Baking question - the blob that ate my mixmaster

On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 18:28:29 GMT, "Gayle" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I need some help. I haven't really baked. I used to help my mother as a kid,
but never took full responsibility for stuff - except a wonderful angelfood
cake, frosted, placed on a 8" high, cut glass, cake plate - that promptly
slid onto the floor!! I think this must have scarred me for life.

Anyway, having lost both parents in the past year and a half, I no longer
had my St. Paddy's day feast of cooking corned beef for them (last 30 years
or so) so decided to make some soda bread this year. I got the dry
ingredients together, turned on the mixer, added the buttermilk, and it
started to make nice crumbles, mix into a dough, with about half the flour
still in crumbles, then disaster struck. The ball of dough started climbing

<snip>

Quoted message said:

So finally to my question. Is there something I need to do to keep the dough
from climbing and turning into the blob that tried to eat the world? Is this
simply the time I need to go from mixing to hand kneading?

Does your recipe call for mixing with an electric mixer? If not,
don't! AFAIK, this type of bread needs hand mixing, so that
overmixing (as with an electric mixer) would make it tough, and
apparently unruly :>

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

Gayle said:

I need some help. I haven't really baked. I used to help my mother as a kid,
but never took full responsibility for stuff - except a wonderful angelfood
cake, frosted, placed on a 8" high, cut glass, cake plate - that promptly
slid onto the floor!! I think this must have scarred me for life.

Augh!

Quoted message said:

Anyway, having lost both parents in the past year and a half, I no longer

[snip disaster]

Quoted message said:

of the beater holes, out of the motor vents and tried using the other
beaters. Disaster again.

During this fiasco, I also found out that the nice pretty spatula set I
bought some time ago was totally useless. The pretty colored bottoms
immediately separated from the white plastic handles as soon as any stress
was placed on them. I just tried to use them to push/pull the dough out of
the beaters. I finally just gave up on the mixer, and finished the dough by
hand. It was a tad sticky, probably needed more flour, but for the first
pass I wanted to follow the recipe to the letter. I'm usually much less
rigid with recipes, but for baking I know that things usually need to be a
bit more specific, so kept to limits.

This is very odd. My wife and I make soda bread by hand all the time,
and I can't imagine our dough doing this in a mixer. What was the
recipe? Especially: what sort of flour did you use?

--
SteveR
(throw away the dustbin, send to stever@... instead)

Humans are way too stupid to be dumb animals.
http://www.accidentalcreditor.org.uk/

Gayle
"Curly Sue" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 18:28:29 GMT, "Gayle" <[email hidden]>
wrote:
Does your recipe call for mixing with an electric mixer? If not,
don't! AFAIK, this type of bread needs hand mixing, so that
overmixing (as with an electric mixer) would make it tough, and
apparently unruly :>

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

So using the mixer at all was the problem? That's easily solved and
eliminates a clean-up problem.
I had intended to include the recipe in the previous post. Guess I assumed
that mix in the instructions meant mixer. Here it is:

Original Irish Soda Bread

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Teaspoons Caraway Seeds
4 Cups White Flour
1/2 Cup Raisins
2 Cups Buttermilk

Heat oven to 375ºF. Mix together all ingredients adding buttermilk last and
slowly incorporating into the mixture. Knead for just one minute to mix
ingredients and pat into a greased cakepan or round loaf pan. Slice an X
across the top, brush with milk and bake for 45 minutes. Cool a little and
then wrap in a damp towel. Cool completely (about 7 hours), then serve.

"Gayle" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Gayle
"Curly Sue" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 18:28:29 GMT, "Gayle"
<[email hidden]> wrote:
Does your recipe call for mixing with an electric mixer? If not,
don't! AFAIK, this type of bread needs hand mixing, so that
overmixing (as with an electric mixer) would make it tough, and
apparently unruly :>

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

So using the mixer at all was the problem? That's easily solved and
eliminates a clean-up problem.
I had intended to include the recipe in the previous post. Guess I
assumed that mix in the instructions meant mixer. Here it is:

Original Irish Soda Bread

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Teaspoons Caraway Seeds
4 Cups White Flour
1/2 Cup Raisins
2 Cups Buttermilk

Heat oven to 375ºF. Mix together all ingredients adding buttermilk
last and slowly incorporating into the mixture. Knead for just one
minute to mix ingredients and pat into a greased cakepan or round
loaf pan. Slice an X across the top, brush with milk and bake for 45
minutes. Cool a little and then wrap in a damp towel. Cool
completely (about 7 hours), then serve.

