92
votes
Accepted
When making batter/dough, why is it really bad to clean your spoon by hitting it on the edge of the bowl a few times?
Oh, those cooking myths!
Whenever you think you have heard them all, there's a new one. In a yeasted dough, the yeast is perfectly fine with being tossed, beaten and generally mangled. The little ...
- 53.9k
64
votes
Why does frozen food still have an expiration date?
Frozen food does spoil over time. Much slower than even just thawed, sure, but don't expect that something that would spoil within few days at just above 0°C will last with unchanged quality for years ...
60
votes
Accepted
Why throw pizza dough besides for show?
A lot of it depends on the type of pizza you make. Where I worked we did thin crust pizza, and these were the reasons we tossed:
Speed. Trying to roll or pat out a 17 inch pizza would be very time ...
- 596
56
votes
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Why would plant-based cookie dough packaging say "Do not consume raw dough"?
I was surprised at how difficult it was to find the answer, but I eventually found articles by the FDA and CDC.
Consumers should be aware that there are additional risks associated
with the ...
- 711
52
votes
Accepted
Why does KitchenAid recommend against using the Dough Hook on Speed 1?
A KitchenAid mixer does not have adjustable gearing; at low speeds it’s being run at low power. If run at low power with a viscous, resistant load like bread dough it can end up stalling, either ...
- 20.1k
38
votes
Accepted
Why is churro dough created with boiling water?
Churro dough is a variant of choux pastry. While yeasted doughs rise through the expansion of gas created by the yeast, and "quick bread" batters rise through gas created by chemical ...
- 20.1k
34
votes
Why throw pizza dough besides for show?
Those who favor throwing pizza argue that it is the best way to stretch and shape the dough without risking a puncture or tear. Some claim this extra exposure to the air helps the dough retain ...
- 63.9k
31
votes
Accepted
Why does dough and its ingredients need to be cold?
It's not drastically important in making it workable, it's more important in the texture of the finished result.
When you roll out pastry dough, you are created interleaving layers of fat and the ...
- 43.2k
30
votes
Accepted
What causes dough made from coconut flour to not stick together?
Gluten is what makes a dough stick together and have structure. Coconut flour has no gluten, so the resulting dough will be a crumbly mess. Intentionally gluten free recipes usually contain any number ...
- 10.5k
28
votes
Flatbread dough turned red
As Joe mentioned, there was something acting as a litmus paper!
Turmeric placed in an alkaline solution will turn bright red!
quoted from: https://foodcrumbles.com/how-turmeric-gets-its-color/
Most ...
- 451
27
votes
Why would plant-based cookie dough packaging say "Do not consume raw dough"?
There is no rule that plant based food is safe to be eaten raw. Also, on a side note, the salmonella reasoning was somewhat misguided - not that it isn't a risk, but it isn't the reason why cookie ...
- 124k
20
votes
When making batter/dough, why is it really bad to clean your spoon by hitting it on the edge of the bowl a few times?
There may be a few batters that are sensitive to shocks or loud noises, but most will not be (see Stephie's answer for more detail).
In my household, the real reason for not beating the spoon was ...
- 301
20
votes
How to clean up after kneading dough?
Kneading in a bowl is time-consuming and doesn't give as good a result as kneading on a flat surface, however I'll concentrate on cleaning.
First, don't let things dry out, it's much easier to clean ...
- 66.6k
20
votes
How to clean up after kneading dough?
Alternatively (with respect to @GdD's answer), let it dry out completely. Totally dry dough doesn't stick all that well to many surfaces (glass, plastic, non-stick). It then chips/scrapes off quite ...
- 38.4k
19
votes
Using sugar when making pizza dough
There are plenty of fermentable sugars in the flours commonly used in pizza making. Additional sugar is completely unnecessary.
- 63.9k
18
votes
After rolling pizza dough, how do I move it to a pan without ruining it?
Either your dough is too wet, or you're trying to roll it all out in one go.
You cannot get enough flour under a ball of dough to survive being rolled out to 12".
Roll it, flip it, turn it; flour ...
- 23.6k
16
votes
Can you make pasta dough in a breadmaker?
No. Pasta dough is much firmer than bread dough and could possibly break the machine or the blade.
- 2,182
16
votes
Accepted
How does the folding make the dough stronger?
A "strong" dough is a dough which holds together well. Bread doughs and pasta doughs, when compared to other doughs, are strong in the sense that they are not crumbly, but very cohesive.
...
- 124k
15
votes
Is sugar a necessary ingredient to feed yeast?
The answer is that there are a range of (natural) sugars in the flour and a range of sugars that can be generated by the yeast by breaking down the starches and other carbohydrates in flour. Yeast are ...
- 11.1k
14
votes
How to Make many pizzas for large party?
Yes, preparing discs of dough ahead of time, separated by parchment, wax paper or clingfilm does work. The biggest risk is that the dough tends to dry out a bit, so keeping the whole mass wrapped up ...
- 9,342
14
votes
Accepted
Yeast dough won't go "stretchy"
Ok, this is going to be long. And you just wanted to fire up your oven and slap the sauce on the dough...but bear with me.
Gluten
The Holy Grail of elastic dough that can trap all these nice bubbles: ...
- 53.9k
14
votes
Accepted
Dough failed to rise
Could be that your yeast was simply not alive.
You could simply try to bloom the yeast with water and sugar. It should become visibly active within a few minutes.
- 938
13
votes
Accepted
How to put stuff inside baked sandwich and bread?
Adding inclusions like vegetables, fruits, nuts, and meats to bread loaves and rolls is usually done either during the initial mixing stage or during shaping. When you should add the inclusions ...
- 6,958
12
votes
Making flour tortillas softer and more elastic
Bull-honkey on the steamers part. All you need is a comal (a.k.a. griddle) for the cooking, and later, re-heating part.
The reason your toritllas get hard after day 1 is due to the baking powder. I ...
- 121
11
votes
Accepted
Using low oven temperature to accelerate proofing
Let me suggest a totally different approach:
Why not work with the cool conditions instead of against?
You could let the dough proof for a long time, e.g. overnight in the fridge. This allows for a ...
- 53.9k
11
votes
Accepted
What are the tradeoffs between spiral and C-shaped dough hooks?
The C, J or spade hook is a dismal excuse, having an older "professional" (as you say, in name only) 5-quart Kitchen-Aid mixer that came with one. Per comment above one evidently cannot just swap to ...
- 10.5k
11
votes
Raw dough storage
Options
With yeast-leavened dough, there are two approaches you can take:
par-bake
refrigerate
With chemically-leavened dough, you can't refrigerate, but you get a third option:
don't mix. (...
- 13.1k
11
votes
Accepted
How to roll pasta thinly by hand
If the dough is springing back, it's cause the gluten is still tight. Let it rest for 15-20 minutes, then try again.
- 2,182
11
votes
Why does frozen food still have an expiration date?
They are most likely "best by" dates, meaning quality may suffer, but they remain safe.
- 63.9k
11
votes
Why does boiling water make dough taste sweet?
Flour is mostly starch, and starches are long chains of sugar molecules. When you add hot water to starches they gelatinize and burst, and these gelatinized starches soften the dough. Gelatinization ...
- 66.6k
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