Baking

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Raphaela - I’m sorry I missed your question! Claire, above, gives some good advice as to why your quick bread may sink in the middle. I would also add the following: \* confirm that your leavener (baking powder and/or soda) is active and you are using a reliable recipe that includes the proper amount of leavener. You can test your leavener by adding a small amount to a small bowl of vinegar. If it becomes fizzy, it’s still active. \*The proportion of wet to dry ingredients may be off. It’s always best to use the weights given in the recipe, if there are any, and to make sure to use a volume measurement for fruits. For example, if a recipe calls for 4 bananas it’s hard to know how much actual fruit 4 bananas will yield. Instead we call for, and recommend using, a cup measurement for bananas. In this case, that would equate to 2 cups of mashed banana. The most important thing is to test with a toothpick before pulling the bread out. Every oven is different and times can differ. If a toothpick comes out clean it means the bread is fully cooked and will not sink. Hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Dominic - Generally speaking, no. There's only about 1/4 teaspoon of salt per stick of butter (for most commercial brands). At Milk Street we use salted butter in all of our baking recipes. We think the overall flavor is better than in unsalted butter. If you are using a recipe that calls for unsalted butter, however, remember to eliminate the salt in the recipe or the final product will taste too salty. There's a great article from the Washington Post about how unsalted butter became the preferred choice for baking and how professional cooks are turning back towards salted butter, which was used for generations before the switch to unsalted. One caveat I would make - I generally don't use salted butter for buttercream frosting. Since it's such a tight ingredient list make up of mostly butter, I do think it makes the buttercream too salty. Hope that helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Maureen - I haven’t made cottage cheese pancakes and we don’t have a recipe here at Milk Street, but I can offer some basic guidelines on cooking and baking with cottage cheese that will, hopefully, help make yours more successful. I don’t like using low-fat or fat free cottage cheese in cooking and baking. These tend to break and become very watery, which will both dilute flavor and negatively impact the texture of your pancakes. In general, I prefer full-fat cottage cheese with a thicker texture. Full-fat cottage cheese is still only 4% fat, which is quite low compared to other cheeses. It also tastes worlds better than low- or fat-free cottage cheese! Thick-textured ones tends to perform better in baking applications because they won’t throw off the dry-to-wet ratio. However, it’s hard to know the texture of a particular brand of cottage cheese without opening the container and taking a look. A good guideline is to look at the ingredient list. Full fat cottage cheese without any stabilizers (xanthan gum, locust bean gum, guar gum) would be my top pick. As long as it’s full-fat and contains only milk, cream, and salt (added probiotics are OK), I don’t think curd size matters as much. Hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Lizbeth - The toothpick test is a popular technique to tell when a cake is done, but i agree it can be a bit unreliable. Fudgy chocolate cakes and rich carrot cakes are considered fully baked while a few crumbs are still attached to a toothpick or tester. I usually pull all cakes out of the oven while there are still a few crumbs attached to a cake tester or toothpick since, due to carryover cooking, the cake will continue to bake. A better test of doneness is to touch the top of the cake in the center. If the cake feels firm and springy to the touch, the cake is probably done. If the batter sticks to your finger or the cake doesn’t spring back, it’s not. If you do want to take the temperature of your cake, first ensure that you don’t take it too soon. The hole made by the thermometer could affect the rise. Close to the end of the baking time take the temperature in the center of the cake (making sure you don’t hit the pan bottom). For most cakes you’re looking for 200-205 degrees. For lighter angel food cakes or sponge cakes, a temperature between 205-210 degrees is better.  Thanks for writing in! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Fei - Since we have not tested this recipe in the oven it is hard to give a definitive answer on time, temperature and results. Especially with a recipe that we're baking with yeast. My first question would be - why would you prefer to do it in the oven? One of the best characteristics of this bread is its deeply browned, crispy crust which is achieved, in part, by cooking over direct heat. The other element here is steam. The bread is covered for a little more than half of the cooking time, which not only helps the bread cook through, but also creates steam. As bread bakes, its outer layer (crust) eventually reaches 180°F. At that point, the starches on the surface burst and then harden to a crackly consistency. Steam hitting the bread’s surface facilitates this process. You could certainly try to do this entirely in the oven either in a cast iron skillet or on a baking steel. However, I doubt it would be anywhere near the same as the version we've developed. I'm guessing a relatively hot oven would be necessary to get any browning - probably 450 degrees? As for timing, I think it would be best to temp the bread to determine when it's fully baked. For a bread like this we recommend 210 degrees on an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the bread. Again, we haven't tested this so I am just making guesses. Good luck and thanks for writing to us!

Answered by Chris Kimball

How old is your flour? I once made a cake with 3-year old flour and it turned out poorly. Also, you might be using a bread flour with an unusually high protein percentage - the higher the protein, the more water you will need to add. (Bread flour absorbs more liquid than AP.) Also, when working with doughs including pie dough, biscuit dough and bread doughs, the amount of liquid is never precise. You have to look at and feel the dough as it is being mixed - if it feels a bit dry - it should be sort and malleable - just add more water by the tablespoon until it looks right. This is one case when measurements are not precise - you have to use your senses to make a final decision. And buy new flour if yours is old!

Answered by Chris Kimball

Quick breads can be made gluten-free (pancakes, biscuits, etc) but a hearty, chewy sourdough is, in my experience, a step too far. However, check out King Arthur Flour - they have a gluten-free sourdough starter here: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gluten-free-sourdough-starter-recipe

Answered by Deb Steinfeld

Thanks for your question. Yes, we are different from what you will usually hear from other cooking professionals. Here at Milk Street we experimented with using both salted and unsalted butter in both savory and baking recipes. The overall opinion was that the small amount of salt in the butter was undetectable in the recipes. Since salted butter has the advantage of extending the butters shelf life, it also makes it a good choice for home cooks who may not use butter all that often. Even though conventional wisdom is to use unsalted we have decided it really doesn’t make a difference. If you have unsalted at home, it should work just as well in our recipes. If you are concerned, add a pinch of salt to the recipe for good luck. Hope this helps. Deb at Milk Street

Answered by Deb Steinfeld

Carly, thanks for your question. It is probably just a coincidence that it turns black when you add the nuts. The problem is most likely the cast iron pan. When you cook anything with acid (lemon juice and zest) in a cast iron pan there is a chemical reaction and the product can turn black as well as giving an irony taste. This doesn’t always happen so sometimes it has worked OK for you, others it hasn’t. Try it again in a stainless steel pan and see what happens. You should get better results. Also, I have made this style apple strudel with my own stretched dough without pre-cooking the apple filling (same ingredients) and it has worked just fine. You could also give that a try. I feel that while the apples do cook, it leaves them with a nice crunch. Hope this helps. Deb at Milk Street