The Ingredients And What They Do
As a girl, I always loved baking. I like bread and my husband has a soft spot for pastries [;)]. I decided, instead of day dreaming of a beautiful table with wonderful gourmet baked goods that I can't make, I would actually learn how to make some!
So first off, I am learning about the ingredients and what they do.
I have found that I can break it down into 6 categories.
Flours
Sugars
Fat
Leaveners
Eggs
Spices and Flavorings
Flours:
There are different types of flours other than just All Purpose Flour. Each has its own unique qualities. For my purposes in my kitchen, I would like to experiment with a few different basic types of flour. Commonly available at our Canadian grocery stores are All Purpose, Bread Flour and Cake/Pastry Flour with subcategories of White, Whole Wheat and Multigrain. I will start my journey with these.
*Note: Take care when storing Whole wheat and multigrain flour. Store in an airtight container in a cool place, away from heat. Try to use it up within 3 months and away from heat to prevent it from becoming rancid.
All Purpose Flour is good. It can be used as a substitute for bread flours and cake flours but the dough may not be as strong. The protein content in All Purpose flour is not as high. Protein molecules need liquid to hydrate. A bread flour is made from winter wheat which has more protein/gluten. It will absorb more water and be a stronger dough because of it. This is why bread flour works well with yeast recipes. The stronger dough helps hold the carbon dioxide that is released by the yeast and causes your dough to rise. If you use All purpose flour as a substitute in yeast recipes, just hold some of the water back from the initial mixing and add it slowly after, to ensure the dough is properly hydrated. Pastry flour is a summer wheat with less protein content and is milled finer, for more delicate cakes and pastries. All Purpose is a mixture of bread and pastry flour.
Sugars:
We have a great variety when it comes to sugar and sweeteners. We have granulated sugar, powdered sugar, Brown Sugars, Honey, Molasses, lactose (from milk products), fructose and glucose (from fruits and veggies), Corn Syrup, Maple Syrup and other.
Sugar is required in baking. It's only purpose is not just sweetening and flavour. It adds moisture, tenderizes by drawing moisture away from the protein in the flour and sometimes adds colour to your creation. Sugar also acts as food to activate yeast.
Granulated Sugar/Castor or Superfine Sugar/Powdered Sugar: Granulated Sugar is most commonly used in at-home baking recipes. Castor or Superfine sugar works well in recipes because it is a bit finer and incorporates smoothly as it is mixed into the dough. Powdered Sugar is finer than castor sugar and usually contains a small percentage of corn starch to prevent caking. It works well in icings and as dusting on top of a finished product. Powdered sugars are categorized according to their fineness. 6X or 10X for example, a 6X is more of a dusting sugar, while a 10X is better for making icings and confections. The larger the number, the finer the sugar is.
Brown Sugars: Dark Brown sugar has a higher molasses content with a slightly stronger taste, deeper color and is a little heavier. Light Brown sugar (or Golden Sugar) has a milder taste with less molasses. Both have a moist texture with a distinct, warm flavour. To measure brown sugar, pack the sugar into the dry measure.
*Tip for Brown Sugar* - To keep your brown sugar moist, store in an airtight container with a piece of bread. Replace the bread every couple of months. If the sugar has become hard, put a slice of apple in with the sugar and once it has become soft again, replace the apple slice with a piece of bread. For a quicker fix, simply microwave the bowl of brown sugar next to a bowl of water for one minute, or heat the brown sugar in a baking dish in the oven at 250 F for 5 minutes or until soft!
Molasses: Two types commonly used: Fancy Molasses and Blackstrap Molasses. Fancy Molasses has a milder taste and a lighter colour. It is good in dessert recipes such as gingerbread/snaps and cookies! Blackstrap is more bitter with a stronger flavour and darker colour. It is better in breads.
*Tip for measuring molasses* - Lightly oil the liquid measuring cup before you put the molasses in! This way, the molasses slips out easily!
Honey: This is a relatively expensive form and is usually used specifically for its unique flavour. Orange Blossom Honey and Clover Honey are most common types.
Corn Syrup: Commonly used because it is inexpensive, effective and adds moisture to the recipe! The same tip for measuring molasses above can apply here too!
Maple Syrup: Also relatively expensive and mostly chosen for its unique flavour. It is also very sweet.
Fats:
Fats have a bad rep. They are needed in baking though. It is not only for flavour. It tenderizes and helps create rise in your baking. It tenderizes by coating the flour and waterproofing it, thus shortening the gluten strands. Some fats also have a small amount of water in them, like butter or margarine, and when you cream these, it puts little air bubbles into the fat. Then when the heat from baking turns the water to steam, it creates lift as it escapes the dough. Laminating is another way that lift is created. As you roll out the dough and then paint of a layer of fat, then fold it over and roll it out again and paint on another layer of fat, this technique creates barriers for the water in the dough and the fat. As the heat is added, the steam tries to rise up but the layer of fat above it stops it so it pushes up until it escapes, creating a flaky and light pastry! Fats also add flavour and moisture of course. The more liquid the fat type, the more moist your baked good will be.
Butter: More expensive but adds a lot of flavour and that golden colour everyone loves! Butter melts fast though, so hand mixing with a pastry blender may be better than an electric mixer. Less friction and the butter stays firm instead of melting so fast.
*Tip for creaming butter* If it does start melting, put it in the fridge or freezer for a minute to harden it up and then continue.
*Tip for measuring melted butter* measure as a solid, then melt. You can measure using the same technique as molasses measuring.
Butter comes in salted, unsalted, cultured or sweet cream. Salted lasts longer, unsalted has the advantage of controlling how much salt goes into your baked good and is sweeter and fresher tasting, Cultured is processed from sour cream and sweet cream butter is not.
Shortening: 100% hydrogenated vegetable oil / animal fat. No water or anything added. It has a higher melting point than butter and creams well. Does not have the same flavour as butter and is a lot cheaper!
Margarine: Widely frowned upon in comparison to butter in baking. Inferior in flavour but cheaper. It works, but doesn't have the same flavour and melt in your mouth quality as butter.
Oils: Again, 100% fat but also 100% vegetable based. It is a liquid at room temp and therefore can't trap tiny air bubbles like solid fats in creaming. Less helpful in creating rise in your baking because of the lack of air bubbles and the lack of water content. Oils are good in recipes with quick leavening agents.
Leaveners:
VOLUME BABY!! ;0) Steam, Air and carbon dioxide. They all do it! Thank God for science hey? I love my baking to be light and puffy and flaky and yummy!
Yeast: Wild Yeast (like in sourdough), instant yeast, active dry yeast, fresh compressed yeast (block form)... they all do the same thing. The live yeast feeds on sugar and releases carbon dioxide. The release of the carbon dioxide causes the dough to rise.
Dry active yeast is common to use at home because it has a longer shelf life and you rehydrate it in water at about 100 degrees F for about 5 min as it activates and gets all bubbly.
Instant yeast, also called rapid rise yeast or bread machine yeast is great too. You don't need to rehydrate in water before adding but pay attention to the recipe, because you can't do a straight substitution.
**Tip for substituting Instant yeast in place of dry active yeast** If your recipe calls for Dry active yeast and you would like to use Instant yeast instead, take the amount that the recipe calls for and only use 2/3 of that amount. Also change the rising time to be half of what the recipe using dry active yeast called for.
**Tip for storing dry active yeast and Instant yeast** These can be stored in a cool dry place for quite a while, but once it is opened, keep in a sealed container in the fridge and try to use it up sooner.
