I’ve tried and failed at making pie dough so many times that, now that I have a method that works, I desperately need to preserve it.
Pie dough seems to be the epitome of a-little-of-this-and-a-little-of-that cooking. A lot of recipes for pie dough seem maddening to me and I’ve just kind of wound up with one that works for me through a lot of trial and error.
I’ve arrived at an amount of flour that yields enough to make a double-crust pie. I’ve settled on a 2-to-1 ratio of shortening to butter. Shortening results in a nicely flaky crust and is easy to work with. I have just enough patience to grate one stick of butter but no more than that. I measure out a precise amount of water.
I also work the dough a little bit like a bread dough in order to get everything to hold together. Most recipes try to scare you into thinking you should only mix the ingredients until they just start to hold together. When I tried that, inevitably, my first attempt at rolling it out resulted in a mess that failed to look anything like a pie crust and I wound up scraping it together and kneading it like a bread dough anyway.
Ingredients:
450 grams (3 ¾) cups All-Purpose flour
14 grams (1 tbsp.) Sugar
14 grams (2 tbsp.) Milk Powder
2 tsp. Kosher Salt
8 oz. Cubed Frozen Shortening (16 tbsp. or 2 sticks)
4 oz. Grated Frozen Butter (8 tbsp. or 1 stick)
140 grams (½ cup) Ice Water
1 tsp. White Distilled Vinegar
Directions:
Step 1: Combine dry ingredients. Add one stick of grated frozen butter. Add two sticks of frozen shortening that have been cut into cubes.
Step 2: Massage the flour, shortening and butter together, breaking up the larger chunks of shortening until the largest pieces are pea-sized.
Step 3: Measure out the water and add an ice cube to it. Let that sit for about two minutes to let the water chill down a bit. Add to the flour mixture and mix until you have a cohesive dough. Divide into two disks, wrap in plastic and freeze.
I’ve heard The French make fun of Americans for buying croutons. That’s fair. We should probably also be ridiculed for buying Panko Bread Crumbs.
I decided to look into homemade panko after running short for a recipe I was making. I have a hard time judging how much panko I’ve got near the end of a box and I seem to run short often enough to get annoyed with myself. There isn’t much in those little boxes to begin with. I finally thought, “How hard can it be to make this?”
I had mistakenly assumed panko bread crumbs were made with rice flour since they are a Japanese creation. It turns out they are made from yeasted wheat bread that is cooked with an electric current and yields a bread without crusts. Legend has it that Japanese soldiers in World War II baked a crustless bread with the electric current from 12 volt batteries. That bread that was eventually repurposed into panko.
The key to baking a loaf of bread suitable for panko in a conventional oven is to make the plainest, whitest bread imaginable. No sugar, no eggs – just white flour, yeast, salt and water; tenting the loaf with aluminum foil half-way through the baking time will minimize browning.
It’s important to force moisture out of the bread crumbs in an oven in order to get the kind of crisp, dry breadcrumbs associated with panko. Just letting the bread dry at room temperature will give you a kind of stale bread texture since moisture will remain trapped inside the structure of the bread.
Ingredients:
540 grams (4 ½ cups) All Purpose White Wheat Flour
2 tsp. Yeast
2 tsp. Kosher Salt
297 grams (1 ⅓ cups) Water
Directions:
Step 1: Combine the dry ingredients. Mix in warm water and knead for 10 minutes. Set aside in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size – about an hour.
Step 2: Knead the dough for a good two minutes. Use oil or non-stick spray to coat a standard 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½ inch loaf pan. Place the dough in the pan and mold into an oblong shape to fill the pan. Set aside to rise until the dough gets about an inch above the rim of the pan.
Step 3: Bake at 350° for 20 minutes, tent with foil and bake another 20 minutes. It’s also a good idea to rotate the loaf at the half-way point to ensure even baking. Let cool.
Step 4: Tear the loaf into small pieces and spread out over two large sheet trays. Dry the bread out by baking in an oven at 275°F. for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Step 5: Use a food processor to break down the dried pieces into a smaller texture.
