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Alicecooks
@alicecooks
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alicecooks Scientists shape cocoa butter crystals so chocolate only melts on your warm tongue.
alicecooks Chocolate Perfect Melt
Cocoa butter melts at ninety-three, Just below your body's heat, oh so sweet!
alicecooks Chocolate makers align fat crystals so your treat melts only on your tongue.
BETA
alicecooks Stir the flour paste to discover how the tangzhong trick keeps milk bread fluffy.
alicecooks The Tangzhong Method
Warm up the paste, / Lock in the water, / Pillowy soft!
alicecooks Tangzhong allows bakers to add more water to dough without making it sticky and unmanageable.
Fun Fact
Super-absorbent starch: Gelatinized starch can hold up to several times its weight in water, acting like a natural sponge inside your bread dough.
alicecooks Bread goes stale when starch molecules reorganize and expel moisture, a process called retrogradation.
Glossary
tangzhong (noun)
A baking technique of Asian origin in which a portion of flour and liquid is cooked into a paste before mixing. Yvonne Chen popularized this starch-heating technique in her 2007 cookbook The 65C Bread Doctor.
A baking technique of Asian origin in which a portion of flour and liquid is cooked into a paste before mixing. Yvonne Chen popularized this starch-heating technique in her 2007 cookbook The 65C Bread Doctor.
Quiz
What is the scientific term for bread going stale as starch molecules recrystallize?
Quiz
Why does tangzhong make high-hydration dough easier for bakers to handle?
Quiz
Why does bread made with a tangzhong paste stay soft longer than standard bread?
Quiz
What percentage of a recipe's total flour is typically used to make the tangzhong paste?
Quiz
What is the traditional ratio of flour to liquid by weight used to make a tangzhong paste?
Quiz
Which component of flour is primarily responsible for absorbing water during the tangzhong heating process?
Quiz
At what temperature does the starch in a tangzhong paste begin to gelatinize?
Quiz
What happens to the water inside a baked loaf of bread made with tangzhong?
alicecooks Yeast in bread dough
Yeast is breathing out those bubbles (oh yeah!) / Making that gluten stretch and grow! (stretch and grow!)
alicecooks Temperature acts as a biological thermostat for yeast, controlling how fast it eats, multiplies, or whether it survives at all.
Fun Fact
Yeast's ancient genome: Yeast was the first single-celled eukaryote to have its entire DNA sequenced by scientists in 1996.
alicecooks Yeast consumes sugars present in flour, converting them into carbon dioxide gas and alcohol through a biological process called fermentation.
Glossary
yeast (noun)
A microscopic, single-celled fungus capable of converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. In 1857, Louis Pasteur proved that this living organism is responsible for fermenting bread dough.
A microscopic, single-celled fungus capable of converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. In 1857, Louis Pasteur proved that this living organism is responsible for fermenting bread dough.
Quiz
What liquid byproduct does yeast produce alongside carbon dioxide during the fermentation of bread dough?
Quiz
Which gas does baker's yeast release that causes bread dough to inflate and rise?
Quiz
How does active dry yeast react when placed in ice-cold water below 40 degrees Fahrenheit?
Quiz
What is the primary food source that yeast consumes within flour to fuel fermentation?
Quiz
Which scientific instrument is required to see an individual yeast cell clearly?
Quiz
How many individual yeast cells are roughly estimated to live in a single one-gram packet of active dry yeast?
Quiz
What type of organism is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the standard yeast used in bread baking?
Quiz
At what approximate temperature does baker's yeast die, halting the fermentation process entirely?
alicecooks How butter temperature changes cookie texture
alicecooks Cookie Fat Architecture
Melt the butter down, / lose the pockets of air, / keep it chewy now!
alicecooks Vegetable shortening has a higher melting point than butter, which prevents cookies from spreading too fast.
Fun Fact
Cookie butter science: Brown butter cookies taste nuttier because water evaporation allows milk solids to toast at 250°F (121°C), undergoing the flavor-packed Maillard reaction.
alicecooks Heating butter until the water evaporates toasts the milk solids, creating a rich, nutty aroma.
Glossary
butter (noun)
A pale yellow edible fatty substance made by churning cream and used as a spread or in cooking. In 2013, Kenji López-Alt tested how changing this ingredient's temperature alters cookie texture and spread.
A pale yellow edible fatty substance made by churning cream and used as a spread or in cooking. In 2013, Kenji López-Alt tested how changing this ingredient's temperature alters cookie texture and spread.
Quiz
Why does vegetable shortening produce taller chocolate chip cookies than butter?
Quiz
What temperature is ideal for creaming butter and sugar to trap air pockets in chocolate chip cookie dough?
Quiz
What are the brown flecks that form at the bottom of the pan when making brown butter for cookie dough?
Quiz
Which component of an egg provides the structure and drying effect in a chocolate chip cookie?
Quiz
What emulsifying molecule in egg yolks helps combine the water and fat in cookie dough?
Quiz
What percentage of water is typically found in standard American butter used for cookie baking?
Quiz
Which chemical reaction occurs when milk solids in butter are heated to 250°F (121°C) to make brown butter for cookies?