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Tuesday, November 16, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
ANN
BLOOM
IT’S ALL GOOD
It’s sweet
potato season
Potato, potawto? Tomato, tomawto? Isn’t
that how the old song goes? Either way you
pronounce the potato part, the sweet potato
has a lot going for it.
Since November is National Sweet Potato
Month and many of us will be eating sweet
potatoes in some form for Thanksgiving, we
should celebrate them for their nutritional
qualities.
The sweet potato is an underground tuber,
with pointed ends and red, brown or yellow
skin. It is available throughout the year in the
grocery store, though is at its least expensive
and best quality from October to January.
It comes in a variety of colors from red to
yellow, white to purple and violet to pink. It
is good fried, baked, boiled, grilled, steamed
or roasted. It is good used in savory dishes
(i.e., soups) or as a dessert (i.e., sweet potato
pie). Mashed sweet potato can be substituted
for pumpkin in pies, breads and muffins. The
tuber lends itself well to recipes that include
spices such as ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and
cloves.
Sweet potatoes should be stored in a cool,
dry place and used within two weeks. When
choosing sweet potatoes, look for tubers that
are firm, smooth skinned and free of soft
spots, cuts or blemishes. Soft areas, scabby
areas or brown spots may indicate spoilage or
tough, inedible flesh. One pound of raw, fresh
sweet potato equals three cups shredded,
cubed or sliced sweet potato which equals
one and ¾ cups cooked, mashed sweet potato.
According to www.foodhero.org, storing raw
sweet potatoes in the refrigerator can cause
a hard center and an unpleasant taste. Scrub
sweet potatoes under cool, running water just
before using.
According to Healthline website writer,
Adda Hjarnadottir, MS, RDN, the sweet
potato is rich in antioxidants and high in fiber
which aids in digestion. The sweet potato is
low in fat and relatively low in calories. A
half cup of sweet potato contains about 125
calories. It is considered a nutrient dense
food, which means it contains more nutrients
relative to, or compared to, its calorie con-
tent. It is sweet-tasting owing to its starch
and sugar content. What contributes to an
increase in calories of the sweet potato is the
butter, maple syrup/brown sugar and marsh-
mallows of the typical American holiday
recipe used to prepare them.
Sweet potatoes are high in beta-carotene,
the element that accounts for the vegetable’s
orange color (carrots are also high in beta-
carotene for the same reason), which the body
converts to Vitamin A. Vitamin A is essen-
tial for eye health. Vitamin C is also found in
sweet potatoes and is a vitamin that helps heal
cuts and bruises and is important for gum
health.
Potassium, a mineral which may help with
heart health, manganese important for growth
and metabolism, Vitamin B6 which helps
convert food into energy and Vitamin E, a
fat-soluble antioxidant which may help protect
against cell damage, are all found in a sweet
potato.
Sweet potatoes are well tolerated by most
people. However, they are considered fairly
high in oxalates, a substance which may
increase the risk of kidney stones in some
people. Therefore, people who are prone to
kidney stones may wish to consult with their
primary care provider to check on their intake
of sweet potatoes and see how much, if any, is
right for them.
The sweet potato originated in South and
Central America and is a tropical member
of the morning glory family. It is one of the
oldest foods known to mankind, dating back
more than 5,000 years. A sweet potato is easy
to sprout and makes an interesting house
plant. According to www.specialtyproduce.
com, there are hundreds of varieties of sweet
potatoes grown throughout the world. Domes-
tically, there are two varieties usually grown
in the United States. Production of sweet
potatoes in the United States primarily is in
Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina.
By the way, a sweet potato and a yam are
not related; it is a misnomer that they are.
Though people use them interchangeably,
they are two different species. Yams are part
of the lily family and originated in Africa and
Asia There are about 600 varieties of yams.
Yams are more starchy tasting, and some
can get very large, growing up to five feet in
length. You may find a tuber in the grocery
store labeled a “garnet yam.” This is a dark-
skinned sweet potato.
Either way you pronounce your sweet
potato — potato or potawto — don’t call the
whole thing off and enjoy them as a regular
part of a healthy diet.
For recipes or information on sweet pota-
toes, go to www.foodhero.org.
Ann Bloom has worked for the OSU Exten-
sion Service for 15 years as a nutrition edu-
cator. She studied journalism and education
at Washington State University. She lives in
Enterprise.
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Fresh-baked croissants.
Quicker croissants
Buttery, crispy pastries
in hours, not days
By DANIEL NEMAN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
I said that I had seen some recipes
claiming you can make croissants in
just four hours. I scoffed, dismissively.
Everyone knows the best croissants take
three days to make.
She said nothing. She said nothing
very loudly.
You have a way to make croissants in
just four hours? I asked.
She said she did. And since she is
Helen Fletcher, the pastry chef at Tony’s
in St. Louis, I took her seriously.
It turns out she knows how to make
croissants in just four hours. Actually,
what she knows is how to make laminated
dough in four hours, and that is the most
time-consuming part of croissants.
Laminated doughs are doughs for puff
pastries and croissants that bake up into
dozens of delicate, crisp, buttery layers.
They almost shatter into a cloud of pastry
dust in your mouth when you bite into
them.
The traditional way to make them is to
roll out a sheet of dough and cover it with
a cool-but-pliable sheet of butter. You
then fold those sheets into thirds, like a
letter, chill it so the butter does not melt,
roll it and fold it into thirds again, chill it
again, fold it into thirds, chill and, if you
have the time and patience, fold and chill
one more time.
A faster and easier way, with results
that are nearly as good, involves shred-
ding frozen butter over the initial sheet
of dough before folding and optionally
chilling several times (you don’t have to
refrigerate it if you can work fast enough).
