Tip for Using Dollar Tree Condiment Cups
Because I'm kind of OCD and have a hard time with ambiguous explanations and teaching, I've had to figure out the why's and wherefores of a lot of stuff. I also seem to have a bit of heightened awareness to pattern recognition, along with a memory where stupid stuff "sticks." All that means I find information in places wildly different from where I started.
I learned that "doubled in size" dough is mostly meaningless. You're supposed to be an experienced baker who "just knows" by looking at it. Yeah, right. When I bumped into that tip of using a "sample register" like a shot glass, I started using it right away. Everything got better.
So: Those little plastic, covered condiment cups have two (at least) more uses than serving ketchup or mixing a small batch of epoxy glue.
Use it to validate initial rise (ferment stage or 1st rise) of dough in a bowl. I pinch off a piece of the kneaded dough and flatten it into the bottom quarter of one of these cups. They come in an 8 or 10-pack, for $1.25. I've seen them all over in other places -- these are just the cheapest.
Then I'll stick a piece of masking tape along the side and mark the top of the flat piece of dough. Add another mark twice as high, put on the cover and wait. What I found is that dough indicated as taking somewhere between 60-90 minutes to "double in size," actually was doing so in about 35 minutes. In the summer, around here. Winter...who knows. But it reduces "over proofing" kinds of issues.
When you're done using the little dough ball (which is acting the same way as the main dough), just stick it back into the bigger ball of dough. It'll re-incorporate during baking.
Freeze small amounts of egg wash. I've never liked wasting food, and nowadays with the prices, I really don't like it. People casually say to brush on an egg wash for a nice shine on rolls and such, but they're usually talking about 12-24 pieces, which use up the egg.
I only make small batches, often from frozen shaped dough. If I want that brioche-looking shine on 2 hamburger buns, the egg wash is a waste of an egg. Yes; I'll scramble it in the MWO and eat it, but still....not elegant.
So I got out two of these little cups and poured half the remaining egg wash into each cup. Covered them and stuck them in the freezer -- it's just an egg with milk. Wah-Lah! It works! Next batch of two rolls, I also unfroze one of the cups and used the egg wash. No visible or edible difference at all. And no more wasted egg wash!
Autolyze: If you don't like to include salt in the initial flour when autolyzing, you can put the measured salt into one of these and mark the lid. Then leave it next to your bowl so you don't forget the salt! Bread missing salt really sucks. I know. :-)
This is really splitting hairs, but since we're being anal....aren't those little cups smaller at the bottom than the top? If they have straight sides, measuring rise is no problem. Another question: will a very small dough ball rise quicker than a larger mass of dough?
I use those cups to freeze leftover egg whites for brushing. For some reason, egg whites seem to thaw out quickly on the counter and they can be refrozen multiple times (don't care about bacteria), so zero waste.
Edit: I just asked a bot if smaller lots of dough rise faster and it said yes--four possible reasons, two of them being surface to volume ratio, another being heat retention/loss.
TFL members use straight-sided marked containers and the whole dough ball. That seems more efficient and you don't have to bother with a small piece. Sorry, if I'm telling you something you already know, I do that.
Many members use an aliquot jar, which is the same idea as the condiment cups.
Many members use an aliquot jar, which is the same idea as the condiment cups.
Oops, I stand corrected. I couldn't think of the odd name for that container either.
Found one of these in a thrift store, but I don't know where I put it, in the boxes. I think it's a 2-oz glass with all the measuring lines. We used that in the past. And yes, it's sitting right next to the main pan. Both are rising in not Exactly the same conditions, but close enough for rock'n'roll, as they say. :-) It's Jazz! Yeah....that's it -- Jazz.
Moe C, I hadn't realized or thought that I could re-freeze the egg wash! Excellent idea! And of course, the bacteria wouldn't be an issue. Plus, I guess I was stuck on the idea of food being frozen, thawed, frozen, thawed, and the loss of structure and quality. This is just paint! Like clear-coat on a car! :-D Yet another way to save some money. Thank you!
Oh, and regarding a graduated rising bin. That's fine for the bulk ferment stage. But it's not so useful when doing the final proofing in a baking pan. However; although I have such a rising bin, I just don't feel like washing another thing when I'm just baking 1 loaf of bread. Kind of lazy, I know, but maybe for larger loaves I'd go through the production of moving the countless muscles in my arms and legs, to get that bin down from over the fridge. Seems like a lot of work, though. Like having to open Two jars to make PB&J sandwiches. Really? Two Whole Jars? Oof!
I take it you meant to compare with leaving the dough in a bowl to rise. Knowing or comparing volumes that way is darn near impossible for most people. The fact that the shape of the dough ball changes as it expands in the bowl makes the task even harder. No wonder you found discrepancies.
