Have you ever wondered, how do I extend the shelf life of my baked recipes?
Today on WTF, we're going to show you just how to do that, using soy
lecithin powder, sodium stearoyl lactylate, and glycerol monostearate.
Hello, and welcome to WTF, where we transform food here in the
Modernist Pantry test kitchen.
I'm chef Scott Guerin, and I'm Janie Wang, the owner of Modernist Pantry.
Today, Scott and I are going to be talking about one of probably our most frequently
asked questions, which is, how do I extend the shelf life of my baked goods?
So in order to answer that question, we've put together three of our most
popular products that we use and love.
And we're going to do some side-by-side comparisons of baked goods without
them and baked goods with them so that hopefully you'll walk away with
information on which one might be best for your particular application.
So let's get started.
Scott, which three products are we talking about?
So we're going to talk about soy lecithin powder, which we
actually touched on in episode 116.
And we, in that episode, we made the apple cider cinnamon rolls, but now
that spring's coming around, we took that and we updated a little bit.
We're also going to talk about SSL, which is sodium stearoyl lactylate.
And that's going to be in our middle recipe.
And then our last one is going to be glycerol monostearate.
And I said all those words properly, right?
A big plus.
So each of them work the same as they extend the shelf life of baked goods, but
they all work better in different, you know, types of breads and baked goods.
So let's start with the first one, the one that we've already talked about, right.
Soy lecithin powder, you mix it in directly into the flour.
That's the best way to use it.
So that way, if you don't leave it out, it's not going to absorb the moisture from
the air because it loves moisture so much.
And you're going to get a longer lasting product out of it.
Okay.
I'm going to show you a little demo.
These were made on the same day.
We actually, really stress-tested this.
We gave these four days, right?
And this one has no soy lecithin powder, and they're hard.
And these were covered as well.
That that's a good thing to mention.
Then we have these, made on the same day.
You can hear that these actually are still breaking apart and you can still see that
they're nice and moist on the inside.
I know, I said moist.
Sorry to all the people out there who are cringing right now.
But it's great because then you still have these nice, beautiful
cinnamon rolls that don't last long.
This may be pushing it, you know, four or five days.
But two, three days on a cinnamon roll is, is unheard of.
And if you have used soy lecithin before, or have not, and I really strongly
recommend that you do check out episode 116, because we talk all about soy
lecithin in that particular episode.
It's a super versatile ingredient that can do a lot of different things.
You know, you can emulsify with them, but you can also foam with them.
So episode 113, all about foams, also touches on soy lecithin.
So it's something that we come back to time and time again, because
it does have that versatility.
So it's great for a lot of stuff.
And, you know, we definitely think you'll learn all about soy lecithin.
It's going to be like your best friend.
So we updated this recipe, just so it's not, you know, it doesn't
have those heavy, fall kind of flavors, those warm flavors.
We took it and we made a lemon poppy seed roll out of it.
So it's really not a cinnamon roll, but we did instead of on the inside,
having, you know, cinnamon and brown sugar, we did granulated sugar with
lemon zest and butter and poppy seeds.
And then we made a lemon poppy seed glaze for it.
So it still looks just like a cinnamon roll, but it has those, you know,
kind of brighter, more acidic flavors.
So it's really nice and it's a different way.
So if you liked that recipe, here's a new version of it that you can make in the
fall or switch it up whenever you want.
Yeah.
Can we still eat that one?
Even though it's four days old, still taste it.
We'll try it a little bit, 'cause we've got a few of these.
All right, fine.
Right.
What is the next tasty good?
This is my favorite one.
This is called Craquelin, and I used to get this when I worked down in Boston
and there was this place that just had these nice, beautiful brioche buns that
were stuffed with sugar cubes that had lemon juice and they were just great.
So when you made them and you let them cool a little bit, you'd have
this like crispy interior, right?
So you'd have these little pockets of it.
So I made this and I added SSL.
And SSL is really great because it allows for the volume of the dough
to be greater than it usually is.
But also has that emulsification property, because it takes the water and it takes
the oil and it keeps them together and stops that staling that we all don't like.
No one likes a stale bread.
So these two, like we said earlier, made on the exact same day.
This one has no SSL.
This one has SSL.
So we're going to just see, I'm just going to tap on it really quick.
Yeah.
Kind of rock solid.
And brioche is a tough one to deal with.
These are both four days removed from when they were baked.
Both wrapped, both kept in the same conditions.
But this one with the SSL, you can hear it's got that nice, hollow sound
that you want from a loaf of bread.
And then if you were to cut into this, and this works really amazing if you
were to make French toast, because it has those pockets of sugar in it too,
you should be able to see a pocket or two of sugar, especially up near the top.
You can see them, where those sugar pockets are.
And this was so good.
I think the first time that Scott made it, like, I think we
just ate all of them right away.
They didn't get a chance to stale.
So we had to hide one away to let it stale.
Yes.
So I hid it.
Yeah.
Just to see how long it took, but yeah, so you get a really nice dough.
And it helps it rise up really beautifully.
