Culinary IQ: Monday, November 7, 2011; Overview of Fruits

Fruits vs. Vegetables

Have you ever had that argument over a tomato? Is it a vegetable or a fruit? Technically it is a berry, a subcategory of fruits. Fruits are botanically defined as the ripened ovaries of flowering plants that have seeds. While the most specific definition of a vegetable is the edible portion of plant that cannot be used to reproduce that plant, i.e.: a celery stock, a leaf of lettuce, a carrot or a beet. We tend to classify any produce that lacks sweetness as a vegetable while many of them are botanically fruits.

Over the course of the week I will be discussing some of the various types of fruits, their origins, nutritional values and how they can be used in your cooking. Today I am going to give you a brief overview of the more common fruits in our diets.

A berry is a fruit produced from the single ovary. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors. The seeds are usually embedded in the flesh of the ovary. The most common associate to the name berry is a small edible fruit. From the following examples of berries you will see that they are not always small. Fruits that are technically berries include, bananas, grapes, tomato, pumpkin and watermelon among many others.

A stone fruit or drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell with a seed inside. Surprisingly the almond is a drupe and not a nut. The almond is actually the seed inside the shell of the fruit. Other examples of drupes include, coffee, coconut, date, mango, cherry, pistachios, peaches, plums as well as many others.

A nut in botany is a simple dry fruit with one seed (rarely two) in which the ovary wall becomes very hard (stony or woody) at maturity, and where the seed remains attached or fused with the ovary wall, all nuts are indehiscent (not opening at maturity). Examples of nuts include chestnuts and hazelnuts. We commonly define many species as nuts that do not meet the botanical definition. Almonds, pecans and walnuts are technically the seeds of drupe fruits. The cashew is a seed and the peanut is technically a legume.


I am sure we will continue to use the more commonly used classifications of fruits but it is interesting to know a little about the actual classifications. 

Culinary IQ: Friday, November 4, 2011; Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

A Story, A Method, A Cake
Have you ever had a favorite recipe that you found on the back of a package? You clipped out the recipe and stuck it in a cookbook and every so often you would pull it out and make it. Maybe it was a holiday recipe and your family had come to expect the delicious dish from you every year. When the holiday neared you knew which cookbook to pull out and find the prized recipe. What would happen if you went to pull it out and it was gone? It happened to me!
I had found the recipe for a very delicious fudge called 5-minute fudge on the back of a Nestle chocolate chip bag. It was a secondary recipe to the Toll House cookie recipe and was placed on a small corner of the bag about 1x2-inches. A simple but delicious recipe. It was the same recipe my mom had made for years and I am sure she had found it from the same place. I had cherished the little piece of plastic for years and would pull it out at the holidays and make it several times. Then one mild winter day as the holidays approached I went to find it in its special place and it was gone! I was devastated. I ran to the store to buy a new bag of Nestle chocolate chips and to my dismay the recipe was not there. I searched high and low looking for the missing recipe and did internet searches with no success. I would find similar recipes but none that had the exact ingredients or proportions. I would check the bags of chips randomly when shopping, hoping that the recipe would be run again around the holidays but nothing. Fortunately, I eventually found a new recipe for fudge that was better than the one I lost and I have moved on. I will share that recipe with you in the future.
What you ask does this have to do with cakes? Well I have a recipe that I have been making since I was a child for Deep Dark Chocolate Cake with One Bowl Buttercream Frosting that has been on the Hershey's Cocoa box for years. It is a very moist dark chocolate recipe and always gets rave reviews. I like the frosting because it gives you options for making a light, medium or dark frosting. Hershey's has changed the name of the recipe a few times but continues to print it on the box year after year. If for some reason they decide to discontinue this recipe I want you to know that I have appointed myself the official keeper of the recipe. I will always have the recipe if you ever need it. 
The recipe is a modified two-stage method cake, here it is:

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup Hershey’s Cocoa

1-1/2 tsp. baking soda

1-1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup boiling water

Buttercream Frosting

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 round pans 9x2-inches or 9x13-inch rectangular pan. 

In a large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Remove from mixer; stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour in prepared pan(s).

Bake 30-35 minutes for round pans, 35-40 for rectangular pan or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cakes in rounds 10 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely. Frost with One Bowl Butter Cream Frosting.

One Bowl Buttercream Icing

6 T. butter

Hershey’s Cocoa

1/3 cup for light flavor

1/2 cup for medium flavor

3/4 cup for dark flavor

2-2/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

In a small mixer bowl cream butter. Add cocoa and powdered sugar alternately with milk; beat to spreading consistency (additional milk may be needed). Blend in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Culinary IQ: Thursday, November 3, 2011; Cake Methods III

Methods for Low-Fat or Egg-Foam

These are the last of the methods I will discuss this week. These methods are used for making Angel Food, Sponge and Chiffon Cakes.


