Baking

Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau

Hello J.F. Thank you for checking out our recipe selection. I'm sorry we didn't have what you were looking for. We do have some classic, all-American dishes and desserts, but the majority of our recipes were inspired by chefs, cooks and bakers we've met all around the world. We have a handful of baking recipes and chilled recipes containing cherries on our website that you might like to try: [Almond-Coconut Cake with Cherries and Pistachios](https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/almond-coconut-cake-honey-co), Eton Mess with Cherries and Chocolate, Cherry and Chocolate Crumble Semifreddo and Brandied Cherry Frangipane Tart.

Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau

Welcome to Milk Street Kevin! I discussed your bursting poppy seed roll with one of our recipe developers who is also a baking expert. She said that the developer working on the Milk Street recipe for poppy seed bread had the same problem, which they eventually solved. She thinks that you might be using too much of the poppy seed filling and that is causing it to burst out of the dough. I've attached a copy of our recipe in case you'd like to give that a try. Or you could try reducing the amount of the canned filling (try just 1 cup) to see if that works. Let us know how it turns out! https://www.177milkstreet.com/discussion/uploads/072/TKWP8UWCE1NF.pdf

Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau

Hello Felix, That sounds delicious! I believe the recipe you describe is called pastel de pollo cubano. We found this description online (from the first link below) – "Cuban Chicken Pie is totally different from what we non-Cubans think of as chicken pie…there’s no cream, no carrots and celery and the crust is totally different, more cake-like, than short and flaky." We do not have a recipe for the pastel at Milk Street, but I did find recipes available online and in Cuban cookbooks published in English. A book called "Eating Cuban" by Beverly Cox and Martin Jacobs has a recipe that sounds just like your description. Perhaps you could find it at your local library. Here are a couple of links to recipes that also sound like your Mom's: https://goddesscooks.com/2015/11/28/pastel-de-pollo-cubano-cuban-chicken-pie/ https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/forklife-cuban-pastel-de-pollo A Get-Out-of-Trouble Pie for Trying Times Hopefully this helps you and your sister to be able to make your mother's chicken pie again. Let us know how it turns out!

Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau

Hello George. The recipes in "Milk Street Bakes" were developed using a regular stand mixer, when mechanical mixing was needed. Our online store team is currently developing information for adapting Milk Street recipes for the Anskarsum mixer. We'll keep you posted. Best, The Milk Street Team

Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau

Hello. Here is information from the May/June 2019 Milk Street Magazine. If you have any more questions, please let us know. # Finding a Fat That Fits We often hear about substituting olive oil for butter. But what about in baking? Carla Kahler, of Winnetka, Illinois, asked for guidance on which recipes can handle the switch. Oil and butter often are interchangeable in savory cooking, but the swap isn’t as simple when baking. For biscuits, scones and pie pastry, in which cold, solid butter is cut into dry ingredients, oil is a poor substitute because the dry ingredients would absorb the oil, yielding a sodden dough. Cakes, quick breads, brownies and certain cookies—in which butter usually is creamed or melted—have a bit more wiggle room. Creaming involves beating softened butter with sugar, incorporating air into the mixture that helps the batter or dough rise during baking. In recipes in which the butter is creamed, oil is not an appropriate substitute because it cannot trap and hold air the way softened butter can. However, our kitchen tests show that in baked goods made with melted butter (where the butter simply is whisked with other ingredients, and rise depends on either baking powder, baking soda, beaten egg whites or a combination), oil is a reasonable substitute. Cakes, in particular, stand to benefit from oil because oil remains fluid at room temperature (unlike butter), which contributes to a moist mouthfeel and softer crumb (take, for instance, carrot cake and chiffon cake). If you’re considering extra-virgin olive oil, keep in mind that its flavor is assertive. As such, we found that it was not a good match for a plain vanilla cake—milder-tasting regular or light olive oil are better choices. But we did find that extra-virgin’s fruity, peppery notes work well with spices, citrus and chocolate. In some cases, we found that baked goods made with olive oil did not brown as well as those made with butter. Also bear in mind that butter has a water content of about 16 percent, so if you’re substituting oil—which contains no water—you may want to scale back a bit to prevent greasiness. As a guide, 8 tablespoons of butter (1 stick) contains approximately 1½ teaspoons of water.

Answered by Chris Kimball

Nope. This is tricky stuff and will lead to disaster. You can try using a substitute flour like from King Arthur but every recipe is a bit different. Best off baking from a book that is specific to gluten free. I have had the best luck with almond flour but - our Spanish Almond Cake is a winner and easy to make.

Answered by Chris Kimball

Good idea - get rid of that low fat stuff! Yes, you can but my guess is that you would have to reduce the cornstarch since the mixture is going to be thicker to start. If the recipe calls for 3 tbsps, go down to 2 and see what happens.

Answered by Chris Kimball

Hi, There's a few things going on here causing the issues. For starters, You'll want to use bread flour, not AP flour, for the best gluten development. The higher the flour's protein level, the stronger the gluten will be, which is important considering the high amount of fat and sugar in the recipe. Both those ingredients tenderize and weaken gluten (leading to that dense, crumbly texture). Arguably, I'd cut back on the sugar by 1/2 to 1/4 cup to start. I'd also likely cut back on the yeast--2 packets of yeast is roughly 4 1/2 tablespoons, which is a lot for that volume of flour. Try about 4 teaspoons (1 1/2 packets) and see how it goes. The slower the rise, the more controlled the gluten development will be (doughs without a sturdy structure can collapse upon themselves when baked, causing a dense texture.) And lastly, I would push kneading longer to further enhance gluten development. Eight to 10 minutes sounds a little short for a dough this rich (and that you're adding ingredients along the way, which affects kneading time). Properly kneaded dough should be smooth and glossy and ideally, reaches "windowpane" stage. You can take a small piece of the dough and (carefully) stretch it out thin enough to see through. Lastly, that salt volume seems really low! Salt helps strengthen gluten, much less improves flavor (salt's role is crucial beyond just the bread's flavor). If using table salt, The general rule of thumb is roughly 1/4 teaspoon per each 1 cup of flour. So 5 cups of flour would take 2 1/4 teaspoons of table salt. Good luck!

Answered by Rosie Gill

Hi Angie - Your daughter can absolutely leave out the orange zest and juice and the cinnamon. She will have a really rich chocolatey base for her fruit. She may want to add 1-2 TBS of water to replace the orange juice. One idea -- if she wants to add a 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom instead of cinnamon, that would pair nicely with the blueberries and strawberries.

Answered by Chris Kimball

Thanks for the suggestion and we will most definitely consider! Optimum condition of baked goods can really vary according to ambient temperature, humidity and storage methods. Its a great suggestion for our headnote information.