Flour Power

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Mary

Admittedly, I’m the first to reach for a boxed cake mix. In my opinion, the convenience of a box mix is hard to beat. Add a few staple ingredients to the mix and you get a pretty darn good product for just a few bucks. But with a little extra time, a few more ingredients, and some of Saveur’s tasty tips…you might find yourself thinking outside the box.

While flipping through my March issue of Saveur, I spotted a yummy sidebar on “Cake Tips” and had to share. You know how that magazine makes my mouth water.

Saveur lists 4 tips for cake perfection – see the magazine for a full list, AND some delicious photos. My favorite tip was the recommendation to use cake flour instead of all-purpose flour. It may seem like an obvious substitution (it is called cake flour after all), but it’s the science behind the sub that I thought might interest.

All you bakers know, using cake flour will yield a softer, lighter, more delicate texture in the finished product. But why? Cake flour is made from soft wheat, is finely milled, and has lower protein content than all-purpose flour (about 6-8% vs. 10-12%). The milling process readies the fine flour for maximum absorption of fat and dispersion in batter, making it ideal for delicate desserts. The low protein discourages development of the gluten network. (Contrast this to pasta or pizza dough where gluten development is encouraged and a stretchy, workable dough results.) Since the flour is designed with low gluten strength, bakers can beat cake batter on high for a few short seconds to fully incorporate ingredients and aerate the batter. The result? A dessert that really takes the cake.

A Food Science Tid-Bite: If you find your pantry void of cake flour, try substituting 3/4c all-purpose flour with 2 Tbs cornstarch for every 1c of cake flour. The sub should yield a comparable texture. Don’t attempt to substitute cake flour for all-purpose in breads, etc…the protein content is too low to develop a strong texture.

Source: “4 Cake Tips.” Saveur, March 2012

It’s Freezing!

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Mary

We’ve had so much great help around our house lately (thanks, Grandmas!) I’ve barely lifted a finger in the kitchen. Lucky us, we’ve had a comforting savory-something simmering in the crockpot nearly every week! BUT. As my little one grows, and the Grandmas head back home, I’m afraid I’ll be heating up my frozen, pre-made meals very soon. (Soups, breads, and other leftovers from dinners past, I froze a few meals in anticipation of some cooking-free February evenings.) What to keep in mind when freezing food? A few food science tid-bites below…

Freeze food fast! A faster freeze creates smaller ice crystals, which better maintains the inherent quality of the food. If food is frozen slowly, larger ice crystals form that disrupt the cells when thawed, destroying the texture, mouthfeel, and/or emulsion stability of many previously-tasty products. When frozen slowly and thawed, fruits can soften, meats can weep, sauces can separate…you get the picture.
Handle frozen food safely. Frozen food inhibits microbial growth as the freezing process causes microorganisms to go temporarily dormant. However, once thawed, any present microbes can become active again. So, in the name of food safety, it’s important to thaw food in the refrigerator, under cold water, or in the microwave. Never attempt to thaw frozen food by leaving it out on the counter – foodborne illness might result.
The nutrition of frozen food is comparable to the fresh counterpart. Enzyme activity (like ripening) is simply delayed by the freezing process – so a ripe fruit going in won’t come out rotten. However, the quality of many vegetables is improved if blanching occurs prior to freezing.

A Little Sweetie

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Mary

Hello again, foodie friends! I swear, my ridiculously delayed posting comes with a good excuse – a new little sweetie joined our family! All the cuddling, cooing, and general sweetness has left zero time for blogging these last few weeks. However, when I was reminded that my last post was pre-Christmas…I decided it was about time to post a quick one. And, since it just happens to be the sweetest day of the year, I felt a post on sugar only appropriate.