Notes:
Making this bread really points out how important sugar is to browning. People have a tendency to think sugar is a foreign ingredient that has no legitimate place in bread baking. Not true. It’s not only important for browning, but it is also important for keeping bread fresh because it is hygroscopic and helps keep bread from drying out.
This bread also refutes the notion that bread yeast needs sugar to activate. The strains of saccharomyces cerevisiae used in modern commercial yeasts are particularly good at gobbling up the carbohydrates in wheat flour.
I once shadowed former Nepali refugees while they cooked and recorded recipes for a book. It’s a shame, but evidently that project will not see the light of day.
I was faithful to every detail as the cooks prepared the dishes. Over time, however, as I made the dishes for myself at home, I wound up condensing a lot of steps and using time-saving convenience items like pre-ground spices when I was in a hurry.
The pandemic really forced changes when fresh ingredients weren’t always easily at hand. I’ve deviated from the original recipe for this dish by substituting dried chili flakes for fresh Thai chilis. I use ground cumin instead of grinding cumin seeds with a mortar and pestle like the Nepali cooks do. They also use the mortar and pestle to grind fresh ginger into a mash. I happily use ginger puree out of a tube.
This is a vegan dish that will please anyone and I do think the flavor stays true to the original.
The combination of whole wheat pasta and beans and peas provides all the essential amino acids for a complete protein. The Nepali cooks keep a bowl of dried peas and garbanzo beans soaking in water at all times since they are such a useful staple. The flavor of reconstituted dried peas is a revelation and they provide a delightful fresh pea flavor with a little bit of crunch. Canned peas are no substitute.
Dried whole peas called Vatana can be found at Indian grocery stores, but if that is not an option, feel free to substitute a 16 oz. can of garbanzo beans instead.
Ingredients:
¼ cup dried Whole Garbanzo Beans
¼ cup dried Whole Peas
170 grams (6 oz.) Whole Wheat Spaghetti, broken in half
4 cups Green Cabbage, chopped
1 – 1 ½ cups Onion, chopped
2 Roma Tomatoes, diced
1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp. Ground Cumin
1 tsp. Ground Turmeric
½ tbsp. Sea Salt
1 tsp. MSG (optional, but highly recommended. Read more about MSG here.)
1 tsp. Crushed Red Chili Flakes (Aleppo Pepper works great.)
2 tbsp. Fresh Ginger purée
1 – 2 tbsp. Lime Juice
Directions:
Step 1: Soak the peas and beans overnight in a bowl of water with ¼ tsp. baking soda. The baking soda will help tenderize.
Step 2: Bring a large pot of water to boil, break the pasta in half and cook until tender. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking. Coat with about 2 tbsp. vegetable oil. Don’t forget to break the pasta in half. It’s much easier to eat that way.
Step 3: Heat 3-4 tbsp. vegetable oil in a wok or large skillet. Reduce temperature to medium and add onion, sautéing until tender. Add diced tomatoes and spices and continue to sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the cabbage, peas and beans and mix well. Add ¼ cup water, cover and cook until the cabbage is cooked through – about 15 minutes.
Mix in the whole wheat pasta and 1 or 2 tbsp. lime juice and serve.
Notes:
Many of the dishes of the cooks from Nepal and Burundi that I shadowed are vegetarian and make use of the complementary proteins found in whole grains and legumes. Most plant foods lack some of the essential amino acids needed to form a complete protein. However, the amino acids found in grains complement those missing in beans and when combined can provide the protein needed for a balanced diet. Around the world, combinations of beans and rice, corn and beans, lentils and millet, and peas and wheat make use of protein combining.
Traditional farming practices made use of inter-planting grains and legumes and modern agronomy is confirming that crops utilizing this technique grow faster and need less weeding than single-crop fields. In “Diet for a Small Planet,” Francis Moore Lappe points out that an acre of grains can produce five times more protein than an acre devoted to raising cattle or other meat. An acre devoted to the production of leafy greens can produce 15 times more protein than an acre of meat production.
This recipe is adapted from the book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg. When I say adapted, I mean that I’ve tried a quite a few variations over quite a long period of time and, now that I feel I’ve really nailed my method, I went back to check the original recipe and discovered it’s almost exactly like what’s in the book. Go figure.
