Ingredient Function Friday - Substituting Cake Flour - the results are in.

Hello Bakers, 

The real cake flour cake is on the right and the all purpose/cornstarch blend is on the left.

As noted in the episode the normal substitution for cake flour is to remove 2 Tablespoons of cake flour from each cup and then add 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch. So if a cup if all purpose flour weighs 4 1/4 ounces and 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch weighs 1 ounce, after removing the 2 Tablespoons of flour and replacing them with cornstarch - I was back to 4 1/4 ounces.

The directions then say to sift this mixture together 5 or 6 times.

 Not one Internet source or cookbook source (I checked the classics too) mentioned anything about measuring by weight. That was interesting. I used 312g of cake flour and for the test, 253g of all purpose and 59g of cornstarch, that I sifted 5-6 times. Remember we weigh before sifting. As sifting lightens and throws your measurement off. It doesn't matter if you are measuring by volume or by weight.

Here is the recipe I used for both. This is a high ratio cake, as it has more sugar then flour.

I hope you enjoy this experiment and learning about ingredient function.

Happy Baking!

Colette

Equipment:

• Stand Mixer fitted with paddle attachment or handheld mixer fitted with standard beaters.
• Sifter
• Spatula
• 2 8" cake pans, greased and lined with a parchment paper circle or a 12 cup muffin tin, lined with muffin papers - batter will make 10-12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Mise en Place for both cakes

• 11 ounces (312g) cake flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons (15g) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (4g) fine sea salt 
• 12 ounces (340g) sugar
• 4 ounces (113g) butter, softened
• 3 ounces (85g) vegetable shortening
• 2 teaspoons (10g) vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon (2g) almond extract
• 2 ounces (57g) milk5 ounces (142g) egg whites
• 6 ounces (170g) milk

1. Sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt. Place in mixer bowl.
2. Add butter, vegetable shortening, extracts and the 2 ounces of milk.
3. Mix on low speed for 2 timed minutes.
4. Turn off mixer and scrape down. Mix on medium speed for 2 timed minutes.
5.  Combine the egg whites and 6 ounces of milk. 
6.  Add half the liquid to the batter. Mix on low speed for 1 minute and then on medium speed for 1 minute. Turn off mixer and scrape down.
7.  Add the remaining liquid and repeat mixing sequence - low for 1 minute. Scrape down and mix on medium speed for I more minute. Remove the bowl from the mixer and mix briefly with a spatula - make sure to scrape the bottom of the mixer too. 
8.  Divide batter between prepared pans. (using cake flour I had 1222g of batter and with the homemade cake flour I had 1192g of batter) Fascinating!
9.  Bake the cakes at 350 for 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 325 and set the timer for 12 minutes - the cake will probably need an additional 5-7 minutes. But since everyone’s oven is different it is best to check at 12 minutes.

Let the cakes sit in the pan for 10 minutes and un mold onto a wire rack to cool completely before using.

Dry ingredients, butter, shortening, 2 ounces of milk and extracts...

Batter mixed - ready for the wet ingredients to be added

Cake Flour on the right - all purpose and cornstarch blend on the left.

Halloween Candy Cake - that leftover Trick or Treat candy can be transformed into a pretty cake.

Hello Bakers, 

It's Halloween again and that means when it is all over you will have leftover Halloween Candy. There are lots of cleaver ideas about what to do with it. The favorite seems to be to fold it into brownie batter and bake it. My assistant from Sur La Table, Tatiana, suggested that I create a cake with the leftover candy.

She always give me good advice. 

Now here is a bit of science...I had to decrease the sugar in the cake to make up for the sugar in the candy - and I needed to increase the cake flour a little so the cake would have enough structure. And lastly, instead of milk (which is normally used for this kind of a cake) I used buttermilk for the liquid. My hope was that tang of the buttermilk would offset the sweetness of the cake.

The cake is iced in Italian Meringue - I decreased the sugar a little here too and notice we are not turning it into a buttercream - that would be too much.

I hope you enjoy making this cake - and the same recipe could be made with leftover Easter candy, except I am not sure about Peeps...

Happy Halloween and Happy Baking!

Colette

Halloween Candy Cake

Makes 1  8” 2 layer cake or 1 13x9” cake or 12 cupcakes

Components: 2 8” layers or 12 cupcakes

                   1 recipe Italian Meringue

                    Extra Halloween candies for decorating

Equipment:  2 8" cake pans, greased and lined with parchment paper circles, or 13X9" pan, greased and lined or 12 cup muffin pan, lined with paper liners.

Stand mixer or handheld mixer.

