Kitchen Shortcuts and Helps

[BakerAunt]

I saw this group of kitchen short cuts online, and some of them are useful, although there is NO way I'm going to try that first one:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/tipsandtricks/25-brilliant-kitchen-shortcuts-youll-wish-you-knew-sooner/ss-BBUGE5v?ocid=spartandhp

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[Mike Nolan]

The water bottle one or the bundt pan one? I've seen the water bottle one done, it works well with a 1 liter soda bottle. It also works better with fresh eggs, as eggs age the yolks are more likely to break.

[Joan Simpson]

I've seen the water bottle done also,if at all possible I take my corn outside to cream or cut off cob.

[BakerAunt]

I meant the water bottle one. Even if I wanted to try it, rarely do we have water or soda bottles around the house. However, I don't know that I would risk my nice Bundt pan to cut corn off the cob.

[KIDPIZZA]

BAKERAUNT:
Good afternoon my friend. I also did receive this notice in my computer ~E MAIL.
I erased it from my computer.

I use this technique very well. it is very efficient way to get the maximum white out of the total egg in it'S separation.

We must always remember our baking science lesions from the past from the old KAF baking club...we separate the eggs when cold & Whip when at room temmp. this method should be followed if you wish to get MAXIMUM volume.

As Mike alerted to y"all in his posting, the yolk will normally break if you employ this bottle technique if the yolks are room temp. From time to time we may all read
otherwise about this here & there... it is wrong information. My info can be verified by reading BAKEWISE & other worthwhile baking science books.

I will be calling you in about a month from now Marliss.

Enjoy the day.

~KIDPIZZA/CASS.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you for weighing in Cass! I'll look forward to your call in a month.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for the tips. Some I knew and some seem cool. As Cass says, I was always taught to separate chilled eggs then let them come to room temp. I may try the water bottle trick.

This weekend I made scones and tried grating the butter. A pastry chef friend told me about this years ago but it always seemed like more work. It was actually less work and required less prep since I usually keep my butter in the freezer and then thaw it as I need it. I grated it and tossed it and it was much more incorporate than it usually is. In the past I've had butter leak out a bit but none this time. I'll try it again in the future.

I wrapped the end of the butter in a paper towel where I held it to keep my the butter from warming up or my hand from cooling down.

[Mike Nolan]

There seems to be a divergence of opinion among baking experts about freezing butter, at pastry school we were cautioned not to use butter that had been frozen for making pie crust, even if it had been thawed. But I've seen a number of places recommending using shredded frozen butter for pie crusts lately.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I remember you saying that before and I've tried both with previously frozen and non-frozen butter and noticed no difference. But that may be because my pie crust is not good to begin with and the butter does not make a difference.

But I've almost always used frozen/thawed butter for scones and biscuits to good results.

And my pastry chef friend made excellent pies using frozen dough.

[Mike Nolan]

We used two different formulas for pâte brisée (short crust pie dough) at pastry school, one had more butter with slightly larger sized pieces of it after it was cut in. It produced a flakier crust, though it was a bit trickier to roll out, and I've pretty much standardized on the other one. (I do add a little more sugar for a cherry pie dough. My wife's grandmother would roll in a little granulated sugar for a cherry pie crust at the end, I just mix it in up front.)

I've tried several other recipes for pie dough, including ones that used a combination of shortening and butter and Rose Levy Beranbaum's cream cheese one, I keep going back to the SFBI one. I'm probably going to try an all lard one once I render the 4 pounds of lard I bought a week ago. (I do like Susan Purdy's hot water crust recipe for pot pies, and it uses a combination of butter and shortening.)

At pastry school, they made us cut the butter in using a chef's knife several times. That's a lot more work, but it does teach you exactly what it should look and feel like.

It took me several tries before I got the technique down at home, formulas don't tell you everything, but at this point I can make it either in the food processor or in the mixer.

Here's the formula I use:

Pastry Flour 100%
Sugar 5%
Salt 2%
Unsalted Butter 70%
Water 30%

I have tables in my notebook for 1-4 crusts, in metric weights. I measure the sugar and salt using a scale that has 0.1 gram increments. (In fact, any time I'm measuring less than 15 grams of something, I use the micro-scale. I have a third scale which measures in milligrams, but don't use it for baking.)

Most of the time I use KAF white Pastry Flour. I prefer the 8% protein pastry flour over the 10.3% protein one which they call their 'pastry flour blend', but I've also had good results using Gold Medal Unbleached AP flour. I may try a bag of Bob's Red Mill white pastry flour as I'm probably going to order semolina from them next time, and I can't get white pastry flour locally, only whole wheat ones.

I find I sometimes need an extra teaspoon or so of water. (As with all bakers percentages formulas, the water is by weight not by volume.)

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