Still, experimenting helps a person learn by testing the parameters. In the end, I guess I wound up being a little like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. I found out that “there’s no place like home.”
Ingredients:
454 grams (1 lb.) All-Purpose or Bread Flour
¼ tsp. Active Dry Yeast
2 tsp. Sea Salt
50 grams (½ cup) Parmesan Cheese, fresh grated
75 grams (½ cup) Sun Dried Tomatoes, oil-packed, julienne cut
340 grams (1 ⅔ cups) Water
Dough mixture after 24 hours of fermenting. The aroma is extraordinary.
Directions:
Step 1: Combine dry ingredients. Add grated cheese and sun-dried tomatoes and mix until coated with flour. Add water and mix by hand just until the mix holds together without working the dough. You do not want to develop the gluten.
Step 2: Set aside in a food-grade container, cover with plastic wrap or a lid and ferment at room temperature for 24-36 hours.
Dough mixture before fermenting.
Dough mixture after fermenting.
Step 3: Dust your surface with flour and shape the dough into a ball. Transfer to a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
Dough ball before rising.
Dough ball after one hour of rising time.
Step 4: Preheat the oven to 450°F. Bake for 35 minutes. Use a spray bottle to give 15 spritzes of water in the oven every five minutes. This helps develop a chewy crust. Turn the bread around half-way through the bake in order to ensure even baking. Let cool on a wire rack.
This recipe came about by combining the recipe for Mettwurst Sausage from Ellen Brown’s, The Sausage Cookbook Bible, with the pâté cooking method described in Charcuterie, by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn.
A country-style pâté, or pâté de campagne, such as this is really nothing more than a meatloaf that has been compressed and chilled. It’s packed with flavor and is best served as an appetizer with Saltines or water crackers.
The first time I made this I thought, “My dad would have loved this.” It has such an old world quality to it. For anyone who grew up knowing Braunschweiger or Underwood Deviled Ham, the taste and texture will tickle the hippocampus with pleasant memory.
According to an article in Smithsonian Magazine, Underwood’s Deviled Ham is the oldest trademarked logo still in use.
Oldest trademark since 1870.
I’m more familiar with the one from my childhood.
If I ever go commercial I think this will be my logo.
Ingredients:
1 lb. Ground Beef
1 lb. Ground Pork
⅔ cup Onion, finely diced
3 cloves Garlic, finely diced
2 tsp. Yellow Mustard Seed
1 tsp. Celery Seed
2 tsp. Kosher Salt
1 tsp. Black Pepper
¼ tsp. White Pepper
¼ tsp. Nutmeg, ground
¼ tsp. Ginger, ground
¼ tsp. Cloves, ground
½ tsp. Liquid Smoke
2 tbsp. All-Purpose Flour
2 large Eggs
½ cup Heavy Cream
Directions:
Step 1: Whisk together the flour, eggs and heavy cream.
Step 2: Process the ground beef and ground pork through the fine grind plate of a meat grinder. Add the spices and mixture of flour, eggs and heavy cream. Mix well and continue working the mixture in order to develop a smooth emulsion.
Step 3: Preheat oven to 300°F. Lightly coat a standard 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½ inch loaf pan with oil or non-stick spray and pour the meat mixture into the pan. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake in a bain marie for 1 hour and 45 minutes until the internal temperature is 165°F.
Spread emulsion in pan.
Wrap pan in foil.
Add hot water until half-way up the side of the pan.
Internal temperature should be 165°F
Step 4: Drain the excess liquid and cover with plastic. Place a brick wrapped in foil on the meat and chill thoroughly in the refrigerator – at least 12 hours. This will compress the loaf to a dense texture.
Compress the pâté with a brick wrapped in foil
Step 5: Cut crosswise into five equal portions. Wrap the portions in plastic and aluminum foil. They freeze extremely well.
On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. On the way home from work that night I stopped by a pharmacy to buy Smith Brothers Cough Drops. It was a way of paying homage to my grandfather, Otto Borchardt, who worked in an auto repair shop as a young man during the 1918 Flu Pandemic. None of the men who worked in the shop ever came down with the deadly flu and they gave credit to the fact that they all sucked on Smith Brothers Cough Drops every day.
