Have you ever seen those big fluffy baguettes that the label says are one pound, but that seem really big for that weight? That's achieved through intensively mixing the dough so that the gluten is developed all the way, which allows the bread to expand quite a bit. There are several problems with this, though, not the least of which is that mixing the dough so intensively bleaches out all the color and flavor.

There's a solution to this problem that was invented by Raymond Calvel, a French baker who wrote "The Taste of Bread." Mr. Calvel developed a way to get the big fluffy bread while retaining its color and flavor. It's called autolyse, which translates as 'self destruct.' Autolyse is done when you mix only the flour and water of a bread recipe and let that rest for at least twenty minutes, and up to an hour. The flour and water are mixed enough that they are thoroughly incorporated, but not beyond that. This allows the flour to hydrate and the enzymes to start working, particularly protease which works to break down the protein in the flour.

The strawberry milk that is sold by Horizon Organics is white, unlike the pink strawberry milks sold by some of its competitors. The company is having a hard time finding a natural, organic coloring to give it the familiar color that consumers associate with strawberry-flavored milk.

And they are not alone.

For a company to use the "USDA Organic" label, the ingredients must be organic and the colorings must be natural. The colorings must be from organic ingredients for a product to claim that it is 100% organic. Fresh produce and other products don't usually have issues with colorings, but other organic products do, which can give them a disadvantage in the marketplace because consumers expect their food items to look a certain way. Strawberry milk, for example, is generally a shade of pink.

So organic food processors are looking for natural plant sources that will produce the colors they want and trying to encourage farmers to produce organic versions. Beets are used for red, carrots for orange and turmeric for yellow in many products, but many categories are left without coloring. To help alleviate the problem and not put organics at a disadvantage, the National Organic Standards Board is planning to meet this spring "to devise a precise list of natural colors that can be used in organic foods until organic colors are commercially available."

New year, new episode of Bravo's Top Chef. The season picked up again this week with only seven of the original fifteen competitors still in the competition. At this point, the chefs have been living together for several weeks and, as in many situations where you have a group of type-A personalities, things are getting a little tense. Everyone in the group seems to oscillate back and forth between feeling compelled to act as a team trying to screw over everyone else so that they, as individuals, can get ahead. It makes things more interesting from a dramatic standpoint, but the chefs really need to get a grip on their tempers if they want to end up as Top Chef.

As the episode started out, one of the first things that we got to see was that Michael had a wisdom tooth pulled. He made it sound like he went to a less-than-reputable individual for the procedure, but seemed to be getting along fine aside from the pain and swelling. Medicated, Michael was much less feisty than usual. He noted that he hoped the challenges weren't too long and the rest of the tired-looking competitors agreed.

Red, yellow, green and purple - are rainbow carrots the way of the future? Perhaps, but they could more accurately be called the carrots of the past because they have a long history. Purple and yellow carrots were grown as many as 1,000 years ago in Asia and Western Europe, although selective breeding programs to produce such colors for commercial purposes are fairly recent. Carrots are now regularly bred in purple, red, yellow and white, in addition to orange, and scientists say that there is added nutritional benefit to choosing a colorful vegetable over a more conventional one.

Red carrots have extra lycopene, which is also found in tomatoes and is believed to lower blood pressure and help to reduce the risk of some cancers. Yellow carrots promote eye health with beta-carotene-like pigments, and purple carrots have powerful antioxidants.

Even with health benefits to recommend them, the carrots are not an easy sell. This is in part because neither consumers nor producers are really sure what to look for as a sign of a good purple carrot, whereas most people look for a good color and relatively smooth skin for an orange one. The bigger issue is that consumers don't know what they're going to taste like and are reluctant to branch out. But the carrots taste pretty much the same, regardless of their color, and some taste even sweeter than a standard carrot.

Some Trader Joe's locations started carrying the rainbow carrots this week, and they're worth a try if you see them there or at your local grocery store.

While browsing the list of Coldstone's latest summer flavors, all of which are targeted at kids, I had so wonder why it is that kids like blue ice cream because one of the new flavors is "Beary Beary Blue," described as cotton candy ice cream with gummi bears . Blue ice cream is not a new phenomenon, not by a long shot, but it's just a bit of a mystery why kids like the stuff. The real question is whether kids actually want blue ice cream, creating a demand for it, or if they eat it because it is what is marketed to them.

I tend to believe it is the latter and that kids, who are perfectly satisfied with regular ice creams at home, go crazy over wacky flavors and colors because it is labeled as a "kids" ice cream. As far as I can tell, this is the reason that I ate some of that stuff as a kid. I was drawn in by the promise of gummi bears and bits of bubble gum and, though I hated the way that they turned rock hard and inedible in the ice cream, I often ordered them anyway.

