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Yesterday I made Clonmel Doubly Crusty/Vienna Bread.
Historically, scalding milk accomplished at least 2 purposes. One is that it killed any bacteria in the milk. (Pasteurization took care of that problem decades ago for most bakers.) The other is that it neutralized the protease enzymes in the milk, which can inhibit yeast growth. The experts are somewhat split on whether pasteurization disables the protease enzymes. I suspect ultra-pasteurization (which is what most dairies use these days, because it's faster) might do a better job neutralizing the protease enzymes than the old pasteurization process did, because it uses a somewhat higher temperature for a shorter time, but I haven't looked to see if there are any scientific tests of that hypothesis in the journals.
I think there's a third reason, though. Scalded milk smells and tastes different than milk straight out of the carton, and I think that has an impact on the bread flavor and possibly on texture.
I always let scalded milk cool back down to the point where it's no more than warm (say, 110 degrees) before using it to make bread. Yeast dies at 138 degrees, so you certainly don't want to pour HOT milk in with yeast.
The tangzhong method (pouring boiling hot water/milk on the flour or cooking it on the stove to gelatinize it) is another option for bread recipes that call for milk, but that might be a separate thread.
My son and his family are here visiting, so I'll be doing a lot of baking over the next week or so.
Today my granddaughter and I made a batch of bagels and a batch of madelines.
I actually have two madeline pans, but neither had been used before now.
I did some research on madelines recipes, most of them call for using brown butter, some call for grated lemon zest. I used the madelines recipe in the KAF Cookie Book, and had a lot of trouble getting the first batch to release from the pan. I used canola oil for the first batch, but probably not enough of it, and I think I overfilled it a bit, too. The recipe says it makes 24 cookies and I used less than half of the dough for the first dozen , but madeline pans come in multiple sizes--I know because I have two sizes of them. I used the larger one, but KAF may be using an even bigger size pan than the ones I have.
I moved from a #60 to a #100 scoop for the 2nd batch, and I also followed the prep instructions (more or less) in the Foxrun pan box, which had you grease the pan with a mixture of melted (or browned) butter and flour. I didn't take the time to brown this small amount of butter. That helped a lot with the releasing, and the cookies had a browner surface as well. Of course, they're quite a bit smaller.
For the final batch (not quite a dozen) I really slathered the pan with the butter/flour mixture. I let them cool in the pan a big longer, too. They all came out easily and have the best shape, too. Lesson learned.
The cookies are a bit softer than I was expecting, perhaps they'll harden up over time. They're tasty, though. I'm going to dip them in chocolate later on, my chocolate pot takes over an hour to heat up and temper a batch of chocolate. I just hope there are some cookies left by the time the chocolate is ready.
I may have to try one of the variants in the KAF cookie book and add some cocoa powder to the batter.
How old is that recipe? Canned peaches used to be packed in a heavy sugar solution; these days I'm not sure if they are, most canned fruits have gone to a light sugar solution or just use fruit juices--and not always the same fruit as what's in the can, I've seen at least one can of fruit, pears I think, that was packed using apple juice.
And that's assuming the can sizes haven't changed, which is also commonplace with older recipes.
I don't recall where I read it, but I've seen references saying that powdered turmeric loses most of its flavor quickly. It will still add color, but not much flavor.
I've tinkered with the flours in that recipe a lot, I especially like it with some rye flour added.
I've had 50 pound bags of flour in the past, I just kept them in the basement, well sealed. I lost one to a periodic infestation of indian meal moths, but it was one I wasn't using quickly anyway.
Wheat berries keep much longer than flour does, and are less prone to bug problems. (The bigger problem for wheat mills is rodents.) I've had a bucket of spring soft wheat for several years, it's just fine.
The Wheat Montana cookbook doesn't appear to specifically have the recipe for the super-sized cinnamon rolls, I was curious as to how much dough each one takes.
Personally, I don't see a problem with the owner of copyrighted material benefiting from their intellectual property.
Glad to hear your trip went well. We just got back from over 2 weeks on the road, drove to Oregon for the International Master Gardeners Conference and took the northern route back, with lots of detours for sightseeing.
My wife says I need to bake something, the house doesn't smell right since it hasn't had any baking in it in nearly 3 weeks.
Graham was by no means the only 'expert' on foods in the 19th century who had some rather extreme ideas.
While I loved Julia Child's show, she was a bit fussy about equipment. Early bread makers had a lot of limitations, but I liked my vertical Zo model 15, I never had one of the horizontal two-paddle machines.
A quick search didn't find anything about how eggs have changed over the years, but I suspect that commercial egg production, especially the diet they feed the chickens, is more geared towards increasing quantity than nutrition or taste, except perhaps if you buy high Omega 3 eggs.
It seems to me that 'large' eggs aren't as big as they used to be, but maybe that's just bad memory.
A year or two ago my wife left the eggs out of a waffle batter she was making, and they were pretty good even without the eggs. We've made it that way at least once more on purpose.
I've been on the road, so no cooking or baking for me.
But I did have a few great meal experiences. One of them was in Wyoming, where we stopped for lunch at a small town and found a great restaurant. I'll post more about that later.
The other was a soup I had the last two days, a sunchoke cheddar soup that was just incredible, creamy and smooth, almost like an alfredo sauce. I've asked the chef for the recipe, if I get it I'll post it, otherwise I may have to go searching for a recipe elsewhere.
I've also been promoting My Nebraska Kitchen at the International Master Gardeners Conference, so if some Master Gardeners show up here, please welcome them.
I'm making Chicago Style hot dog buns today, we can't get poppy-seed buns around here, and I'm just in the mood for a Chicago Dog. Besides, what's more American on the 4th of July than a hot dog? (It won't be 100% authentic, no Vienna Beef dogs and no day-glo green relish, but it'll be close enough with celery salt.)
Clove is another spice you need to use sparingly. I once made a batch of pizza sauce with too much clove in it, we ate the pizzas, but they reeked of clove!
I never developed a taste for Spam either. They love the stuff in Hawaii!
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