Unfortunately, as I came to find out, Smith Brothers Cough Drops had been discontinued.
“Good Lord,” I thought, “we’re all doomed.”
Of course, Smith Brothers Cough Drops were NOT responsible for preventing the 1918 Flu, but it seemed like a nice way to tip my cap to a grandfather I never had the chance to meet.
He came to the United States as a young boy from Germany in the 1890’s. His mother passed away when he was 14 and he had to drop out of school and go to work on a relative’s farm. Despite this, he maintained a broad interest in the world and later in life became president of the local school board. His oldest daughter became a teacher.
Somewhere along the way in his young life he attended a school that taught auto mechanics.
Otto Borchardt Graduation Photo
By the time the United States got involved in World War I he had a wife and family and was able to get a deferment.
Otto Borchardt WWI Registration Card
The remarkable thing about the story of Smith Brothers Cough Drops and the auto mechanics during the 1918 Pandemic is that this particular strain of flu attacked young healthy people so severely. The guys working in the shop were prime targets.
I will get my second COVID-19 vaccine shot on April 20, 2021 and even though I could no longer get Smith Brothers Cough Drops, I did settle on Ricola Cough Drops as a reasonable substitute. I honestly don’t think I went so much as a day without having at least one.
Superstitious? Not really.
I think that the decision to find meaning in something as innocuous as the daily ritual of having a cough drop, and jokingly thinking of it as a protective amulet, and making a mystical connection to a relative I never knew was an act of existential defiance against the chaos of mankind.
A little heavy? Ya, maybe. But the failure of efforts to slow the spread of Coronavirus was a failure of people. The mitigation strategies like wearing masks and social distancing actually did work. The magnitude of this crisis was a failure of selfish and reckless people.
My partner and I made the conscious decision that other people’s chaos ended at our house. Recognizing that ritual and tradition play a role in mental health, we invented all kinds of little traditions and rituals that had a personal meaning for us. We enjoyed them and looked forward to them with a sense of gratitude.
We had to make meaning for ourselves because so many of the leaders of our political and religious institutions failed. We didn’t fall for their Big Lies.
Home-style bread has an image problem. It’s not perceived as being outré amongst the entre nous crowd. This is a shame because it might be the most versatile of breads and makes superior sandwiches.
Chewy-crusted artisanal breads are great but they have a tendency to fall apart before you’re done with your sandwich because they simply lack enough gluten to hold up. And home-style bread is the perfect vehicle for jam.
Sometimes in life you just need a nice loaf of soft bread.
This loaf features a ⅔ to ⅓ ratio of high-gluten bread flour to white whole wheat flour. There is no nutritional difference between white whole wheat and red whole wheat; I just like the golden color.
The inclusion of an egg helps with giving the loaf a good rise and the addition of sugar, oil and powdered milk help with richness and prevent the loaf from drying out too quickly. A loaf can stay reasonably moist for close to a week.
Ingredients:
320 grams (3 cups) High Gluten Bread Flour
220 grams (2 cups) White Whole Wheat Flour
50 grams (¼ cup) Sugar
28 grams (4 tbsp.) Dry Milk Powder
2 tsp. or 1 packet Active Dry Yeast
2 tsp. Sea Salt
1 Egg
50 grams (¼ cup) Vegetable Oil
270 grams (scant 1 ¼ cups) Warm Water
1 tbsp. Melted Butter
Directions:
Step 1: Combine the dry ingredients. Mix in egg, oil and warm water and knead for 10 minutes. Set aside in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size – about an hour.
Step 2: Knead the dough for a good two minutes. Use oil or non-stick spray to coat a standard 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½ inch loaf pan. Place the dough in the pan and mold into an oblong shape to fill the pan. Set aside to rise until the dough gets about an inch above the rim of the pan.
Step 3: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Brush the dough with half of the melted butter and bake for a total of 40 minutes, tenting the loaf with aluminum foil half-way through in order to prevent the loaf from browning too much. It’s also a good idea to rotate the loaf at the half-way point to ensure even baking.
Remove from the pan and brush with the remaining melted butter.