This recipe uses Baking soda for leavening...so a little speed is
required (all baking soda, baking powder recipes require a little speed
) If you mess about with stuff the rising from the Soda is all used up
before you bake. So I'd go the mix by hand route.

--
No Bread Crumbs were hurt in the making of this Meal.
Type 2 Diabetic 1AC 7.3, 5.5, 5.6 mmol
Continuing to be Manitoban

Gayle said:

So finally to my question. Is there something I need to do to keep

the dough

Quoted message said:

from climbing and turning into the blob that tried to eat the world?

Is this

Quoted message said:

simply the time I need to go from mixing to hand kneading?

Soda bread is a Quick Bread... should be a batter with baking soda
leavening, not a yeast dough... no kneading. It's your recipe that's
fercockt, not your mixer.

Sheldon

In article <[email hidden]>,

Gayle said:

So using the mixer at all was the problem? That's easily solved and
eliminates a clean-up problem.
I had intended to include the recipe in the previous post. Guess I assumed
that mix in the instructions meant mixer. Here it is:

Original Irish Soda Bread

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Teaspoons Caraway Seeds
4 Cups White Flour
1/2 Cup Raisins
2 Cups Buttermilk

Heat oven to 375ºF. Mix together all ingredients adding buttermilk last and
slowly incorporating into the mixture. Knead for just one minute to mix
ingredients and pat into a greased cakepan or round loaf pan. Slice an X
across the top, brush with milk and bake for 45 minutes. Cool a little and
then wrap in a damp towel. Cool completely (about 7 hours), then serve.

My mind immediately interprets that "mix" as involving a large
earthenware bowl and a big wooden spoon! ;-)

Priscilla
--
"You can't welcome someone into a body of Christ and then say only
certain rooms are open." -- dancertm in alt.religion.christian.episcopal

Gayle said:

I need some help. I haven't really baked. I used to help my mother as a kid,
but never took full responsibility for stuff - except a wonderful angelfood
cake, frosted, placed on a 8" high, cut glass, cake plate - that promptly
slid onto the floor!! I think this must have scarred me for life.

Anyway, having lost both parents in the past year and a half, I no longer
had my St. Paddy's day feast of cooking corned beef for them (last 30 years
or so) so decided to make some soda bread this year. I got the dry
ingredients together, turned on the mixer, added the buttermilk, and it
started to make nice crumbles, mix into a dough, with about half the flour
still in crumbles, then disaster struck. The ball of dough started climbing
the beaters. It was ALIVE - trying to consume the mixer. I decided this must
be the time to switch to the dough hooks - or the more open beaters, - not
at all what I remember from my mom's 1970's harvest gold Kitchenaid mixer.
Anyway, I cleaned the dough off the beaters - nice gluten forming, this
stuff was STRONG, had to rip it apart. Cleaned the dough off the mixer, out
of the beater holes, out of the motor vents and tried using the other
beaters. Disaster again.

During this fiasco, I also found out that the nice pretty spatula set I
bought some time ago was totally useless. The pretty colored bottoms
immediately separated from the white plastic handles as soon as any stress
was placed on them. I just tried to use them to push/pull the dough out of
the beaters. I finally just gave up on the mixer, and finished the dough by
hand. It was a tad sticky, probably needed more flour, but for the first
pass I wanted to follow the recipe to the letter. I'm usually much less
rigid with recipes, but for baking I know that things usually need to be a
bit more specific, so kept to limits.

Anyway, the end result wasn't bad at all. Next time, I'll probably lower the
oven temp a bit and cook a little longer, the final product was a bit too
crispy on the crust and a little doughy in the middle.

