BakingAsked Jul 25 by Ann S.
I live at 7900 feet above sea level. My mom made popovers at sea level. I keep experimenting with her recipe to get them to pop. I don’t have a full proof solution. I’ve tried oven temp changes, cooking time, using blender to mix ingredients. Can you help me with a recipe that works at my altitude?
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hi Ann – Our recipes are developed at sea level in Boston, so we are not qualified to provide high altitude instructions.
Read MoreAsked Jul 24 by Alan G.
Watching several of your shows it's obviously a kitchen aid mixer being used. The presenter usually says speeds as "low", "medium low", "medium", etc. Unfortunately the kitche naid mixers I have use speeds of "off, stir, 2, 3, 4, ... 10". Besides translating the shows terminology to the actual speeds on the kitchen aid mixer, can you address the issue of kitchen aid saying never exceeed speed 2 when mixing bread dough, but your shows say things like "start on low then switch to medium". If medium is higher than 2 we are voiding the warranty on our mixers! Thanks in advance for providing clarity on this.
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hi Alan - We wonder if you have a smaller capacity bowl and therefore a lower horsepower engine? We typically don't go above medium for yeasted doughs, but it really depends on the heaviness of the dough. Mixing yeasted doughs with the hook does sometimes require a lot of mixing to develop gluten. You should use the speed you are comfortable with, according to your machine's instruction, but it might take longer. The best thing to do is pay attention to the visual cues we always give in the recipe.
Read MoreAsked Jul 20 by Michael O.
Biscuits rose up but all split and are falling over. Have a picture..
Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau
Hi Michael - The tipping over of the biscuit is a feature of a High Hat. In fact, the headnote says, "The “high hats” on these biscuits are the tops that tip to the side because of the robust rise in the oven." In his story about these biscuits, Chris writes, "You can also vary the size of the biscuit cutter—a 2 ¼-inch cutter is standard here—but a smaller one will produce super-high biscuits that are so top-heavy that they fall over and a larger cutter will mean a more stable, traditional shape."
Read MoreAsked 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 More 