Rubber spatula

Cooling rack

Timer for mixing and baking times

Assembling Equipment: Serrated knife, offset spatula, cardboard cake round, cake turntable (optional but useful), creme brulee torch (optional but necessary if you want to toast your meringue)

Halloween Cake Mise en Place

4 large eggs

6 ounces (170g) buttermilk or sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

9.4 ounces (267g) cake flour

10 ounces (283g) sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4  teaspoon salt

2 sticks of unsalted butter, 8 ounces, (227g), softened

5 ounces (142g) of assorted Halloween candy, chopped into small pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Whisk together eggs, buttermilk or sour cream and vanilla until just mixed.

3. Just combined – eggs should be incorporated but do not over whisk.

4. Sift the dry ingredients together in the mixer bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.

5. Add the butter to the mixer and starting on low speed mix until the butter and flour look sandy and pebbly with pieces about the size of peas.

6. Stop the mixer and add the buttermilk, egg and vanilla mixture.

7. And mix at the lowest speed until incorporated. Then mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. The batter will now be light and fluffy.

8. Return the mixer at low speed, turn it back on and add the remaining milk mixture. Mix until incorporated about 20-30 seconds. Turn off mixer and scrape down the bowl. Mix on medium high speed (speed 8) for 2 more minutes. The mixture may look a little broken but that is fine.

9. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the chopped Halloween candies.

10. Divide the batter between the prepared pans or (if making cupcakes scoop into paper lined tin.)

11. Start checking for doneness in about 20 minutes. The cake layers or cupcakes are done when a skewer or cake tester comes out clean.

12. Place on a cooling rack to cook for about 30 minutes.

13. The cake (or cupcakes) should be completely cool before decorating.

Butter added to sifted flour and sugar in mixing bowl, egg, buttermilk and vanilla mixture standing by with the chopped candy...

Candy ready to be folded in...

Two views of baked layers - not worried about the crack on the layer on the right hand side.

Italian Meringue

Yield: 16 ounces (454g) of Italian Meringue

4 ounces egg whites

10 ounces (283g) sugar

1 ounce light corn syrup

1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Italian Meringue Mise en Place

1. Place the egg whites in the mixer bowl fitted with the whisk attachment.

2. In a small saucepan, combine the second water, sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a boil cook until 236-240 degrees. (soft ball stage) - this takes about three minutes. If fact older recipes for 7 minute frosting say to boil the sugar syrup for a timed 3 minutes but if you have a thermometer use it or blow a bubble of sugar through a large paper clip as I demo in my Craftsy class, French Pastry Shop Classics.

3. Start mixing your egg whites at medium speed as you sugar syrup is cooking.

4. Pour the sugar syrup over the moving egg whites, try not to hit the whisk.

5. Once all the sugar is poured in, increase the speed to medium high and beat until the mixer bowl is no longer warm. Add the vanilla and use right away.

Assembling the cake:

1. You may cut the layers in half or just use two. Level if necessary.

2. Stack the layers with a good amount of Italian Meringue in between, smooth as you go, making the layers as level as possible.

See the flecks of candy in the batter - slather the Italian Meringue on - you will have plenty.

3. Italian meringue is very forgiving. Once the cake is masked and it should be not be perfect. You can also load a pastry bag with a star tip and decorate the top. Then if you have a creme brulee torch, lightly brulee the meringue - be careful and safe with that torch.

4. Then decorate the top with chopped up leftover candy. Have fun and Enjoy!

Ingredient Function Friday - Bread Flour, October 20, 2017

Hello Bakers,

Welcome to Ingredient Function Friday's Recipe Recap.

Here is a recipe recap of how I compared using bread flour and cake flour in a simple bread recipe. Let's look at what happens when cake flour is used in place of bread flour.

The recipes: 

Bread Flour Version: 350g Bread Flour, 250g water 85 degrees, 7g instant yeast and 7g fine sea salt.

Cake Flour Version: 350g Cake Flour, 250g water 85 degrees, 7g instant yeast and 7g fine sea salt.

Hydration is 71%

Mixing time: by hand (old school) with a dough whisk and bench scraper, 2 minute mix in bowl then kneaded by hand 6 minutes until both doughs were smooth and resilient. BTW I needed to add a little flour when kneading both doughs by hand. I used bread flour with the bread flour test and cake flour with the cake flour test.

The cake flour test dough felt more slack - less resilient then the bread flour version. The stronger the flour the more bounce we get.

Proofing time 45 minutes - that's how long it took for them to be doubled in size. The cake flour loaf was not as voluminous as the bread flour loaf.