Sucrose (the nerdy word for table sugar), is the sweetness behind many of our beloved candies, chocolates, and other sinful desserts. Sucrose is a crystalline structure, and is highly refined from plant sources like sugarcane and sugar beets. What about the other sugars on your baking shelf? Brown sugar is usually granulated sugar that’s been processed with molasses, which yields that characteristic flavor and “chew” in recipes. Confectioner’s sugar is crushed granulated sugar that has been combined with corn starch resulting in that powdery lightness. Raw sugars like demarera or turbinado (for you fancy pants out there) are partially refined, and are often used where the yellow/brown color or large granule can be observed.

Composed of two simple sugars (fructose and glucose), sucrose is considered a disaccharide and a simple carbohydrate. Most nutritionists will tell you that while sucrose is a source of energy, a complex carbohydrate is a more appropriate choice for better nutrition. (But, I’m not a nutritionist, so you’ll hear no more on that from me. Plus…you need some energy to get through that heart-shaped candy box, right? )

From me and my sweetie to yours, happy Valentine’s Day!

A Food Science Tid-Bite: Of the five flavors (salty, bitter, sour, umami, sweet), most of us recognize and enjoy the taste of “sweet” more easily than the others. (Neither me, nor my jeans are shocked by this.)

‘Twas the week before Christmas…

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Mary

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through our house,

the aromas of goodies tempted me and my spouse.

Kitchen counters stacked high with treats galore,

such yummy delights made me crave more and MORE!

I’m guessing you, too, have spent a few days baking,

standing over the stove, are your hands and feet aching?

It’s all worth it, of course, we do it year after year,

because nothing is better at spreading holiday cheer!

Well. You know me; it’s the science behind it that I really love most,

but since we’re all short on time, I opted for this “picture post.”

Fret not, dear friends, because among the pics I’ve sprinkled in a wee bit o’ geek,

to curb your food science cravings for the rest of the week.

Merry Christmas!!

Chocolate Truffles. If you saw my 2010 Cmas post, you know truffles are a personal addiction. (No doubt these set me back a good 2 weeks of gym time come January.) We melt a LOT of chocolate in my house over the Christmas holiday. Melting chocolate is often referred to as "tempering," and it's one heck of a food science secret. Improperly tempered chocolate can "bloom," and develop a dull, grayish streaking (which occurs when the fat rises to the surface). The secret to achieving a chocolate coating with a crisp snap and shiny sheen is to make sure your chocolate crystalline structure is in the correct formation (there are six formations for chocolate) . Often, you can meet success by melting your chocolate at a consistent 90F (it might vary by brand). ...Or you can fake it by putting your chocolate-coated candies in the fridge and pulling them out before serving. The coolness of the fridge will delay blooming.

Noel Nut Balls. These were a new cookie this year, and oh were they good! A simple delight chock-full of chopped pecans and coated in powdered sugar. They're like tiny, tasty snowballs. Recipe from www.MarthaStewart.com.

Candied Pecan Savories. A little bit of savory to counterbalance all the sweet. These crunchy nuts are simple to make - just coat and roast. The best food science secret here? When roasting nuts, be sure to take them out of the oven the moment you start to smell the nuts. The oils in the nuts release delicious aromas under roasting heat. If you leave the nuts in too long, a burnt, bitter flavor is almost guaranteed.

Shortbread Cookies. I made a few variations this year because the subtle sweetness is hard to beat! A little tid-bite here...only a few ingredients are in the recipe, so make sure you use good (unsalted) butter for shortbread cookies. Recipe from www.MarthaStewart.com.

Pretty Pretzels. This is another one of those goodies that makes an appearance each year. (It's a Mom-made recipe.) These pretzels are coated in gooey caramel, rolled in crunchy nuts, and drizzled with (guess what?) chocolate. One thing I've learned with hot caramel: you must, must, must stir a touch of milk (or cream) into the melted caramel to keep it semi-soft. If you simply melt caramel, the sugar will re-crystallize and harden when cooled. (Coat your pretzels this way, and you might be making a surprise visit to the dentist!)

Chewy Amaretti Cookie Sandwiches with Orange Marmalade. A repeat from last year. Recipe from www.SmittenKitchen.com.

