Why scald milk in recipes

In some cases you might have to cool it down to room temperature or even in the fridge, in others you can use it slightly warm. That will all depend on whether the other ingredients in your recipe can handle hot or warm milk. In a yeast dough, as is the case for the cinnamon rolls at the bottom of this post, milk has to be cooled down quite a bit. If not, the hot milk will kill the yeast.

So why bother at all with heating up the milk? To be able to answer that question we have to zoom out a little more, why even bother to use milk in a bread recipe?

However, using milk does have its benefits and most online cinnamon roll recipes do tend to use some sort of milk. Since milk contains both sugars lactose and proteins it will make bread slightly sweeter, but also browner. Thanks to the presence of these sugars and especially proteins the Maillard reaction can take place at an accelerated rate. Apart from the colour and flavour, milk will impact the structure of a bread.

Using milk tends to give a softer bread with a finer crumb, as we explained when discussing brioche breads. Milk contains two main classes of proteins: casein proteins essential for making cheese and whey proteins. Whey are the proteins that are left behind after cheese making.

When making a bread dough gluten development is essential. Gluten can form a network that can hold on to air inside the bread. During the mixing, kneading and rising process it is important that this gluten network can form properly.

It is well known that, fats such as butter or olive oil, can prevent a proper network formation because of them coating the gluten. However, whey proteins can also interfere with the gluten. As a result, the presence of whey can lead to an increased proofing time as well as a smaller overall volume of the dough.

In order to get a milk bread with a proper rise and fluffiness, it would definitely help to take care of this whey protein interference. Whey proteins are sensitive to heart.

Share this article 1. You Might Also Like. Bites from other Blogs Posted on March 21, How do you know when bread is done baking? Posted on February 22, March 18, Nicole April 10, I really am not a fan of milk at all. So thank you so much for this round up on how you go about it. Hi, Jessica! Thanks for your thorough explanation of the process and effect of scalding milk. I have recipes that call for heating milk to near boiling, but they did not mention reasons for doing so.

Thanks, Leigh! I am not much of a baker, therefore, I have never heard of this before. I am anxious now to give this a try and see the difference. Such an informative post and recipe! Thanks for sharing. One email per day, delivered straight to your mailbox. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Yummly Mix. Prep Time 1 min.

Cook Time 20 mins. Total Time 21 mins. Course: Sauce. Cuisine: American, French. Keyword: how to scald milk, scalded milk. Servings: 3 cups. Calories: kcal.

Author: Jessica Formicola. Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark. Ingredients 4 cups whole milk. Instructions Pour milk into a heavy bottom saucepan or double boiler. Slowly heat milk over medium-low heat.

Allow your scalded milk to cool before adding to your recipe. You can use a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature. Remove from heat and allow to cool or use while still hot. Consult your recipe for the best temperature to use it at. If you have tried this techinque, come back and let us know how it went! She is obsessed with butter, salt and bacon and spends all her time in the kitchen and behind a camera.

Let's Connect! You Might Also Like It also destroyed enzymes that could prevent thickening in certain recipes. Scalded milk will ensure that there is no whey hindering the proofing process. Scalded milk simply equates to a fluffier result. That said, if your recipe calls for scalded milk, just do it. You will be shocked at how light, fluffy, and delightful your baked goods become. There are two ways to scald milk — stovetop and microwave.

You will learn both methods below. Both are simple to accomplish. However, microwaving can be a bit quicker, ideal for bakers on a strict time limit. To do the stovetop method, you will need two items: a stainless steel pot preferably with a heavier bottom for even cooking and a kitchen thermometer.

Then, do the following:. You must wait for the milk to cool off before using it in your recipe, as yeast dies at F.