benefits of walnuts

1. 

    Walnut is a good source of all important omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids has a lot of health benefits ranging from cardiovascular protection, better mental function, anti-inflammatory benefits in asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory diseases like eczema and psoriasis.
2. Walnut contain ellagic acid, an antioxidant compound that helps supports the immune system and contain several anticancer properties.
3. Walnut has a mild laxative effect, it is beneficial in cases of constipation.
4. It contains vitamins and minerals thus making it an excellent food for body and muscle building.
5. Walnut helps improve body's metabolism.
6. Walnut is recommended for patients with liver ailments.

Nutritive Values : Per 100 gm.

• Vitamin A : 30 I.U.
• Vitamin B : Thiamine .48 mg.
• Niacin : 1.2 mg.
• Vitamin C : 3 mg.
• Calcium : 83 mg.
• Iron : 2.1 mg.
• Phosphorus : 380 mg.
• Potassium : 225 mg.
• Fat : 64.4 gm.
• Carbohydrates : 15.6 gm.
• Protein : 15.0 gm.
• Calories : 654
   http://hubpages.com/hub/Health_Benefits_of_Walnut
  ~liwen~

Benfits of HACCP

Benefits of HACCP

1)      It is able to ensure food quality /safety by revealing identified potential hazards during the process of manufacturing.

2)      It is a systematic approach that is relevant to the processing stages

3)      As aids as a risk management tool in total quality management which is considered as the most preferred.

4)      Able to provide as a cost effective control of food borne hazards and as a focus on the technical resources during the critical process.

5)      Enable to facilitate the movement of end product testing to the preventive quality approach which allows manufacturers to understand immediately as well as the reduction of waste rejection.

6)      HACCP is a recognized system by international bodies for ensuring safety such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission. 

1.      http://www.pma.com/resources/issues-monitoring/food-safety/hazard-analysis-and-critical-control-point-haccp-programs
                                                                                          ~Liwen~

Time and temperature (baking ) effects on bread

Time
Longer, slower fermentation extracts more flavor from your flour. If you are baking a simple white sandwich bread or in a hurry and you just want the darned thing to rise, you can put two or even three teaspoons of yeast into your dough and get the loaf to rise in under an hour. But if you want to create a rustic bread with a rich, nutty flavor, reducing the yeast and allow more and longer rises is appropriate.
Temperature's Impact on Rising
The warmer the temperature, the more active your yeast will be. The more active your yeast is, the quicker the dough rises. Simple enough, but you can use this in a multitude of ways. For example:

• if you want to speed up a rise, turn your oven on for 30 seconds, turn it off, and then place your dough into the slightly-above-room-temperature oven. It should rise noticeably quicker.
• If you need to leave halfway through preparing to bake a loaf, you can throw it into the fridge. It'll continue to rise in there at a much slower pace.
• You can make a large batch of pizza dough and freeze individual pieces of it in freezer bags. The yeast will survive at least a month or two in the freezer. The day before you want to make the pizza, just move it to the fridge to thaw it and then pull it out of the fridge when you want it begin its final rise.

Temperature's Impact on Baking
Temperature also has an impact on how your loaf bakes. The general rule is that crusty breads should be baked at as high a temperature as possible. Soft shelled breads should be baked at lower temperatures. When you increase the temperature of your oven your bread bakes quicker (duh).
Professional bakers of rustic breads use ovens that achieve higher temperatures than home ovens achieve. Turning the temperature of your oven up when baking rustic breads will help you get closer to professional quality loaves. Buying a pizza or baking stone is another inexpensive method of capturing more heat in your oven and improving the quality of your bread (I have shattered two of these, so I don't currently bake with one. I'll probably end up getting another one some day, but I can't say the quality of my bread has suffered that much without one).
If you get really serious about bread baking, there is even a movement of bread hobbyest who build large hearth ovens in their backyards to reproduce professional quality loaves. Pick up a copy of "The Bread Builders" if this interests you.
My wife is pleased that I have not gotten that crazy about baking good bread at home (yet).
Time and Temperature Together
As you can see, time and temperature work in opposition to one another during dough formation: increase the temperature, decrease the time that your loaf rises; decrease the temperature, increase the time it takes to get to full size.
In the rising stage, if you are striving to extract the maximum flavor from your flour, you want to slow the rise down. If you want a make a quick loaf in time for dinner, speed the rise up.
While baking, If you want a crusty bread, you'll want to increase the temperature of the oven and reduce the amount of time your loaf bakes. For soft, pillowy breads, do the opposite (more time at a lower temperature). There are times when either technique is appropriate, so don't be worried that you aren't doing things the "right" way!

