Tips and tricks: Part 1

As a child baker, I remember that every measurement was done in volume. If you needed flour you measured by the cup. If you needed water it was also by the cup or half-cup. Salt, give me a teaspoon. And so that list goes. Today I wonder why the baking turned out well, or was I not trained enough to notice the differences from one baking time to the next for the same product? I suppose it was the latter. With the weight in mind, I thought I would share my first part in a series of baking tips, from measures, to ingredients, and techniques.

Measuring

There are many important things about baking that I have learned over the years, and the foundation of those all comes from measuring everything by weight. On a Monday, a cup of flour may not weigh the same as it will on Tuesday. Maybe it was packed in more on one day, maybe there is a lot of humidity in the air that could potentially cause it to pack tighter. Maybe some flours weigh more than others? I find with baking it is essential to make sure the ingredients are the same every time. This helps me with repeating successes, and finding failures. What is a teaspoon to one person is not a teaspoon to another! I think you get my point. 

What is the point to this? Simple. Always, always, always measure every ingredient.

And these are not the only things we should think about when baking. For instance, how do some ingredients work?

Baking soda and baking powder

Do you know that baking soda requires an acid to activate? If you are baking cookies with baking soda and you are not introducing an acid, it is not likely you will get a rise out of your work. You can use any acid you want, but it is required. I generally use lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Baking powder, on the other hand, baking powder, which includes baking soda, does not need an acid to activate, but instead, it needs liquid to activate and will rise during the bake when heat is introduced.  Once in a while, you may have a recipe that asks for both of these ingredients. One reason would be the recipe has an acid component that the baking powder alone will not be enough to rise.

Egg Replacers

Other ingredients that are of interest to me are those as replacers for eggs. I have seen so many different solutions. Soak flax seeds with a combination of 7 grams of flaxseed to 44 grams of water. Mix and let sit for at least five minutes and you have one medium egg replacer. Another trick is to use aquafaba which is the juice of chickpeas or white beans. It can be whipped and folded into a bakery item to gave that effect of fluffed egg whites. Of course, there are countless options on the market too, so you have plenty to choose from. For me it depends on the purpose of the egg. In many instances, it simply is not needed. I do not use eggs in my donuts, brioche, or croissants even though you will find them in many recipes. I imagine it is a combination of trial and error along with what works best for the baker. If you are reading my blog entries and you come across a recipe that you recollect uses eggs and you see no replacer, do not hesitate to ask me why. Or, why I chose the one I did.

Batter

I imagine anything I say here is common knowledge and you already know, but just in the slight chance you forgot, or because you love reading what I write, here are a couple for you. When mixing a cake batter, do not ever over mix it. I like to stop the moment I no longer see flour sitting in the bowl lonely, wondering why no one has asked it to play with the other ingredients. An important reason for this is flour has gluten (of course this does not apply to gluten free flour) and if you keep working it, you will in essence start forming the gluten strands that will turn your fluffy, light cake into a bread with cake ingredients. Yes, this holds true for lower gluten flours like all purpose flour. I also like to tap the tray my cake batter is in on the table to release any air pockets that may have built up. By not doing this you run the risk of air pockets in your cake. Will it taste the same? Of course. Will it look the same? Nope!  You can also sift your flour before folding in the ingredients, this will help minimize air pockets as well.

I love pancakes. I love the pancake batter too. No, I do not eat it raw, but when I see it in a bowl, mixed and ready to go, I always get excited. Let us not forget my bowl of strawberries and blueberries on the side which I also enjoy with my pancakes. One trick I have been doing for years is use carbonated water instead of still water. This will make the pancakes fluffier and seemingly lighter. Like a cake batter, do not over work the batter, just get it to where you see no flour. I realize, by the way, pancakes are not so much a baking item, but because we use the baking ingredients, I put them in my baking family.

Kneading Dough

If there is one topic that I repeat more than any other, it would be that of how to knead dough. I try not to focus on the technique so much because it can vary from person to person while producing the same beautiful results. What I care most about is that you work the dough without tearing it so that the gluten strands form. And most importantly, you are not adding flour early on because the sticky dough annoys you. Only when you are in need of a door stop should you be adding lots of flour to your door. Ok, there is that other option of when the little piggy who builds the brick house runs out of bricks, you can always serve up some low hydration bread to act as brick replacers. Not the same as egg replacers, but will do the job.

It is important the dough has time to rest. This helps with flavor, along with developing the gluten. It also gives the dough a chance to relax between steps. This is extremely important when making croissants. Not so much the dough, but when the lamination starts. When laminating croissant dough, or any pastry dough for that matter, you are changing direction with each fold. If you force the dough to stretch when it is not relaxed it will either tear or shrink. In some cases, it will do both.

Extras in your baking goods

I think it is really important to have fun, and to experiment when baking, which includes different ingredients. I think you should start with a recipe and do it once and then see how it turns out. If you feel it was successful to the recipe then you have done well enough. Now you should think about, what you would like differently. For instance, I have a friend who is a master pastry chef and owns a baking school in Barcelona, he uses fresh squeezed orange juice to mix in with powdered sugar as the topping to his cinnamon rolls. Those ingredients work together so well for so many reasons.

Sometimes when I make breads, I like to use soaked sundried tomatoes and sliced olives from Seville. I will also include lavender or rosemary too.  I just thought one day, why not make a rolled-up roll and put those ingredients inside like I would when making cinnamon rolls, and like any bread, let them rise and bake. If you douse the top with some olive oil just before they go in the oven, you will be left with a soft, flavorful roll that you may never forget. A combination of the textures, and flavors are really special.

Sometimes when I make a two-layer chocolate cake I will use avocado in the creamy chocolate filling that is the layer between the bottom and top. You do not taste avocado, but it adds an amazing creaminess and softness that is hard to forget. One day soon I will post that recipe and I will include that creamy filling. I do warn you; it is so good that if you taste it with a spoon, you are likely to take one too many spoonful’s before it goes between the cake. Not a crime of course, but the chocolate all over your face will be a giveaway for your housemates.

I also enjoy adding a whipped cream inside of my donut holes. It is not normal, I know, but in the bakery, they would sell and I certainly loved them. Different than the Boston Cream that goes in a Boston Cream donut, but a fun taste just the same. I have been told that it seems strange, but as soon as they pop the donut hole in their mouth, I always see that smile and know I made a good choice. I do the same with jelly in the holes too. Not a typical berliner of course, but the taste and result are just the same.

Always remember

When baking you have to follow rules a bit more than when cooking. You should always be precise with your measurements and you should always have fun while experimenting.  Baking is not hard. I know it is cliché to say, but if I can bake, I know anyone can bake. In the end, no matter what happens when baking, even if you are making bricks for your little piggy friend, you are learning. That learning will make you want to come back, time and time again. Just wait until we talk about baguettes in detail and why we score the bread the way we do. Do you know, if you do not overlap the scores in a baguette, you get those bulges that appear? Do not worry, we will cover it in detail.