I am attempting the Wego Health Activist Writers’ Month Challenge. A post each day in April. So, now that I told you I am going to do it, I oughta follow through, right? Today’s prompt is to create a Pinterest board that shows your health focus and share an image of your board.
The second installment in my series on mixing methods. (did you miss the first one on creaming?) This time we are talking about the egg foam method.
It sounds super exciting, right?
This is the method that is used for creating those super fancy French gateaux and genoise and jelly rolls. Oh, and angel food cake. This is the method that makes people thing that baking cakes from scratch is difficult.
Ok, this is a bit more involved than dumping a cake mix from a box into water and eggs, but the results are worth it. Really. 15 extra minutes for a delicate and light cake. I promise. Better gluten free cakes await.
In this method, we get all of our lift from the air we add to the eggs. None of it is coming from a chemical source and we are not cutting air pockets into our butter. When you make cakes this way, you use melted butter or oil to moisten and tenderize. Gluten free goods tend to be dense and chewy. We should use this method more.
This method is used in many european style cakes. Why? Typical European flours have less gluten than American varieties. So the cakes rely on the eggs to create the structure, not the gluten proteins from the flour.
This method of mixing uses the protiens of the eggs to create structure, the sugar to tenderize and oil to moisten. In traditional baking, you use this method when you want the least possible gluten formation, so why don’t we have more recipes that use this method? Because they aren’t traditional American butter or chiffon cakes. But they are darn tasty.
The nitty gritty:
You must whip your eggs. Whip ’em real good. You want them to double or triple in volume (depending if you are using yolks, whites or whole eggs). You usually add in a small amount of sugar when they are at a soft peak. If you are whipping whites and yolks separately, you whip the yolks first and then the whites. You then fold in your flour and mix about a quarter of your foam mixture with your liquid fat. This small amount will deflate, but will help the fat mix without separating or deflating your entire mixture. You then fold in that mxture and bake promptly.
Time is not on your side with this technique. The longer the eggs sit, the flatter they become. And the more dense your cake will be.
How easy is that? I used this technique when making my gluten-free swiss roll cake.
Go forth and bake light and fluffy cakes!
While answering questions on Facebook last week, I realized that many people who are baking gluten-free don’t actually know that much about baking.
A person was upset over all of her baked goods being quite dense and crumbly. I know that my first batch of brownies after going gluten-free was actually quite atrocious. There are a million things that could be wrong, from the recipe itself, to the flours chosen to the technique used.
Gluten-free baking requires patience, practice and technique. But this isn’t much different from regular baking.
Except that you probably have more practice with how batters should look when they are made with regular flour rather than gluten free flour.
This series is going to cover everything from mixing methods, to baking tools and other skills for your arsenal.
Today, the most common mixing method. Creaming.
Most baking recipes (well, those not for fancy pastries), start out by telling you to cream the butter and sugar.
(oi, all my high school science teachers are having heart attacks at the thought of me talking about science).
What you are doing when you beat the butter and sugar together is creating little pockets of air where the sugar cuts through the fat. The lighter this mixture is when you are done, the lighter and more delicate your crumb will be. Because you added lots of air.
You then create an emulsion with the sugar mixture and the eggs. You need to add them one at a time. For the same reason you stream your oil into your vinaigrette while whisking, you need to combine 2 things (oil and water) that do not like to play nice.
You also need to alternate adding liquid and dry ingredients. Why? If you add all the liquid ingredients at once, your flour will lump and clump when you add it and it will cause you to over mix your batter trying to get it smooth. And an over mixed batter is dense and not so good.
You need your ingredients at a cool room temperature – meaning you should take the eggs & butter out a few hours before baking. Your butter should be the texture of soft ice cream. It should not be so soft that when you touch it, it squashes completely.
A stand mixer works best for this method. (I use Old Faithful, a 30+ year old Kitchenaid stand mixer).
You first whisk together all of your flours, chemical leaveners (baking powder or baking soda) and salt. You want the leavener to be evenly distributed for an even rise.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, place your sugar and your butter. Start slowly so you don’t send sugar flying, and bump up the speed to medium. (High will create too much friction and melt your butter)
Beat until the sugar mixture turns light and fluffy. It will expand slightly in vloume. Next, you beat in the eggs one at a time. I have read that putting them in a bowl of warm water first helps them beat up better, but if you have left them out for an hour or two, you should be good.
Once the eggs are combined (and the bowl has been scraped down), you alternate adding the flour and any liquid ingredients.
See, it just takes a little bit of time (about 15 minutes max).
Next time your recipe calls for creaming, take your time and remember that a little patience goes a long way.