I couldn't start off the first recipe of the year incomplete. Lately, school's been starting to get really busy so I didn't get a chance to shape the tuiles into pretty butterflies. Since I didn't want to go plain, I added sesame seeds seeds and spread the batter across the baking sheet. I think I may have spread the batter too thick, but they still ended up nice and crisp!
This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.
Don't forget to check out the DB's Blogroll!
I've never had gingerbread before other than gingerbread cookies and by those I mean the ones you use to build the houses so they're not the greatest. To keep the portions small, I quartered the recipe and used my mini loaf pans. As for the egg, I just looked for the smallest large one in the carton instead of trying to divide out an egg into something I don't want to even calculate. I wasn't expecting to like this recipe, but it was delicious (I loved how gingery it was) and the texture was amazing! Moist and soft, dense, but not overly so and best of all, it wasn't like the types of cakes that dried out a few hours later. My cake stayed moist for 3 days.. I couldn't believe it! I'm still curious about why sometimes cakes made with all purpose flour are softer and better textured than those made with cake flour. Could it be the melted chocolate? Almost every chocolate cake I've made has a softer crumb. Or is it the extra liquid? Compared to most recipes, there is more milk (1 cup of milk to 2 cups of flour). Then there's also molasses, which contributes to the liquid and possibily to the soft texture? Since this is the first cake I've made with molasses, I have no idea if molasses has an effect on texture. Maybe it's none of the above and I've finally mastered how not to undermix. Or, am I overanalyzing.. again!..haha. I'm sure the icing was yummy, but I decided to save the calories and dust with some icing sugar (something I've never done before, suprisingly).
Thanks to Heather of Sherry Trifle for choosing this recipe, which can be found on her blog and in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From my Home to Yours. Don't forget to checkout the TWD Blogroll!
Flaky is definitely not my thing, so when it comes to biscuits, tea biscuits, pie crust, I can easily pass them by. Despite not liking them, biscuits have definitely been on my to-bake list for a long time mostly because I love how they just split in half when they're pullled apart. I chose this recipe because there was no food processor to clean, no frozen butter to grate and everything is done in one bowl, and two measuring cups. If the food processor made superior biscuits, I would drag that thing out, but this was a Cook's Illustrated recipe (how can I not believe them!). The coolest part was watching the melted butter turn into clumps when it was poured into the buttermilk. That's actually the secret to fluffy and flaky biscuits because the clumps mimick the effect of frozen clumped butter. Even though I'm not crazy about biscuits, these were pretty good and very light tasting. They were especially yummy with peanut butter!
By the way, what kind of baking sheets do you use when the baking temperature is 475!! If I used my jelly roll instead of the airbakes, the bottoms would have burned badly before the top would even cook. Does anyone have a good recommendation for a non burning, nicely browning jelly roll or cookie sheet pan?
Cook's Illustrated
Best Drop Biscuits Recipe
This was the recipe I was most excited about for this month's round of TWD. Ever since I was finally able to sucessfully bake a chiffon cake, all I can think about is trying a foam-like cake again.. in case the first time was a fluke! Dorie had some pretty intimidating instructions for making this cake and it seemed like a lot of TWDers had problems with the rise/sinking. Since the method I used last time for my chiffon cake worked so well, I decided to just stick with it. Plus, the difference between this recipe and the recipe I used before is the use of all purpose instead of cake flour. This would be an excellent opportunity to compare textural differences between those two types of flour, since I was using the exact same mixing method. I didn't want to make the full recipe, but if I made half the recipe, 2 egg whites wouldn't beat up properly in the stand mixer. In the end I decided to make 3/4th of the original recipe, which actually converted perfectly to 3 eggs without weird half/quarter egg divisions and baked in a 9 inch springform. The other change I made was subbing in oil for the butter because the chiffon cake I made the first time used oil and I wanted to keep the recipes as consistent as possible to minimize possible flops and for a better comparison.
Similar to my first chiffon cake, I separated the eggs because my other experiences with trying to incorporate flour into a whole egg foam was diasterous! It's more foolproof for me to fold in egg whites and even that can be tricky! First, I whipped the egg whites to stiff peaks then I mixed all the dry ingredients in one bowl and all the wet in another and whisked them both quickly. Next I folded 1/3 of the egg whites to lighten the batter and then folded the rest of the whites. The texture was just as soft (so I guess the first time wasn't a fluke!), but there was more sinking with this cake compared to my other chiffon. I think I may have overfolded a little (but luckily not enough to affect the overall texture) or maybe I should have cooled the cake upside down, since this was a foam cake to keep the air pockets stretched. Anyway, I'm just glad that all purpose flour worked and actually tasted better because it felt like I was biting into cake vs air with the cake flour (although cake flour is a touch softer).
I didn't exactly have a suprise under the top layer of yummy filling with berries and I also changed the genoise to a chiffon, but this was a lot of fun to make. Next time I'm trying a whole egg foam, maybe that will give me those tiny holes..or if I could somehow get my hands on some sponge cake stabilizer. This is what I want to bake.
Thanks for choosing this recipe and allowing us to challenge our baking skills Mary Ann!! The recipe can be found at her wonderful blog Meet Me in the Kitchen and in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From my Home to Yours. Don't forget to checkout the TWD Blogroll!
The neverending search for the best chocolate chip cookies continue..like it ever stops! Even though I think I found my favourite in CI's thick and chewy, I just can't help but think that there's something better out there. CI's CCC definitely has the best flavour, but I find that their chewiness is more soft than chewy and the crispy edges are gone a few hours later. Is the melted butter making the cookies too soft? They say that melted butter is the key for chewiness because it allows for more gluten development, but there are many cookies made with creamed butter that are chewy too. Maybe it's the large amount of brown sugar or the extra egg yolk.. seriously, this was driving me crazy so I just had to make another batch of CCC's even though I'm on a major butter overdose.
