Some germy places in the house include the kitchen faucet and sponges. Typically people wash their hands after handling raw meat in the kitchen and frequently use sponges or cloths to wipe germs from surfaces in the kitchen. (Photo by Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune/MCT via Getty Images)

Scientists have long thrown shade at the unassuming kitchen sponge. The household staple skulks in sinks amid dirty dishes and soggy food scraps, sopping up and amplifying microbial forces capable of invading clean food spaces. The savvy kitchen-goer may think they have this situation locked down—a simple toss through a sanitizing dishwasher cycle or a sizzling swirl in the microwave… and done. Sudsy germsplosion averted.

Nice try, says science.

In a comprehensive study of 14 household sponges and their microbial inhabitants published in Scientific Reports, researchers confirmed that kitchen sponges are indeed domestic abominations. Moreover, any sterilizing attempts only seem to temporarily free up sponge-space for potential pathogens, which rapidly recolonize the festering scrubber.

I haven’t used a sponge in my personal kitchen for years.  Blech.

Read the whole thing at ARS Technica.

Further Reading:

The New York Times:  We Need to Talk Some More About Your Dirty Sponges

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The notion that you cannot refreeze thawed foods “is a myth,” said Tina Hanes, a registered dietitian with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.  Any raw or cooked food that has been thawed can be refrozen.

There’s an important caveat, though:

As long as it was thawed properly — in the refrigerator, not on the counter — and hasn’t spoiled. That includes raw meat, poultry, fish and seafood, Ms. Hanes said.

You should never thaw frozen meat, poultry, fish or seafood by placing it on the counter at room temperature or by running it under warm tap water, she said, “because bacteria like it warm, like we do, and multiply rapidly at room temperature. Thawing on the counter is not safe, period. You should never do that.”

I think a lot of people thaw frozen food on the kitchen counter.  It’s a no no.

Home kitchens are notoriously full of germs and bacteria.  Much more so than commercial kitchens, or even home bathrooms.   NSF International, a nonprofit organization based in Ann Arbor, Mich., that has been promoting proper cleaning of kitchen tools and appliances since the 1940s.  NSF International recently put out recommendations on kitchen hot spots based on studies done in 2011 and again in 2013:

• Scary sponges
• Ghastly gaskets
• Creepy fridge compartments
• Separate the spatulas and clean the can opener
• Wash water dispensers and coffee reservoirs

Cleaning a few often-overlooked areas in the kitchen can offer additional protection from E. coli, salmonella, listeria, yeast and mold.

Further Reading:

• The New York Times – Ask Well: A Myth About Refreezing Foods
• The Pantagraph – 5 ways to make a kitchen more germ-free

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There are few American dishes more classic than chocolate chip cookies.  Traced back to the Nestlé company, which placed the recipe for Toll House cookies on the back of its chocolate chip bags in 1939, these delicacies have been baked by Americans for generations.

I’ve run across countless recipes and variations for chocolate chip cookies, but here’s one that struck my eye, for a number of reasons.  The recipe is provided by Barbara Cosgriff, whom I met when I was Managing Director of The Nasdaq Stock Market.  She and I instantly became great friends and after I left Wall Street to open Bellavitae, Barbara and her husband were constant guests.

Barbara shares her recipe as guest blogger on the Behind the Scenes at La Cuisine blog.  “My mom made the delicious recipe on the chocolate chip bag.  This recipe has evolved from my having baked thousands of them…and the little tweaks that come from experience.”

Click below for Barbara’s recipe:

BARBARA COSGRIFF’S SCRUMPTIOUS CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Why Barbara’s Recipe is so Special (and why it works!)

• Top-shelf ingredients.  As any good cook will tell you, the best ingredients will result in the best recipe.  No skimping here.  You can order most everything online from La Cuisine.
• Chilled ingredients.  As Barbara notes, if the batter is warm, the cookies will run (overspread).
• A combination of brown and white sugars.  Although both sugars Barbara uses are “brown” (i.e., they contain molasses), the combination really represents a mix of brown and white sugars.  Brown sugar will attract and retain water (“hygroscopic”), rendering the cookies chewy.  Too much brown sugar and they will become, well, floppy.  The white sugar (about a quarter to a third of the total sugar) will add firmness and crispiness.
• Baking soda.  Many cookie recipes use baking powder, which acts as a leavener when the batter is exposed to heat.  But baking powder is more appropriate for cakey cookies, not chewy cookies like chocolate chip.  Moreover, a crispy exterior is almost impossible to achieve using baking powder.  Baking powder would actually make the cookies crisp from the inside out, not a good thing here.  The acid needed to activate the baking soda in this recipe comes from the brown sugar’s molasses.
• Low-protein flour.  Barbara uses an Italian “Tipo 00” flour, which has a lower protein content.  A high percentage of protein creates a harder (stronger) flour best suited for chewy, crusty breads and other yeast-risen products.  Less protein produces a softer flour, best for tender and chemically leavened baked goods, like pie crusts, cakes, cookies, and biscuits.
• Don’t cream the butter.  Creaming butter is a wonderful technique that encourages cakes to rise nicely, as well as cakey cookies.  The sugar crystals act as extra beaters and will aerate the butter, enabling chemical leaveners to do their trick as the cake is baked.
• Let the batter rest.  Allowing the cookie dough to rest will result in the sugars further dissolving.  This dissolved sugar will caramelize more readily and produce a crisp exterior that is juxtaposed by a chewy interior with a complexity of butter, caramel, toffee, and chocolate.

