Baking

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Cheryl - Many chefs and bakers believe that using unsalted butter will allow you to control the salt content in your dishes better than using salted butter. But we've tested salted versus unsalted butter in a number of savory and baking recipes and we didn’t find any measurable difference between the two. The small amount of salt in salted butter (it's about 1/4 teaspoon per stick, depending on the brand) is undetectable when cooked or baked in a recipe, we found. Still, we have a preference between the two. Though most culinary professionals and publications will recommend using unsalted butter, we prefer the salted kind because it tastes better when you’re not cooking with it. Unsalted butter doesn’t cut it on toast! Since we prefer to stick with one kind, salted butter is our choice. It also has a longer shelf life. So if you don’t go through butter at a fast rate, buying salted butter is a good idea. You can certainly still use unsalted butter in our recipes if you prefer. You just may need to adjust the salt to your personal tastes. Using salted butter in the lemon almond pound cake will not make the cake salty, it will just give it a more rounded, deeper flavor. Hope that helps! The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Ginny - This is the recipe we developed based on the coconut pie we had in Yelapa. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi John - For loaf and tart pans, you can assume metal. For pie plates we prefer glass. Glass heats up gently and evenly, priming the pie for a consistent, but slightly slower bake. It also provides an easy window into doneness, which ensures that the pie dough is completely cooked. For 9x13 baking pans we generally specify if it’s necessary for the pan to be metal and, otherwise, either glass or metal should work. Just keep in mind that glass heats up more slowly so cooking times may be on the higher end of a range. Hope that helps! Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Steve - We aren’t sure of your question - are you asking why it turned into batter? This is likely because you made two changes to the recipe. First, in order to replace some of the cream with egg you would’ve needed to measure the amount of cream you removed by volume or weight and replace with the exact same amount of egg to ensure the texture of the dough would be the same. Second, you used light cream instead of heavy cream. Light cream contains less milk fat that heavy cream (18-30% vs. at least 36%). The more milk fat, the thicker the cream, and the less water in the product. This would definitely make the dough more loose. Hope that helps! The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Gail - We are so glad you enjoyed the bete noire! The pieces of zest are meant to be very finely sliced for serving. We chose to cook the zest in larger strips (and then slice after sugaring) to prevent the zest from falling apart during candying. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Linda - A dark metal pan absorbs and distributes heat more quickly and thoroughly than lighter-colored pans. So not only does your cake bake more quickly in a dark pan, its crust can potentially burn (or at least brown unpleasantly) due to over-exposure to oven heat. Therefore, you should lower the temperature by 25 degrees and start checking you baked goods about 10 minutes before the times specified in the recipe. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Leta - You should be able to replace the milk with coconut milk. Just make sure the can in well blended before using it in your recipe. You can sub 1:1 for the milk. Best, The Milk Street Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi David - Sorry for the delay in responding! Your post wasn't flagged for me since it's under a customer service announcement thread. I checked in with our Recipe Editor, Dawn Yanagihara, and she shared this: This question came up recently during a recipe meeting, as we're currently in the thick of developing recipes for the baking book. The general feeling is that since gram weights tend to make recipes seem fussier and more complicated than they are, we include include them only for those ingredients for which measuring by volume might introduce lots of inaccuracy. E.g., 1 cup water measured by volume is likely to always come very close to 8 ounces, but the amount of flour, for instance, can really vary depending on whether it's spooned into a measuring cup or if it's measured by the dip-and-sweep method. We do try to make sure to include weights for liquids like honey and molasses—sticky substances that are a nuisance to measure by volume. Hope that helps! Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Toni - We haven't tested this recipe using a GF flour blend since we don't work with GF recipes so, unfortunately, we can't say whether it will work. If you do try it though, we'd love for you to post your results under the recipe comments since we're sure it would be helpful for others as well! Best, The Milk Street Team

Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau

Hello Scot, We are sorry that your chocolate glaze didn't turn out as expected. Since we don't list water (unless it is boiled or chilled) in the ingredients list of our recipes, we wonder if you may have accidentally overlooked the 1 inch of water (in the directions) that goes in the saucepan with the butter, cream, sugar and salt for the glaze. Brewed coffee is then added to the glaze mixture with instructions for adding additional brewed coffee if the glaze is too thick. We hope you were still able to enjoy your cake and that the glaze works on the next try. Best, The Milk Street Team