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons/timeandtemperature

-Li hua

Bread baking

Baking Bread

Bread is baked at a high temperature to kill the yeast and stop the dough from over proofing and collapsing. The dough goes through three stages when baking.

1. "Oven Spring" the gas bubbles in the dough expand and it rises rapidly.
2. The dough solidifies and turn into bread
3. The crust forms and browns - either soft or crisp crust.

Make sure that there is an even circulation of oven heat so that the bread rises (oven spring) and browns evenly.

Set the oven shelf one third up from the oven floor. Leave plenty of space for the bread to rise without touching the shelf above,

Do not open the oven until the dough has risen completely to avoid collapse.

Oven temperature vary depending on the size of the bread or rolls and on the degree of "firing" desired somewhere between 200ºC, 400ºF gas 6 and 180ºC, 350ºF gas 5 is normally called for.

Bread Stones help retain an even heat in an oven and simulate the conditions in a brick said to be ideal for bread baking!

Steamy heat developes the best crust and can be achieved by placing a shallow tin of boiling water in the base of the oven. Alternativelt once the loaf has started to brown spray it with water from an atomiser.

Testing Bread

The traditional method to test whether bread or rolls are cooked is to tap the base of the loaf. If it sounds hollow it is done and the sides should feel crips and firm.

Bread should be well browned on all sides.

Internal temperature check should be around 195ºF or 100ºC

http://www.cookeryonline.com/Bread/Baking%20Bread.htm

-Lihua

Yeast during bread baking

Like many fungi types, yeasts for bread dough responds to warm water, which begins to bring the little cells to life. Then when exposed to sugars in bread and in flour, it begins to eat, digesting portions of these sugars. This eating process goes on for a short period of time only. Eventually the yeast will die within a few hours, especially if the dough is allowed to grow cold or exposed to too much air. Don’t feel too sorry for it when you have a slice of bread, as its life would be short under any circumstances. At least by using it for bread or wine, you get to give this fungus a happy and full life.

It might be embarrassing to the yeast to have to admit that this rapid eating/digestion cycle makes it just a trifle gassy. As Saccharomyces cerivisiae is feasting, it begins to release gas bubbles of carbon dioxide, and small amounts of ethanol alcohol. These bubbles, trapped in the bread dough, cause the rising action with which we’re familiar. This is why bread making can be time consuming; you’ve got to let this fungus work for a couple of hours in order to sufficiently rise dough.

Once dough has been acted upon by fungi, not all of the cells are quite dead. Putting the bread in the oven is relatively macabre, from the standpoint of the yeast (if it had a point of view). The heat from the oven makes remaining cells go into overdrive, madly munching away at the sugars and expelling carbon dioxide prior to expiring from the oven heat. This is why bread continues to rise during its early cooking stages, and then may deflate slightly as cooking continues.

http://www.wisegeek.com/why-does-yeast-make-bread-rise.htm

 -Li Hua

Friendship Bread

I didnt know that there's such thing as sharing bacterial culture!  

 A popular type of bread to make and share is known as ‘Friendship Bread.’ Friendship bread is made using a yeast-based sourdough starter that is kept for an extended period of time, often passing from family to family.

   

 Recent nationwide foodborne illness outbreaks in Winnebago County, Illinois, have been linked to traditional bread-making ingredients: first, contaminated flour was tentatively linked to the presence ofE. coli O157:H7 in Nestle cookie dough that sickened at least 69 people in 30 states and led to a nationwide recall of prepared, refrigerated cookie dough in 2009; more recently, thousands of eggs were recalled in 2010 due to possible contamination with Salmonella (University of Wisconsin, 2011).

Friendship bread batter is a type of starter culture similar to the sourdough starters used by the pioneers of the Old West. 