Cookie Cut-Outs with Buttercream Frosting. My buttercream frosting is simple: unsalted butter, confectioner's sugar, pure vanilla. I did see a buttercream frosting recipe that incorporated mayonnaise, which I found fascinating. The idea behind this non-traditional ingredient was that the mayo would offer extra stability in the "emulsified" frosting. My recipe has never separated, and I've haven't ever considered buttercream frosting a true emulsion, but it's something that now has me curious... fodder for another post.

Homemade Marshmallows. Another fun, new recipe this year! Homemade marshmallows are surprisingly easy to make. The food science secret is the gelatin, which gives the treat that characteristic spongy texture. Gelatin is a very cool ingredient, which I must reserve for a separate post...just to do it justice.

Tasty Tips for Better Baking

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Mary

Shortbread cookies. The best fat choice (okay, the only fat choice) for shortbread cookies? Butter, of course. I studded the buttery goodness with cranberries and orange zest. A festive favorite, and delightfully simple to make.

Who else has pulled out a few jolly good Christmas cookie recipes this week? Whether they’re old faves or new craves, I’d be willing to bet (most of) the delicious sweets call for some kind of fat. As mentioned last post, there are fab food science secrets behind fats. A friend passed along this link on fats and baking, and I thought it was simply too yummy not to share with you all. Enjoy!

(I always reach for King Arthur flour on shelf, and the quality of their site only parallels their quality product. For great recipes and info check out http://www.kingarthurflour.com.)

Fat December

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Mary

Apple doughnuts, so good.

The Thanksgiving-to-Christmas holiday stretch has to be every food-lover’s favorite time of year. These few short weeks offer the perfect excuse to snuggle up with something yummy to eat! And while we’re so busy counting the bags of flour, bars of chocolate, and pounds of nuts we’ll need for the (countless) recipes we’ll be whipping up…who has time to count calories? You just gotta love December.

I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit that my 2011 holiday baking craze didn’t start with a traditional holiday recipe. Nope. I decided to kick off my little bake-a-thon with some crave-curbing, fresh-from-the-fryer doughnuts. And ooooh, they were good! While scanning doughnut recipes, I noticed many types of fats can be used. However, these delicious little chubbies call for a wee bit of shortening.

Doughnut holes, coated in cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar. Mmm...

What’s the advantage of using shortening in doughnuts? Shortening yields a fluffy, light texture in baked goods, where oil may contribute to a moist, but denser end result. The food science secret behind it all? Shortening prevents the cross-linking required to fully develop gluten in the flour, thus creating a “shorter” finished product texture.

So what exactly IS shortening? Shortening is 100% fat, and has been processed (hydrogenated) to retain the solid-at-room-temp state. Shortening was introduced to the market in ~1911 by P&G as the “first all-vegetable shortening.” The invention was a big deal. Consumer behavior in the kitchen shifted, as the new “Crisco” was healthier than animal lard and cheaper than butter. Today, Crisco boasts a formula that is 50% less saturated fat than butter (and 0g trans fats per serving). However, while shortening demonstrates great function is certain recipes, sometimes buttah is betta. One important note to remember when considering fats in recipe substitutions: oils and shortening are 100% fat, where butter contains moisture.

Well, that’s the short of it. More on fats later.

Source: The JM Smucker Company/Crisco http://www.crisco.com/

Homemade Tortellini and Gluten Development

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Mary

Cheese-stuffed homemade tortellini, pre-cook.

There I was, suppressing a laugh, as my kitchen snowed parmesan cheese. It was late Saturday morning, and my tortellini noodles were standing by in neat little rows as I made a “quick” cheese filling with ricotta, parmesan, and a few other add-ins. I’d decided to use the parmesan cheese in the canister (I know, Ina Garten probably wouldn’t approve. For most recipes, I wouldn’t use canister parm, but I wanted to keep the filling on the dry side…besides, it was in the fridge). Before adding the parm to my filling, I gave the canister a few vigorous shakes. Not until I looked around at the thin layer of cheese dust covering my kitchen did I realize that the lid wasn’t on! And just like that, my “quick” cheese-stuffed tortellini recipe turned into a much-longer morning of cleanup. Good thing the fresh pasta was worth the effort.

