Hints and Allegations


Hints and Allegations

Baking is really easy most of the time. The hard part is following the instructions. As with nearly most things, practice makes perfect.

You do NOT have to put your bowl and beaters in the freezer prior to making whip cream.

Vanilla Sauce=Creme Anglaise
Sweetened Whip Cream=Chantilly Cream

It is always advisable to coat your mixing bowl with lemon juice prior to making a meringue, just to make sure there isn't any fat left in the bowl (say from the last buttercream you made).

In my humble opinion, American Buttercream is the reason why many of us don't like buttercream. Take the time to learn how to make Italian buttercream; it's worth it.

Invest in an ice cream maker (I got mine for $35 on sale during the off season). The difference will amaze you.

Regardless of what Food Network chefs and my own instructors have taught, you can refrigerate batter overnight that contains baking soda or baking powder in them and still achieve a good rise in your baked products.

Pre-scooping cookie dough and freezing them until your ready to bake them off is a very good thing indeed.


3.12.2011

sweet dough

Sweet dough takes a long time. Not necessarily to make, but to ferment and relax. It is an enriched dough made with milk and eggs in addition to flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and water. You can make or make variations of challah, brioche, cinnamon rolls, pecan rolls, and the base for creating laminated dough (croissants, Danish). And that is to name just a few.

So, I was excited when I saw that the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, also contained recipes for sweet breads (again, as in bread, not the thymus gland). The recipe for challah was so easy to make, it ferments two hours and then sits in the fridge to relax overnight. Wow!

And then it hit me. The sweet dough I make at work, although it takes longer since I'm usually making it with a minimum of 12 pounds of flour to a max of 36 pounds (which eventually leads to 96 pounds of dough), I also let it ferment for two hours before putting it in the walk-in overnight to relax.

It's the same method.

Sometimes, there are no shortcuts.

And now I am left wondering why it took me so long to figure this out.
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