My wife asked me to help her make a Christmas bread called yulekaka.
Her recipe called for scalding the milk. What does this do and why is
it desireable?

Also, we keep both 1% milk (which my son prefers) and 2% (which I
like) on hand pretty much all the time. When using milk in bread
recipes, does it make any difference which type to use?

Depending on what type of leavening is used, it raises the temperature
for the yeast or baking powder. Most bread recipes require a warmed
fluid with a little sugar for the yeast to start "growing" or activate
the baking powder faster.

There may be instructions for ingredients to add to the milk after
heating it, this may allow certain ingredients to dissolve better,
moisten dry ingredients more thoroughly, or release the glutein
differently in the flour during the mixing process.

In the case of old recipes, it stabilizes the dairy product in case it
had not previously been pasteurized. This would help prevent
separation of cream from milk or to help minimize unwanted bacteria
that may have been introduced in storage. These are not necessarily
bad, but could have an effect on how other ingredients interact or how
long the bread could be stored.

Most of the time, when a bread recipe calls for milk, it is to give it
a richer flavor and finer texture. Use at least the 2% to achieve the
results.

Nancy G.

Bob Simon wrote:

> My wife asked me to help her make a Christmas bread called yulekaka.
> Her recipe called for scalding the milk. What does this do and why is
> it desireable?

It destroys and enzyme in the milk and also kills bacteria. It is still in
most recipes though the process is pretty well redundant due to
widespread pasteurization of milk.

> Also, we keep both 1% milk (which my son prefers) and 2% (which I
> like) on hand pretty much all the time. When using milk in bread
> recipes, does it make any difference which type to use?

Probably not much difference in bread recipes.

"Bob Simon" > wrote in message
...
> My wife asked me to help her make a Christmas bread called yulekaka.
> Her recipe called for scalding the milk. What does this do and why is
> it desireable?

Many older recipes called for you to scald milk, that is, to bring it nearly to
a boil (185°F, 85°C, or more), preferably in a thick-bottomed pan, and stirring
actively, to keep a protein skin from forming on the surface and keep the
proteins and sugar from sticking to the bottom. Scalding served two purposes, to
kill potentially harmful bacteria in the milk, and to destroy enzymes that keep
the milk from thickening in recipes. Pasteurization, however, accomplishes both
of those goals, and since almost all store-bought milk in Western countries is
pasteurized these days, scalding is essentially an unnecessary step.


> Also, we keep both 1% milk (which my son prefers) and 2% (which I
> like) on hand pretty much all the time. When using milk in bread
> recipes, does it make any difference which type to use?

It really depends on the recipe if the recipe is older I would use whole milk
only because of the amount of fat

Dimitri