Breads

This week brought the likes of scones, biscuits, muffins (none too exciting), but also cup cakes, brownies, Devil's food, cheesecakes, and a few special cakes -- an "Almond Lemon Polenta cake", "Gateaux Basque", Sachertorte, and a fabulous Poppy Seed cake.

All cooking is about technique (whether we actually think about the process or are just accustomed to doing it a certain way), but quickbreads are particularly sensitive to how they're made. The idea is to incorporate air into the product in order to keep it light. This is done in a variety of ways:

Baking soda or baking powder ["muffin method" and "biscuit method"] with either a liquid or solid fat
Whipping air into a butter-sugar mixture (the air is captured around the sugar granules and are trapped within the butter -- who knew?) ["creaming method"]
Whipping air into eggs ["foaming method"]

Unlike tradtional breads, it is generally undesireable to develop the gluten in the flour that's used in whatever you're making. This is accomplished in two ways: 1) using lower-gluten flour (pastry flour, cake flour), 2) Incorporating flour just until it's mixed in -- a common failure in bouncing, say, pancakes

Quick Breads
They're not supposed to bounce?

This week brought the likes of scones, biscuits, muffins (none too exciting), but also cup cakes, brownies, Devil's food, cheesecakes, and a few special cakes -- an "Almond Lemon Polenta cake", "Gateaux Basque", Sachertorte, and a fabulous Poppy Seed cake. All cooking is about technique (whether we actually think about the process or are just accustomed to doing it a certain way), but quickbreads are particularly sensitive to how they're made. The idea is to incorporate air into the product in order to keep it light. This is done in a variety of ways: Baking soda or baking powder ["muffin method" and "biscuit method"] with either a liquid or solid fat Whipping air into a butter-sugar mixture (the air is captured around the sugar granules and are trapped within the butter -- who knew?) ["creaming method"] Whipping air into eggs ["foaming method"] Unlike tradtional breads, it is generally undesireable to develop the gluten in the flour that's used in whatever you're making. This is accomplished in two ways: 1) using lower-gluten flour (pastry flour, cake flour), 2) Incorporating flour just until it's mixed in -- a common failure in bouncing, say, pancakes Previous Log Next Log

This site created and maintained (sometimes) by Scott Blessley. Copyright © 1999-2008. Permission granted to copy material, provided that the source is attributed. Links to our site from yours are much appreciated.Thanks, More recent material at http://blog.blessley.net

Previous Log

Next Log