chestnut puree quantity

Question

My recipe called for 250g of chestnuts, blended with 125ml of cream and 125ml of milk that you then blended together to make a puree. When i went to the supermarket I discovered they had tinned "Chestnut puree" so I grabbed that instead I am now wondering how much of that I should add ?

Asked by scottishpink

Answer

Assuming the chestnut puree is just chestnuts, well, use 250g of it.

If it has other ingredients... I guess you'll have to try to figure out how much of them. You might be able to deduce it from the nutrition facts and the nutritional content of the chestnuts themselves, especially it's just chestnuts and water.

Edit: To be clear, I'm telling you how to replace the chestnuts. You still need the rest.

Given that it's chestnuts and water, it's trivial to figure out how much of it is chestnuts. (It would be difficult if there were other ingredients providing nutritional content.) Just use enough paste to account for 250g of chestnuts, then remove a mL of milk for every extra gram of paste you've added. If it's a substantial amount, replace some of the remaining milk with cream to keep it as rich as the original, if you like.

For example, according to the data I linked to, chestnuts are about 10% sugar, so you want enough paste to provide the 25g of sugar your 250g of chestnuts would've provided. So if the paste contains only 8g of sugar per 100g of paste, then you'll want about 300g of paste, and you can remove 50 mL of milk to balance the extra water you'll have added as part of the paste. (At that point it probably wouldn't be worth bothering to rebalance the milk and cream, since it's such a tiny difference.)

Answered by Jefromi

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What should I do if power goes out while I am baking cake/cookies?

Question

If I am baking cake or cookies in the oven and I lose power, what should I do?

Does it make to sense to leave the cake/cookies in the oven until the power comes back on, or should I take them out?

When/why would I need to leave them in the oven vs. take them out?

Asked by Anisha Kaul

Answer

Removing things from the oven halfway through is not very friendly to baked goods. In general, they'll collapse as they cool off since the structure isn't cooked and set, and the leavening (baking soda/powder in these cases) will be spent, so there's no way to get what you originally wanted. It might be something like what'd happen if you forgot the leavening in the first place.

The exception is if they'd only just started - not bubbling much yet, just warm. In that case, you could probably get away with yanking them out quickly, and waiting to bake later.

Cookies could probably survive this by leaving them in, though. They don't have very long baking times - somewhere in the 5-15 minute range. Your oven won't cool off all that much in that time without power. So if you leave them in for a little bit longer than the original baking time, they'll probably be fine. If your oven has a window, look in with a flashlight to check on them - you don't want to open it to check them.

A cake is iffier. If it's 15 minutes into a 45 minute baking time, you may just be out of luck. I think I'd still leave it in, hoping that the power comes back within 5-10 minutes, in which case it'd probably make it. As I mentioned earlier, if you lose power early and for long enough, the cake will have spent its leavening and collapsed. You could finish baking it, but it'll still be collapsed - it probably won't have a terribly palatable texture (definitely dense, maybe chewy).

The only time this has actually happened to me was with some cornbread muffins, around 2/3 of the way through their baking time, and the oven didn't have a window. I wildly guessed how much extra time to add, pulled them out then, and they were great. So there is hope!

Answered by Jefromi

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domestic bread steaming -> will my stone be okay?

Question

Trying to maximise the oven rise of my loaf, and think I will try the steaming method, but what is the best way to do this in a domestic electric oven, and will could it damage my bread stone?

Asked by Mild Fuzz

Answer

I would not go ahead and just toss water on the oven floor as this can both damage your oven, as well as lower its temperature.

Instead, I would use a baking pan with some boiling water, put it on the lowest rack. The temperature of the oven will keep the water boiling, and thus releasing steam throughout the baking.

Answered by Magnus Nordlander

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Is it possible to have a good crust without prebaking a quiche?

Question

I'm planning on making a quiche (Lorraine with leek to be exact) and I was looking up recipes for quiches. Most recipes call for blind-baking the crust in advance (or at least partly), but some skip this step and pour the filling in the raw dough and bake it like that.

I think blind-baking would prevent the dough from getting soggy since the filling is quite liquid. The other recipes look nice (judging on the picture), but won't the dough be soggy? Or should you put the temperature lower and the time higher so the liquid can evaporate?

Does it matter whether you blind-bake your crust for a quiche? Or does it mainly depend on the type of dough (puff, shortcrust...)? Or on the amount of liquid or type of veggie/meat (precooked)? Any other factors that I don't think of?

Asked by Mien

Answer

In the normal cooking time of a quiche (20 to 30 minutes), the crust doesn't really get soggy from the filling, even if it is quite liquid, as is expected for quiche Lorraine. So, you can without problem cook your quiche without first blind-baking the crust. The difference will be in the crispness of the crust: if you try to get it crispy, you should prebake, if you don't mind it being rather, well, “plain”, you don't.

The only real reason for me to blind-bake a crust is when you put something on it that won't be cooked (tartelettes), that will only get grilled or that will be baked less that it would require to bake the crust (meringue tart). Most of these examples are fruit tarts, however.

