Fresh Pineapple: I did not realize, until someone told me, that everybody else hurts their mouth eating fresh pineapple, too. I thought it was some peculiar biochemical reaction of my own, but worth the payoff in fresh pineapple. But, according to my informer, if you put salt on the pineapple, it won't burn. I haven't tested this yet, as there haven't been any sales on fresh pineapple around here lately. But I pass it on for what it's worth.
Whole wheat baked goods: I actually prefer whole wheat for flavor as well as nutrition, but I admit the frequently crumbly-sawdust texture of quick breads made with whole wheat doesn't do much for me. Then I heard that if you mix up the flour and the sour milk part of the recipe several hours in advance (the blender was recommended), the product will turn out much more tender and fluffy. I've tried it so far on waffles and banana bread (banana bread batter was too thick for a blender, I may have to use my Kitchenaid instead), and the results were outstanding. Except for the extra-hearty flavor, you could hardly tell it was whole wheat.
Next I'm going to try it on biscuits. I don't have much hope, since whole wheat biscuits are so very, very far from their white flour equivalents, but the results so far have been so good it's worth a shot.
Apparently it has to be a sour milk type of product (buttermilk, yogurt, milk with vinegar), so if your recipe calls for regular milk and baking powder you'll have to adapt it.
3 comments:
Wow! This really, really works! The instant I read this, I ran off to mix up whole wheat flour and milk into a gluey paste for next day's muffins. The resulting applesauce muffins were light, fluffy, and far better in texture than any whole wheat product I've ever made. FYI, the recipe I use for muffins these days (since I can't ever seem to succeed on the barely-mix-wet-and-dry-together thing) is my Joy of Cooking recipe for banana bread, and whenever I don't have bananas on hand, I just make any kind of muffins I like by substituting 3/4 cup milk for the bananas. The recipe doesn't actually call for buttermilk, but I mixed regular milk and a tiny bit of vinegar with the flour, and added the baking powder as called for, and it tasted delicious.
~Rose
I discovered that even a few hours of soaking works well; if you forget to set things up the night before you can do it at lunchtime and still have good stuff for dinner.
I think tonight's the night to try biscuits!
I so want to have muffins again, but every cheap muffin tin I've owned starts chipping off the non-stick coating after a few batches. So I'm stuck with bread until I can afford stainless steel ones. Muffin recipes convert to bread recipes, too.
About the pineapple, it has more to do with the acidity of the not quite ripe enough pineapple than salt/sweet balance. Pineapples do not ripen once they are picked, and because of that, they are higher in acid on the mainland, unless you can buy the Maui Golds, or whatever they call them. Eating them fresh in Hawaii, ripe from the plant illustrated the difference in acidity for us. Salt may counteract the acidity, but the real problem is that it's not ripe. I won't buy fresh unless it is the gold pineapples. Look for a firm fruit that has more gold in the skin the green, smells ripe and has heft to it.
(Hi Rachelle!)
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