Sponge Method: Many types of sponge cake are made with an egg foam that contains yolks. They are usually whole-egg foams but in some cases, the base foam is a yolk foam and an egg white foam is folded in at the end of the procedure.
In its simplest form, sponge cake batter is made in two basic steps:

1. Eggs and sugar are whipped to a thick foam.
2. Sifted flour is fold in. Additional ingredients, such as butter or liquid, complicate the process slightly.

Angel Food Method: Angel food cakes are based on egg-white foams and contain no fat. For success in beating egg whites, review my posts on eggs. Egg whites for angel food cakes should be whipped until they form soft, not stiff, peaks. Overwhipped whites lose their ability to expand and to leaven the cake. In the angel food method, the egg whites, salt, cream of tarter are whipped to a foam, a partial amount of the sugar is whipped in gradually until a soft, moist peak is achieved. The flour and remaining sugar, having been sifted together previously are then folded into the egg whites, poured in appropriate pan and baked according to the recipe.

Chiffon Method: Chiffon cakes are also based on an egg-white foam. Where a dry flour-sugar mixture is mixed into the angel food cake in the chiffon cake it is a batter containing flour, egg yolks, vegetable oil and water.

Egg whites for chiffon cakes should be whipped until they are a little firmer. Chiffon cakes contain baking powder so they are not dependent on the egg foam for leavening.

And there you go, I have covered the basic methods for making cakes. You will find variations on these methods from time to time and in some occasions methods that don't resemble any of these methods. Tomorrow I will share my favorite chocolate cake and frosting recipe with you.

Adapted from Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen. John Wiley & Sons, Publishers.

Culinary IQ: Wednesday, November 2, 2011 Cake Methods II

One-Stage (liquid shortening) and Flour-Batter Method

The one-stage method utilizes liquid shortening which is next to impossible to find in small quantities for the home. It does make and incredibly moist cake however and if you can find it, the effort is not lost. Because liquid shortening is so effective at emulsifying the batter it is possible to mix the ingredients all at once. Adding liquid shortening first prevents dry ingredients from sticking to the bowl and makes mixing easier. The batter is first mixed on low speed to incorporate all of the ingredients, then mixed on high for period of time, and finally on medium speed to develop the proper air cells for a fine textured batter. This type of cake is perfect if you need to make the cake well ahead of your event due to the time involved in decorating. It stays moist for several days. I used this cake when I made the Hogwarts cake.

The flour-batter method is usually only used in specialty cakes like pound cakes. In this method the all of the dry ingredients are sifted into a bowl, excluding the sugar. The fat is then added and mixed until smooth and light. In another bowl the eggs and sugar are whipped together until thick and light, the flavorings are then added. The flour mixture and egg mixture are then combined and mixed until smooth. The liquids are then added and mixed until smooth. This method produces a fine-textured cake but some toughening may occur because of the development of gluten.


Tomorrow I will finish up the methods discussing all of the methods for making low-fart or foam type cakes and then on Friday will give you a recipe.


Adapted from Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen. John Wiley & Sons, Publishers.

Culinary IQ: Tuesday, November 1, 2011; Cake Methods I

Creaming and Two-Stage Methods

The creaming method, also called the conventional method, is the standard mixing method for the home cook making high-fat cakes. High ratio shortenings available to commercial bakers have resulted in simpler methods for making high-fat cakes commercially.
Butter is the most common fat used in the creaming method. Butter cakes are highly prized for their flavor and shortening adds no flavor. Butter also influences texture because it melts in the mouth while shortening does not.
Shortening can be used in the creaming method. It is less expensive and easier to mix. Use regular shortening because it has better creaming abilities.
If a recipe calls for butter and you want to use shortening you need to make adjustments as butter is only about 80% fat and the remainder is water. I can discuss the formula for making the substitution later if you would like me to.
Examples of cakes that use the creaming method are Yellow Butter Cake, Chocolate Butter Cake and Pound cakes.


The two-stage method was developed for cakes that use high-ratio plastic shortenings. High-ratio cakes contain a large percentage of sugar, usually more sugar than flour. They are also made with more liquid than the creaming method, and the batters pour more freely. The mixing method is a little simpler than the creaming method, and produces a smooth batter that bakes up into a fine-grained, moist cake. It gets its name because liquids are added in two stages.
The first step in making high-ratio cakes is blending he flour and other dry ingredients with shortening. When this mixture is smooth, the liquids (including the eggs) are added in stages. Throughout this procedure, it is important to follow two rules:

• Mix at low speed and observe correct mixing times. This is important to develop proper structure.
• Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently during mixing. This is important to develop a smooth, well-mixed batter.

Devil's Food and White cakes are examples of two-stage method cakes.


Adapted from Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen. John Wiley & Sons, Publishers

Culinary IQ: Monday, Octobe 31, 2011; Cake Basics

Let them eat cake, many kinds!

