No corn syrup? Make your own with only 3 ingredients!
One of the basic baking ingredients that’s particularly tough to come by in Israel is corn syrup. And some Fridays, it seems like every single recipe I want to try – whether it’s pecan pie (or the pecan bars I made today!), peanut brittle , or something else – relies on a generous quantity of the stuff. Corn syrup in a recipe isn’t just for flavour, so as most people have found, you usually can’t just substitute something else, like honey, maple syrup, or straight sugar. Corn syrup does some kind of magic that I can’t explain and helps things thicken up and set, especially in candy making. (If you know, feel free to explain it to me in the comments!) But there is one thing you can substitute: INVERT SUGAR. Invert sugar is a sugar-water syrup that’s been boiled to 236°F (114°C) and then cooled off slightly. At that temperature, the sugar turns… well, magical. Again, explain it to me in the comments. But essentially – it turns into cor...
Yum...that bread looks good!
ReplyDeleteI think you're right, it's the temperature. Too cold to get the dough going as written in the recipe.
ReplyDelete1. Don't refrigerate this dough at any stage.
2. Make a proofing chamber out of your microwave as I mentioned on the last post, or:
A. Preheat your oven for about 1 minute at 300 degrees, shut it OFF and proof your dough in there.
B. Heat up a cup of water in the microwave. Place it next to the dough and cover them both with either a cheapo styrofoam cooler placed upside down or a big plastic storage box upside down. Or, warm up a beverage cooler you use in the summer with the cup of water or a heating pad and put your dough in there.
C. Or, put some warm water in the bottom of a deep bowl, place the sheet pan with the braids on top of the bowl and cover the braids with a piece of oiled plastic wrap and a towel to hold in the heat.
In the "old days" nobody bought packets of yeast--almost everything was leavened with starter or old dough, and nobody had central heating, either. But they still had bread. So try again but keep it warm.
I use my microwave as a proofing chamber all the time. As long as it has been in there for a decent portion of the proofing time (at least 1/2 an hour), it's OK if a family member has to take it out to use the microwave. I just warm up the microwave again (with a cup of hot water) for the next stage.
I'll still eat it!!! Thanks for playing 6WS.
ReplyDelete