Thursday, July 16, 2020

BBB: Birotes Salados





July’s Kitchen of the Month is Karen, of Karen’s Kitchen Stories.  Karen challenged the Babes to bake Birotes Salados, tasty sourdough sandwich rolls,  Guadalajaran-style bolillos. The rolls have a nice flavor as well as being chewy on the outside and soft on the inside.


I did my research to learn more about these rolls, and discovered a few differences in the various recipes.  One recipe called for 212 g of water, another for 444 g.  I ended up using about 300 g.  212 g was too little, and I thought the 444 g would turn the batter into soup.  I also threw in a pinch of yeast, as some bakers indicated this was routinely done, but not talked about.  (I’m all for a bit of yeast.)


I also used the one bottle of beer I had on hand, Stella Artois.


My biggest issues were shaping and slashing.  I live in fear of deflating bread when I score it.  For the first batch, I let them rise on a tea towel, then, hoped I wouldn’t deflate them when I moved them to the parchment and slashed them.  For the second batch, I let the rolls rise directly on the parchment, and slashed them before rising as well.  Neither method really stood out as the preferred way to go.  And, the scoring was way less than perfect.

In the meantime, I have purchased a new lame, one that allows me to use either a straight blade or a curved one.  I need to practice scoring, so that is my next personal challenge.  Probably need to play with surface tension on the dough as well.



But I digress.  The rolls were delicious in spite of everything, and certainly worth making again.



Be sure to check out the other Babes to see how they fared and see their lovely, successful scoring.


If you go to Karen’s blog, you can get a copy of the recipe.  And, be sure to let Karen know by the end of July if you plan to be a Buddy.



7 comments:

hobby baker Kelly said...

Ooo, I love how the crumb turned out! Yum.

Karen said...

Great crumb! A bit of yeast is nothing to be ashamed of!

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

I wouldn't worry too much about how they look because the crumb looks really good and " the proof of a pudding is in the eating".
Yes, scoring takes a bit of practice as I'm discovering. I just use a blade to do it.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

LOVE your crumb. I wonder if we both just found the same lame!? Flat or curved, now I need some experiments and experience.I did some work with this dough trying to get the surface tension using my plastic scraper and found it was tricky but doable at least on occasion.

Katie Zeller said...

I can relate to your fear of moving and slashing.... but they look lovely

Elizabeth said...

I think your rolls look wonderful! The crumb looks perfect and I envy you that they are "chewy on the outside" instead of almost rock hard on the outside as the ones I made are.


(I can certainly identify with that fear of slashing. I've read recently that it's easier to slash dough that is a.) cold rather than warm, b.) not even remotely over-proofed, and/or c.) if it is just a little dry on top. Also, apparently the blade has to be insanely sharp and clean. One person said that he puts his lame in a little jug of water before slashing.)

Cathy (Bread Experience) said...

Your crumb looks lovely! I agree with Aparna, the proof is definitely in the eating!