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Asked May 29, 2025 by Cheryl T.
I am looking to try a new recipe which calls for 1 cup cake flour. Since I weigh my flour, is the weight of cake flour the same as all purpose flour (120g)? Thanks for the help!
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hello Cheryl – According to our Milk Street Weights and Measures Chart, 1 cup cake flour weighs 120g and 1 cup AP flour weighs 130g.
Read MoreAsked May 27, 2025 by Rosanna S.
20250524\_121407.jpg The sides do not rise up like the rest and looks silly. Oiled the pan.
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hello Rosanna – It looks like your cake pan might have been too small for the recipe. We used a 12-cup bundt pan. The cake rose to halfway up the pan and had a just a little lift on top (bottom when flipped over). If you used a 6- or 8-cup pan, it would be too small to accommodate the cake as it expanded with baking, thus the protrusion of cake on top (bottom when flipped over).
Read MoreAsked May 12, 2025 by Rosemary C.
Good Afternoon, can I make dough, line pan with dough and then freeze for use in 1 month w/o compromising texture Thanks, R Cole
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hello Rosemary – I asked our Baking Expert and she said that you can do that. She has done it before, but wouldn’t freeze it for much longer because the dough starts to lose quality after three or four weeks.
Read MoreAsked Apr 13, 2025 by Connie S.
Hello friends, I love the baking technique for your Chèvre Cheesecake with Black Pepper Graham Crust. However, I am attempting to bake cheesecakes to sell in a small country store in rural Wisconsin and the goat cheese and crème fraiche ingredients make this recipe a bit unaccessible. I prefer the New York Times recipe (please, no offense!) here: Tall and Creamy Cheesecake Recipe My question is this: Can I use the same baking techniques where the crust is baked @ 300, the oven turned up to 450 to start baking the cheesecake, then turned off, etc. here for this recipe? Thank you in advance for your reply! -CS
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hello Connie – I would follow the recipe as written. The New York Times recipe is from Dorie Greenspan, a true pro. You can look through the comments below the recipe to see if anyone suggests any changes to the technique. We have not made her recipe, so we cannot give any suggestions for changing it. Happy baking!
Read MoreAsked Mar 03, 2025 by Peggy C.
Can this cake be made without the almond paste? Would I add more vanilla? Thanks
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hello Peggy– I'm afraid not. There are 5½ ounces almond paste which adds flavor as well as texture to the cake. Perhaps you could try one of our other citrus cake recipes that do not contain almond paste – Amalfi-Style Lemon Cake or our Yogurt Cake with Citrus and Spice.
Read MoreAsked Feb 24, 2025 by Bob K.
Dear Milk Street folks, I love your show, and bought the Milkstreet Cookbook. My wife is gluten-free, and one of my dearest goals is to make her some GF versions of your great exotic bread recipes. My baking efforts are falling flat -- literally. I have tried 3 times on Palestinian Turmeric bread (pg 688), with your recipe, using King Arthur GF Measure for Measure flour or Bob's Redmill All purpose GF flour. My instant yeast is fresh (tested with a blooming trial, cup of water and sugar -- it bubbled up), and the following variations: 1. Straight recipe, GF flour. Yeast straight in with flour. Bread did not rise in either stage. Bake result, flat, brownie/biscuit like density. Tasted okay, but dense. 1. Recipe, added 6 tsp of Xanthum gum (guessed at it). Same other parameters. Same result. 1. Recipe, researched correct amount of 9 tsp xanthum gum (slightly more than Bob's Redmil xanthum gum package recommends at 1.5 tsp per cup of flour), AND bloomed the yeast in 1 cup of water and tsp of sugar, as part of the 1 and 2/3 cups total water in the recipe -- so did not change ratio. ALSO, put it in a shut off oven that was set to warm, and put in when oven temp was under 100 degrees, to try to get yeast to grow in a hotter environment. SAME RESULT. Sigh... German Style Winter Squash Bread (pg 544) 1. Per the recipe, WITH xanthum gum AND bloomed yeast added. This time, SOME rising of dough -- but sideways, and so loose it obliterated the braiding. ALSO, put it in a shut off oven that was set to warm, and put in when oven temp was under 100 degrees, to try to get yeast to grow in a hotter environment. Result -- a WIDE, flat brownie/biscuit density. Sigh... So, is this a Lost Cause? Are these recipes undoable with GF flour? Have you tried any GF versions of any of your recipes? I love the cookbook, and have made some other non baked stuff that was great, but this is my real quest for my wife, to bake something fresh for a woman who has endured Schaar package bread for most of her life. She is both applauding my efforts, and wishing I would give up on what is so far mostly a waste of time and flour. Do you have any secret ingredient combo that will make these top shelf GF flour brands actually RISE? Thanks so much for any help you can provide, or for letting me down easily and telling me to forget it, it's undoable (hope not!). -- Bob Kalinowski Photo of flat Squash bread(left) and version 3 of flat Turmeric bread (right). flatbreadsthatshouldnotbe.jpg
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hello Bob– I'm so sorry but we are not qualified to provide advice on specific dietary needs. We love that you want to make our baking recipes for your wife, but I'm afraid that our recipes have not been tested with alternate ingredients. I'm sure there must be bakers out there who are experts at adapting recipes for gluten-free requirements. We wish you the best of luck and truly do appreciate your intention and efforts.
