Salted Milk

[Eboni Kleifgen]

A few holiday seasons ago, my friend Cassie gave me a jar of Chinese mustard. I put it literally on everything for months: scrambled eggs, breakfast sandwiches, pretzels, grilled cheese. You name it, I smothered it on all the things.

Hi this looks divine. I am from Bangladesh and we use the thick light brown color thickened milk a lot for our desserts but never seen it brought down to this dark jammy consistency. Definitely on my weekend to do list. I was wondering Can I can this the same way I bottle jams?

We just saw it. Our cookbook is complete. I cried. Which made Cade tear up. And then the sweetest moment ever happened. We met Chrislyn who is the amazing boss lady from Time Out For Women and not only did she pay us such a sweet compliment, but she had us sign our very first copy.

Homemade caramels used to scare the dickens out of me. How do you cook caramels without burning. What color should the liquid be when making caramels? Those salted milk chocolate caramels you buy at Costco intrigued me. It was time to figure out a perfect recipe.

Next, I made caramel, because the Swiss meringue buttercream recipe I was using fussily demanded that I add homemade caramel to it. Sometimes caramel can be very cranky, and it was so this time. I had to throw away my first attempt, but the second attempt was a charm. The finished caramel Swiss meringue buttercream is subtly sweet, with a delicate caramel flavour. The texture is silky and thick, just as a Swiss meringue buttercream should be. It contrasts gorgeously with the dense, fudgy mocha cake layers.

Combine 1 cup water and 1/2 cup espresso. The mixture should measure 1 1/2 cups. Heat mixture to boiling in microwave. In a medium bowl, combine the cocoa powder and espresso mixture (or combine the cocoa powder, 1 1/2 cups boiling water, and 3 TBS instant espresso powder). Whisk until smooth; set aside to cool slightly. When cooled down a bit, whisk in the sour cream and vanilla until smooth. Set aside.

For the caramel:
Whisk together the sugar and water in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Heat on medium without stirring at all; allow mixture to come to a boil, still without stirring at all. (Stirring after the mixture has reached a boil will cause large sugar crystals to form.) Let mixture boil until it reaches a deep golden colour; immediately remove from heat and whisk in the cream. When the cream is added, the mixture will bubble up and emit copious amounts of very, very hot steam, so do not lean your face into the mixture! Transfer the caramel to a smaller container, if you wish. Allow the caramel to cool; it should not be warm when added to the Swiss meringue buttercream.

Use the buttercream immediately. Otherwise, store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. After being in the refrigerator, the buttercream must be re-whipped to regain its creamy, spreadable consistency.

Assembly:
Place one cake layer on a serving platter and spread with half the Swiss meringue buttercream. Cover with second cake layer and spread remaining Swiss meringue buttercream onto layer. Top with third cake layer and refrigerate cake to solidify the Swiss meringue buttercream, about 2 hours. When meringue is solidified, make the milk chocolate buttercream and ice top and sides of cake with milk chocolate buttercream. If desired, pipe decorative borders around top and bottom of cake with any remaining buttercream. (You may reserve 2 cups buttercream in advance for this purpose, if you wish.)

I am curious as to why you always state (on TV show) to use salted butter. All other cooking shows are virtually unanimous in recommending using unsalted butter so as to control the amount in any dish. Can you explain your logic in being so different?

One other thought. We do feel that using salted butter in a savory recipe is slightly different than just adding salt to a recipe. We think that it provides a better foundation for the dish. However, this has not been tested side by side so we cannot confirm that this is true. I also strongly suggest that you purchase a high quality high butterfat content butter and I also like a well-salted butter - some of them are "lightly" salted which does not cut it when spread on bread or toast. The higher butterfat brands really do make a difference -the texture is richer, silkier and the mouthfeel is better.

I agree that that should be true but with my experience I disagree. I had two sticks of butter, same brand put out at the same time one salted, one not, same type of dish. They got hid by something and sat way to long. When I discovered them, the salted was rancid the unsalted was not.