 While foodborne illness outbreaks haven’t been directly linked to modern-day starters used in friendship bread, food safety experts advise asking questions and taking precautions when making and sharing these batters. 

• What’s in the starter? High-protein ingredients, such as eggs and milk, can support the growth of disease-causing bacteria. Some recipes call for raw (unpasteurized) milk, which is unsafe to consume.

• Unpasteurized milk contains a wide variety of microorganisms, many of which can cause serious illnesses.

• Eggs may contain bacteria, such as salmonella. Contaminated kitchen equipment or people could add some undesirable bacteria to the mixture, too. A starter containing water, flour, sugar and yeast is a safer option than using milk and “wild yeast.” You can use whole- wheat flour, rye flour, cultured buttermilk or yogurt with live cultures in sourdough starters, too.

• Do the directions recommend keeping the batter refrigerated? Usually starters need two or three days at room temperature to get the fermentation process started, but after that, most food safety experts advise keeping the batter refrigerated. The culture still will grow, but more slowly. Starters can be frozen, too.

• Does the batter have an acidic, “yeasty” aroma? That’s a good sign. If it smells bad, discard it.
• Does the batter have orange or red spots or slime? If so, the batter is spoiled. Discard it carefully in a place where no humans or animals will come in contact with it. (North Dakota State University, 2011).


Author: Monica 
 

Bread

  

 

Bread is the staple food in Europe, European-derived cultures such as the Americas, and the Middle East/North Africa, as opposed to East Asia whose staple is rice. Bread is usually made from a wheat-flour dough that is cultured with yeast, allowed to rise, and finally baked in an oven.

Made from wheat, it contributes to the high content of gluten. Gluten gives the dough its springiness and elasticity too!

In addition, wheat flour is also made with other wheat species (including durum, spelt and emmer), rye, barley, maize (or corn), and oats, usually, but not always, in combination with wheat flour. Spelt bread (Dinkelbrot) continues to be widely consumed in Germany, and emmer bread was a staple food in ancient Egypt. Canadian bread is known for its heartier consistency due to high protein levels in Canadian flour.

Other ingredients such as salt, fat and leavening agents such as yeast and baking soda are added during the dough making process. The process of making bread include baking, steaming, frying, or baked on an unoiled skillet. It may be leavened or unleavened.


Author: Monica 

Types of Bread

 

Author: Monica   

Facts about walnut and it being an allergen

walnut allergy is a severe allergy that comes from nature. The scientific name for this allergy is Juglan Recia. It is occurred when it is smelt or eaten in sauces or when it is chopped. This is a tree type nut allergy. These tree type nut allergies are life threatening to people internationally. This life threatening allergy is mostly caused when you are in nature too much. This allergen has many reactions to other nuts too but mainly to walnuts. People can have reactions to other nuts, even if you have this allergy but they all are not plant related species. These allergies can be struck by the main proteins found inside the nut. People who suffer this allergy cannot resist, when it is in the process of cooking.
This allergy has a more mild form which has similar symptoms to the birch pollen allergy. The most severe symptoms of this allergy are caused mainly around the mouth, which then causes Oral allergy syndrome. This allergen is also struck by molecules that are mainly found in all tree nuts that are the same as pollen allergies like all major birch pollen allergies, which are very harmful. The molecules can be annihilated when you are cooking the walnuts, which can lower the chance of suffering the symptoms of seeds and nuts for people who suffer this allergy.
When nut ingredients are added in foods they are consequences to those who manufacture hidden nut ingredients. They must be labeled on the box or the wrapper. Although now many food make notice on the food label if it contains nuts in the ingredients. This also includes all tree nuts and seed contained in foods.

All of the tree nuts that are contained in foods that are similar to walnuts are:
• Almonds
• Hazelnuts
• Brazil nut
• Cashew
• Pecan nut
• Pistachios
• Macadamia nuts
• Sesame seeds
• Mustard

Here are the symptoms or allergic reactions that you may suffer if you are harmed by this allergy:
• Itching
• Skin rashes
• Hives
• Breathing problems
• Swelling
• Puffiness around the face
• A dangerous drop in blood pressure
• Anaphylaxis
• A change in hearts rhythm
• Life threatening symptoms

http://www.adicma.com/walnut-allergy/

~liwen~