Partially baking and freezing bread is a great way to have fresh baked bread on hand without any going to waste. Buns can be thawed quickly and popped in a toaster oven for about 10 minutes to give a nicely golden crust.
Buns after finishing touch baking
Ingredients:
560 grams (4 ⅔ cups) Bread Flour
50 grams (¼ cup) Sugar
28 grams (4 tbsp.) Dry Milk Powder
2 tsp. Active Dry Yeast
2 tsp. Salt
50 grams (¼ cup) Vegetable Oil
1 Large Egg
270 grams (1 ¼ cups) Warm Water
Directions:
Step 1: Combine the dry ingredients. Add egg, oil and warm water, mix and knead for about 8-10 minutes. Set aside in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size – about an hour.
Step 2: After the dough has doubled in size, knead it for a second time. Weigh out three ounce portions and work with the hands to form a cohesive ball. Cup the bun in the palms of the hands and shape into a smooth ball. Place on a sheet tray covered with parchment paper or silicone mat. After all the buns are formed, allow to rise for about an hour.
*** If you want fully baked buns right away, let the buns rise for an hour and bake in an oven that has been preheated to 375°F. for 18-20 minutes. Brush with a tablespoon of melted butter.
Par-baking Instructions: Preheat the oven to 275°F. After the buns have risen for about an hour, bake for 25 minutes.
Allow the buns to cool and then freeze while the buns remain separated. If you don’t they’ll freeze together in a big lump. Once they are frozen completely they can be bagged together in a freezer bag.
Thaw buns for 30 minutes and finish baking at 375°F. for about 10 minutes.
Par-baked Buns ready for freezing
Notes:
Par-baking is used in commercial baking where they have special equipment for flash freezing. It’s a very handy technique for the home baker because not every household can use up a loaf of freshly baked bread before it starts to go off.
Par-baking kills the yeast and preserves the structure of bread. A final ten minutes of baking yields a bread that is virtually indistinguishable from completely freshly baked.
It’s also a great way to prepare for holiday baking or when catering to a large crowd. It’s a perfect way to prepare for a pulled pork barbecue.
I found four softballs, a baseball and a whiffle ball on the same day Hank Aaron died. Coincidence? I think not.
It was not a coincidence because I was walking the dog around the outfield fences of a ball diamond on January 22, 2021 in the middle of winter in Iowa in order to avoid people not wearing masks during a pandemic.
My partner had tuberculosis, she has asthma, and the last time she had a chest cold she didn’t really get over it for about seven months. Covid-19 was not a joke to us. It wasn’t some kind of cultural marker to signify who’s tribe we belonged in. It was real and we weren’t messing around.
Right from the start, we took the attitude that ultimately this would be a temporary situation and that we were going to get through it. I kept thinking of the experiences of my parents growing up in the Great Depression. I thought of the people of London during the Blitz and kept the motto of “Keep Calm and Carry On” in the forefront of my mind the whole time.
I had once owned a retail natural foods store in a small town for seven years and knew a thing or two about inventory management. We stocked up. We planned ahead.
Flattening the curve and getting things back to as normal as they could be was always a possibility and for about three weeks everybody did a good job. Then Fox News cranked up their propaganda machine and they turned the pandemic into another culture war wedge issue.
I think the kinds of people who are used to getting their way by throwing their weight around thought they would be able to make everybody live in their chaos, just like they always do. Well, not in our house.
We were determined to ride this out and come through it successful.
Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565
During the winter, while the virus skyrocketed, and society fell apart, and the doomsday preppers lost their minds, and the movers-and-shakers couldn’t make the earth move like they thought they could, we stayed cozy and happy.
I found a complex of ball diamonds elevated on a rise that overlooked a park with a pond near a schoolyard. The dog and I usually had the place to ourselves. At home, we were inventing all kinds of little traditions that we looked forward to each week. All through December we made traditional Christmas goodies that were right out of Charles Dickens. I would bound through the snow with the dog each day with the sounds of The Wexford Carol going through my head. Despite the rest of the world, it was one of the happiest times of my life.
It occurred to me that my little scene was reminiscent of the painting, The Bird Trap, by Pieter Breugel and that the cautionary symbolism contained within it is as relevant now as when it was painted in 1565, when plagues were all too common in Europe.
