It has been a little over a month since I attended the King Arthur Baking Demo with my Dad. I decided to write down a FEW of the things I learned in the four hours.
Pie Crust:
*Can be frozen for up to six months.
*Cold butter doesn't dent when pressed
*There's 1/4 teaspoon of salt in a salted stick of butter.
*For a bottom crust, you want a 12" circle. An easy way to figure this out is the barrel of the rolling pin plus two fingers. (Most American rolling pins are 10" long.)
Chocolate Tarts
*1 ounce of dough per inch of tart pan plus one more ounce for the sides
*Hold your micro-plane upside down so you can see how much zest you have
Sweet doughs
*Think "baby's bath water" when a recipe says warm water for yeast.
*Practice makes better (good advice outside of the kitchen, too)
*Kneading is gentle folding, not therapy
*Parchment paper is the seatbelt of baking. You should never be ashamed to use it.
*Too tightly rolled cinnamon buns spiral up when baked! (And here I thought it was just the opposite!)
And one of my life's greatest questions was answered; How/when can you freeze cinnamon rolls ahead? You can freeze them for up to 30 days before the second rise. Defrost in fridge the night before. This alone was worth the pre-dawn, three hour car ride!
Thanks, Frank, and all the other WONDERFUL King Arthur Flour folks!! I'm a better baker because of YOU!
