Print Article
BookMark Article
10 newest articles RSS
The Belly Rules The Mind – Few Thoughts On Baking
Author : tina reeves
Submitted : 2011-12-08 03:37:02 Word Count : 650 Popularity: 0
Tags: ATT Uverse TV, Food Show, Baking
Like the Spanish proverb, my cravings for food are based more on desire. I do not choose my food but cook and bake whatever my belly wishes. There's no greater feeling than cooking a fabulous meal for yourself or your family. The sense of happiness you get after baking a fantastic, yummy cake or cookie or perfectly baked bread is in no comparison to anything else.
A few days back, when I was enjoying my leisure time watching television, there was this great food show on simple techniques involving baking cake, telecasted on my TV powered by ATT Uverse TV. Watching it on a high definition TV made me crave for the delicious cake, as the picture displayed on the TV was so enthralling. As soon as the show got over, I decided to bake my all-time favorite- the simple bundt cake. Baking is as simple as it looks. It is both an art and a science and success with any recipe depends on carefully following the instructions and using the right equipment. A famous chef once quoted 'You follow directions while baking and when cooking, you go by your own taste'. A few thoughts on baking are as below.
One of the most important baking techniques is how to weigh and measure ingredients properly. It may sound obvious, but trust me; the key to successful baking is to always measure the ingredients carefully. All recipes use dry and fluid measurements. Dry ingredients (like flour and sugar) are generally measured by level flat-cup measures. Liquid ingredients use volume measures like a containers labeled in ounce. Spoon measures must be measured with the correct sized spoons like with sets of four or six, ranging from 1/4 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon. Once you become an expert in baking, you feel little inclined towards these measuring devices and all that matters is just eye level.
Great recipes are born when a cook takes a more conscious approach to recipe alteration because of shortage of a particular ingredient or for any other reason. You can have a substitute in baking when you want to make a healthier choice even though it alters the taste a little. It is very necessary to understand the binding, flavoring and rising combination of substitutes and the right amount of comparable ingredients that result in the same or similar effect, else a change from the original recipe could ruin your final product. Every ingredient in baking results in a particular action or reaction that's critical to the recipe's success.
You can substitute one flour for another type of flour, but the main difference among flour types is the amount of gluten it contains, and also on what product you want to bake. To bake bread, gluten in flour is a vital factor and you can use less-gluten-content flour if it is a cake. Gluten is the protein that helps yeast stretch and rise and is very crucial in baking good bread. A mixture of flours with different proportions can also be used as substitutes.
If you're baking bread, an important step is to allow the dough for Proofing or even know as fermentation. It is the final dough-rise step before baking. Ultimately all baking processes depend on altitudes as well. At higher altitudes the dough rises faster, as the pressure is lower. Lower pressure also affects the baking of cakes in several ways. So, it is very much needed to adjust your baking ingredients. For bread, you can alter the yeast percentage or increase salt in the dough to avoid it from rising faster. You can even add more liquid to avoid it from becoming dry. You can adjust temperature depending on the altitude in case of cakes.
Author's Resource Box
Tina is a freelance writer and likes to write about food shows on television sourced by ATT Uverse TV .
Article Source:
Article Directory