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Ruby asks: I am working on a science project that determines if you add baking soda in a cupcake recipe that calls for baking powder, will it make a difference, and I cant remember which cupcakes I put baking soda/powder in!! Any suggestions to help me determine which is which? Please answer ASAP!!!!
Baking S.O.S. says: I hope I’m not too late to respond to your S.O.S. call for help!
It sounds like you are trying to determine which cupcake is which AFTER they have finished baking, is that right? If so, then you will probably have to go by color, taste, and how much the cupcakes rose (or didn’t, as the case may have been).
Visually and taste-wise, any baked good that contains too much baking powder will turn yellowish in color and taste bitter. But in your case, it sounds like your original recipe called for baking powder, so you would not experience this effect if you omitted the baking powder and substituted baking soda in its place.
So the next indicator will probably be how much the cupcakes rose. In order to detect which cupcake had baking soda and which had baking powder, you first need to know how each chemical leaving agent works.
Chemical leavening agents work by creating a chemical reaction between an acid ingredient and a base ingredient. When the two ingredients combine together, they create that chemical reaction that produces gases and air which cause baked goods to rise.
Baking powder contains both an acid and a base ingredient, so it contains everything necessary to make a baked good rise.
Baking soda, however, is only a base. It must be mixed with an acidic ingredient in the recipe (such as buttermilk, sour cream, cocoa powder, lemon juice, etc.) in order to activate the chemical leavening process.
So…..you should now have all the information you need to know–both to determine which cupcake is which, and ALSO to answer your science project question! (If you get a blue ribbon on your project, do I get some credit for answering it for you??!!) 
[In case you didn't figure it out on your own, the cupcake that didn't rise as much should be the one where you substituted baking soda in place of the baking powder. If the recipe did not call for any other acidic ingredients to activate the baking soda, it would not rise as much as the cupcake with the baking powder. And the short answer to your science project is that baking soda and baking powder are NOT interchangeable. They each react differently in baking.]
Jim asks: I made some corn bread using gluten-free flour, soy milk and flax seed for eggs, but it came out heavy. Everything I try comes out the same. I am allergic to all three. Please help.
Baking S.O.S. says: It is a real challenge to make baked goods that taste good and have a good texture, too, when you need to avoid so many allergenic ingredients. I understand your frustration.
The good news is that I was presented with this exact same challenge just last week when I catered a luncheon for a group of people that needed gluten-free and vegan cornbread. Even though I am a “purist” when it comes to baking–I like to use white flour, eggs, butter, etc.–I feel like my vegan, gluten-free cornbread recipe turned out pretty tasty, so I will share it with you here! (Note: This recipe does not have a substitute for eggs, so I was skeptical that the cornbread would be too “loose” with nothing to bind it together, but it turned out just fine.)
Gluten-Free, Vegan Cornbread
Ingredients
•1 cup of gluten-free all-purpose baking flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Brand, found in the Natural Foods section of the grocery store)
•1 cup of ground cornmeal
•2 tsp baking powder
•½ tsp salt
•¼ cup corn or vegetable oil
•¼ cup pure maple syrup
•1 cup soymilk
•1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
•1 cup sweet corn kernels
Directions:
1) In a mixing bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. 2) Add the vegetable oil, syrup, soymilk and vinegar; stir just until blended. Stir in corn kernels. 3) Pour batter into a greased 8×8 pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Yield: 9-16 servings
Wanda asks: I have used a pound cake recipe, handed down from my grandmother, for years without any problems. Lately the crust has separated and crumbled from the rest of the cake. I use 6 egg whites that are whipped to soft peaks, then folded into the cake batter. I initially thought that I was not completely folding in the whites and that was the cause. But I folded them in more without any difference in the results. The only other ingredients are sifted flour, sugar, egg yolks, baking soda and sour cream. Please help and tell me what I could be doing wrong.
Baking S.O.S. says: It is always frustrating when a trusted recipe starts having problems when it was never a problem before. It becomes a complete mystery to try to figure out what changed!
I noticed in your ingredient list that you did not mention butter. Typically, a pound cake is supposed to call for a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs, and a pound of butter–hence the name “pound cake.”
I know recipes for pound cake have changed a lot over the years, but all cake recipes typically call for some very basic ingredients, including some type of fat. The only fat I see in your recipe is the sour cream. Have you started using a different brand of sour cream? Or perhaps you switched to a low-fat or fat-free version of sour cream? Perhaps there is not enough fat in your cake recipe to make it moist and hold it all together?