Hi Sally - the box that your butter comes in actually has a date by which your butter should remain fresh. If you don't go through butter quickly, I would recommend freezing some and leaving a stick or two in the fridge. To remind yourself, you can write the date from the box on the stick but, keep in mind, that if you open the packaging it will go bad faster. Generally speaking, the date on the box will be about four months from when it was packaged. However it's unlikely that box will get to you immediately after it's packaged so I'd say it's probably less than four months. Hope that answers your question! Best, Lynn C.

You mention using high butterfat, what would that percentage be? And if a package does not specify then better to move to another or are most European butters higher in butterfat then the USA? I just made croissants for the first time and they are fantastic except I should have spend more time thinking about which butter.

A good butterfat content has to be at least 82% although a really top quality European butter (there are also some very good American producers now as well) might be 85% plus. The typical mass market supermarket domestic butters run around 81%. You might not think this makes much of a difference but if you melt a supermarket mass market butter next to a high butterfat brand, you will see a big difference. And, yes, it matters in baking when you are dealing with any sort or puff pastry or croissant. This is a good link for butterfat and brand comparisions. -Put-to-the-Test-Here-s-How-Butter-Brands-3236719.php

Hi Gail - This cake would probably be fine without any additional salt as long as you use the 1/2 teaspoon called for in the recipe. I doubt you would notice it being under seasoned. If you still would like to add more salt to mimic the salted butter, I'd say 1/4 teaspoon more would probably be pretty close to the salt level if you made the cake with salted butter. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

Decades ago, A friend of the family, who happened to be a farmer with dairy cows, told me in a discussion that it is much better to buy unsalted butter. The reason she said was you get the top of the line butter fat as the quality/content goes down the markets add salt to improve flavor.

A little research turned up that there indeed have been several poisonings related to the Russian method of salting mushrooms. Even my colleague Sandor Katz in his mega-awesome book The Art of Fermentation hesitates when writing about lacto-fermented mushrooms.

I was still pretty leery of them, so just to be sure I boiled some brine and poured the boiling brine over the mushrooms. There they sat in my fridge uneaten. A few days later, I bought another book, Polish Heritage Cookery. Paging through it, I noticed that it too had a salted mushroom recipe, grzyby kwaszone. Unlike the Russian version, this one requires you to boil the mushrooms for a few minutes first. Aha! This seemed far more sensible.

I must have missed a simple step here. When you put the mushrooms in the crock and cover them with the plate and weight do you then cover them again with the crock top? I tried this and did not cover them and I have mold now. Any insight? Thanks very much.

Ed: Weird. I never get mold, as I only ferment a couple days. Were the mushrooms submerged in their own brine? They need to be under the brine. Anything growing on top of the brine is fine. You just skim it off.

Blend granulated sugar, glucose powder, salt and seeds of 1 vanilla bean. Whisk dry ingredients into 1200 grams of cold milk. Bring the sweetened milk to a boil, whisking occasionally over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute. Strain the mixture into the cold milk and chill for four hours before processing in an ice cream machine.

NOTES: You can substitute up to 500 grams of the milk with heavy cream for a richer mouthfeel. The dry glucose can be replaced with 400 grams of glucose syrup but the sorbet will melt easily and turn icy if stored in the freezer longer than 2 days.

Begin by making the salted caramel. Melt the sugar in a saucepan until it is an amber color. Then, whisk in cream, butter, and sea salt until smooth. Then, you will immediately pour the ganache over your milk chocolate. The hot caramel will melt the chocolate and you will end up with a creamy, smooth caramel ganache!

To freeze fudge brownies you will need to skip the ganache steps. Allow the brownies to cool completely. Then, cut the brownies into 16 squares and individually wrap each brownie in plastic wrap, then in foil or a zip top bag. Freeze for up to 3 months.

Welcome to Baked Ambrosia! I'm a professionally trained pastry chef and nutritionist who loves to bake both indulgent and healthier desserts. This is a place where you will find delicious recipes, ideas, & more. Learn more about me!

Hi Meeti! Unfortunately, I have not tried this recipe with an egg substitute. You can try replacing the eggs with flax eggs, but I cannot guarantee how they will turn out. If you try it, let me know!!

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