nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Sous Vide Baking

Ralph_34444

Hello everyone! It's my first time posting here. I am a baker and a curious cook. I love trying new things and experimenting with techniques.

So what do you guys think? Baking is a precise form of cooking and sous vide is such a precise cooking medium. Would it work if there was adequate room in the bag for the dough to rise and bake?

Find more posts tagged with

Everything Else

Comments

Przemyslaw_93807

consider evaporation... if steam will not go off the bag, dough will be wet and look like one big lump i guess. but precisely controlled temperature, thats the thing which is hard without waterbath.

ejf12009

I've thought about this before, but I believe there are two major problems:

1) In baking, we really like to see browning. But browning basically means Maillard or caramelization, both of which happen at temperatures above the boiling point of water. Sous vide can't get hot enough.

2) A lot of lift in baking comes from water evaporating into steam which expands, and these vapor bubbles are captured by a solidifying network of proteins (egg, gluten, etc.) and starches. My understanding (have not tested) is that if you heat too slowly, the protein/starch network will not set in time to capture the vapor, which will just diffuse and evaporate and pop bubbles on its way out. Could be wrong here though.

I am curious about recipes which have a step which pre-gelatinizes starch, something like choux pastry or the tangzhong method for bread. Maybe that could be improved by SV?

wolfiegirl

Taking a stab in the dark here. I too bake and sous vide. While I will never say never, I have to wonder how dough would take to a sealed enviro. Yeast/sourdough need air to breathe. If you put an unrisen dough in a vac bag (no or very little air), it will kill off the live yeast. And then as the others have stated, soggy bread and no browning. So it's doubtful that it's a viable form of baking.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I've actually seen a few people try this on the web, i can't find the links I saw right now but the basic end result was that it's impractical and doesn't produce the same results.

Andy_Parrott_66285

You can however get some benefit from vac bagging cookie dough. Here's a link from the Ideas in Food website. I've tried this and the cookies turned out great too

http://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2008/07/vacuum-sealed-cookie-dough.html

Timmy_74965

All I've ever seen, sous vide pastry-wise is custards like lemon curd or pastry cream. Browning is SO important, as you know, in baking....there are so few baked goods that don't benefit from it.

Lynne_Lasser_15587

I think you could create a good proofing environment by setting your water bath to, say, 80f, and floating your carefully covered dough bowl therein (but not submerging). I sometimes rise my dough over a bowl of warm water set over one of my vintage stoves pilot lights when its cold in the house.

ps2rocksout

I know this was posted 2 years ago but i've been playing with my sous vide machine (immersion circulator) for years now and have been taking some of these ideas and running with them. I love lacto-fermentation process but it takes forever to get it to work the natural way. Ever since chefsteps posted the recipe for sous vide yogurt, i have been going crazy with the idea (pickling a cucumber in 24 hours!?!?). So we all know that bactria loves 109.4 F or 43 C., same goes for yeast. And while all you nay sayers out there believe that yeast needs alot of oxygen to proof you are sadly mistaken. But why put it in a vacuum bag. Just put it in a ziploc bag and water displace it. proofed my bread in 10 minutes. And you know your bread is proofed when it floats to the surface, (yes it becomes a hydrometer!). And on top of that it bench rests in 10 minutes as well. The only problem that i have come across is that it doesnt bench long enough to allow the gluten to relax so the dough is chewy. But its bread and im not complaining, i love having fresh bread in 1 hour. The sous vide tool is very versatile in improving recipes, you just have to understand how to apply it.

Tim_Heffernan_417878

I've been thinking of doing this myself. Any chance you have tested your idea?

Stacy_Warrick_529064

I don't directly try to bake in my Sous Vide but it makes an amazing proofing box. I set it to 90F full it with a minimal amount of water and put a bowl of dough in. About an hour later it comes out wonderfully risen.