I'm the full-time recipe developer and food photographer behind Humbly Homemade. Inspired by my childhood growing up in Germany, I share recipes of delicious rustic bakes from scratch with an elevated European twist.
β¨ Bake Club! β¨ Dutch Oven Turtle Bread
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Hey, Reader! Today I wanted to pull back the curtain and show you an exclusive sneak peek behind how I develop & test my recipes! π And I figured my newest green turtle bread would be the perfect one to share, since this little guy sent me through the ringer! Needless to say, I've been eating a lot of green bread lately, with more green loaves tucked in my freezer. π
A Peek at My Recipe TestingI started my first test of this recipe with the base from my pink heart bread. At first, I dissolved my gel-based food coloring in water (which prevents marbling in the dough) and used a 72% hydration dough. And while that hydration worked great for my heart bread, it was wayyy too sticky for this turtle, since it has smaller pieces that need to be shaped into the small head, arms, and legs. It took several green, sticky messes to finally lock in the hydration for this shaped loaf at about 60%. That amount of water means the texture inside isn't as open & airy as other breads, but it's essential for the turtle's appendages. In addition to lowering the overall amount of water in the recipe, I added an autolyse step, which is a baking technique that gives the flour extra time to hydrate before adding the salt + yeast. This made the dough much easier to knead. However, a traditional autolyse of just flour + water didn't allow the yeast and salt to be evenly incorporated, since this is a slightly stiffer dough. So I switched things up and added the yeast to the autolyse. This turtle is high maintenance! Finally, I tried shaping our animal friend a few different ways. At first I cut off four pieces from the proofed dough, but that got pretty tricky. Instead, I divided the dough into a bigger piece and a smaller piece and proofed them separately. This kept the shell perfectly round, while the smaller piece of dough was able to be divided for the other body parts. So there you have it! This one was a doozy to develop, but I'm so glad I stuck with it, because this turtle bread is so adorable! π’ But not too cute to resist eating... π
π Have you ever had a recipe that you felt like you just couldn't get right? Reply and let me know, I'd love to troubleshoot it with you! |
βHumbly Homemade
I'm the full-time recipe developer and food photographer behind Humbly Homemade. Inspired by my childhood growing up in Germany, I share recipes of delicious rustic bakes from scratch with an elevated European twist.
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