Homemade pasta is made with flour, egg, and usually a bit of water. You might not believe it (what with all the family secrets kept by little Italian grannies and all), noodle-making is a pretty simple process including: mixing, kneading, resting, and rolling/shaping. Behind this simple process is one of my favorite food science secrets – gluten development! It’s thanks to the gluten development that noodles are so terrifically elastic, which allows the dough to be easily rolled/stretched/shaped.

The gluten (found in flour) develops into a cross-linked network during kneading, and relaxes during resting. You’ll know when gluten is nicely developed because the pasta dough will be smooth and flexible instead of stiff. A cooked noodle made with properly-developed gluten will have a (yummy) tender bite. Adding more moisture usually promotes gluten development, so a recipe with more water may result in chewier noodles. The type of flour selected will also affect the finished noodle texture. Usually, home cooks utilize unbleached, all-purpose flour for noodles, which has a nice blend of high and low gluten wheat. (If you’ve used a recipe with something other than all-purpose flour, let us know how your noodle texture turned out!)

My noodle dough at "rest." Resting helps relax the gluten in the dough. (The #2 you ask? I made two iterations of dough recipes to test textures.)

My noodle dough before I rolled it out. At this point, the gluten network should be well developed.

Finished product. I'd intended to make some tortellini with cremini filling, but scrapped the idea after the parm shower. Instead, I topped the fresh pasta with a (very) simple sauce and sauteed creminis.

A Food Science Tid-Bite: Gluten development also happens in breads and pie crusts, among other recipes. Bread flour is high in gluten, which usually results in a chewier (and loftier) finished texture. Pie crust isn’t chewy at all, but flaky instead. Why? Shortening inhibits good gluten development (and pie crust isn’t worked like other doughs).

Pick Your Package – Easy Squeezy?

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Mary

It took me a while to try this product. I’m not usually one to pay a premium for grocery convenience. For this product, I’ve made an exception. How many times have we cracked open one of those little cans only to use a tablespoon, then (for whatever reason) the remaining paste gets thrown out? How to eliminate the waste? Buy tubed paste.

I know. These posts are usually devoted to my encounters with kitchen chemistry – what makes food smell so yummy, look so tempting, or taste so gosh-darn good. But, today warrants a slight digression, because I have to share with you a gold-mine of a food product. If it’s not already in your fridge, you must check out tomato paste in the tube.

Packaging is such an important consideration in the product design and marketing of a food. (There are some truly great packages out there…tubed tomato paste, chips in a canister, and soup with the pop tops, to name a few. Of course, great opportunity still exists. Who else hates that paper flour package?) A few critical issues must be addressed when considering an appropriate food package. Some of the questions to pop up during the design of a food package may include:

Does the package preserve the integrity of the food, and act as a protective barrier from physical and biological degradation? Many foods go through changes in temperature, altitude, compression, and vibration during transportation and storage – the package must deliver the quality we consumers expect.
What’s the permeability of the package? Exposure to light, moisture, and oxygen (among other things) can negatively impact a food’s total shelf life.
How complete is product evacuation? Is it easy for a consumer to get ALL product out of the package? Nobody likes scraping out a nearly-empty container, only to throw away product stuck in the nooks and crannies.
Are requirements like net weight, ingredient declaration, and the nutrition facts panel easily communicated?
Is the package attractive to a consumer’s wandering eye? There is A LOT of competition just a few inches away on shelf.

Tomato paste in a tube has it all going on. The package protects from exposure to light, oxygen, moisture, and microorganisms. The easy-squeeze function of the package allows for convenient dosing in soups, sauces, and other kitchen applications. And, the little tube is easy to store for maximum shelf life. What’s not to love?

Cheesy Broccoli soup in pretzel bowls. I squeezed in a bit of tomato paste to for added depth of flavor.

