BREAD SCIENCE: To Salt or Not to Salt

To add salt or not to add salt to your dough, that is the question of the day. Salt is sometimes considered a non-critical ingredient. Many recipes don’t include salt or use a little amount and the bread tastes fine. So, why add salt then?

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In doing some research, I found there are four benefits to using salt in bread. Keep reading to find out what they are and let me know in the comments if you agree or not.

Cheese Ravioli

This was my first attempt at ravioli with my new pasta toys: the KitchenAid pasta roller, which I reviewed earlier, and the Norpro ravioli maker. I couldn’t believe how much easier it was compared to my first attempt in Ravioli with Sarah.

First, I made the basic pasta dough and rolled it out with the pasta roller.

Then, I made ravioli shapes using the Norpro ravioli maker. You can find step-by-step instructions for how to use the ravioli maker here.

Next, I filled the ravioli with cheese filling (the recipe for this is at the end of the post).

After the ravioli had dried sufficiently, it was time to cook them. Add them to boiling water for 7-8 minutes.

Some of the ravioli burst open while cooking, but the ones that held it together were mighty tasty!

Cheese filling for Ravioli

Fills 24 Ravioli

Ingredients:

1 cup cottage cheese

1 cup shredded Romano cheese

1 tablespoon basil

1 tablespoon oregano

1 tablespoon parsley

1 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

Mix ingredients all together.

Refrigerate until ready to use.

The Mighty Oat

As I was researching some facts about oats to put in my Banana Oat Bread post I came across so much information about them that I just had to share it with everyone. Who knew there was so much awesomeness packed into a tiny oat?

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How to use the Norpro Ravioli Maker

I picked up this gadget from Amazon in hopes that it will help in my ravioli-making journeys.

Banana Oat Bread

I felt adventurous in the kitchen this week! Maybe it was just spring fever, but I felt ambitious enough to try making my own bread recipe. As I looked around the kitchen for some inspiration I saw some ripe bananas on the counter that needed to be used and some oat flour that I had bought recently but still hadn’t put away. Something inside of me, probably the part that is desperately tired of cold weather, said, “you should try combining these two items,” and combine them I did!

  

BREAD SCIENCE: Seeing the whole picture

We have been learning a lot about bread science! Our journey started off with How Yeast Works. Then we learned all about Gluten and why we Need Kneading.

Now it is time to put all our pieces together and see this stuff in action. Check out this time lapse video I made of dough rising.