There was some discussion on  about whether ambient humidity could cause a normally good shortcrust recipe to come out dry and crumbly.  Is this possible? How strong of an effect might be expected from going from "average" humidity to extremely dry? Would it affect all types of pastry dough similarly?
120528
Cooking lore places a lot of importance on air humidity for doughs. When a dough fails, people quickly point that out as a possible factor, .     Is it really true? I don't doubt that the actual flour moisture content changes, but is it noticeable in the dough preparation, or is the difference too small to matter?  If it makes a difference, what can I do about it?
108139
Before you all jump in with 2.73 K or thereabouts, this is more of an experimental question. It will obviously depend on humidity and radiation being scattered back towards the surface of the Earth. Any ideas? Anyone ever pointed a pyrometer or similar at the night sky?
45519
Like many people sheltering-at-home, I'm baking . My yeast supply is running low, and I'm not sure I'll be able to get more on demand. I'd like a simple way to make sure I have yeast on hand for my next batch. Could you all recommend a method for storing a starter culture?  Specifically:   How should I store it (how much? where? I have a fridge ~4C and a wine cooler ~13C)  How often should I feed it? With what? Should I divide the culture when feeding?  How much should I use when baking? Can I treat it like dry active yeast, or does it need more/less time?   For some other context, I'm a novice at making bread (I've made it a few times, and others in my family make it more often). I see lots of advice on sourdough starters, but am interested in something that's a replacement for dry active yeast (unless sourdough starters are actually easier to maintain). I found a  that was similar, but it focused on long-term storage of yeast and the answers did not describe how to use the starter.  Your advice is appreciated.
6382
Last time I tried to make Chocolate eclairs (similar to cream puffs), the choux pastry just sat in the oven and basically fried.  It didn't rise/grow and so I couldn't hollow out the shells.  Any suggestions?  Recipe was from The Australian Women's Weekly Original Cookbook (Golden Press Pty Ltd, 1977) p. 204  It is almost identical to the one published on their website , with the exception that the cookbook recipe used 1C water and 1C plain flour.
100628
When you cook with wine or spirits, when does the alcohol cook away? Obviously high temperatures will do it, but how low of temperatures will work? Also, does it vary by the type of alcohol?
66808
I've been doing a lot of yeast bread baking as of late and I got to wondering what the salt in the bread was for.  Upon doing some research it turns out (aside from perhaps some flavor) the purpose is to "Control" the yeast during the rise.  This got me to wondering if it was possible to make a yeast bread with no salt at all.  My first attempt was met with defeat, and upon some more experimentation I was able to get the salt down 75% with success.  Its the last 25% that alludes me.  Is it possible to make a yeast bread with no salt?
94227
Someone gave me a bunch of envelopes of pizza crust yeast, "specially formulated for pizza crust". The packets also say that no rise time or proofing is needed, and that it's "NOT recommended for bread baking." The ingredients are yeast, enzymes, sorbitan monostearate, l-cysteine, and ascorbic acid. It does provide a recipe for pizza crust, with just mixing and a bit of kneading.   What has actually been done to this yeast to make it work like this? (What are those enzymes?) And is there any way I can use it for other things, or is it really only good for things like pizza crust?
85081
I purchased a 25 gm active dry yeast. It says to use it with 500 ml flour. However I just want to make a couple of pizza bases, 100 gm each max. So can I use 40% of it today, and use the rest later? How to store the open pack, do I need to seal it and pack?
61124
I am trying to make a cheese soufflé to surprise my girlfriend on her birthday (24 Jan). After several cooking trials, I still face a key problem: my soufflé collapsed after baking for 25-30 minutes.   What did I do wrong? Here are the steps to the recipe;   boil equipment grease butter to the renakin, place into the freezer separate egg whites (no yolk mixed) add a little salt to egg whites add a little sugar to egg whites  using a hand mixer, whip the egg whites adding more sugar during whip melt 40g butter (100C) Whisk 40g all purpose flour into melted butter pour 250g milk slowly and whisk util it mixed wait until it cools down re-grease butter to the renakin, place into the freezer beat the egg yolks to a creamy consistency, then pour into the milk mixture add 1/3 of the mixture to the base, continue to add the whites folding very gently. Preheat oven to 200C (5-10 minutes) pour the mixture into the renakin add the cheese on the top bake at 170'C (with heat select="lower")   After about 25-30 minutes and a 2cm rise, the soufflé collapses prior to removing from oven.    updated 19 Jan Evening :  I do   buy better hand mixer use more flour (50g) move egg whites whipping process to last steps reduce whipping time to 5 minutes bake with heat select="lower" about 15min after that change to "upper and lower" sit in front of oven and see the soufflé every moment.   result:   at 20mins: the soufflé raise about 3.5 to 4cm (from 5cm height renakin) around 25mins: it collapse about 0.5cm, so I immediately remove it from oven (T-T) after than it collapse very fast. (I guess it is common)   Thank you very much @jefromi and @KatieK for your comments and links. I plan to buy oven thermometer this morning because I have no it yet.     updated 21 Jan Lunch :  Yesterday I found problem on the oven temperature. When I set temperature to 170 C, real temperature is 150C or below (because it keep going down). So today I try to keep in range of 160-200C and no collapses now.   Thanks you very much to everybody again for kindly help.
