I was wondering if anyone had comments on using fresh skim milk vs. fresh whole milk in bread.  I've noticed that The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book and Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads both recommend fresh whole milk (though Laurel also uses nonfat powdered milk in some recipes).  Does anyone have an opinion on whether this makes a difference?  Obviously whole milk has more fat, but it would seem to me that this wouldn't make much of a difference if the recipe already included butter or oil (a quick search shows that whole milk has around half a gram of fat per tablespoon while oil contains 14 grams).  I've always used skim, but that's just because that's what I keep on hand normally.

Hi. I've just purchased Dan Lepard's The Handmade Loaf and am dying to try his leaven recipe. However he uses yoghurt and we can't have dairy in my house (alas), so I was wondering if anyone could recommend a substitution.

Also, a lot of his recipes include milk or buttermilk as well as butter. Any suggestions how to handle this?

Thanks!

Bettina

Hi,

 Thanks for your help on this topic.  I searched all over the web, and nobody even on this impressive site had the recipe I was looking for.  Fortunately, a family member found an old copy of this spectacular, no-knead, crusty bread.  Always a hit w. my people on special occasions.  Anyone who would like to substitute more specific measurements (like 'stick of butter'), please do!

 Monkey Bread (so-called by the friend of my mother who gave her the recipe circa '68)

The various and opposing lines of thought, not just here but in reputable books and on line as well, on scalding milk for bread have me baffled and scratchin' my head. Especially as I've been blithely adding unscalded milk to my doughs for, well, a very long time. Had I really been compromising my results with careless technique? Spurred on by CountryBoy's recent thread, yesterday I did this:

Here is a little gem, fell out of my cookbook (guess he figured his time was ripe).  It is like a Friendship Bread in that one is given Siegfried sourdough sample and a recipe with instructions.  I think it's funny how it contains both metric and cups.  I would just take a sample of your own sourdough and try it.  How much?  Anywhere from a tablespoon  to 1/2 cup, up to you....  Thoughts & comments welcome.

Many recipes for loaf bread that use milk advise that the milk must first be scalded (brought just to the boil). (Then, of course, you have to wait for the milk to cool.) I remember reading an explanation that something in the milk can inhibit yeast growth and the heat somehow corrects this.

Tell me, gurus, is it really necessary to scald the milk? If yes, why? If no, why not (can it just be a holdover from earlier times that has been mindlessly perpetuated)?

PS - I love long, involved scientific explanations, so please feel free to elaborate

Thanks in advance...