I'd rather see kids' ice creams that come in less electric colors and with additions that kids want to eat, not just with ones that they want to order. I suspect that there are a few kids who would disagree with me over the blue ice cream part, but even they might change their minds when they get down to those rock hard gummi bears.

The San Francisco Chronicle did a taste test of pure pomegranate juices, more and more of which have been finding their way onto shelves and into refrigerators in grocery stores as the antioxidant-rich fruit gains popularity. Their tasting only dealt with the pure juices (not blends) and tasters picked POM Wonderful as their favorite, over brands like L&A, Langers, Frutzzo, Knudsen and Trader Joe's. The brilliant jewel color of the juice was mentioned several times by tasters, but the "blend of sweet and tangy" flavor won over 4/5 of the panelists.

Pomegranate juice, particularly POM, isn't cheap and sells for around $3.99 for 16-ounces. While it won against other pomegranate juices, is it really worth buying over other kinds of juice from a taste perspective?

I liked the blueberry-pomegranate blend more than the pure pomegranate juice, myself, and I still think that I'd much rather eat some actual pomegranate than drink either of the beverages.

Nestle's popular candy-coated chocolates, Smarties, are getting a makeover. Actually, it's more of a make-under. They are being stripped of artificial colors starting next month. The blue candy will be most directly affected, as there is no naturally edible dye to produce the same or a similar shade. This means that Smarties' blue candies will be white until a suitable color replacement can be found.

Nestle Rowntree, the UK branch, is responding to concerns that artificial colorings may have a direct correlation with hyperactivity in children, as a study done at Liverpool University has suggested. The chemical colors that will no longer be used are: Brilliant Blue (E133); Quinoline Yellow (E104); Sunset Yellow (E110); Ponceau 4R (E124); and Carmoisine (E122).  The US Environment Protection Agency has listed Brilliant Blue in particular as a possible cancer risk. Nestle Australia, on the other hand, has no plans to eliminate their blue Smarties and states that they have naturally colored candies available.

As though we don’t have enough dieting fads thrown at us from all directions, there is a new one which suggests that the color of your walls could be making you fat. According to dietician Lisa Dorfman, blues and greens will make you less hungry than warmer colors, like reds. Lighting is also important to dieters, as those who eat in dim light are more likely to binge.

Excuse me while I take a brief break to paint my kitchen. But what of the non-paintable surfaces? Does laminate make you feel full, or should you use a tile floor?

This is the most ridiculous dieting idea that we have seen yet. Changing the color scheme of your house in an attempt to alter your diet is like deciding to buy air freshener for you car after it's been in an accident: it doesn't really hurt anything, but it doesn't directly address the problem in the way that eating less food (or getting the car repaired) would. Putting aside the issue of actual color choice, there is one thing about painting your walls that will keep you out of the kitchen for a while: very few people actually enjoy the smell of wet paint and you certainly won't want to be eating in a freshly painted kitchen. Just try not to head for the nearest fast food place while you wait for your cool, calming kitchen to dry.

Whenever someone mentioned edible flowers to me, whether as part of a dish or used as a garnish, I nodded politely and did not think much of it. I considered edible flowers to be among the items that one can only find at a store with hard-to-find specialty ingredients - ingredients that I would probably never use, let alone actually need. This week, however, I spotted bags of hibiscus flowers at Trader Joe's.

Sold alongside the other dried fruits, the hibiscus flowers are dried and lightly sweetened. Apart from their beautiful dark fuchsiacolor, they taste pretty good. Slightly sweet and chewy, like fruit leather, they have a bit of a vegetal undertone that is not present in most dried fruits. I think that they'd make an attractive garnish for cakes and even a nice, unusual addition to a spring-time salad. They are not, however, something that I would eat by the handful.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

NBC5 in Chicago recently ran a story about the ongoing debate over treating raw meat with carbon monoxide to maintain its red color and fresh appearance. While this has been in the news for a while, the NBC5 story can serve as a decent summary. Basically, consumer rights groups are concerned that meats treated with CO will appear fresh and safe for far longer than they actually are, thus putting consumers at risk. The FDA has accepted the process as one that's generally regarded as safe (GRAS), without conducting any independent investigation. Late last year, a Michigan-based food company requested that the FDA rescind its decision to allow CO treatment. The process is most commonly found in meats such as beef and tuna that are cut and packed prior to arriving at supermarkets.