bowl and put the plastic wrap over it, or just a dish/tea towel, or turn the dough out on the board like you have it and set the bowl over it.
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I agree, cover the dough with a warm kitchen towel is better rather than a plastic wrap which I usually use for dough that go in the fridge like pastry
 
TastyReuben said:
Ok, I made this today. Here's what I think:

First off, I made a half-recipe, though I did keep the garlic butter at the full-recipe amount. 😬 Bear that in mind.

...
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Thanks for the insightful demonstration and in plenty of time before I start my Robagusti Bread. :wave:
 
TastyReuben, thanks for being my ATK on this. ;-)

Now I'm guessing I didn't knead it enough. I didn't actually time it.

I also thought it was very sweet but followed the recipe exactly both times I tried.

You've, once again, given me the courage to try again. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks!
 
TastyReuben said:
Ok, I made this today. Here's what I think:

First off, I made a half-recipe, though I did keep the garlic butter at the full-recipe amount. 😬 Bear that in mind.

I used instant (non-proofed) yeast, following the method in the OP's recipe (mixed in dry with the flour). I did warm the milk for just a few seconds in the microwave, just to take the cold edge off, but that shouldn't really be necessary.

I kneaded it for 8 minutes, and my first question for mjd: how long did you knead yours for? In your earlier comments, you said something like until it looked like the OP's. How long was that? I ask because under-kneaded dough can have a problem rising. Dough usually gets kneaded for around 8-10 minutes.

Shaped out into an 8-inch circle by hand, and you can see it's about 1/2-inch thick:

View attachment 53146

View attachment 53147


I put it under a bit of plastic wrap, then set it near a space heater.

Tick...tock...60 minutes later, and...nothing. No pic, because it looked exactly like how it looked when I put it down. Uh-oh...

So I did what I usually do when dough doesn't show much life...I let it go for another 30 minutes...and there were signs of life!

Another 30 minutes (so two hours total rise time), and it looked like this:

View attachment 53148


Perspective is a little off, but it did nearly double in size. I probably could have let it go another 30 minutes.

I slashed the top, and like a dummy, didn't take any pics, because that really showed that it did get a lot puffier.

The only mozzarella I have is shredded, and I wasn't going to fuss with trying to cram that in the slashes, so I just topped it with the garlic butter, cheese, and some salami I had sitting around, like a regular pizza, minus the tomato sauce.

Baked per the instructions, but I should have used my eyes because with eight minutes to go, I happened to peek, and it was well past done, so out it came.

As you can see, it did get its oven rise as well, as it puffed up quite nicely. It was over-baked, though, so even with all that butter, it was a bit dry in places, but that was my fault - the victim of "every oven is different."

View attachment 53150


So, without actually being there in-person, my guess is your dough, like mine, needed a lot more time to kick in (assuming you pressed on after 60 minutes). Maybe that's down to the different brands of yeast Hungry Man and we're using (I also used Fleischmann's instant/rapid rise dry yeast).

One other personal note - this is tasty, I'll make it again. The dough is very sweet, like halfway between pizza dough and a sweet roll. I might cut that sugar back next time.
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The yeast I used in the video was an Italian brand, but I made it also with other brands like Dr. Oetker or a local Dutch brand. All turned out similar in texture.
 
mjd said:
TastyReuben, thanks for being my ATK on this. ;-)

Now I'm guessing I didn't knead it enough. I didn't actually time it.

I also thought it was very sweet but followed the recipe exactly both times I tried.

You've, once again, given me the courage to try again. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I think the big thing is, let that dough take whatever time it needs to rise - I'm betting that's the issue.

It shouldn't matter with dry yeast, but one thing I do, just out of habit, is I add the yeast to one side of the bowl and the salt to the other - salt directly on fresh yeast will kill it, though dry yeast should be fine, it's just a bit of superstition on my part.
 
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