High Altitude Adjustments

Of all baked goods, cookies are generally the easiest to make at high altitudes.  However, once you reach 10,000 feet (as we are here inTaosSkiValley), things get a little tricky.  Here are some adjustments I would make to Barbara’s recipe for readers at this altitude:

• Increase the flour by ¾ to 1 cup
• Reduce the India Light Muscovado Sugar by 2 ½ tablespoons (this prevents overspread)
• Increase the vanilla by 1 to 2 teaspoons (adds flavor to compensate for reduced sugar)
• Reduce baking temperature by 50°F – to 300°F
• Bake longer – an extra 4 to 5 minutes

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Related:

• High Altitude Baking
• Pasta all’Uova Fatta in Casa: The Joy and Satisfaction of Making Homemade Egg Pasta (for more information regarding various flours and protein content)

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Further Reading:  

• Barbara Cosgriff’s Scrumptious Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Behind the Scenes at La Cuisine
• La Cuisine:  The Cook’s Source
• La Cuisine:  Online Store

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The always-helpful Rose Levy Beranbaum offers three tips when using egg yolks, discussing the following:

1. More and more often, the proportion of yolk to white is less than it has been over the past decades.
2. If egg yolks are combined with sugar and allowed to sit they will crust over, dry out on the surface, and result in lumps in the cooked or baked product.
3. If you have extra yolks, you can freeze them but only if you stir in some sugar which will maintain their texture.

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Read the whole thing here.

Rose has an excellent blog for bakers, a great source for information that nicely compliments her highly acclaimed baking books; I highly recommend it!

“Rose Levy Beranbaum is the award-winning author of nine cookbooks, including The Cake Bible, the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook of the Year for 1988.  It was also listed by the James Beard Foundation as one of the top 13 baking books on “the Essential Book List.”  Rose also won a James Beard Foundation Award in 1998 for Rose’s Christmas Cookies, and her book, The Bread Bible, was an IACP and James Beard Foundation nominee and was listed as one of the Top Ten Books of 2003 by Publishers Weekly and Food & Wine.  Her most recent book, Rose’s Heavenly Cakes, won the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook of the Year for 2010.

She is a contributing editor to Food Arts magazine and writes regularly for the Washington Post, Fine Cooking, Reader’s Digest, and Bride’s.  Her popular blog, realbakingwithrose.com, has created an international community of bakers where you can visit Rose Levy Beranbaum and join in the discussion on all things baking.  While you are there, you can bring the author right into your kitchen as she demonstrates key techniques and shares trade secrets so that you can create perfectly divine cakes.”

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What a wonderful Christmas we had while visiting Colorado – fresh brisk air, snow, friends and family.  And as is our tradition, we baked.

The challenge this year was the high altitude and how it would affect favorite breads, cookies, and quick breads.  While there are many terrific high-altitude baking books available, any baker understands the comfort one has with tried and true familiar recipes.  Aren’t there a few simple adjustments to compensate for the altitude?

We baked using recipes from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Bread Bible and The Pie and Pastry Bible, Nancy Silverton’s Breads from the La Brea Bakery, Carol Field’s The Italian Baker, and King Arthur Flour’s Bakers Companion and Cookie Companion.

Here’s what we learned about high-altitude baking this Christmas in the Rocky Mountains:

High altitude, among other things, can significantly affect baking outcomes.  With higher altitude comes lower air pressure and typically drier atmospheric conditions.  Altitude begins to affect baking results at around 3,000 feet – a level where the baker must begin to make recipe modifications.

Below are some helpful tips when you’re baking at a high altitude:

Accelerate baking of quick breads by raising oven temperature and shortening baking time.

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Add additional flour to strengthen the structure.

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Use higher protein flourat very high altitudes.    Lower humidity causes quicker evaporation, which can result in drier batter or dough.  It can also cause a higher concentration of sugar, weakening the structure.Increase the liquid, or in the case of tender crumb goods such as cakes and muffins, increase the egg content. .

Utilize the autolyse.  After initially mixing together the flour, starter, and water, let the dough rest for 20 minutes to allow the flour to fully absorb the water and the enzymes to untangle the gluten.  Then proceed with adding additional ingredients and kneading.    Water quality also affects baked goods, with the two major culprits being pH (acidity) and mineral content (softness or hardness).Increase the acidity. Yeast loves an acidic environment, but many municipalities’ tap water is either naturally alkaline or is fortified with alkaline agents in order to prevent public water pipe corrosion.  Replace some of the recipe’s liquid with vinegar. .

