Shaping Buns, Rising and Baking

You can make your bread look like anything you want: a turtle, a face, a bear etc.  We are going to be a little more conservative and talk about just basic buns and rolls.  This is the part of the process that you can be more creative as the bread can be molded easily into any shape you wish.

Shaping Buns:  Whether you make your bread dough by hand or use a Kitchen Machine or even an Automatic Breadmaking machine, you can shape buns all the same way.  Put a little oil on your counter and rub both hands in it and pinch off a piece of dough the size of an egg.  One method is to flatten it, stretching the edges to the bottom for a smooth top and place on a grease sheet or pan.  Another way is to take a larger piece of dough and push out a portion of the dough up through your fist, between your thumb and fore finger and squeeze out the bun or roll.  Place this directly on the cooking sheet.  Allow spaces between each ball of dough so they have room to rise.  If you want a hamburger bun shape just flatten the ball will the heal of your hand.  We have demonstrated this technique on our Bosch Demonstration Videos on our website.

If you wish to make a hotdog shaped bun or a Sub-Shaped bun, you can roll the dough out on an oiled surface and using a large diameter can (like a 16 oz. tomatoes can) pushed in at the sides to get your shape, you can cut the dough, using the can like a cookie cutter, into elongated bun shapes.  A larger #10 can, (wholesale size tomatoes) can be used the same way to form the Sub buns.  Remember buns will not need as long a rising time as whole loaves of bread so watch them until  they are double (maybe about 2/3 the time) and then bake. 

Being Patient:  Rather than baking bread or buns too soon, wait until they are more than double in size.  They will be much softer if they have been allowed to rise 2 1/2 times in size before baking. 

Be careful though.  When bread and buns are allowed to over rise, they may fall completely when they reach the oven.  Strands of gluten, which are over stetched from excess rising, may break from the sudden heat or the oven and your bread may dip.  If you are afraid the loaves have risen too long, punch them down, reshape them and let them rise again.

Quick Baking:  How to Speed Up the Process

• Add an extra Tablespoon of two of yeast
• After shaping, place the loaves into an oven that has been preheated to 150 degrees F. for 5 min. then turned off.  When the loaves have risen well, leave the loaves in the oven, turn it on to 375 degrees F. and bake them.
• When baking buns---turn the oven on for less than a minute.  Turn it off and place two trays of buns into the oven on both racks.  Be sure the racks are far enough apart so the risen buns will not touch.
• When they have risen well, remove the pans, heat the oven and bake a tray at a time.  Any remaining trays should be kept  close to the stove so they too will rise more quickly  Buns will also take less time to bake then bread loaves.

Testing if Bread is Done:  When you tap the bottom of the baked loaf, it should sound hollow.  When tops are nice and brown, remove from the oven.  This could take between 20 to 30 min.  Turn the loaves out on to a cooling rack.  If they do not fall out of the pan easily, allow them to sit for about 10 min.  Then by slightly loosening with a knife, they should fall out.  The bottom should also be a nice brown.  Bread and buns should never be allowed to cool in their baking pans, but should be turned out on a cooling rack to allow the air to circulate around them.  If allowed to stay in the pans, the bread will get very damp from the steam and produce a wet crust.

Cleaning the Pans:  After baking, soak the pans and clean them with a vegetable brush.  Rinse and dry, placing them in the warm oven as it cools

Non-stick pans, like the Baker's Secret, do not require greasing if the loaves are shaped with oil.  After baking, they are quick to clean up with just letting them  cool and wiping out the crumbs.  Your bread pans should not be used for other baking like meat loaf or quick bread.  They should be dedicated just to making bread.

If you use a sheet of foil to bake on the oven rack, just fold it up, place in a plastic bag and store in the freezer.

Freezing Yeast Bread:  Cool and pack the laoves into 2 plastic bags (double bagged) for longer storage in the freezer.  This is whereDough Enhancer helps to keep the bread from drying out.

Thawing Yeast Breads: Place a loaf of bread in the microwave on high for between 1 to 2 minutes depending on your own microwave.