This method produces what the cheerful
folks on “The Great British Baking
Show” call “rough puff pastry,” or just
“rough puff.”
Fletcher’s method is rougher than
rough — that is, it is further from the
original concept of laminated doughs.
But it is faster and easier and, it turns out,
every bit as good.
Fletcher’s method, which she details
in her blog Pastries Like a Pro, does not
include a thin layer of butter between
each thin layer of dough. In regular lam-
inated doughs, the butter steams as it
cooks, and the pressure of the steam
forces each layer a little bit apart,
resulting in beautifully puffed pastry.
Instead, she incorporates the butter
into the dough, as you would a flaky pie
crust. Because the dough is repeatedly
folded over on itself, as with traditional
laminated doughs, you still end up with
all of the exquisite layers that you would
find in other croissants and puff pastries.
She uses a food processor to save time,
and saves more by freezing the dough and
the pieces of butter before mixing them in
the processor. This step makes the dough
— with the butter in it — cold enough
that you don’t have to refrigerate it for an
hour after every time you fold it.
Generally, you can make all of your
folds before the dough warms up to the
point that you have to refrigerate it (the
idea is to keep the butter from softening;
if it is soft, it won’t turn to steam when
it is heated). In the summer, or if your
kitchen is hot, you may have to refrigerate
it before you can finish all of your folds.
But if the dough feels cool to the touch,
you’re good to go.
The longest part of making traditional
croissants is spent simply waiting for
the dough to gradually develop a robust
flavor and a slight tang to counteract the
richness. Fletcher cleverly saves two full
days by adding robust and tangy butter-
milk to the dough.
This method uses quite a lot of yeast
— one whole tablespoon, which is more
than a packet — to get the croissants to
rise quickly, and it calls for instant yeast
(rapid-rise) for additional speed. To make
them rise faster, she proofs them in an
oven that is turned off but has a pan of hot
water, which warms the oven just enough
for proofing.
And to keep the delicate croissants
from burning on the bottom as they cook,
she uses what she calls the “double-pan”
method. She places the baking sheet on
top of another baking sheet and cooks
the croissants in the top third of the oven.
Two baking sheets take longer to get
hot than one, which gives the croissants
time to cook to a golden brown all over
without scorching the bottoms.
The result is croissants that are simply
spectacular, much better than you can get
at a grocery store and probably some bak-
eries. They’re light, they’re crisp, they’re
delicate and they’re the perfect blend of
thin pastry and butter.
And they don’t take three days to
make. You can make them in just four
hours.
OK, maybe five.
CROISSANTS
Yield: 16 servings
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water, about
75 degrees Fahrenheit
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 cups bread flour (420 grams or scant 15 ounces)
¼ cup powdered buttermilk, see note
1 tablespoon instant yeast
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 egg, well beaten
Note: If you can’t find powdered buttermilk,
substitute whole buttermilk. Use 7/8 cup
buttermilk and ¼ cup water in place of
the water and dry buttermilk powder.
Everything else remains the same.
1. Combine the water and oil. Set aside.
2. With the steel blade in place, add the
flour, powdered buttermilk, instant yeast,
sugar and salt to the bowl of a food processor.
Process about 5 seconds to mix everything.
See, Croissants/Page B4
The next generation of sugar replacements
By LARISSA ZIMBEROFF
Bloomberg News
We’ve entered a new era
in our love-hate relationship
with sugar. After decades of
trying to make substitutes
like Sweet’N Low, Splenda
and Stevia work for con-
sumers, the sugar-alterna-
tive industry is fielding con-
tenders with a better chance
at unseating that ubiquitous
substance.
The timing seems to be
right. According to a recent
survey by market research
firm Euromonitor, 37%
of consumers globally are
looking for products with
no sugar, no added sugar or
low sugar. Overconsump-
tion of sugar has long been
connected to disease — it’s
cited as a contributing factor
to obesity, which has tri-
pled globally since the 1970s,
and cardiovascular disease,
which is the leading cause
of death globally. Obesity is
also a factor in Type 2 dia-
betes, which afflicts hundreds
of millions of people around
the world.
In a 2021 nutrition survey
on reasons to avoid sugar,
more than 57% of respondents
said doing so “makes them
feel healthier.” An equally
high percentage reported “it’s
better for me to avoid these
ingredients.” The corona-
virus pandemic has helped
accelerate this trend, as some
79% of global consumers
said they’re planning to eat
and drink more healthily over
the next year, according to a
report by consumer research
firm FMCG Gurus. Of those
consumers, 56% plan to
reduce sugar intake.
In most cases, the new
crop of sweeteners are
derived from natural sub-
stances—including tradi-
tional sugar itself, otherwise
known as sucrose. In a con-
sumer market increasingly
focused on healthier eating,
that may come in handy.
The mountain, however,
is high. Despite decades of
medical admonitions, sugar
is still pretty much every-
where. It’s currently found in
60% of packaged foods sold
in the U.S., which has one
of the highest sugar intakes
of any nation. One reason
for this is clear to anyone
who has tried traditional
sugar substitutes. Few come
close to matching the taste
of sucrose in consumer taste
tests or have the range in for-
mulation for moisture, flavor
and texture suitable for use in
packaged foods.
Indeed, Rabobank ana-
lyst Pablo Sherwell said 85%
of all sweeteners consumed
are still traditional sugar.
All told, it’s a $100 billion
market.
“The industry isn’t con-
cerned,” he said.
But that may not be
entirely the case. One
industry trade group is
already pushing back on how
substitutes are presented to
consumers. The Sugar Asso-
ciation, which says it rep-
resents 142,000 growers,
processers and refiners of
sugar, said it has asked the
U.S. Food and Drug Admin-
istration to change labeling
requirements so as to make
it clearer when products con-
tain alternative sweeteners.
See, Sugar/Page B3