Then I added a chocolate brownie swirl just for kicks! That means it’s a rich, moist, buttermilk cake with a touch of cocoa powder. This recipe is essentially a red velvet cake without the food-coloring. Simply do your best to make the conditions as “optimal” as possible. Your cake may be ultra moist one day and light and dry the next. Your muffins may be dome-topped one day and and flat the next. Just try to remember, EVERY element effects the outcome. We bake in a hurry to finish dessert before our guests arrive. We bake on days we are feeling blue, because it lifts our spirits. We bake on rainy days because we’re stuck in the house. Then your baked goods would come out the same every single time. I wish I could tell you to only bake when all the stars aline. The heavy moisture in the air effects the ability of the dough/batter to rise and dry. That’s why grandmas use to say never to bake on a rainy day. If the humidity is higher or lower than normal, your results will be different. If you bake when it’s really hot outside or bitter cold, and the outside temperature is affecting the inside temperature, your results will be different.
Standard “room temperature” is right around 70 degrees. Try to bake when you are relaxed and have plenty of time. She is physically not in the proper state of mind to turn out a perfect baked good. She’s heavy-handed while measuring and rough on the dough and batter. A pastry chef once told me that when she’s upset, her recipes don’t turn out. This may sound silly, but it has to do with measuring and delicacy. Baking powder, baking soda and yeast lose their lifting power over time. Butter loses moisture the longer it sits in the fridge. Use the brands the recipe developer recommends, or find brands that suit your baking needs.įreshness Matters. These little variations can greatly effect the outcome of the final product. Different brands of butter, yogurt, buttermilk and flour have varying levels of moisture, fat, and protein. Always level the measuring spoons and cups with a knife or spatula. Scooping packs the ingredient down, meaning you end up with more than you want. As that’s never going to happen, make sure to always pour ingredients into your measuring cups, never scoop. In a perfect world all home-cooks would use scales and metric measurement to insure exact amounts of wet and dry ingredients. The reason for this is that a cup of flour can vary greatly in weight depending on the type of flour, and how packed it is. Yet pastry chefs world-wide measure their ingredients by weight. We Americans like to kick it old-school in the measuring department, relying on cups and spoons to give the proper proportions. Take the time to set your dairy and eggs out ahead, if they need to be room temperature. It results in a completely different chemical reaction. The difference between putting a dough with cold butter and one with warm melted butter, in the oven, is HUGE. If a recipe calls for cold butter, melted butter, or room-temperature eggs, remember that any adjustment will effect the outcome.
Remember, the recipe developer thought each element was important enough to document, so there must be a reason for it. When making something for the first time, read the recipe thoroughly before you start. It’s meant to encourage you to learn a little more about the science of baking so that you can get the result you want more often, and understand a problem, if one occurs. This is not meant to discourage you from baking. One small adjustment could be your undoing, but you won’t know it until you pull your cake out of the oven. You can make changes as you go with no major catastrophe in the end. In cooking, you can throw in a handful of herbs or a little more butter, like you were adding a bit more orange to an oil-painting. I used to tell my cooking class students that cooking is art and baking is chemistry, generally speaking. Yet I find that most of these comments are due to conditions that are out of my control. Everyone’s taste buds and preferences are a little different. One thing I noticed is that I get more positive, and negative, feedback on baking recipes than anything else. I love to hear your thoughts on recipes and alterations you’ve made to suit your tastes. I’m fortunate to get a lot of feedback here on A Spicy Perspective.
This chocolate velvet cake is to die for with a rich creamy vanilla bean glaze on top. A “velvet” cake recipe with brownie swirled throughout.
0 kommentar(er)
