New CCC recipe 3.14.13

So I've been cruising GF blogs now, and found a new GF Choco Chip Cookie recipe.  This one has no xanthan gum and no rice flour, so I'm excited.  If it is as awesome and delicious and the blog says, I'm going to try swapping in some chia seeds to make it my own!

Here's a link to the recipe, and below is what I ended up using.
http://gabbysgfree.com/2012/04/gluten-free-chocolate-chip-cookies/

1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup almond flour
3/4 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
5 oz unsalted butter, softened
5/8 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 T regular sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 t vanilla extract
8 ounces chocolate – Ghirardelli semi sweet chips
sea salt

1.  Combine all dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt) in a large bowl and whisk until combined. Set aside.

2. Cream together butter and sugars in a stand mixer until light and fluffy.  Be sure not to over cream the butter – it will cause your cookies to spread.

3.  Add eggs, one at a time, into the creamed sugars and ensure that each egg is fully incorporated between additions.  Add vanilla extract and mix.

4. Add dry ingredients to wet batter in small 1/2 cup additions, ensuring that the flour is thoroughly mixed between additions.  Scrape the sides of the mixer after each addition as well.

5. Fold in chocolate chips and chocolate chunks gently. Place dough in a bowl and cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

6. Refrigerate for 36 hours. Yes, really. It does make a difference!

7. Once ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F. Roll dough into small ping-pong sized balls and place 6 on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Give these cookies lots of room to spread and bake.

8. Bake for 15-18 minutes until edges are just golden brown.  It may take a few batches to find your magic oven time. Also, keep dough in the fridge between batches – it bakes much better when cold.

9. Remove from oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes.  Sprinkle with sea salt. Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

Came out like some of my earlier recipes.  Too much spread, even after two days refrigeration.  The good news is that they taste pretty fabulous.  They have a lot of sugar in them so they were super crispy, even caramely.

Fluffy Pancake III 3.15.13

Back to Basics.  I wonder why I can't reproduce the Bisquick pancake.  Bisquick is just flour, right?  a little trans fat, baking powder, and salt.  So what's the problem here.  Inspiration hit me as I went back to the original pancake recipe using Bisquick (2 c Bisquick, 1 c milk, 2 eggs).  These are largely different proportions than I have seen in the recipes I've been trying.  Much lower hydration and more eggs.  So, I found a new recipe that is hopefully a little more comparable to making the kind of pancake I like.

Bisquick-like pancakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (4 oz=3/4 c)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk or buttermilk (not the powdered variety)
2 eggs

I may even increase the amount of flour if need be.  I also found a recipe with vinegar and baking soda, but for now I'm going to try and stick with a recipe with very basic ingredients.

Success!  They are amazing.  At least the texture is.  Flavour is just okay.

I tried adding 6 T of butter, but they came out too mushy, so too much butter.  Maybe try adding 2 T of butter, or none at all.  I like them super light anyway.

Fluffy Pancake IV 3.21.13

Bisquick-like pancakes

3/4 c cups all-purpose flour (4 oz=3/4 c)
1 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup whole milk or buttermilk
1 egg
1 banana, sliced

It's the perfect pancake!  Better than Bisquick, super fluffy and light.  Split batter into two, for 2 extra large pancakes.  Split batter into 3 if you are making other breakfast fare.

I first sifted the flour with the sugar, bak pwdr, and salt.  Then lightly beat the egg, and added the milk.  I then added the flour in small additions to the wet ingredients and stirred after each addition, to make a pretty smooth batter, but trying not to overmix. I then added the bananas!

I used a canola oil spray on the griddle, but next time I'd like to try without to get a nicer surface on the pancake.

Banana pancakes!

Steamed Sponge Cake III 3.20.13

Steamed Sponge Cake

3 oz AP flour, sifted
2.48 oz yolks (about 4.5 eggs)
5.4 oz whites (about 4.5 eggs)
1/4 t baking powder (I'm going to try 1/8 t)
2.5 oz caster sugar (should be at least 1.75 oz, or up to 1.98 oz)
1/4 c warm water
2T canola oil
1/2 t vanilla

Beat yolks, water, oil and vanilla until creamy (about 30 s). Carefully fold flour, bak pwder,and 1 oz of sugar into yolk mixture.  Beat whites until foamy, add lemon, beat until soft peaks, slowly add sugar, and continue beating until stiff glossy peaks.  Fold into yolk mixture.  Steam cake for about 40 mins.  I let the cake cool in the steamer, and after only a few minutes it fell again.  I removed from steamer and let cool upside down.

The cake had good flavor, but checking this recipe against other sponge cakes I have the percentage of eggs is too high.  This recipe has about 260% eggs, whereas the others have between 150% to 230%.  I found one other cake with 260% eggs, but there was a much larger percentage of sugar.

I think I should change this recipe to one with less eggs.

Looks like an exponential distribution!

Steamed Sponge Cake II 3.20.13

Steamed Sponge Cake

1 7/8 oz cake flour, sifted (should be 1.5 oz next time)
1.23 oz yolks (about 2.25 eggs)
2.7 oz whites (at 2.25 eggs)
1/8 t baking powder
1 5/8 oz caster sugar (should be at least 1.75 oz, or up to 1.98 oz)
2T warm water
1T canola oil
1/4 t vanilla

Beat yolks, water, oil and vanilla until creamy. Carefully fold flour and bak pwder into yolk mixture.  Beat whites until foamy, slowly add sugar, and continue beating until stiff glossy peaks.  Fold into yolk mixture.  Steam cake for about 40 mins.  When cake just starts to fall, remove from the steamer and turn upside down to cool.

