When flouring a pan, try using cocoa powder

Baking and Pastry No Responses »
Nov 292009

When a recipe calls for the pan of a chocolate cake or cupcakes to be buttered and floured to prevent sticking you will often get a final product covered in dusty, crusty white bits rather than having something deep brown and tasty looking.

To prevent this try using cocoa powder alone or a combination of flour and cocoa. Cocoa powder does have fat and less starch than flour so there is a slight risk of sticking, but it’s never been a problem for me. If you’re really worried, try the combo first.

Posted by Victoria at 4:46 pm Tagged with: , , ,

Types of flour and their substitutions

Baking and Pastry 3 Responses »
Jul 142009

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Lately, Culinary Tips has been getting a lot of searches for types of flour, substitutions of flour types, and uses of flour, so I’ve expanded the entry here on flour.  Hopefully this helps answer some questions.  If not, as always, drop us a comment below or email a question.

Firstly, to understand flour, it helps to understand its source, wheat.  There are several varieties of wheat, which I won’t delve into here.  They vary in colour, protein content, and texture.  The seed of which, has three distinct parts: the hull or bran, the endosperm, and the embryo or germ.  In whole wheat flour, the husk of the wheat grain is left on and ground, hence the term whole wheat.  In white flour is it removed, and only the endosperm and embryo are ground.

Inside flour are two important proteins that make baking possible – glutenin and gliadin.  When these are kneaded together in the presence of water, they interlink and form a network called gluten.  Gluten gives baked goods a chewy/firm texture, and captures the gases released from yeast during fermentation, and the carbon dioxide released from chemical leaveners in baking.

For many baking projects the right type of flour can make all the difference, but how do you know what the right type is? First lets discuss the types of flour, and what they are used for. The four basic types of wheat flour on the market are:

  • All Purpose
  • Cake and Pastry
  • Bread
  • and Self-Raising

Apart from self-raising, which has a chemical leavener (baking powder) already added, the others differ from each other in respect to how much protein is left in during the milling process.

Though there are many different proteins found in flour, the ones that are of concern to bakers are gliadin and glutenin. These proteins form gluten. Gluten is what makes dough elastic.  When making bread you want maximum gluten formation, so the CO2 from the yeast will have a place to stay, but when you’re making say, scones or pie dough, the less gluten the better so the product will not be chewy.

Strong / Hard / Bread Flour

Bread flour has the highest protein content of them all, and though it varies from brand to brand and place to place, the protein content is 12-14%.  It is often made using a type of wheat called Durum.  Due to the high protein content, when worked with water, the most gluten is formed resulting in a chewier product.  Strong flour is typically used for making pasta, bread, and other yeast leavened baked goods.  Strong flour is also the type that should be used when dusting a workbench because of the large particle size.  Unless you are using yeast in your product, or making pasta, consider another type of flour.

All Purpose Flour

Next in strength comes all purpose, which has an 8-10% protein content, putting it basically in the middle of the road when it comes to gluten forming potential.  It is a blend of hard and soft flours.  If you are going to be making a variety of products, but only want to buy one type of flour, this is the one for you.

Cake Flour / Pasty Flour

At the grocery store, you will often see a single product called Cake and Pastry Flour, with generally the lowest protein content of around 7-10%.  Cake and pastry flour has the lowest protein content of all common types of flour, and should be used in making products with a light texture as gluten development is to be avoided.  For example, using a high protein flour will make your cake tough, causing it to not rise when baked.

If you only have bread flour and you want some scones tonight, by all means use it, but be extra aware that the potential for chewy scones is higher with bread flour than cake flour. If you are making bread, and you only have cake flour, you may be in for a little more trouble. Soft bread depends on proper gluten development to trap the gases from the yeast, creating leavening, and therefore a nice soft crumb. With cake flour, there is only about half the protein in bread flour, so the potential for gluten development is lesser.  To get fully developed dough, you may have to knead for so long that the heat from the friction in the bowl kills the yeast, leaving you with a big sticky pile of mess.

Quite a few British recipes call for self-raising flour because in the UK, self raising flour is roughly the same price as regular flour.  For each cup of unleavened flour, add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder. If you only have self-raising flour, and your recipe calls for regular, omit the baking powder and/or salt (if your flour already has it mixed in).