Blue Tape is the cake flour version

After that they were gently degassed and rounded into two boules (balls) I did skip benching them - it is ok to do that with round breads and rolls - I think. But not for other shapes of loaves and rolls.

Then I proofed them in the proofing bags for 30 minutes - it was warm in the kitchen. They both looked like they "had taken a breath and held it" and had a slight marshmallowy texture. The bread flour loaf looked normal and the cake flour one had a weird texture. This might come from the cake flour being bleached.

In the proofing bag....thank you Ziploc...

Now for baking - 375 for 

Ready to bake - the surface of the bread flour cracked a little and see the odd texture of the cake flour loaf....but they are the same size now....

Next I dusted them with flour and slashed the surface with a bread knife. Then I baked them in a 375 degree oven, convection on for 40 minutes. Here are the results.

The bread flour loaf has a golden crust and a good crumb - the hydration was low, 71% so I was not expected big air holes in the crumb. Still you can see the cake flour loaf has a cottony crumb and had no crust color. Bleaching flour removes all the carotenoid pigments.

Bakers, that's the recipe recap for today's Ingredient Function Friday. I hope you enjoyed learning about bread flour.

Until next week.

Happy Baking!

Colette

Oatmeal Cookies with Golden Raisins and Cranberries - chockful of goodness!

Oatmeal cookie lovers - this one is for you.

Hello Bakers,

Where do the best Oatmeal cookie recipes come from?  Usually from simple  sources. When queried many pros will say "Joy of Cooking", "my grandmother, the back of the Quaker Oatmeal box and Fannie Farmer's baking book. No Larousse, no Lenotre, no Le Cordon Bleu - this is an American cookie.

Perfect to tuck into a lunch box or to enjoy with a tall glass of milk.

As a kid, I made the recipe off of the Ouaker Oats container - but it spread a little and I as advanced in skill and knowledge it bothered me. But for the most part in the years when I was cooking and baking all over - my customers were perfectly happy with that cookie. Oatmeal cookie lovers are rarely super picky - they are happy with sweet crunch of butter, sugar and oatmeal - perfection is rarely a thing.

 Teaching at Le Cordon Bleu years, I didn't make them - they weren't in the program  - French cookies were. And honestly bakers, I baked and cooked so much at work in those years that I didn't bake them. I missed them.

They did appear in the Art Institute intro to baking class - the recipe provided was  great,  so I went to work on a new one with the help of Chef Wong.  I added the cranberries when I started to bake for the pastry case.

Here is that recipe - scaled down from the one that I bake for the case. I think you will like it bakers. Another cookie for your repertoire. Can we ever have enough?

Let me know if you have questions and please let me know how your baking is going.

Happy Baking! Colette

Equipment:

Stand or handheld mixer, spatula, scoop, one or one-half ounce, 1-2 sheet pans lined with parchment paper, scale and teaspoons.

Yield: 13 cookies with a 1 ounce portion scoop (Baker’s Dozen or 26 cookies with a ½ ounce scoop. Note: this recipe can be doubled or tripled.

Ingredients:

4 ounces (114g) butter
3.5 ounces (99g) granulated sugar
3.8 ounces (108g) brown sugar, light
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
5.3 ounces (151g) cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
5.25 ounces (149g) cups rolled oats

2 Tablespoons (1 ounce) 28g milk
3 ounces (85g) dried cranberries
3 (85g) ounces raisins (I use golden)
3 ounces (85g) chopped nuts—walnuts or pecans (optional)

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment combinebutter, the sugars and the vanilla.

3. Mix on low speed until the ingredients are roughly combined and then increase speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes. Scrape down. 

Butter, sugar and vanilla are creamed until the butter is fully incorporated but it is not light and fluffy - sugar feels gritty - that's correct for cookies.

4. Add the egg, mix on low speed for 20 seconds, scrape down, mix on medium speed for 25 seconds. Scrape down.

Egg is added...

Dry ingredients plus milk, raisins and cranberries waiting their turn...

5. Add dry ingredients. Mix on low speed 30 seconds.

Dry ingredients are in.

6. Add oatmeal. Mix for low for 30 seconds. Add raisins, cranberries and optional nuts. Mix on low speed until all the ingredients are incorporated but do not over mix. This can even be done by hand with a sturdy spatula.

7. Drop the dough with a cookie scoop onto lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between each ball of dough. 

Scooped cookies ready to bake.

Bake the cookies in a preheated 350°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they're golden brown. If the bottoms of the cookies are becoming too dark then double pan and finish baking.

Remove them from the oven, and place the pan on a wire rack. 

Store them in an airtight container. Also the dough and the baked cookies both freeze well.