ghee in baking

On Tue 23 Aug 2005 07:01:16a, stiko wrote in rec.food.baking:

I've not used it, but I think it would work very well for brusting the sheets of filo.

I'm not an expert in this sort of thing, but my understanding is that ghee doesn't have any of the milk solids, just the fat. The milk solids are what makes butter brown so well, which is where a substantial amount of the flavor comes from.

Why do you want to use it for this purpose?

The advantage of ghee is that it is all but impossible to burn. I've used butter to separate layers of filo pastry and to butter cinnamon raisin bread. In these cases, the oil is more used as a separator than to add color. A few times I've let the butter melt a bit too long and it burned and had a horrible plastic like substance on the bottom of the pan - the milk solids, no doubt.

With ghee, I could have avoided this issue. Or, I could have just been more careful with the butter.

Mike

When I make ghee, a lot of water boils off. My filtered ghee has a little flavor (just as walnut oil has), but not as much as butter with the solids in it. I haven't tried it with filo. Bobbi Jo

Phylio pastry is the same with austrian sttudel dough where the dough sheets are brushed with clarified butter or what we call as Ghee. Plain melted butter is cloudy due to suspended milks solids and emulsion of fat and water. Go on do brush your phyllo sheets with ghee as I what I did more 10 years back in a pastry kitchen. with clarified butter on a real viennese strudel dough. Roy

As one who loves the flavor of *whole* butter, I have to ask, "Why clarified butter for phyllo?" Might as well use corn oil...

Dave

Corn oil? You cannot compare the blandness of corn oil with distinctive buttery flavor of ghee. or clarified butter. In a pastry kitchen where I was assigned to improve the danish pastry and croissant formulations clarlifed butter is commenly used by pastry chefs for many applications and that includes phyllo based products.,and even viennese strudel I did not ask them about it .Its their method and .melted butter is seldom used. They have a pot of freshly clarified butter for their daily use..The deluxe restaurant wherei that kitchen it was connected was well known .Their austrian type apple strudel was one of its best selling specialty.

IF you want whole butter, go on soften it on with butter knife and try spreading on top of phyllo pastry( if desired) put some jam on top,. enjoy!

OK, I exagerrated for effect, but I still find clarified butter much blander than whole, melted butter. I was wondering more along the lines of what effect whole butter might have on browning, separation, etc.

When I make Galaktobouriko, I use whole butter, melted and kept warm, and stir it with the brush as I apply it to the phyllo sheets. Works well,..

Dave

That depends upon the grade of butter....A high grade butter seems to form a better flavored ghee than the lower grades .and the degree of heating ...will have a significangt influence as well......If you heat it carefully and and decant the cloudy aqueous portion you will retain much of the good flavor ... howver if you heat it long enough that the desired volatiles are gone and the fat starts to degrade (resulting in a change of aroma and even promotes off flavor to form)...you will end up with a poor flavor..

Roy

That wont work... for the phyllo type thingies, you need a fat that is close to solid at room temp, but melts when heated in the oven... corn oil wont solidify at room temp, so you wouldnt get the flakiness...

irax.

i can speak to why people use ghee in india...

its very hot, and refrigeration is a recent concept (in Indian cultural time scales). Left to the elements at Indian summer temps of above 40C, 100F+, butter would go rancid in a hurry, but ghee will last indefinitely...

irax.

Randall Nortman wrote:

I've been storing my ghee in the refrigerator. Do you mean that ghee will last indefintely NOT in the refrigerator? Thanks. Dee

its not going to spoil or anything, but the hard mass is a pain to work with when it is inside a jar... you can leave it out, just close tightly. We just store it on the counter top in one or those porcelain thingies with a lid without any problems. Ofcourse, my kids wont let it last very long either :)

One of the popular kiddie snacks that my kids love is to take a chappatti (or tortilla), slather with ghee, sprinkle liberally with sugar, and roll them up... Ignoring the calorie content, its good eats for adults too!

irax.

Dee Randall wrote:

Dear Irax: My DH doesn't care for ghee -- He sort of shivers when I mention it - and he is not a particular person when it comes to food. He'd just rather not have it. There is a taste difference, but I can't quite 'put my finger on' what that is. Thanks, Dee Dee

Not to hijack this thread, but seems like someone may know the answer here.

I really like brown butter on pasta, and the stuff that you buy these days does not have the flavor of the stuff of 15 years ago. It may be a function of my advanced age,but that is how it seems...I have tried adding cream to it before I brown it but not much improvement...Any sugestions???

I keep ghee in the reefer to do real hot saute/sears, but have never baked with it..(can't improve sourdough with it) s