Y'know, there's a joke here about 5- versus 8-inches, but since there are ladies present, I shall refrain. :-D
I could sense in my bones that there was a like-minded community of crazy people just like me, somewhere out there! No...it's not splitting hairs: It's Science! :-)
Realistically; two things. The first is that I don't have much money, and some of the stupid condiment containers actually are rectangular with straight sides. But the Dollar Tree is "whatever we have in this set of containers shipped from China." Sometimes it's straight sides, other times, round. But the clear plastic condiment cups seem to always be there. And for $1, I can handle that.
Secondly, although using a university-level scale likely would show that the dough is rising faster in the small register than in the main pan, it doesn't vary all that much. When I see the small ball has doubled, I shove the big pan in the oven. The bread always comes out pretty much perfect.
I should also mention that when I draw the line indicating the starting level of the dough, I just eyeball it. And when I draw the second line, for the "double," I just make a wild guess and say, "Yeah....that's looks about right." I hadn't thought about using a right-angle square and some calipers. It's a thought. (no it's not....LOL!)
The only problems I've had tend to be with changes in the amount of water I'm using. But with the digital probe, I'll test the internal bread temperature and manage the additional baking time that way.
You realize that the rest of the world of "normal people" look at posts like these and just shake their heads? LOL! On a similar note, though, here's a great story:
I had my life upended and had to go somewhere else. My sister offered a place to stay until I could get settled, so I drove there. She's in Ithaca, New York, home of Cornell University. Well, her next-door neighbor was out, and I said hi. He came over, and we got to talking. Very nice guy: He's an atomic physicist. "Oh! Coo!," I said, and asked him what he was doing.
His current experiment, being funded by DARPA (military future developments), by the way, was to determine how to get materials below absolute zero (0-degrees Kelvin, or -273 Celcius). I said I'd thought absolute meant, well......absolute?! He laughed and said no, that temperature is really a circle. You get cold, colder, colder, coldest...and then it starts warming up again. Hmm....okay....what do I know. I'm a piano player.
I asked how they do this? How do they make these measurements? He explains it takes a special lab, where the whole building is on springs. The slightest movement will solidify the entire sample. They use 30 atoms to do all this and......
"Wait! You use 30 atoms?" "Yup...and then..." "Wait! So you, what, just hire a temp and have them come in and count out 30 atoms and put them in a pile?" :-)
Turns out people like him -- and you, and me, and other lunatic scientists -- have indeed figured out how to count out atoms! Not only that, but they place them in specific locations, on a platform. Then they do what they do and analyze the change in their locations. All very fascinating stuff, and he's such a personable guy, he explains things wonderfully. He was on an interview show, talking about how "Dr. Who" might actually function.
So I have to say: My little ball of dough probably has, what.....at least 200 atoms, right? I should be able to figure out their location as it all rises. After all, a rising tide raises all boats. From what I've heard. :-)
A true statement but waaaay more than that!
Say your ball of dough is ≈25 g and is ≈70% hydration.
The water content would be ≈18 g in that ball of dough.
That's ≈1 mol of water or 6.02 × 10^23 molecules of water so 18 × 10^23 atoms!
And that doesn't even include the starch and protein from the flour.
Hmm....okay, so I'm thinking I'm going to have to spend a couple of hours counting out those atoms. I wouldn't want to make a mistake with the calipers. You know, like pre-measure a line for "double," only to find out I'm short 125 atoms.
This is going to be a project: I can see that!
By the way -- totally off subject -- I was in the Dollar Tree today for something or other, and saw some of the rectangular or square little plastic containers. They're over by the cleaning stuff and often where they hang the cooking utensils and potholders.
These have straight sides, and I think it was 8/packet. Might've been 6....I'll have to go back with equipment, and count.
I showed a packet to the older lady running the cash register, and asked if she thought these would work for checking a small bit of dough to see if it had doubled. Without missing a beat (she was ringing someone up), she said "It depends whether you're measuring the molecular mass, the physical bulk, or the weight. You can use these, but I'd use some calipers to make your life easier." Then went back to ringing up the customer.
So I guess this is one of those tipe everyone knows about, and I'm just now finding out! But hey....better late than never, right? :-)
Digital calipers are never too much trouble! I trek to the garage, bring in the case, remove the instrument, and insert the batteries, to measure the precise diameter of...knitting needles. 😊
I should get some of those. I've been keeping them on a wish list on Amazon, what with trying to get the correct portion of dry spaghetti pasta. We always seem to have three or four strands left over, after dinner. I'll bet proper measuring would solve THAT problem, by gum! (Well, by caliper, I suppose.)