The only other suggestion I can think of might be your oven. Have you tested the oven temperature to make sure it is baking properly? Perhaps if the oven is too hot, that might cause the top crust to brown too quickly before the interior of the pound cake is done baking, thereby drying the top crust so much that it crumbles off.
To test the temperature of your oven, buy an inexpensive oven thermometer and place it in your oven as you preheat it. Check the thermometer several times as the pound cake is baking to see if the oven temperature is fluctuating a lot. If so, perhaps you need to have your oven calibrated to get it working properly again.
I hope one of these solutions might be helpful to you. Good luck!
Ron asks: I would like to make a pizza that when fully cooked has a brown, soft, non crispy bottom crust, and is fully foldable. When you bite into the pizza, the crust just seems to blend in with the toppings. The crust reminds me of a cross between pastry and pizza dough. I’ve tried to duplicate with no luck. Any recipe I use ends up with a crisp bottom crust. I bake on a pizza stone at 500 degrees. I thank you for your time in reading this and any suggestions you may have.
Baking S.O.S. says: I had to smile to myself when I read your question because I have always experienced the exact OPPOSITE problem as you: I WANT to get a nice crisp bottom crust, not a soft, tender, chewy crust.
For a long time, I could not figure out the secret to getting a dark, crisp bottom crust on my homemade pizza dough. I tried many solutions, and I finally found that if I baked the pizza directly on a pizza stone at a very high heat (450 degrees), then my pizza crust would get nice and crispy. You are baking at an even higher temperature (500 degrees), so that explains why your pizza crust is turning out so crispy.
If you would like a softer, more tender crust, then you need to try all the other techniques I have used that DIDN’T produce a crisp crust for me!
I don’t have any advice for a recipe that is a “cross between pastry and pizza dough” ask you asked, though perhaps you might try to search the Internet for some recipes for calzone doughs to see if that might be closer to what you are looking for, rather than straight up pizza dough.
As for baking process to get a softer crust, try these techniques:
- Bake at a lower oven temperature: 375 degrees – 400 degrees. The dough will bake slower and not get as dark. (baking time will be longer as a result of the lower temp)
- Instead of baking directly on the pizza stone, bake your pizza on a pizza pan or a metal sheet pan. You can place the pan directly on the pizza stone or eliminate the stone all together. When I used a metal pan to bake pizzas, the crust NEVER came out crisp. It was always soft and chewy.
- Do not pre-bake or par-bake the crust in any way. Simply take the raw dough, place it in the pan, add sauce & toppings and bake. I find that par-baking the pizza dough can help produce a crisper crust, so avoid that step all together if you want to keep the crust tender.
I hope those techniques will help you achieve the results you desire in your pizza crust. Good luck!
Toney asks: I have a question about baking a cake, a pound cake in this instance. I have baked pound cake for the pass 30 years and have never had this problem before. My cakes will not bake all the way through. I have had my stove checked and they found nothing wrong. I have thrown away three cakes and a few pies. Very frustrating. Hope you can help.
Baking S.O.S.: This sounds like a frustrating experience–especially since nothing seems to be wrong with your oven.
The only thing I can suggest is to simply bake your pound cake (or pies, since you mentioned that was a problem, too) longer and be sure to test for doneness before removing them from the oven.
If your pound cake looks like it is getting too done or too brown before it is fully baked through the center, then try turning the oven temperature down by 25 degrees until it finishes baking all the way through.
To test for doneness, I would suggest using a long wooden skewer–rather than a wooden toothpick–because pound cakes can be very deep and dense. A toothpick will only be able to check the cake to a certain depth because it is short, but a wooden skewer can check all the way through. Be sure the skewer comes out with no batter or only dry cake crumbs on it. It is also a good idea to check the cake in several spots, just to be sure.
Good luck!
Rowena asks: I’m a cake decorator more than a baker – but because I’m also a cook – I can get particular about the taste and the texture of my baked goods. I have collected some pretty good recipes for cakes and cupcakes – taste wise but am challenged with the texture. When I have to make large batches of cupcakes (or deal with big quantities of orders), I would bake the cupcakes about 2 days ahead and frost them the day before I deliver them. The problem with this is by the time I deliver them, the cake texture becomes dry. Without freezing the cakes (because by this time,my freezer would already be full of cakes), how do I keep the cakes moist for 2 days or until I deliver them?
