Tip #10 Food Science Sunday

One way I like to "pay" my friends back for favors, etc is by making cinnamon rolls. Here is one of those items you need to have a reason to make and a lot of people to feed them to. Because no one should have a whole recipe of rolls sitting around their kitchen (all right, that "no one" is me). There are 2 things- ok, 3 things I can hardly resist if they're in my vicinity: 1) chocolate chip cookies 2) brownies with walnuts 3) cinnamon rolls. By the way, all treats in moderation and satisfying your cravings will be other tips for another day.
The best recipe I have ever had for cinnamon rolls can be found HERE. It calls for scalding your milk/sugar/oil mixture. Scalding is bringing milk almost to a boil, then letting it cool. I knew there was a food science moment hidden here, and even though I could not remember the exact reason for scalding from my 4-H years and food science classes, I decided to look into it. Apparently old recipes often call for scalding milk because milk wasn't pasteurized and there was a bacteria that would interfere with thickening in some recipes (and I suspect maybe mess with your yeast as well?). But now that all our milk is pasteurized, apparently it's not necessary. You heat the milk to help with the yeast growth, but you have to let it cool first - too hot and it will kill the yeast of course. Some people seem to argue that scalding milk helps break down some of the milk proteins or enzymes which would inhibit the gluten and therefore they get a better product from using scalded milk. I will say a couple of things: my favorite roll recipes all use scalded milk; scalding would evaporate some of the water off your milk, creating more of an evaporated milk type product which produces smoother, creamier results. Whether it's just the "old fashioned" way of doing things or not, I'll probably keep up the tradition!

~Here's to Healthy (and delicious) Eating