Read MoreAsked Feb 19, 2025 by Mary C.
I have a recipie for a sour dough focaccia. If I don’t have a sourdough starter, can I just substitute yeast. I don’t have an interest in getting into sourdough but I would like to try this recipe TIA
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hello Mary– I checked with one of our baking experts and she said, "it's a better bet to find a focaccia recipe—like ours!—that is engineered to work with yeast. Subbing out sourdough to replace with commercial yeast is possible, but will require some serious calculations and trial and error will likely be involved, too." If you would like plain focaccia, omit the tomatoes and olives.
Read MoreAsked Feb 03, 2025 by Jennifer L.
Hi fresh blueberries aren't in season and the ones at the market don't taste great right now. Is it okay to use frozen in the cake? Normally I would think it is okay but the recipe specifically says fresh. TIA!
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hello Jennifer– We haven't tested making this recipe using frozen blueberries, but think it should work. We would recommend keeping the berries frozen before you add them so that their juice won't bleed into the cake. The streusel topping should absorb the juice once it bakes. Let us know how it turns out!
Read MoreAsked Jan 26, 2025 by stephanie E.
I am making the first part of this recipe which is the dough for the base. The recipe says it is a batter-like dough when butter is beaten in it. Mine however is a soft but not batter like dough. I measuring exactingly with a scale. Wondering if anyone else had this problem . I am hesitant to do the next steps as it's time consuming and I am afraid the base layer wont work well. Any suggestions?
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hi Stephanie – I'm checking in from Milk Street to see if you have proceeded with the making of your creme fraiche cake. I checked with the developer of the recipe and he said that it is a loose dough and that the proofing process would make it less sticky but you will still have to scrape it out of the bowl. He said it sounds like you will be fine according to your description. Please let us know how it turns out! Best, Elizabeth & The Milk Street Team
Read MoreAsked Dec 10, 2024 by Helen F.
I have a dead simple recipe for a light ricotta cake that produces a syrupy liquid that oozes out of the springform pan. The syrup is lightly sweet and has a slight orange flavor to it. What can I do to eliminate it? Here's the recipe: 3# ricotta cheese (I used Galbani whole milk, double cream ricotta) 1 cup sugar 8 eggs 3 TBSP flour 2 tsp vanilla 1/2 cup orange marmelade (Bonne Maman, sweetened with sugar and brown cane sugar) Use an electric mixer to combine all the ingredients until smooth, then pour into a buttered 9" springform pan. Bake at 350º for 75 mins, without opening the door. Then open the door to look at the cake, turn off the heat, then leave the cake in the oven for another hour. Remove the cake to cool on a wire rack. Thanks in advance, Helen Fedor
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hello Helen– You could try a couple of things to help prevent leakage or at least contains some of the mess from leaking syrup: Make sure that the base of the pan is properly inserted into the rim – the lip fits into the groove, the base is not upside down or crooked and the rim is firmly locked. Wrap the outside of the pan with heavy duty aluminum foil or place the springform pan inside a larger cake or baking pan to catch any leaking syrup. Let us know how it works!
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