A Food Science Tid-Bite: For more info on how beer packaging affects flavor, check out Wassup with Beer? For more info on how light and lipid degradation works, check out Oxidative Rancidity in Cooking Oils.

Creamy, Dreamy…Risotto

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Mary

A while back I christened my kitchen with its first risotto (a story for another day). More recently (on an evening with an abundance of dinner prep time) I tested a rather successful butternut squash variation that really hit the spot.

For a long time, risotto was one of those recipes that I avoided at home. It wasn’t that I lacked any appreciation (ahem…it’s risotto), or that I couldn’t find a tempting recipe (so many yummy variations exist). What discouraged me? The tedious stir, stir, stir routine!

[Side note. For those who are like I was, and have steered clear of risotto... Here's the basic idea, totally simplified for the sake of getting on with the science: 1) Add your rice to a bit of olive oil/butter (and maybe a few other aromatics), stir to coat and heat until golden. 2) Slowly add hot stock to rice in small increments and stir until liquid is absorbed. 3) Repeat step 2 until all liquid is added.]

So, what’s up with all the stirring, anyway? Risotto is typically made with a pearly-white, football-shaped, short-grain variety of rice called Arborio. When hot stock is added, stirring helps the rice granules release starch into the liquid. With heat, the loosened starch begins to break down, swell, and form a sort of gel. The result is a tender grain (with a slight bite) and a deliciously creamy “sauce.” Oh yes. It’s about this time in the process where I can’t resist digging in with a tasting spoon.

Okay, so why splurge for the Arborio? Why can’t we use a more familiar (and cheaper) long-grain rice to make risotto? Arborio rice has the right amylose/amylopectin starch content. Every variety of rice (that I know of) has amylose and amylopectin, but in different ratios. Long grain rice has high amylose content, which tends to yield a fluffy texture. Arborio rice has low (to no) amylose, and high amylopectin content which results in a starchier/stickier finished product. If long-grain rice was used to make risotto, a mushy, not-at-all creamy texture would be the end result.

A Food Science Tid-Bite: Sticky sushi rice has a similar amylose/amylopectin ratio as Arborio. Since the rice sticks together, chopsticks are ideal!

Source: Cook’s Illustrated. http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tastetests/overview.asp docid=13283

An apple a day…

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Mary

Baked apples. Um, yum! My fave apple choice - the Granny Smith. (Yes, there really was a Ms. Smith...)

I’m not usually one to pick favorites, especially when it comes to food. But, so far this fall I’m finding myself totally digging the apple recipes. It seems I’m having trouble resisting the great color palate in the produce aisle, and after I’ve got my hands on that apple-icious inspiration there’s just no turning back. You’ve gotta love a good apple in the fall …mmm-MM!

One of my favorite food science secrets about apples is the reason behind apple browning when sliced/diced/bitten – check out “Get in the Know with PPO” to learn more. A few other yummy apple facts:

Apples are coated with a natural wax that seals in moisture and protects the fruit’s inherent crispness. During processing, some of the natural wax is removed from the apples, so after harvest many producers replace it with a commercial grade coating. All commercial wax is certified by the USDA and is considered safe for consumption. (A similar commercial-grade waxy substance can be used in the confectionary industry, by the way.)
The use of pesticides on fruit is a raging debate, even now. Insects and microorganisms are only a few of the dangers that threaten apples. To bring consumers the high-quality product we’re used to, at a reasonable price (ahem…disease and pest-free), many producers exercise Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Under IPM, producers only use pesticides when necessary, and usually those pesticides are present only in trace, safe-for-consumption amounts (or completely removed) long before the apples are ogled by your hungry eyes.
Once in your home, your apples will last longest (and remain freshest) if stored in the refrigerator. But, if you’ve been picking through the apple recipes like I have, those apples will be gone in no time!

Source: US Apple Association www.usapple.org

Holla for challah! This was one scrumptious apple loaf (Recipe from Smitten Kitchen www.smittenkitchen.com.)

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