Artisan Bread Recipe and Flavored (Compound) Butters (2024)

FAQs

What does adding extra butter to bread dough do? ›

Butter, technically a dough enrichment, tenderizes bread dough and limits gluten development, yielding a softer, more tender crumb and a richer flavor. The butter in this sourdough babka dough makes the interior tender—and delicious. Photo by Maurizio Leo.

An excessive amount of butter makes it where the flour is unable to absorb the combined fat, which causes the cookie to spread too widely and the sugar to carbonize more easily because it's surrounded by too buttery a dough.

A compound butter ("beurre composé" in French) is simply butter mixed with other ingredients that add sweet or savory flavor, like honey, herbs, or garlic.

Compound butter will add rich flavors to baked goods. Confectioners commonly use compound butter varieties to make glazes, fillings, and frostings. Undoubtedly, compound butter is more difficult to measure than sticks of butter.

The magic number is 1 and 1/2 tablespoons. This will allow for an even, thick coat of butter across your toast, melting in without making it soggy.

Once the dough is smooth and elastic, add the butter and continue kneading on medium-low speed until the butter is completely incorporated and the dough is smooth, shiny, and elastic. Allow the dough to rise in a covered bowl until it's doubled in bulk, about 90 minutes.

Adding butter (unsalted) or oil (olive or vegetable) in small quantities to bread results in a higher rise, a crisper crust, and a longer shelf life. When fat is added in large quantities, such as for brioche, it results in a softer texture and less volume.

'Any nuts, seeds, small or chopped dried fruits, olives, fresh thyme or rosemary can be added without changing the dough. For the best distribution, scatter the ingredients into the dough at the 'knocking back' stage. '

Margarine often has a lower saturated fat content and higher water content than butter does causing it to be much softer when cold. Because of it softer property, margarine can cause cakes to be less tender and cookies will generally spread out more and be less crisp when compared to the same recipe using butter.

Compound butters (French: beurre composé, pl. beurres composés) are mixtures of butter and other ingredients used as a flavoring, in a fashion similar to a sauce.

What is the Flavouring compound for butter? ›

Answer and Explanation: The compound diacetyl is commonly used as butter flavor because this is the compound responsible for the taste of butter. The diacetyl compound is also known as butanedione with the chemical formula of C 4 H 6 O 2 .

Compound butter can be used in many ways to make cooking easier and baking faster. Toss it in the pan when sautéing veggies, use it to create a buttery sauce, replace your regular baking butter to enhance flavors, elevate your traditional mac and cheese, or add something new to your stack of weekend morning pancakes.

Compound butter or “beurre composse” in French is simply unsalted butter mixed with other ingredients that add sweet or savory flavor, like honey, herbs, or garlic. This creamy spread can be easily added to meats, and sauces sides to add extra flavor.

Salted butter is all-purpose. It's perfect for spreading on bread, topping veggies and pasta and using in recipes where you're not looking to have as much control over salt level.

This helps create more consistent results for home bakers replicating a recipe. In general, salted butter is preferred for cooking (or simply spreading) as it adds more flavour and has a longer shelf life, while unsalted butter is the go-to for baking.

Ingredients such as eggs and butter will also contribute to the overall hydration of the dough so they have been included in the table.

Starting with the most common one – adding softened butter to a dough that has been kneaded for a while. For this method butter is left at room temperature to soften. The dough is kneaded for 3 – 4 minutes depending on the amount of dough and other ingredients in it.

The job of butter in baking (besides being delicious) is to give richness, tenderness and structure to cookies, cakes, pies and pastries. We alter the way butter works in a recipe by changing its temperature and choosing when to combine it with the other ingredients.

In the case of pie dough, cold butter steams in the oven, creating the air pockets that make for flaky layers; melted butter, on the other hand, creates a tender, more shortbread-like crust—buttery and delicious all the same, but firmer and more compact.