And then you also obviously get the extension of the shelf life.
Okay.
And this is probably if you're, you know, I think one of the most
powerful shelf life enhancers.
Yes, it absolutely is because there's an HBL scale, and we don't need
to get too scientific on it, but that determines, you know, whether
it loves water or it loves oil.
And this falls right in the perfect area where it is a perfect emulsifier,
so it loves oil and it loves water.
So it helps them multiply them together and you get a
really great product out of it.
Okay.
And what's this last one here?
So there's a gorgeous plate.
Let's talk about this one.
We love carrot cake.
Actually Derek and I made this cake and this is his recipe.
And he wanted to take a cake that is, has the highest moisture content and
see, you know, if you could really keep it for as long as possible.
So if it has a high moisture content and a low fat content, obviously that moisture
is going to go away quickly, right?
Because there's no really fat to hold on to it.
So we took glycerol monostearate and we added it to the cake
recipe and we made it as normal.
Same thing you can hear here.
Yep.
And then this one is still beautifully soft.
This one obviously has the GMS, the glycerol monostearate.
That emulsification has held onto that water.
Like I said, a small amount of fat.
It's very hard for it to hold on to that much water, bus
this one held onto it greatly.
And then we made a really beautiful dish with it because all the great things
that go with carrot cake, we put a walnut brittle, like a salted walnut brittle.
We put a very low-sugar cream cheese frosting on there.
'Cause we found, you know, all these flavors worked really well and we
needed a little bit of acidity on there.
And this recipe actually has a lot of pineapple in it.
So we did, you know, candied dehydrated pineapple and then carrot chips, which you
could find all these recipes on the blog.
So if you wanted to make this beautiful dessert, that's just based
on a normal carrot cake that you know and love, you can update it
and really wow your friends or your customers with something like that.
Yeah.
And I feel like I just keep saying it's delicious, but it really is delicious.
I don't know what else to say about it, but yeah, we all, obviously we taste test
everything and this was super good too.
Like these are all super good.
We wanted to take our favorite kind of recipes, like this is my, one
of my favorite baked goods ever.
This is Derek's favorite cake.
So why not take them and try and enhance them and make them better?
And that's something that you can do too.
So you could take these ingredients.
You don't have to make just this recipe.
You can add it to your recipe and not have to alter how you do it.
You take 2% of glycerol monostearate.
Okay.
You add it to the flour in your recipe and you go about it as normal.
It's unbelievably easy, when sometimes these can be a little bit intimidating
if you don't know how to use them.
All of these get added directly to the flour, in the percentage
that's on the back, and then you go about your recipe as normal.
You don't have to heat anything specifically.
You don't have to do anything beforehand other than add it to the flour.
Yeah.
And for the folks watching at home and someone's like, okay, I get
you that you made this stuff, but I'm still kind of confused about
when I use each particular type.
Do we have any general guidelines that we can pass on for, if
you're making a cake, this.
If you're making a bread, do this, et cetera.
So I went with the SSL.
This has, it's obviously brioche, which brioche has a large amount of fat in it.
So I wanted the SSL for that.
Not only because it has the large amount of fat, but it also is a,
you know, a high-gluten dough.
So you're going to get that really nice, beautiful rise out of it.
And some of them, I had to mess with my recipe a little bit, because I had
to just dial down the proofing time because some of them over-proofed in
a shorter amount of time, which is something I've never had an issue with
ever, but it's just going to help you get that really beautiful dough quicker.
For soy lecithin powder, many words today, I like to use it in, in doughs
that will last on average, like two days.
So you cannot really get away with, you know, making cinnamon rolls
and holding them for a long time.
And I like to use it in there and it just holds onto that moisture
and keeps it really beautiful.
And then definitely glycerol monostearate for a cake batter or
something with that high moisture content that we talked about.
Right.
Okay.
That's great.
And so hopefully, you know, at this point you might have some ideas
around how you can incorporate it into your favorite recipes.
We're probably going to go eat all this stuff.
So, is there anything else that we want to leave folks with?
No, I think we pretty much touched on all of it.
And obviously there's information on the back of the packages and then on our
website, or if you go to the blog, you can find all these recipes, so definitely
check them out and try and make them and then try and add it to your own recipe.
Yeah.
And I'm going to make a quick plug just for Instagram, because we have actually
put the carrot chips on Instagram first, and people were asking about the recipe.
So if you haven't already, follow us on Instagram, 'cause we put in little
sneak peeks of what we're doing.
We do some behind-the-scenes stuff, so it is kind of cool to have some
more food in your feed if you don't have enough food in your feed.
So from here in the Modernist Pantry test kitchen, I'm Janie Wang.
And I'm Scott Guerin.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode.
And if you want these great recipes and these awesome ingredients,
first, you're going to have to like, comment, and subscribe.
And then you're going to go to blog.modernistpantry.com,
where you can find those awesome recipes and you can ask a chef.
And to get these great ingredients, go to modernistpantry.com.
And until next time, we'll be here in the Modernist Pantry test
kitchen, helping you transform food.