I found a recipe by Chris Kimball in the Dessert Bible had the same ratio of ingredients as the CI recipe except for the use of some shortening instead of butter, an extra egg white instead of egg yolk and baking powder instead of baking soda. It also creamed the fat instead of melting the butter. This was the perfect recipe to try because the ratio of ingredients were basically the same as CI's with a few minor variations and a different mixing method. To make the most out of this batch of cookies I also compared baking powder and soda. After creaming the butter, shortening, sugar and eggs I divided the mixture evenly by weight. Then I measured out half the dry ingredients following the original recipe in the Dessert Bible and half the dry ingredients with baking soda substituted for baking powder.
Now I could compare these cookies with my usual go to, the thick and chewy and also compare the dessert bible recipe using different leavening. To make it completely fair, I used a medium cookie scoop to portion them out and baked both baking powder and baking soda versions on the same cookie sheet at the same time at 325. Even though the Dessert Bible uses 375, I knew the bottoms would burn before the tops could properly set in my oven. I also alternated the cookies, just in case one half of my oven was cooler or warmer than the other. On the left, we have the baking powder cookie and on the right, we have the baking soda cookie.
Compared to CI's thick and chewy, these were definitely less buttery. They had an extra crunch to them, but was not worth the sacrifice in flavour. Between the baking powder and baking soda versions from the Dessert Bible, there was a difference in texture that was more noticeable as the cookies cooled. By the way, I refrigerated the dough for 36 hours (because I'm sure we all know by now after the endless posts on the NYT recipe that refrigeration makes better cookies!)
What I learned:
* Baking powder sets up a cookie faster in the oven, producing a thicker cookie and baking soda produces more spread and crisp. Both leaveners produced chewy cookies, but the chew in the baking powder cookie was more of a 'doughy chew'
* Shortening makes the edges crispier, but there was a huge compromise in flavour and a slight greasiness so it's all butter from now on. Plus, the crispiness eventually goes away so it didn't really make a difference and was not worth it.
* Creaming produces chewy cookies too! (I guess as long as the amount of brown sugar is large enough)
Overaly, my ranking is: CI > Dessert Bible with baking soda (modified) > Dessert Bible with baking powder (original). Even though CI still comes up on top, I'm still searching for the best CCC. At least now I've settle my curiosity in using shortening and baking powder vs baking soda. I'll definitely have to make another batch of cookies! Hopefully, the search ends next time.
I made these muffins right after I found out our TWD schedule even though I didn't have any of the add-ins so I could use my new pan! I've never had corn or undessert-like muffins before so I wasn't sure what to expect. These were rough, gritty and dry, kind of tasteless except with a hit of canned corn flavour. It was my fault for omitting all the 'savoury' components though..kind of like like cooking without spices, but I still didn't enjoy the pebbly texture. I tried to like them though, eating 7 of my mini rock like muffins to prove it because I feel bad for not eating the bad stuff... everything deserves attention, right?!
Flip them around and now we have mini muffins! Isn't it great when there are 2 uses for the same pan, what a great value.. haha.
Thanks to Ezra of Ezra Pound Cake for choosing this recipe, which can be found on her blog and in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From my Home to Yours. Don't forget to checkout the TWD Blogroll!
What is your favourite kind of cake? I like mine light as a feather, fluffy, soft, not too sweet and moist. Basically, I love the texture of boxed mixes without all the funny tasting chemicals. Actually, I didn't know that boxed mixes had a funny taste until I went to a birthday party where they served my favourite (or so I thought) Betty Crocker rainbow mix with canned frosting. Many scratch cakes later, I was still not able to get that light texture. I tried creaming, reverse creaming, recipes with both whole eggs and egg whites, different quantities of milk until it hit me that maybe all this time I've just been baking the wrong cake. I've been avoiding sponges and chiffons ever since my horrible angel food cake experience where the cake was raw yet dry.. hmm.. weird, but it happened. I still wasn't sure about the folding egg white thing so off to youtube for a refresher on folding! I stumbled on an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats and decided to give his recipe a try after many failed attempts with CI's chiffon cake recipe. The CI versions were such failures I didn't even bother to take a picture of the gooey, wet, mess (yes, I'm still talking about a cake)
Alton's recipe had the perfect texture, but needs a little more sweetness. I can't imagine how many more butter cake recipes and tweaking I would've made if I didn't give the chiffon a try! To be honest, now I kind of miss the butter flavour. I'll have to try this recipe with melted butter and more sugar next time (it better work!). The non frosting eater in me decided to go healthy with decorating this cake and found whatever surviving (nonscriveled) blueberries in my fridge..haha.
I don't have a tube pan so I halved the recipe and baked in a springform.
Chiffon Cake recipe by Alton Brown
*this is important or you'll end up with a salty cake! I used 1/2 tsp of salt. Anymore and this probably won't be something you'll want to eat. Next time I would up the sugar too!
I actually used Alton's recipe, but with CI's procedure for making this cake. This was to prevent overmixing on my part. First I mixed all the dry ingredients in one bowl and all the wet (except for egg whites) in another bowl and then combined wet and dry. Next I whipped the egg whites + cream of tartar to stiff peaks and folded them into the mixture. I find it harder to incorporated flour into a ribboned egg + sugar mixture and also harder to fold egg whites when there's sugar beaten in them. I'm definitely making this recipe again following Alton's instructions to see if there's a difference. Alton also uses a handmixer, which I never use for cakes because they've always turned them tough and chewy. Maybe it's my Sunbeam.. I guess I do need a new kitchen aid hand mixer!
