Reply to Are most people terrible bakers?

Forum Index » Food, Cooking, and Restaurants

Reply to "Are most people terrible bakers?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Good ingredients make a difference too. I’m so picky at this point with my baking I really only want to use very fresh flour/eggs/butter.

High quality chocolate also makes an enormous difference. [/quote]

Hm...how do you determine the freshness of flour? 
Whole grain will get rancid due to the oils it contains (I keep it in the fridge and buy small packages). OTOH wheat can be stored in grain bins for years (they circulate air to control moisture). But also flour is actually AGED before it is sold. I buy a 25t lb bag (I store it in an ice chest so bugs can't get it it, but my mom had a big tin bucket with a tight lid and a Pillsbury label she always put the flour in, and fill the canister from that. Might have actually held 50 lb). I'm sure it takes me longer than a year to go through that 25 lb bag.

https://foodlab.nutrition.tufts.edu/milling-and-storage/

AGING FLOUR: FRESH VS. AGED FLOUR: WHICH IS BETTER?

At the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, we are most obviously concerned with nutrition. But that’s not the only thing we care about! The Tufts Food Lab wants to make sure that our research and recommendations ultimately translate to food that is delicious and accessible. If that means that we sacrifice a small bit of nutrition for a net gain, then we understand. Technically, from a nutrition science perspective, fresh, straight from the mill, whole grain flour offers the most beneficial nutrient composition.33 It also provides the most flavor since the grain’s nutrients are the source of the flavor.

The practice of aging flour goes back centuries. Historically, bakers would store flour for months, allowing oxygen to get to it, which in turn would improve its strength and gas-trapping abilities, ideal for breads.34 You’ll notice in our Storage section above that we offer tips on how to help prevent the oxidation of flour, contrary to the purpose of the aging process. This is because there is a fine line between flour that is purposefully aged and flour that is rancid, and there are variables including the variety of wheat and the temperature at which the aging occurs. As soon as the grain is split open, its nutrients become vulnerable to degradation and rancidity.

When flour is aged for several months, oxidation restructures the proteins within the flour while starch remains rather consistent. With aged flour, the influence of gluten becomes more pronounced, forming stronger bonds which lead to a more elastic dough.
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics