Do Bakers Percentages Apply to Bread machine recipes?
Been having some woes with a new Cuisinart CBK-110. Found a few fumbles of my own in water/flour management.
In studying the recipes supplied with the Cuisinart CBK-110 I have been converting all the Cups & Spoon measurements into grams.
Looking closer at some of the recipes, I see, among others, the percentage of salt is quite low.
In my first two attempts, I tried the rye and white recipes and both came out pretty bad - very dry, dense, and tasteless. I have since learned how to monitor the dough flour/water amounts at the start of the bake.
But both recipes were not only too dry but were very TASTLESS. I've also learned how much salt plays in (among other things) the flavor of the bread. This led to looking at the Cuisinart recipes and how the water, yeast, and salt tied to the Baker's Percentages.
I have looked at the white, rye, and French bread recipes supplied with a CBK-110p purchased from Amazon on the 3rd of October 2023. The figures for salt seem to be all over the chart!
My general understanding is that 2% salt is a common amount for most bread.
The white recipe salt comes in at .78% .84%. .84% -VERY LOW!
rye salt is 1.31% 2.03% 2.25% - not too low.
French salt is .78% .96% .66%
Are these figures ok for bread machine baking or is there something missing/wrong.....?
Yes, Alan, baker's percentages apply to bread machine breads as well. They are universal.
2% salt is common in plain French breads and maybe American breads, but salt can be as low as zero % or as high as 3%. I am used to 1.5% salt breads and 2.0-2.2% salt feels like really salty to me.
Once you decided to use grams, about 125g per cup of flour, 240g per cup of water, and 6 g per tsp of Kosher salt, it is now easy to see that Large, Medium, and Small loaves in Cuisinart 110P recipe book are formulas for different breads.
It's their gift to us, three different white breads under White Bread name, three different rye breads, three different French breads. It happened to me when I got my British bread machine, their formulas were like that too. L, М and S loaves proportions for baker's percentages of ingredients were all different.
Cuisinart White Bread has
Large: 1.8% salt and 72% hydration. If your flour is very dry, in a dry climate, you might need more water. Otherwise, that is enough for a bread with 14% of sugar and butter in it, that also has a 1/4 cup of dry milk in it.
This is their large white bread loaf
Their small white bread loaf
Cuisinart Rye bread recipes have
Large. 1.2% salt and 63% hydration which is OK for medium protein all-purpose flour with low protein white rye flour blend, as in NY Jewish rye, for example. It has lots of yeast in its formula, so not that much salt is needed for flavor.
Medium. 1.6% salt and 80% hydration, which is more suitable for AP Flour blend with medium, whole grain, or dark rye flour
Small. 1.8% salt and 96% hydration, which is suitable for all purpose whole wheat flour and whole grain or dark rye flour blend.
Cuisinart French Bread formulas have
L 1.8% salt and 72% hydration
M 2.2% salt and 74% hydration
S 1.5% salt and 85% hydration
The bread machine manual that comes with Cuisinart CBK-110P says
This is important, or dry yeast will not wake up properly and the bread will not rise and won't have the flavor and taste of yeasted bread.
Finally, their manual says, about amounts of ingredients and their proportions, that
This means that generally per 375g of flour (100 baker's percent) bread dough can have 240-300g of water (64% to 80% hydration) and from 6g to 9g of salt (1.6% to 2.2% of salt). And we are supposed to adjust from there as our own flour might require more or less water and salt. More yeast means more acidity and flavor and less need for salt.
Is there that much of a difference between all purpose and bread flour? Generally speaking, yes. All purpose flours strength ranges between 9% and 11% protein, and bread flours have about 11-13% protein. More protein requires more water and longer kneading time to give a smooth and shiny non-sticky dough ball before it begins rising.. Unless your all purpose flour and bread flour both have 11% protein, the two are not interchangeable in Cuisinart's recipes for their automatic bread machine. You might still use your bread flour, just figure put how much water and kneading it needs in this and that bread recipe and write it down for the future bakes with that flour.
Cuisinart CBK110P is an excellent bread machine, practically the best of the best in its price range, very highly rated by thousands of Amazon customers, convenient, affordable, can knead for as long as you wish, prepare any dough, and bake it when you want it and how you want it. Their recipes are excellent , they make sense even before we bake those breads. But it does not mean that you will necessarily like that bread machine or those breads. There are plenty of one to two star reviews from bakers from all over North America on Amazon. Some indicate real problems with the unit they got, while others don't. Different people like different bread machines.