The steamed sponge cake didn't taste as good this time.  I think I added too much flour.  The cake sank again, and I'm not sure if using only half the batter helped.

Fluffy pancakes 3.7.13

I really like pancakes.  My goal is to find a recipe and method that yields fluffy pancakes with a crisp exterior.  I tried the cook's illustrated method, but it was a little complicated separating the eggs and such.  I like the look of the Martha Stewart recipe, so I'll try that one next.   I also found the recipe where you whip the egg whites to get a souffle pancake and I'll try that one too for fun.

Cook's Illustrated

1 c AP flour (4.5 oz)
2 t sugar
1/2 t fine salt
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
3/4 c buttermilk
1/4 c milk (plus an extra tablespoon or so if batter is too thick, but I didn't use it)
1 large egg, separated
2 T butter, melted
1 t vegetable oil (for brushing griddle)

Whisk and sift dry ingredients. Combine milks and whisk in egg white.  Mix yolk with butter and add to the milk mixture.  Dump wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir just until combined.

Martha Stewart

2 c AP flour
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3 T sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 c buttermilk
4 T unsalted butter, melted, plus 1/2 teaspoon for griddle

Whisk and sift dry ingredients.  Add eggs, buttermilk, and butter.  Stir until just combined.

The Martha Stewart recipe has more baking powder, more buttermilk, and more sugar than the Cook's Illustrated recipe.  The method is also more straight forward two stage mixing method.

Checked my baking powder, and it's very active!

Martha Stewart pancakes came out too wet and mushy!

Clayton Miller's Souffle pancakes
5 1/2 c flour
1/3 c sugar
2 t salt
1 T baking powder
1 T baking soda
2 c milk
2 1/2 c buttermilk
2 whole eggs
2 yolks
3 whites

Whisk and sift dry ingredients. Combine milks, eggs, and yolks.  Carefully stir these wet and dry ingredients. Whisk egg whites to medium peak. Fold gently into batter. Do not over mix.

Steamed Sponge Cake 3.7.13

I tried another sponge cake today.  I thought the flavour was incredible, but the cake fell again.  It would be okay if the cake fell slightly, but the final cake was only about an inch tall.  I have a four inch tall cake pan, and in the steamer the cake rose above the top of the pan.  There are many things I could do to help my sponge behave, I think cooking the cake upside down, after it is fully risen.  (I noticed the cake fell slightly the steamer, which I took as indication it was cooked completely - at least had maximum rise.) This would require removing the cake from the steamer immediately after it is baked. I also think the eggs were not whipped correctly.  I may have over whipped the eggs.  If the eggs were a little less whipped, they would have less air to puff up the cake, Other factors could be that I used lemon juice in the egg whites, I warmed the eggs to room temp. I mixed the egg whites, first at high speed (on my hand mixture), then on med/ med-high speed until they were stiff and glossy.  I did use superfine sugar, which I think added a lot to the fine texture. But it's possible I underwhipped, because I didn't get to really firm peaks.  It's possible the recipe is no good, but since it tastes so fine, I have to see if I can work on the method first.  Also, maybe too much batter for my 8 inch pan. Perhaps I should try using half the amount of batter.

Here's the cake in the pan after steaming.

Looks like it fell to about 1 inch thick, from 3 1/2 inches (and even 4 inches during baking)

Here's the final cake!

I steamed the cake for 1 hour 15 minutes.  It rose fully around 50 minutes, and then started to fall a bit after 1 hour 5 minutes.  I made half of this recipe, but I think it was a little much for my 8 in pan.


1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted
9 eggs, separated
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup caster sugar (I used some ground-up homemade vanilla sugar)
1/2 cup water, around room temperature
1/4 cup oil (go for something without a pronounced flavour, like canola oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat yolks, water, oil and vanilla until creamy. Carefully fold flour and bak pwder into yolk mixture.  Beat whites until foamy, slowly add sugar, and continue beating until stiff glossy peaks.  Fold into yolk mixture.  Steam cake for about 45 mins.  When cake just starts to fall, remove from the steamer and turn upside down to cool.  You can also bake in an oven for about 1 hour.

Chia Te 3.6.13

Chia Te pineapple pastry!  I received this as a gift.  It wasn't that great, but maybe I'm just not used to pineapple in a cake.  I hope the original, fresh baked version is better.

The cake comes in a shape of a square prism, not much larger than a fork.

Filled with pineappley goodness!

Kam Man 3.4.13

Kam Man Foods, 219 Quincy Ave, Quincy, MA

Wife Cookies - a flaky pastry with melon paste inside, coated with sesame seeds.  These cookies are very pretty and well made, but the flavour wasn't my favorite

Sponge Cake filled with Pastry Cream - The sponge cake was delicious and the cream filling was good too. Yum, sponge cake.  It's still in the wrapper here.

Sponge Cake filled with Vanilla Buttercream
I ate this one before I remembered to take a picture.  It was so good!  It was a large jelly roll, sliced about 1 inch thick