Foods and home making

When flour is placed in a sack or canister, the fine grains become solidly packed. When the flour is sifted the grains are loosened. In order to measure flour accurately it has been found advis- able to sift it first. The particles are then loosened. Then with a spoon, the flour should be put into a measuring cup. The flour should be leveled off with a knife as suggested on page 23. (See Figure n.) We consider flour a dry ingredient. Baking powder and salt are other dry ingredients usually put into muffins. Although baking powder is a finely powdered substance, we do not find it necessary to sift it before measuring, but we stir the powder in the can before measuring it. After measuring, add the baking powder to the flour. Measure the salt — without sifting or stirring before measuring. Add this also to the flour and baking powder mixture. The plan of putting together the dry ingredients of a baked flour mixture is generally followed in making muffins and similar foods. How are the remaining ingredients mixed with the dry materials? If you turn to the recipe for muffins on page 88, you will see that in addition to these dry ingredients there are eggs, milk, sugar, and butter. These must be mixed quickly with the dry ingredients to prevent tunnels forming. Before mixing eggs with other materials, we break the egg into a bowl 84 Breakfast and then beat it with a fork, or an egg beater , until the white and yolk are perfectly blended and the mixture is full of bubbles. As you beat the egg, note that bubbles form and the egg appears to increase in quantity. Bubbles form because air is mixed with the egg. The increase in size of the egg is due to the addition of air. Eggs in a flour mixture help to hold the particles of flour and other ingredients together. They may also help to make a mixture light or porous. This is because the air inclosed in the egg expands slightly when it is heated in the oven. The light- ness of muffins, however, is due mostly to the baking powder. If the egg is beaten in the mixing bowl in which all the ingredi- ents are to be mixed, the milk may be added to the beaten egg.1 The butter or butter substitute should be melted in order to mix it perfectly with the other ingredients. There are ways, other than melting, of mixing butter with other ingredients, but melting is the easiest way and is satisfactory for most flour mixtures. In melting butter use as small a pan as possible, in order to avoid wasting more fat than necessary in scraping it from the pan. A tin or an aluminum measuring cup may be used. To melt butter, heat it (i) on the surface burner, turned low, (2) on top of the oven, or (3) in the oven. Let the butter heat only long enough to melt it. What are all the steps in mixing muffins ? 1. Sift some flour; measure it. Measure the baking powder and salt. Add these to the flour. 2. Beat the egg, measure the milk and add it to the egg. Add the sugar. 3. Measure and melt the butter. Add it to the egg mixture.