36182
I've tried to make macarons eight times in a row and I failed. I used  (text version is in the description below the video).  They all cracked on top and the surface collapsed as you see in the picture. I did some research and watched youtube videos to find out what I am doing wrong. As I figured the following factor could be the reason behind ugly macaroons:   I read somewhere that the time you let the batch sit and dry before putting i the oven is an important factor. I let it rest for 45 minutes to one hour instead of 20-30 minutes, but the result was the same, if not worse. The other factor is beating egg whites to stiff peaks. There, I think this is where my problem come from. So I beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt to medium peak stage, then add in the sugar in 3 batches while mixing with hand mixer. After watching several videos I know what stiff peaks look like, or at least I think so. But trying the recipe keeping that point in mind it still had the same result:      What else is important in making macarons that avoid them crack? What am I missing?  The weird thing is, my first batch was a success without precise measurements and so on! Here is the picture:
114850
Is there anything I can add to a standard no-knead bread recipe to allow the bread to stay softer for longer? Bread baked the night before, while still edible, is not as pliable the next midday.  I currently use bread flour, yeast, salt and water but was thinking of adding milk, butter or eggs. If there is a single food additive I can add I would consider this, but I don't want to adulterate the recipe too much.
49477
I just got a new stand mixer - a nice, heavy 500W mixer with a 5-liter bowl. Until now, I'd been making bread by hand and kneading it on the countertop.  So the first thing I tried was using the mixer with the kneading hook, but I find that the dough tends to get wrapped around the hook and just spins around along with it.  I guess I'm doing something wrong, but I'm not sure if it's my technique or my ingredients. I'm using the same bread recipes as I did before. Any ideas?  Edit:  Thanks for all the input, guys. Here's some more info:   The mixer is a Kenwood KMix KMX-50. I've tried adjusting the height of the dough hook up and down, I'm not sure how far from the bowl's surface it should be. Any suggestions? I don't think I doubt it's a volume/quantity issue - I'm using a kilo of flour, which is around the 1.3kg bread weight limit of the spec. I mix at low speed.   I'll try Sobachatina's suggestion and try to add water. Let's see how it turns out. Thanks for all your suggestions!
81983
A week ago I mixed 1 part AP flour 1 parts tap water, keeping it at room temperature (18-24c). I've been discarding a bit and feeding it 1:1 daily. The last few days, the next 4-6 hours after I feed it it double in size, and then it slowly goes down.  Now I want to use it to make some baguettes, the recipe calls for 20% starter. But how do I use the starter? Do I have to use it before or after feeding it? Or should I feed it and wait a few hours before using it?
113874
As I understand it, tangzhong in relation to bread making is an Asian technique in which a portion of the flour in the recipe is pre-cooked with water to make a roux, before being cooled and added to the rest of the ingredients. It is supposed to make the resulting bread very soft, often for days longer than non-tangzhong breads. I thought maybe it works by binding the proteins so gluten development is restricted, but I'd have thought that would inhibit rise, which seems not to be an issue.  Disclaimer: I have not yet made a tangzhong bread, but I believe I have eaten a few... My first attempt is currently doing a bulk rise.  How does tangzhong work exactly? How does it actually change the dough to achieve the distinct softness for which it is so famous?
107983
I can bake high poly normal maps with a lot of success, however if I try to bake a very simple indentation on a cube with no tapering I get a flat baked normal map, please see the below image to clarify what I mean.   I dont know I am doing wrong because if I scale down the indented face slightly it will bake the normal map correctly, as seen in the image below.
76327
My chocolate chips cookies are always too crisp. How can I get chewy cookies, like those of Starbucks?    Thank you to everyone who has answered. So far the tip that had the biggest impact was to chill and rest the dough, however I also increased the brown sugar ratio and increased a bit the butter. Also adding maple syrup helped.
114517
I am a keen baker with a big sweet tooth. I often use coloured icing and sponge when I bake, but often the colouring I use changes the taste of the icing/sponge.   Does anyone know how to prevent the food colouring changing the taste of food or how I can minimise it?   The food colouring I use is: Dr Oetker