Mary Berry\‘s Latest

[cwcdesign]

Did any of you see this about Mary Berry's upcoming show?
http://www.foodandwine.com/news/mary-berry-britains-best-cook?xid=NL_DISH080517&utm_source=foodandwine.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-dish&utm_content=2017080520PM

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[Mike Nolan]

Given that the shows from GBBO being shown on PBS now are from several seasons ago, it might take a while for Mary Berry's new show to make it to USA markets, if it does at all. (Gordon Ramsay's British series didn't do so well on USA TV, which is why Hell's Kitchen is done in Los Angeles.)

[aaronatthedoublef]

Has anyone tried recipes from the GBBO? How often do they use ingredients we do not have here? How hard are they to translate?

I'm surprised at the continued success of Hell's Kitchen. It wore me out after a few seasons.

[Mike Nolan]

I've tried a few GBBO recipes, with reasonable results, though many English recipes use caster sugar, which is not generally available in the USA, though I think superfine baker's sugar comes pretty close. In most recipes, I don't think it makes much difference. There are differences in flour as well, North American flours are generally much stronger (higher protein/gluten content).

The continued success of Hell's Kitchen amazes me as well. I can't say I've learned much about cooking from it, but I wonder about the skill levels of the cooks in the restaurants I go to more than I used to.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Don't many British recipes also use self-rising flour? We have a Welsh friend who kept using all purpose flour and not having her recipes workout. I gave her bag of self-rising and it changed her life.

A pastry chef offered me a job based on three criteria:

1) I would pass the drug screen
2) I showed up to where I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there (see item 1)
3) I can do fractions in my head

Not very demanding requirements to work for a high end chef in a fine-dining restaurant.

[Mike Nolan]

You're correct that self-rising flour is more commonly used in European/British recipes than in the USA (except perhaps in the South.) I haven't dug out my Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood books to check, but my recollection is that if they want self-rising flour they'll say that.

[BakerAunt]

I do not buy self-rising flour, since I have plenty of other flours around, and it is easy to add my own baking powder and salt. I'm also unsure that I would use self-rising flour fast enough before the baking powder in it expired.

I did come across a couple of recipes I want to try in some of the Bon Appetit issues that I am going through that call for self-rising flour. I checked the internet to see how to substitute. All sites I checked say 1 cup of AP plus 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, but they differ on salt, with some saying 1/2 tsp per cup, and some 1/4 tsp.

I will use the lower amount of salt.

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