Paintings of this period were often allegories, and in this painting the deeper meaning is that people are pilgrims making their way through life across a landscape dotted with dangers.
The thorny branches in the foreground reveal a bird trap with several unsuspecting birds milling about, oblivious to the danger they are walking into. Bird traps were used in literature of this time to symbolize the devil’s temptations destined for lost souls. Birds were traditional symbols of the soul.
Skating scenes in art often portray the uncertain (slippery) nature of existence. Birds and skaters are brought together here to represent both obliviousness to danger and vulnerability.
Since the Middle Ages, our mastery of technology has advanced to the point that vaccines for Coronavirus were developed in record time; the advancement of human nature, however, has not fared so well.
The Great Men of History were usually only great at exploiting people and getting them killed. They thrived because they made everyone else live in the chaos they created.
It’s only been in the last 200 years or so that we’ve attempted to have, imperfect as it is, a representative democracy governed by the rule of law.
Many thanks to our friend, Eileen, who did the heavy lifting by discovering what did NOT work when it comes to making babka. She was also generous enough to go halfsies on the truly magical SAF Gold Instant Yeast. It does wonders on doughs dense with sugar and butter.
Saf-Instant® Gold Yeast
Dough Ingredients:
270 grams (2 ¼ cups) Bread Flour
50 grams (¼ cup) Sugar
2 tsp. SAF Gold Instant Yeast ***
½ tsp. Salt
Grated zest of half-an-orange
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 Large Eggs
1 Egg Yolk (reserve the egg white for the filling)
4 oz. Milk (or 2 tbsp. Milk Powder and 4 oz. Water)
8 tbsp. (1 stick) Butter, softened
*** Or use 4 tsp. (2 packets) Active Dry Yeast
Filling Ingredients:
2 oz. Bittersweet Chocolate
4 tbsp. Unsalted Butter
3 tbsp. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
¼ cup Powdered Sugar
½ tsp. Cinnamon
1 large Egg White
1 Large Egg plus a little Milk for Egg Wash
Glaze Ingredients:
3 tbsp. Sugar
1 ½ tbsp. Water
Directions:
Step 1: For the dough, combine the flour, sugar, yeast, salt and zest. Add vanilla extract, two eggs, the extra egg yolk, the milk and mix. Add tablespoons of softened butter one-at-a-time while mixing to form a dough. Knead for 10 minutes.
Set aside to rise in a lightly oiled bowl until doubled in size. It will be a soft dough, but not sticky because of all the butter.
It’s a good idea to let the dough prove in an oven that has been slightly heated in order to help the yeast along. I like to turn the oven on for 90 seconds and then turn it off. It’s just enough warmth to help the yeast do its job in such a dense dough.
Step 2: For the filling, melt 4 tbsp. butter and 2 oz. chocolate together until smooth, either in a microwave or double boiler. Stir in ¼ cup powdered sugar, 3 tbsp. cocoa powder and ½ tsp. cinnamon. Stir to form a spreadable paste and set aside to cool.
Once the filling has cooled, whisk in the egg white.
Step 3: Knead the risen dough enough for it to come together to form a ball. Generously dust a countertop and the dough with flour and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to an approximately 12 inch area. Spread the filling mixture working from the outside edge to the center. Roll lengthwise from one end to the other.
Step 4: Slice the roll lengthwise down the center to form two strands. Join one pair of the ends and create a braid by overlapping one strand over the other. Join the remaining ends of the two strands and tuck both ends of the braid under the loaf. Lightly oil or spray a loaf pan and place the braided loaf in the pan. Allow to rise for about an hour.
Step 5: Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush the loaf with an egg wash made by whisking together an egg and a little milk. Bake for 45 minutes.
Step 6: Dissolve 3 tbsp. sugar in 1 ½ tbsp. water. Brush the syrup on the loaf when finished baking, but leave the loaf in the pan until it has cooled about half-way. It will allow the loaf to set and hold together.
Notes:
The Saf-Instant® Gold yeast performs well in doughs that have sugar levels of 10-30%. It makes a huge difference in the amount of rising time. You may need to purchase a pound of it online, but it freezes well and is well worth it.
