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Sad though not unexpected news, but what better day to hear it than Easter?
Rest in peace, Mrs. Cindy.
Welcome back, Wonky.
I've created a few bread recipes, it can be both a challenging and frustrating process. I look forward to seeing your creation.
There's an interesting article in the latest issue of "Bread Lines", the newsletter of the Bread Baker's Guild of America. A BBGA member was asked to serve as one of the judges in a bread contest. The rules of the contest said that the recipe must be new, original and unpublished. This tended to rule out any lean dough breads, since there really isn't much that can be said to be new or original about a mixture of flour, water, salt and yeast.
As a result, all of the breads were enriched, most laden with fruits, cheese, nuts and other add-ins. The author thought most of the breads were both underdeveloped and underbaked, and thought that the rules tended to favor long lists of ingredients over the baker's skills in developing a good loaf.
The author's choice for the winner was one of the breads that wasn't still largely raw dough.
Food references as a form of cultural insult have a long history. Think about the Irish and potatoes.
In much French cooking, something is referred to as 'English' when it is considered crude or inelegant.
The autolyse step traces back to Prof. Raymond Calvel, who was primarily concerned with improving the quality of ordinary (white) bread in post-WW2 France.
However, it can be used with any flour, even non-wheat flours like rye and barley. The point of autolysis is to let the enzymes present in flour begin to break the complex carbohydrates down. Gluten development happens later on.
As I recall, Professor Calvel's autolyse step used just flour and water, no salt or yeast. If you are making enriched breads (ie, adding oil, sugar or milk), I'd do the autolyse step just as Prof. Calvel originally recommended. You can autolyse some or all of the flours, separately or together.
Calvel's book, "The Taste of Bread" (English translation, the original French title is "Le Goût du Pain") is an interesting look into this man's life work.
If your library has a copy, it's worth checking out. It's not an inexpensive book, in either language. You won't find many recipes in it, though.
I made one batch (24 rolls in 3 six-inch pans) of Hot Cross Buns last night, I think that may be all I do for Good Friday this year.
Cinnamon is also supposed to have an impact on blood sugar, but the research on that is pretty thin. My wife thinks cinnamon by itself has no impact, but it may work better if combined with other supplements, I forget which ones she's taking.
As someone with training in both hard and social science research methods, it is VERY difficult to do a study of food effects unless you can control someone's diet 100% for weeks at a time.
My 5th grade teacher use to tell a story about some people she knew who were in a controlled dietary study during the Depression. After crying at night over pictures of food (in order to generate enough saliva for testing), one of them ate ONE peanut and was kicked out of the study!
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This reply was modified 8 years ago by
Mike Nolan.
The relationship between salt and high blood pressure may not be as strong as medical researchers first thought, that's just one of the things that the experts may have gotten wrong, like saying that margarine is better for you than butter.
However, I think there are solid culinary reasons for cutting back on salt, even if the medical benefits may be a bit more tenuous.
I will make several batches of Hot Cross buns Thursday evening to give away on Good Friday, as I always do, but right now I'm not sure who they're going to, since 3 of our neighbors have moved since last Easter. 2 of the houses have sold, but all 3 are currently vacant. Another frequent recipient is in Japan teaching for 3 weeks. One or possibly two batches will go to my wife's office.
For those interested, after trying a number of recipes I use the Hot Cross Buns recipe in the KAF Whole Grains book, dividing each batch up into 16 parts instead of 12 and putting 8 rolls in a 6 inch round pan. That makes them more bite-sized and makes the batches more manageable in both size and quantity.
For the office batch, I may see how many would fit in my 10x10 pan, which I didn't have last Easter. I'm guessing it'll hold 25, and if I make them even smaller I might be able to get 36.
How much kosher salt to use to replace table salt depends upon the brand of kosher salt you have, some brands have larger crystal sizes than other, which means a teaspoon of it weighs less because there's more air.
Morton specifically recommends against using kosher salt in baking, because it might not dissolve/disperse properly in the dough. Putting it in the liquid might mitigate that.
Restaurants often just use masking tape and a marker.
I was introduced to Challah by friends in college, and we lived in the Chicago area until 1977, several years of that within a few blocks of several great Jewish delis and bakeries.
I've never seen Challah at the stores here in Nebraska, and neither have the people I've baked it for. I made a two layer Celebration Challah for some dinners my wife's department chair held last fall, after the first one he said he hadn't eaten that much bread at one time in years!
But the nearest Jewish deli or bakery is probably 400 miles away.
My wife ordered something she saw Jerry Mathers advertising on TV about Type II Diabetes. It says ignore calories, count carbs instead. So she's been on this low-carb diet, and I have to say it works, she lost 50 pounds in under a year, she now weighs less than she did when we got married 44 years ago.
She showed that material to her doctor, he was interested enough in it that he now has a copy of it.
We were a Miracle Whip family too, but these days it tastes way too sweet for me, so my wife uses Miracle Whip and I use Hellman's Canola Oil Mayo if I don't have fresh home-made available (which I seldom have available.)
I thought I saw an ad some years ago for post-it-notes that were designed to be used in the refrigerator, the glue was over a somewhat larger part of the back surface so it stuck better in a cold damp environment, but I've never actually SEEN them on sale anywhere, so maybe I was hallucinating.
Restaurants have to label everything in the fridge by product and date, it's one of the things restaurant inspectors check for, it's a good habit to form at home. (I don't remember to do it most of the time, either.)
I both disagree and agree with the information on salt. Yes, all salt is, ultimately, sea salt, and, no, there isn't a type of colored salt that will reduce your sodium consumption (unless it's a non-sodium based salt replacement, and those are not without their own medical risks.)
But the trace minerals in colored salts (which are also generally mineral salts, for the chemically inclined) can make a taste difference, and that may cause you to use a little less salt.
Moreover, salt grinder salt generally doesn't have iodine in it. You need SOME iodine in your diet, you don't need it in every salt you consume. I use iodized salt for cooking and baking, but I know some bakers who only use non-iodized salt (usually kosher salt) for baking, claiming they can taste the bitterness of iodine.
I'm also a believer in slightly under-salting in the kitchen and salting to taste at the table. There are chefs who are insulted if you add salt to their foods, I'm not one of them.
If most of the salt you consume comes from packaged foods, you could conceivably get too little iodine, though I've never heard of it happening, and cases of goiters are quite rare in the USA, so few people here are suffering from iodine deficiency. That was not true when I was growing up 60 years ago in rural NW Illinois, I remember several farmers coming in to my grandfather's drug store with big goiters under their chin.
I completely agree with the part about spices and dried herbs not growing old very fast, the stuff about throwing out your spices after 6 or 12 months is IMHO designed to sell more product. However, if your vanilla bean dries out, you won't be able to get as much vanilla flavor out of it.
One of the things that they did at the Chocolate Academy was they collected 'used' vanilla bean pods, after they were boiled in milk, for example, and would dry them out and grind them up. I haven't had occasion to use a vanilla bean since I took the course, but I can see the virtue in doing that, vanilla beans are EXPENSIVE!
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This reply was modified 8 years ago by
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