So finally to my question. Is there something I need to do to keep the dough
from climbing and turning into the blob that tried to eat the world? Is this
simply the time I need to go from mixing to hand kneading?

Gayle

Can't imagine why you were making soda bread in a mixer.
You don't want to form gluten, for one thing, so you just
barely mix the ingredients together by hand. And besides
the dough is to think for a mixer, unless you have a Kitchenaid
and dough hook but even then you wouldn't really want to use
that as you would overwork the dough and make it tough.

Kate
--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?
[email hidden]

Gayle said:

I need some help. I haven't really baked. I used to help my mother as a kid,
but never took full responsibility for stuff - except a wonderful angelfood
cake, frosted, placed on a 8" high, cut glass, cake plate - that promptly
slid onto the floor!! I think this must have scarred me for life.

Anyway, having lost both parents in the past year and a half, I no longer
had my St. Paddy's day feast of cooking corned beef for them (last 30 years
or so) so decided to make some soda bread this year. I got the dry
ingredients together, turned on the mixer, added the buttermilk, and it
started to make nice crumbles, mix into a dough, with about half the flour
still in crumbles, then disaster struck. The ball of dough started climbing
the beaters. It was ALIVE - trying to consume the mixer. I decided this must
be the time to switch to the dough hooks - or the more open beaters, - not
at all what I remember from my mom's 1970's harvest gold Kitchenaid mixer.
Anyway, I cleaned the dough off the beaters - nice gluten forming, this
stuff was STRONG, had to rip it apart. Cleaned the dough off the mixer, out
of the beater holes, out of the motor vents and tried using the other
beaters. Disaster again.

During this fiasco, I also found out that the nice pretty spatula set I
bought some time ago was totally useless. The pretty colored bottoms
immediately separated from the white plastic handles as soon as any stress
was placed on them. I just tried to use them to push/pull the dough out of
the beaters. I finally just gave up on the mixer, and finished the dough by
hand. It was a tad sticky, probably needed more flour, but for the first
pass I wanted to follow the recipe to the letter. I'm usually much less
rigid with recipes, but for baking I know that things usually need to be a
bit more specific, so kept to limits.

Anyway, the end result wasn't bad at all. Next time, I'll probably lower the
oven temp a bit and cook a little longer, the final product was a bit too
crispy on the crust and a little doughy in the middle.

So finally to my question. Is there something I need to do to keep the dough
from climbing and turning into the blob that tried to eat the world? Is this
simply the time I need to go from mixing to hand kneading?

Gayle

Can't imagine why you were making soda bread in a mixer.
You don't want to form gluten, for one thing, so you just
barely mix the ingredients together by hand. And besides
the dough is to think for a mixer, unless you have a Kitchenaid
and dough hook but even then you wouldn't really want to use
that as you would overwork the dough and make it tough.

Kate
--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?
[email hidden]

Kate Connally said:

Can't imagine why you were making soda bread in a mixer.

Tendonitis, carpal tunnel ...

I've started using the mixer for most things so I don't hurt my hand,
elbow, and shoulder. Tendonitis.

Carol
--
Coming at you live, from beautiful Lake Woebegon

Damsel in dis Dress said:

Kate Connally said:

Can't imagine why you were making soda bread in a mixer.

Tendonitis, carpal tunnel ...

I've started using the mixer for most things so I don't hurt my hand,
elbow, and shoulder. Tendonitis.

Sorry to hear about that. Still soda bread needs very
little mixing. What about doing it in the food processor.
After all, people are doing pie crust in the food processor
now. As long as you're careful not to over process.
If you have a dough blade, or even if you don't, it would
only take a couple of seconds after you add the liquid,
although you might still give it a couple of turns by
hand after you turn it out of the food processor.
The dough should only be mixed until it barely
holds together and then kneaded *very* briefly and
baked immediately. I wouldn't think that little bit
of kneading would cause any problems with your
tendonitis. Or maybe you can get your husband to do
it.

Kate
--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?
[email hidden]