The Chocolate » Tuesday’s Tips

Tuesday’s Tip: Substitutions

The Chocolate — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:55:16 +0000

Unless you always have a fully stocked kitchen (and who does?), you’ll sometimes need to substitute ingredients you already have with the ones you need. So here’s a list of standard baking items and their easy conversions.

When you need:

When you need:	You can substitute:
Cake flour	All-purpose flour. To every 1 cup all-purpose, add 2 Tablespoons cornstarch.
Buttermilk	“Soured milk.” To every 1 cup whole milk, add 1 Tablespoon vinegar.
Confectioner’s sugar	Granulated sugar. Process sugar in a blender or food processor until powdery, about 1 minute. Then, to every 1 cup blended sugar, add 2 Tablespoons cornstarch.
Brown sugar	Granulated sugar. To every 1 cup sugar, add 1 Tablespoon light molasses or 2 Tablespoons dark molasses.

Tuesday’s Tip: More on Flour

The Chocolate — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:25:03 +0000

Last week we talked about sifting flour. This week, there’s another important thing to note about measuring flour and that’s how you get it into the measuring cup in the first place.

For the same reason you sift the flour before measuring it, you should also spoon your flour into a measuring cup instead of scooping it out of your bag or container. The practice of scooping flour out of the container compacts the flour and gives you more than is necessary. For more accurate flour measurements, you should follow these steps (complete with pictures):

1.) Use a large spoon to get flour from the container.
2.) Gently drop flour from the spoon into your measuring cup until the cup is overfull.
3.) Do not shake it or press down on the flour (this compacts it).

4.) Use a butter knife or any straight kitchen utensil to level off the flour.

Tuesday’s Tip: Flour Tips

The Chocolate — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:31:06 +0000

Flour is not interchangeable. If your recipe calls for cake flour, you should always use cake flour, not all-purpose flour. Cake flour is sometimes hard to find in stores because it’s sold in a box, not a bag, and isn’t usually with the rest of the flour. There are different brands, but in Utah, you’ll be looking for Softasilk in a pink box.

If your recipe calls for 2 cups of sifted cake flour, here’s what that means. Fill your sifter (like the picture), place the measuring cup under the grate and fill it. Sifting the flour adds a lot of air and makes it much less compact than if you scoop it out of your container. You can see then, why you would NOT measure the flour first, then sift it. If you do this, you end up with way more flour than is necessary and suffer through a dry cake, cupcake, or brownie.

Tuesday’s Tip: Room Temperature Eggs

The Chocolate — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:30:56 +0000

Every time your recipe calls for softened butter, you should use room temperature eggs. If you use eggs straight from the fridge, you’re basically undoing the process of creaming the butter and sugar because cold eggs make the butter harden again. Also, cold eggs don’t whip the same way warmer eggs do. Air moves more freely in warm eggs so they blend much faster in your batter.

There are a couple ways to get room temperature eggs. First, and my apologies for the utter obviousness (not a word), you can take eggs out of the fridge an hour before you need them and let them come to room temperature. The alternative method is to put eggs straight from the fridge into a bowl of warm water for about 10 minutes. The water needs to be quite warm, almost hot. Otherwise, the egg temperature won’t really change. They’ll just cool down the water and act as ice cubes.

Happy Baking!

Tuesday’s Tip: Butter, Part 2

The Chocolate — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:30:17 +0000

Ah… More on Butter.

Another important tip on using butter wisely is knowing how to cream it. (This is typically the first step in your recipe.) Never melt your butter. Melted butter will NOT cream the way softened butter does. By the time it’s melted, it no longer has the properties necessary to bind and “fluff” the sugar.

If you know you’ll be baking later in the day, take the butter out first thing in the morning. Or the night before. Butter is extremely shelf-stable (think about how it safely sits in your butter dish in the cupboard) and can be left unrefrigerated for a reasonable amount of time. Obviously there’s an exception if you live in a hot climate and your August kitchen feels like the surface of the sun. In that case, pull your butter out of the fridge and use this microwave method: unwrap the butter, put it on a dish in your microwave, and set it to the lowest power setting (usually Power Level 1) for about 2 minutes. If it hasn’t softened at all after 2 minutes at Level 1, do 1 more minute at the next highest setting (Level 2). Continue this process in 30 second-1 minute intervals. Your butter is ready when your finger indents the top.

When creaming butter and sugar, you’re always better off letting it cream a little too long than not long enough. Be patient. It can take anywhere between 3-6 minutes to cream butter appropriately. In a warmer kitchen, the butter will cream faster. In a cold January kitchen, creaming times often double. When done, it should look like the picture at right.

Happy Butter Creaming!

Tuesday’s Tip: Butter

The Chocolate — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:20:45 +0000

For baking, butter is your foundation.

Ergo, you should never use salted butter in your recipes. While the role of butter as the fat, whether salted or unsalted, won’t change the construction of your recipe, it will most definitely alter the flavor. All butter is not created equal. Dairy producers often use the lower quality butter to be made into the “salted” version because adding salt during production can disguise the lower quality and less-creamy flavor. And who needs high quality butter if it’s gonna be slapped on a piece of toast? Salted butter is for toast and cooking.

Unsalted, higher quality butter, is imperative to good baking.

There is one exception to note. If you’re desperate, as in you need a cake pronto and have zero time to run to Harmon’s, you can (wince) use salted butter in chocolate cake. Salt brings out the flavor of cocoa. Just be sure to eliminate the 1/2- 1 teaspoon of salt the recipe likely calls for.

Happy Unsalted Butter Baking!