Help! Dough not same in Florida as it was up North

Gholam Rahman

Carole Prosuh, a transplant from up North who is now a resident of Tequesta, wrote recently of her problem with a sweet dough she was trying to make, and sought help for her travail. Here is how she put it:

“I enjoy reading your column in The Palm Beach Post and look forward to the tips you provide. I am writing with the hope you can help me. Below is a recipe I had been using for many years when I lived up in New York (Staten Island).

“I have tried it down here twice so far, exactly as I had been doing, and so far it has come out the same both times – the dough was heavy and took hours to rise, then it is of a heavy consistency. What can I do to get it to come out the way it did up North?

“This dough should be nice and light and airy and take no time to rise. Also, I usually made this dough with fresh yeast, which I have a hard time getting down here.” Below is her recipe:

Scald milk and cool to lukewarm. Add yeast, 1 cup sugar and 2 cups flflour to form sponge. Let sit 30 minutes. Sift together rest of flflour, salt and remaining sugar. Add butter and work as for pie crust. Beat yolks, add yeast sponge, stir and blend, kneading until elastic. Let rise 1-and-half hours or until doubled in size. Punch down and knead again and let rise a second time. Punch down, roll and fifill as desired. Bake at 325 degrees until done.

“This dough should come out soft and elastic. I would greatly appre- ciate any help you can give me. Thank you very much,” she concludes.

Thanks for liking my column, but I must warn you that neither I, nor my wife Kaisari, are avid bakers. I’ll try, however, to offffffffffffer some tips, based on reading maybe a hundred thousand recipes in my decades of involvement with the food section.

For starters, I have heard the same refrain from scores of readers who have expressed their puzzlement as to why what had worked for them for years up North would fail here in Florida, especially when it comes to baking.

To get a grip on the issue, here are some points to consider: The No. 1 difffffffffffference from the past is the weather, a crucial factor when it comes to baking. Some topnotch artisanal breads, for instance, can best be made only in certain cities or places because of the ambient strains of yeast that no packaged ones can ever duplicate.

The change of venue is also a big factor. Your house is new, your oven and, most likely, your pots and pans are new – things that you need time get used to, like an old shoe.

What you can get on the market here may also be difffffffffffferent – not only because of difffffffffffference in locale but also in the age and time. Once common compressed yeast, for instance, is hard to get now not only here, but everywhere. We have a more reliable, easierto-use alternative in dry packaged yeast. You get the point.

All these impact baking much more because it is perhaps more a science than just an art form. So many things depend on one another and interact, in the oven and outside, that measurements have to be within a certain mark of precision.

So, my suggestion to you is the same that I have ventured to proffer to others: Get a modern, multi-tested recipe from a reliable source that is in the same genre as what you have from the past and see if the new one works. There are many reliable books that you can get in the public library. There is the vast internet, with access to good sources like the Food Network.

Now, a couple of points on the recipe that you sent.

It seems too rich and heavy on fat that inhibits the rising of yeast dough. It can hardly be counted as basic.

It may be suitable for brioche, the richest of all breads. You may want to use 12, or even 15, whole eggs, instead of just yolks. Take care that the temperature of the milk is not too high when you proof the yeast. You don’t really need to “scald” today’s milk. Use freshly-bought packaged yeast and follow package instructions.

Here are two more yeast tips: Try using the more potent instant yeast instead of the regular dry yeast. Second, try using a pre-ferment that savvy bakers use to give products better texture. For the pre-ferment, use 1 cup flflour and half cup water from the recipe. Mix a pinch of instant yeast with the flflour and water and let rise overnight. Use it as part of the recipe.

If any of our readers – some of whom may even be expert bakers – have any suggestions, please email me and I will pass them along.

CONTRIBUTED BY GHOLAM RAHMAN Instant yeast, sold in three individually measured packets, is much quicker and easier to use than regular dry yeast.