Food study

The leavening in a cake of the type that is being discussed, is mainly the gas from the baking powder, and a skilled cakemaker can get good results without beating the egg separately. But in pound and sponge cake where no baking powder is used, great pains in folding in the egg must be taken, and one sees why nearly twice as many eggs for the same amount of flour are used. If one is making a butter cake the great question is in regard to mixing. The problem seems to resolve itself into the easiest way to get the ingredients blended very thoroughly. Hard butter is difficult to mix, also unbeaten egg. If the butter and sugar are not well creamed, the grain of the cake is coarse. On the other hand, the butter may be melted and successfully combined. Since beating flour with liquid develops the gluten and so makes the cake tougher, this should be avoided as far as possible. For this reason the melted butter is better beaten in before adding the flour, instead of afterwards. Melting the butter saves much time. It is especially convenient in making chocolate cake, for the chocolate can be melted with the butter. 1. Why is pastry flour desirable in making cake? 2. Account for the rule : If bread flour is used in place of pastry flour take out two tablespoons for each cup of flour called for in the recipe. 3. In making cake what would be the effect of using bread flour mixed with a little cornstarch, say half a cup of cornstarch to two cups of flour ? 4. What ingredients are changed in making a muffin mixture into a cake mixture ? 5. Change various recipes for cake to a three-cups-of-flour basis, and see how the ingredients called for correspond to the general rule. GINGERBREAD A. PREPARE BAKING-POWDER BISCUITS. Use one-half of the following recipe : FAT BAKING POWDER 1 tbsp. itsp. Usual proportion for 1 c. flour ? Add milk (find out how much is needed) to make (1) a stiff batter to be dropped from a spoon into muffin tins, or (2) a very soft dough which can be rolled out from one-half to one inch thick and cut into biscuit, or cut into small pieces and patted into shape. The dough should be so soft that it is sticky. Bake in an oven at 425-435° F. a. Bake one biscuit at once. b. Bake another after letting it stand from fifteen minutes to a half an hour. c. Bake a third biscuit in a slow oven. d. Bake a fourth after kneading the dough or vigorously stirring the batter. Compare the results and decide what precautions must be taken to make good biscuit. B. MAKE SOUR-MILK GINGERBREAD. Use corrected recipe in Question 4, Lesson XLVII. There are two types of rolled baking-powder biscuits, one small and practically all crust, the other larger, lighter, and with comparatively little crust. To make the first, the biscuits are rolled thinner and baked farther apart than those of the second type which is, perhaps, the more conventional. The biscuits, which are made so soft as to drop and which need the support of muffin tins to give them shape, are more crusty than the more usual rolled biscuit. They are often called " emergency biscuit ", because they can be prepared so quickly.