Since the time I started baking in my mother’s kitchen back in Colorado cakes have been one of my favorite things to bake. There is just something magic about the transformation from batter to cake. Then the flexibility of what desserts can be made from the cake; whether it is the simplicity of macerated fruit with a slice of angel food cake or a beautifully decorated wedding cake. 

This week I will be discussing basic formulas of cakes and the methods most commonly used to make them.

The following are the basic cake formulas with the most common methods used in each formula:

• High-fat or shortened cakes
• Creaming method
• Two-stage method
• One-stage (liquid shortening) method
• Flour-batter method
• Low-fat or foam-type cakes
• Sponge method
• Angel food method
• Chiffon method

There are three main goals when mixing cakes:

• Combine all ingredients into a smooth, uniform batter

Two of the main ingredients in cakes, by nature are unmixable, water (also in milk and eggs) and fat. To achieve the goal of mixing the ingredients smoothly it is important to use the correct fat, have ingredients at room temperature, mix each step correctly, do not add liquids to quickly and add the proper amount of liquid.

• To form and incorporate air cells in the batter.

Air cells in batters are important for texture and for leavening. A fine, smooth texture is the result of small, uniform air cells, Large or irregular air cells  result in a coarse texture. Proper ingredients, ingredient temperature as well as mixing are vital to creating the proper air cells. Example: Granulated sugar should always be used unless otherwise specified as powdered sugar is not strong enough to support air cell development.

• To develop the proper texture in the finished product.

Both uniform mixing of ingredients and the formation of air cells are important to a cakes structure. Another factor of mixing that affects is gluten development. Gluten development is affected by the type of flour used (different types of flour contain varying amounts of protein or gluten). It is important to use the correct type of flour called for in the recipe. Under-mixing or over-mixing can also affect the development of gluten.

Adapted from Professional Baking: Fifth Edition by Wayne Gisslen; John Wiley and Sons, Publishers

Now that you know the basics of cake making I will start discussing the methods tomorrow and give you examples of cakes that use the methods.

Culinary IQ: Friday, October 28, 2011; Spatulas

Lift, Turn, Flip!

How did so many tools in the kitchen come to be known as spatulas? The term spatula is used to refer to various small implements with a broad, flat, flexible blade used to mix, spread and lift food.

Often when mixing food we use a heat resistant or silicon spatula to stir items over the stove as we cook them. The pliable tool allows us to cleanly scrape the sides and bottom of the pot or bowl we are cooking in. These spatulas usually have one 90 degree corner and one curved corner to assist in scraping food from the edges of the pan or dish being cooked in. Some are shaped like a spoon and referred to as spoonulas. They are great for mixing thinner batters and sauces but are not well suited for thicker mixtures like frostings or doughes.

Spatulas are often used when cooking on the stove or grill to turn or lift the food being cooked. These spatulas can be metal, plastic and more recently silicone or silicone covered metal. Plastic or silicone are well suited for non-stick cookware to prevent scratching. Plastic spatulas can melt at higher temperatures therefore silicone versions are quickly taking there place because of its tolerance for high heat. You will also find solid or slotted versions of spatulas, each serves a different purpose depending on what you are cooking. Slotted spatulas allow the food being lifted to drain.

Cake decorators also use spatulas when icing cakes. There are usually two common versions that come in multiple sizes, the straight spatula and the offset spatula. Which one to use is often a personal preference. I have found the straight spatula is best for icing the tops of the layers and the offset is best for icing the sides. An advantage of the offset is that it keeps your hand away from the surface you are icing.

As promised here is a recipe that will use several of the utensils I have discussed this week:

Crème Anglaise (Vanilla Custard Sauce)

Stage 1

Ingredients

12 ea. Egg Yolks

8 oz. Sugar

Procedure:

1. Combine the egg yolks and sugar in a stainless-steel bowl. Whip until thick and light.

Stage 2

Ingredients

1 quart milk

Procedure:

2. Scald milk in a boiling water bath or over direct heat.

3. Very gradually pour the scalded milk into the egg yolk mixture while stirring constantly with the whip.

4. Set the bowl over simmering water (bain marie). Heat it slowly, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon (or until it reaches 185˚F).

Stage 3

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. Vanilla

Procedure:

5. Immediately remove the bowl from the heat, strain through a wire mesh strainer and set in a pan of cool water. Stir in vanilla. Stir the sauce occasionally as it cools.

Variations:

For a richer crème anglaise, substitute heavy cream for up to half of the milk. To flavor with a vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract, first split the bean in half lengthwise. Scrape the pulp from inside the bean with a paring knife. Add the pulp and the split bean two the milk heating in step 2. You can also run a whole nutmeg over a microplane grater 2 or 3 times before heating.

Chocolate Crème Anglaise

Melt 6 oz. sweetened chocolate. Stir into the Crème Anglaise.

And yes I used 4 of the utensils from this weeks posts!