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A few food cooking tips on cakes, pastry and thickeners

By April 14, 2020 No Comments
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A few food cooking tips on cakes, pastry and thickeners.

Cakes

  • If a cake, such as a sponge, breaks when it is being turned out from the cake tin, use suitable decoration and fresh cream to disguise, or keep the pieces to make a trifle.
  • A fruit cake that is too dry can be cut into serving-sized slices and wrapped in aluminum foil and steamed to make small plum puddings.
  • Sprinkle flour lightly over a cake if using a thin icing, this will prevent it running.
  • If a cake sinks in the middle, cut out the centre and make it into a ring cake.
  • A cake will crack on top if you add too much flour, not enough liquid or if you cook it at too high a temperature.
  • A cake may sink in the middle if exact measurements of butter and sugar are not used.
  • A cake will be undercooked if the oven temperature is too low.
  • Undersized cakes will result from under beaten or over beaten ingredients, too little butter, plain flour instead of self-raising flour, or a cake tin which is too large for the mixture.
  • A dry cake is the result of too much flour or not enough butter, eggs, liquid or sugar.  Other reasons are over beating, especially with fruit cakes;  lining paper which has not been well greased and has absorbed shortening from the cake;  or, with sponge cakes, overbeating the egg whites.

Pastry

  • Be careful with the amount of liquid you use – too much liquid results in a hard pastry which shrinks during cooking due to evaporation of excess water;  too little liquid results in a crumbly pastry which cannot be rolled.  Add liquid gradually, a little lemon juice added to the water makes an extra light pastry.
  • A pastry that is too crumbly can be used as a topping for sweet or savoury crumbles.  Add sugar and spices for sweet crumbles and cheese and herbs for savoury.

Thickeners

  • Roux is a mixture of butter and flour which is used as a thickener at the beginning of cooking.  If can also be made in large quantities and stored in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.  If the roux is added during cooking, make sure it is whisked into boiling liquid.  Otherwise, it will not thicken properly (90g. roux will thicken 600ml of liquid).
  • Beurre manie is a paste of butter and flour which is added as a thickener at the end of cooking (45g of beurre manie will thicken 500 ml of liquid)
  • Cornflour can be added as a paste to thicken liquid for a cloudy appearance.  Arrowroot can be added as a paste to thicken liquid for a clear appearance.  Do not boil the liquid to which you have added arrowroot or cornflour.  It will become thin and watery again.  Cornflour and arrowroot should only be added at the very last minute as their thickening power breaks down the longer you cook them.

A few food cooking tips on cakes, pastry and thickeners

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