Baking S.O.S. says:The short answer to your question is: buy a bigger freezer!I have always said that a pastry chef’s most valuable tool is a freezer because freezing baked goods will preserve the freshness much better than allowing baked goods to sit out at room temperature for a few days.As you have experienced, cakes tend to dry out after they sit at room temperature for a couple of days. There is no way to prevent that from happening EXCEPT by freezing the cakes until you are ready to decorate and serve them. Freezing will preserve the cakes at the state of freshness they are when you put them in the freezer, so if you freeze them as soon as they are baked and completely cooled, then they will be much fresher than if they sit out for 2 days.Furthermore, I understand completely that it is not possible or realistic to make every cake right before an order is due. Every professional baker/bakery must make things in stages or in advance before finishing for final service/delivery.
So the only viable solution is to get more freezer storage space. Best of luck!
“Sassy Suzanne” asks: How do you insure a moist cake or cupcake? Is it the oil or butter? When can you switch to yogurt? is it interchangeable? Also, when adding fresh fruit - How do you determine the amount? I was concerned about the rise and moisture of the end product.
Baking S.O.S. says: Thank you for the challenging questions!
There are a number of factors that contribute to the moistness of a cake or cupcake, including the fat (oil or butter, as you mentioned), the amount of sugar, the amount and type of liquid called for in the recipe, and even the eggs! Although eggs help provide structure to hold all of the other ingredients together when the proteins set during baking, eggs also contain water, so they contribute to the overall moisture content of baked goods.
So when making substitutions in a cake recipe, the moisture content will be affected, as well.
In the case of yogurt specifically, I have found recipes that substitute yogurt for the eggs, the liquid, sour cream, and the oil or butter. So depending on which ingredient you want to substitute the yogurt for, it will affect the outcome of the finished cake, but it is difficult to predict exactly HOW the finished cake will be affected. You simply have to find out through experimentation.
To determine how much yogurt to substitute for various ingredients, check out this article from Taste of Home. According to the article, it is not a 1-for-1 exact substitution when using yogurt for lower-fat baking, so you will need to do some calculations depending on where you want to substitute the yogurt. Good luck!
Last week, I taught two baking classes: How to make pie from scratch with the theme: “New Twists on Thanksgiving Favorites.” I chose to make Pumpkin Pie and Pecan Pie because those are MY two favorite pies for Thanksgiving.
Creating a new twist on Pecan Pie was easy: pecan pie always tastes better with chocolate (doesn’t everything?!), and I added a little bourbon, as well–a common addition to Pecan Pie.
Pumpkin Pie was a little trickier because it tastes so good as is, I didn’t want to completely change the flavor profile or it would be “alienating” to people: no one would want to stray too far from our fond memories of Pumpkin Pie as the quintessential dessert at Thanksgiving feasts.
I have tried recipes that add cream cheese to the pumpkin pie filling, and I admit that I like the flavor combination of pumpkin and cream cheese together. However, it seems like those flavors work better together in a cheesecake than in a pie [a pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving would be a fabulous dessert if you are looking for something different!].
In the end, I only added a few subtle flavors to enhance the Pumpkin Pie recipe rather than change it completely: a little bit of orange zest–because orange and pumpkin pair nicely together, too–and a bit of spiced dark rum. The flavors create a pleasant surprise without straying too far from the original.
Here, I share those new twists on Thanksgiving favorites with you. If you need a good pie crust recipe, I highly recommend the Never Fail Pie Crust. It’s quick, easy, and true to it’s name: a delicious made-from-scratch pie crust that can’t go wrong. Happy Thanksgiving!
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
Ingredients
3 tablespoons butter, melted
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup dark corn syrup
2 tablespoons bourbon liquor
1 1/2 cups pecan halves
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie shell
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Melt butter in a microwave. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs. Stir in brown sugar, flour, vanilla extract, corn syrup and bourbon until combined. Add butter and stir all to combine. Stir in the pecans and chocolate morsels. Pour mixture into pie shell.
4. Place on a sheet tray and bake for 50 to 60 minutes until pie filling is set in the middle.
5. Remove pie from oven to a wire rack. Allow to cool completely before serving.
Orange-Spice Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
Flaky Pie Crust Dough
1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons spiced dark rum or Grand Marnier
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon orange zest
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Fold overhang under and crimp decoratively. Pierce dough all over with fork.
2. Line crust with parchment paper; fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake until sides are set, about 12 minutes. Remove parchment paper and beans. Bake until crust begins to color, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer crust to rack.
3. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.
4. Whisk pumpkin and brown sugar in medium bowl to blend. Add all remaining ingredients and whisk until blended. Pour filling into crust. Bake pie until filling is set in center, about 1 hour.
5. Transfer pie to rack; cool 30 minutes. Chill uncovered until cold, at least 3 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and keep chilled.)