Neutralize or mimic the water where the recipe originated.  Use bottled water in your recipe.  I know many bakers who will use bottled water from the country or region where the recipe originated.

High-Altitude Yeast Breads

Yeast.  Most recipes today call for instant yeast, rather than active dry yeast. Instant yeast will begin its duty immediately whereas active dry yeast takes a little longer, rendering rising times shorter.  At high altitudes, the dough will rise faster anyway, which results in less time for flavor development.  Dry active yeast helps the high altitude baker in this situation because it will cause a slower rise, allowing for sufficient flavor development.

In her book The Bread Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum recommends substituting 25% more active dry yeast when the recipe calls for instant dry yeast.  Most high-altitude baking experts recommend using 25% less yeast when baking at higher elevations.  So by merely using the same amount of active dry yeast for instant dry yeast, you kill these two birds with one stone.

Although you have probably read that you must first re-hydrate active dry yeast with water, I found that you can proceed just as if you were using instant yeast – and mix it with the dry ingredients, if that is what the recipe calls for.

Most baking books will specify how much the dough should rise in terms of volume, not just time (e.g., “let rise until doubled”).  This is a preferred method, especially for high-altitude baking.  Mark the side of your rising container with masking tape rather than merely trying to eye it.  I found the rising time to be somewhat longer using this method than at sea level.  I let the dough rise in a warm place – between 75°F and 85°F (an oven with the light turned on or a measuring cup of boiling water in the microwave will usually do the trick).

Make a sponge.  The technical term is “pre-ferment”.  In Italian it’s biga.  There are other names as well:  poolish, starter, sponge, pâte fermentée, each with its specific methodology and ethnic origin.  If your recipe doesn’t call for a sponge, simply use about a third of the recipe’s water, a third of the flour it calls for, and 1/16 teaspoon of the yeast.  Stir the ingredients for a couple of minutes, cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for an hour.  Place the mixture in the refrigerator overnight (or up to three days).  In the morning combine with the other dough ingredients and proceed as directed in the recipe.  You’ll have well-developed flavor without over-rise.

Add additional flour.  I typically added about two tablespoons of flour per recipe at my elevation.  As a general guideline, add a tablespoon at 3,000 feet and an additional tablespoon for every 1,500 feet.  Add the additional flour at the end of kneading, especially if using a stand mixer.

Use higher protein flour.  At very high altitudes, say above 6,500 feet, consider switching to higher protein flour.

Compensate for water quality.  Yeast thrives in an acidic environment, so consider substituting a tablespoon of vinegar for any liquid in your recipe.  This is especially true for sweet breads with a high sugar content that can conceivably slow yeast activity.  And as stated above, many municipal water supplies are alkaline because they add agents to neutralize any acidity that can corrode pipes.

Consider using bottled water for your recipes.  Mineral content of public water systems varies considerably.  The recipe’s origin may have significantly different water qualities from yours.  You can compensate for this effect by purchasing a bottle of water from that region!

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Quick Breads

Leavening.  Quick breads and brownies typically use baking power or soda instead of yeast.  They will rise much faster at higher elevations, so less of these leavening agents are needed.  King Arthur Flour recommends the following adjustment:

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Baking temperature and time. Leavening and evaporation occur more quickly at higher elevations, so baking at a higher temperature will set the structure of bread before it over-expands and dries out or rises too rapidly and then collapses.  Increase the oven temperature by 25°F (by 15°F for chocolate, cakes, or brownies).  To compensate for the higher temperature, decrease baking time by about 5 minutes (or a bit longer) for every 30 minutes of baking time.

Add additional flour.  We typically added about two tablespoons of flour per recipe at my elevation.  As a general guideline, add a tablespoon at 3,000 feet and an additional tablespoon for every 1,500 feet.  Add the additional flour at the end of kneading, especially if using a stand mixer.

Use higher protein flour.  Consider switching to higher protein flour when making quick bread or muffins.

Use more liquid.  Increase liquids by 1 tablespoon at 3,000 feet and 1 additional teaspoon for every 1,000 feet.  You can use extra eggs as part of the liquid if the recipe calls for it.  If you need a partial egg, you can either use the egg white or scramble the egg and use the amount you need.

Use less sugar.  As liquid from the batter evaporates, the sugar will become more concentrated, weakening the batter’s structure.  Decrease the sugar by 1 tablespoon per cup used.

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Cookies

Use the guidelines for Quick Breads above to make adjustments to your favorite cookie recipes.

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What are your high-altitude baking tips?  We’d love to hear them.

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Further Reading:

• Cooking for Engineers:  Baker’s Yeast
• King Arthur Flour
• Red Star Yeast
• Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Bread Bible
• Colorado State University Extension’s Guide to High Altitude Baking

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