Posted by Victoria at 6:18 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Make washing your doughy hands easier

Baking and Pastry, Breads No Responses »
Jul 102009

When making bread or other yeast products, getting dough on your hands is one of the inevitable consequences.  Theoretically fully developed dough should be considerably less sticky than under-worked dough, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be sticky at all.  Washing your hands will help some, but you’ll be scrubbing under the water for a long time.  The trick is to rub your hands together over a garbage can to get most of it off.  If its too sticky, get a little flour on your hands and keep rubbing.  The flour will dry it up and allow it to ball up ad come off.  The remaining dough will come off with a light hand washing.

Posted by Chris at 1:49 pm Tagged with: , ,

Time Saver - Premake and freeze your roux

Uncategorized No Responses »
Dec 242008

If you find yourself making a lot of thickened sauces or soups, it might be a good idea to keep some precooked roux in the fridge or freezer.  After cooking and cooling your roux, put it in a few ice cube trays.  When solid, pop it out and tightly wrap each piece in cling film.  You should be able to keep roux frozen for 6 months or more without it seperating – watch for off smells if you choose to keep it that long though.

“Rooks? What’s a rooks?”:

Roux is French, and pronounced ‘rue’.  Now, I don’t speak French, and you might not either, but chances are you’ve probably made scalloped potatoes or something else that uses a basic white sauce before.  A roux is that cooked mixture of flour and fat that helps to thicken whatever you make once the liquid is added.  Generally, the ratio of fat to flour is one to one by weight, but this varies depending on how much fat is needed to coat your flour.

The fat used can be anything, chicken fat, pork fat, duck fat, vegetable oil, or butter.  If you use an animal fat, you’ll be adding a huge amount of flavour to your dish, but also a ton of saturated fat.  Butter adds a  great neutral flavour, and some saturated fat – it should be clarified when making a roux (more on this in a later tip).  Vegetable oil makes a cheaper alternative to butter, but if flavour is your main concern it should be avoided.

Making a roux:
The procedure for making a roux is simple – heat your fat, and dump in your flour all at once.  Stir it until all the fat has coated the flour grains, and then “cook it out”.  The roux should begin to resemble a smooth paste once all the flour is added.  It should also not be seeping fat, if it is, add more flour and stir it in.  Cook the roux over medium heat, but don’t allow it to boil or foam up.  If it does, lower the heat.  The flour will begin to change colour as it is cooked, resulting in three main colours of roux; white, blonde, and brown.  A black or dark brown roux is used in Cajun cooking, but not often elsewhere.

Types of roux:
A white roux will take about 5 minutes of cooking.  It is neutral in flavour and aroma, as the flour has not been toasted but cooked just long enough to lose the raw smell.

A blonde roux will take 10-20 minutes of cooking depending on how high of a heat you are using – try not to wander off too far when cooking a roux.  A blonde roux will smell like fresh buttered popcorn.  This type of roux has less thickening power than a white roux, but can add a great mild nutty flavour to your dish.  You’ll also notice that the blonde roux is runnier than the white.  Since it is off white, it will discolor a cream sauce.

A brown roux has the color and aroma of peanut butter or toasted nuts.  It will likely take about 30 minutes of cooking over medium heat to make a brown roux.  The brown roux is quite runny when hot, and has lost most of its thickening ability.  Brown roux is useful for thickening dark colored sauces, soups, or stews.

Using a roux:
Its easiest to add a warm liquid into a hot roux.  When making a soup for example, saute your aromatics [onions, celery, etc], add your roux, and when it has all been heated, begin to add warm stock or cream very slowly.  Add only a few tablespoons at the beginning, mixing it in until fully incorporated.  Add a bit more, and mix until its uniform.  Repeat, adding a bit more each time.   Roux needs to be ‘cooked out’ after the liquid is added to eliminate the remaining floury taste and texture.  You won’t see the full thickening power of the roux until your sauce, soup, or whatever has come to a simmer.  Let it simmer for 15 minutes or so to cook out the roux.

Adding cold liquids to a hot roux can cause the roux to lump up, and excesssively hot liquids can cause lumps if they gelatinize the starch too early – not only that, adding hot cream to a hot roux can burn the cream pretty easily.

Posted by Chris at 8:04 pm Tagged with: , , , ,
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