Linda says: Help!! I have been baking for over 40 years. Lately, my cakes are sinking in the middle. In the oven, the cakes rise great. I do not open the door until timer goes off. Then I check cakes for doneness with a tester. The center comes out clean. I proceed to take cake out of oven. While cooling, it starts to sink. What am I doing wrong? My measurements of ingredients are exact. I bought new baking soda & baking powder. Still they sink. I am baking for a bake sale on Saturday. My shoofly pies sank some in the middle. HELP!!!!
Baking S.O.S. says: It sounds like you have done everything right, so it is a complete mystery as to why your cakes suddenly started sinking when they never did before.
The only explanation I can think of might be if you oven is starting to bake inconsistently as it ages. You could try putting an oven thermometer in the oven to check the actual temperate as it is baking. (Turn on the oven light to check the oven temp without opening the door.)
Another possibility might be if you are baking with a gas oven. I learned recently from a service person that installed a new gas range at my workplace that the pressure through the gas lines can fluctuate quite a bit, especially in the colder months. With the fluctuations in gas pressure comes fluctuations in baking temperature, and there is no way to control that, unfortunately.
The only suggestion I can give you is my own solution to the same problem that I was experiencing with my favorite cake recipe: I simply added a little baking powder to force the cake to rise up a little more. The extra baking powder helped the cake to stay risen, even after removing it from the oven and cooling it.
I hope you can find a solution that will work for you. Good luck!
Baking S.O.S. was invited by the organizers of the Country Living Magazine Fair to do a baking demonstration during their 2011 Fair in Columbus, Ohio. I was scheduled to speak just before several TV show personalities, so I felt a little like a celebrity myself as I gave my demo to an over-flowing audience of at least 100 people (or more!).
As the Executive Chef of Local Matters, I wanted to use as many local foods in my demonstration as possible, so I used farm-fresh eggs from Manchester Hill Farm, whole milk and heavy cream from Snowville Creamery, delicious fresh peaches from Hirsch Fruit Farm, and even a few raspberries from my own back yard. I made Pastry Cream, which is similar to vanilla pudding, only 1,000 times more delicious when you make it from scratch using quality ingredients. Then I used the Pastry Cream to make a Peaches and Cream Trifle topped with Snowville Creamery Whipped Cream. Delicious!!
The recipes AND the tasting samples disappeared in a hurry, so I am posting the recipe here for anyone who didn’t get a copy of the recipe to take home. Enjoy!
Pastry Cream
2 cups whole milk
2 egg yolks
1 egg
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 Tbls. cornstarch
2 Tbls. unsalted butter, diced
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
Directions:
In a medium saucepan, scald the milk. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks, egg & sugar together in a large stainless steel bowl. Then sift the cornstarch into the mixture and whisk all together. Slowly temper the scalded milk into the egg & sugar mixture, then pour into a separate clean saucepan. Over medium heat, stir constantly with a wooden spoon until it comes to a boil & thickens. Remove the pan from heat & stir in butter & vanilla until completely blended. Strain the pastry cream into a shallow pan. Immediately cover with plastic wrap touching the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill immediately.
To assemble a trifle, you will need:
• 3 8-inch round cake layers
• 1 cup flavored simple syrup*
• 1 recipe Pastry Cream
• 2 pints of assorted fresh fruit, such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, mango, kiwi—washed and sliced, plus extra whole fruit for garnish
• 1 recipe Chantilly Cream*
Directions:
1. Place 1 layer of cake on the bottom of a 9-inch round glass trifle bowl. Using a pastry brush or spray bottle, soak the cake layer with simple syrup.
2. Spread half the pastry cream over the cake layer. Top with 1 pint of assorted fruit.
3. Repeat layers. Top with last layer of cake. Decorate top of trifle with Chantilly Cream and garnish wish additional whole fruits around the edge.
*Simple Syrup
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup water
• ¼ cup fruit-flavored liqueur, such as Chambord, Grand Marnier, Apricot Brandy, Crème de Cassis, etc. OR 1 Tbls. Vanilla extract
Directions:
Place sugar and water in a medium saucepan over high heat. Stir until sugar dissolves, then stop stirring and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add liqueur or vanilla for flavor. Allow to cool to room temp. before using.
*Chantilly Cream
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
Directions:
Chill a stainless steel mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for 15 minutes before beginning. Place whipping cream in a well-chilled stainless steel bowl. Whip by hand or machine on medium speed until cream begins to thicken slightly. Gradually add in sugar slowly while continuing to beat. Add vanilla extract, increase speed to high and whip to medium peaks. Use immediately or store in frige for several hours. Re-whip as necessary before serving.
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