Rolling dough of confusions

Bread doughs have long been a culinary area that has escaped me until recently, so I was excited to see Alton Brown taking on the cause of rolls in one of the newest Good Eats episodes. While I always enjoy Good Eats for its production value and entertainment, for me, the best episodes give equal treatment to the food topic at hand. Unfortunately, the rolls offered in this new episode seem a tad bid too complicated even for most dedicated fan and home cook.

The good

The storyline for the episode was most certainly an entertaining mix of characters, food and fun. The "letting go" of the yeasties was by far my favorite part of the show. Their slow exit from the Good Eats house, complete with hobo bags on sticks, was purely inspired! Just when I thought it couldn't be topped, came the homage to "The Trouble with Tribbles," which may be my favorite episode of Star Trek... ever. Die-hard GE fans will note this wasn't the first time AB referenced the Tribbles on the show. I couldn't stop thinking of the eggplant episode as well.


However, this reference was even better than the multiplying eggplants since it was complete with the new yeasties cooing and chirping, and failing out of the cupboards.

And a big grin for the Incredible Mr. Limpet nod, one of my favorite movies.



The not-so good

I'm not so sure how much of the show was tongue-in-cheek and how much was serious. I was looking forward to a good instructional on making rolls, so I was a wee bit disappointed in the complexity AB brought to the party. His "simple" mnemonic device made me laugh for sure, but remembering it, let alone the stages of his dough method will be difficult.

I have imagined seeing a demented, rabid platypus carelessly drinking blue cocktails.

Also begs the question, can a platypus contract rabies? It is a mammal so I suppose it is possible.

I was further confused by AB backtracking on bread flour vs standard AP flour and rapid rise yeast vs instant yeast.

A few years ago I came across an old New England cookbook published in 1939. In this cookbook there is a recipe for original Parker House rolls, which says to use bread flour. I have made said recipe a number of times and have produced the best rolls ever. Yes, using bread flour. If you recall in the original pizza dough episode, Alton said the higher protein was important in making a chewy crust. So, was that just for pizza doughs and not other yeast doughs?

It just so happens that breads are the topic of my next cooking class, so I've been brushing up on flour, yeast, gluten, etc. I read Cookwise just this weekend for refresher and caught this after watching the show Monday night. "A loaf made with high-protein flour (like bread flour) will rise well in both risings and bake into a light, airy loaf with good brown crust color," Shirley O. Corriher writes. She also makes note that unbleached AP flour has more protein than bleached AP flour thus being better for yeast doughs. (p. 8)

I now don't understand why AB didn't explain this a little more. Maybe he didn't want, need, care about this for his rolls, I don't know since he didn't go into details, but I'm confused now because it seems the style of flour you use does make a difference. Or some seem to believe that it does.

Oh bother.

To further complicate matters, AB then says he now likes rapid rise yeast!

Oy, it is enough to make my head spin.

Long ago, thanks to the first pizza episode, I traded in my pouches of rapid rise yeasties for larger bags of instant yeast because of the ascorbic acid added and the ability to add it directly to the dry goods sans waking them in warm water.

So the making of the rolls left me less than happy to say the least.

But I will say thanks for the fun show, AB. However, I think I'll be sticking with what's been working for me in the roll department.