Answered by F'x

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Can I always use butter instead of margarine when baking?

Question

Some recipes says use butter or margarine, some say use butter and some say use margarine. My question is, can I always use butter or does margarine have some property that butter doesn't when baking?

Asked by johnny

Answer

Margarine has less fat than butter, but it doesn't give quite the same flavor as butter does. You also have to be careful what KIND of margarine you are using. Tub margarine has a higher water content and can ruin your baked goods and the stick margarine can have a lot of trans fats in it. If you really want to get detailed into the differences, check out this site:

http://www.baking911.com/pantry/fats.htm

I agree with everything stated on that site in the fact that butter, in my opinion is far superior in flavor and texture than margarine. I have yet to meet a dish that butter didn't improve the taste over margarine. But there is the thing, it really is a lot about taste. A good quote from the site about margarine:

"Not great for baking: does not allow foods to become flaky, rather more cakelike; does not spread as well as lard or shortening; adds a greasy taste. However, some bake with it all the time and have great success; it's a matter of taste."

Answered by FoodTasted

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Why should I boil pretzels in baking soda water before baking?

Question

This weekend I made pretzels from Alton Brown's recipe.

This recipe, and others I've seen, call for dipping the pretzels one by one in boiling water with baking soda for 30 to 60 seconds.

I assume the boiling water will help the pretzels come up to temperature more quickly so they cook thoroughly, is this correct?

What benefit does the baking soda bring - is it important in forming a crust? If so, why?

Asked by stephennmcdonald

Answer

The pretzel originates in Germany, where it is called Laugenbrezel. It was originally cooked in a alkali solution, which is where the "Laugen" part of the word comes from; typically, lye was used, but baking soda gets you most of the way there without a trip to the pharmacy (a Mexican or Asian market may do the trick if you want culinary lye).

The alkali solution is what causes the crust to brown so deeply, and it's most of the difference between a pretzel and a bagel. A bagel would typically be boiled in a malted sugar solution instead. The flavor is also affected, but I don't know how to describe the difference; there's a very pronounced aroma difference if you skip this step. To me, you end up with nothing more than a pretty breadstick unless the dough gets that alkali bath.

If you do use culinary lye, use gloves and don't rush anything.

In Germany, the pretzel shape isn't the only option for Laugen. Little rolls calls Laugenbrötchen and longer, roughly baguette-width sticks called Laugenstangen are also popular. On my most recent trip last year, the Laugenstangen were frequently sold in the form of sandwiches, though I don't remember seeing many of those when I was first living there in the mid-90s.

Answered by JasonTrue

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How can I stop my pie from burning?

Question

My oven heats up by putting on the grill. Yesterday I was making pie and the top burned a little bit. This happens almost every time. It happens at the moment the grill goes on for a short moment because the oven has cooled down a bit. So the top of my pie burns, but the middle is not fully cooked jet. I always make sure the oven is fully heated before putting in the pie, and of course keep the oven door open as short as possible. I was wondering, is there a trick so that my pie does not get burned when the oven is re-heating? Right now I turn down the oven a little bit so it won't re-heat which indeed prevent the pie from burning. However, in this way I do not get the optimal result.

Asked by Lotte Laat

Answer

What you need is to deflect the heat from the top of your pie. If you have two racks in your oven, and can position them so that the pie is in the middle with a rack above it, place a piece of aluminum foil directly above the pie. Another option would be to set a piece of foil on top of the pie after it has partially baked. Either way will protect the top from direct heat, allowing the ambient heat to penetrate and bake the whole pie.

Answered by Cos Callis

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Instant espresso powder substitutions?

Question

Many recipes for chocolate baked goods call for instant espresso powder. I rarely bake, but I always have coffee in the house. What might I use as a rule of thumb for substituting for instant espresso powder?

I know I could substitute regular coffee for any liquids, but that could add too much liquid to some recipes. Would double or triple strength brewed (or French Press) coffee work? Is the flavor significantly different in the instant powder than in brewed coffee? Or is it simply the quick dissolve and the lack of liquid that makes the powder appealing in baking?

Asked by Martha F.

Answer

I've struggled with this issue as well because I live in a moist climate and instant espresso powder cakes up on me between uses.

Generally recipes which use instant espresso power are trying to add a kick of bitter and roasted flavors to deepen chocolate flavors and make them richer. You can try substituting instant coffee 1:1, but the flavor of the baked good will certainly suffer a loss of richness. Increasing the amount of instant coffee, however, would likely add more bitter or acidic flavors -- and caffeine -- to the cookie or cake than you want. Also, instant coffee takes longer to dissolve, so it needs to be added straight to a liquid.

There's no real way to substitute liquid coffee in most recipes, such as chocolate cookie or brownie recipes, because the recipe has no water in it in the first place. In the rare recipes where there is water, you could substitute strong-brewed coffee for an equal quantity of water+espresso powder, and this would likely work fairly well.

So, summing up: there's no really good substitute for instant espresso powder in recipes which call for it that I've found with some significant experimentation. Hopefully someone else has had better ideas than me.

Answered by FuzzyChef

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Can you substitute butter in a box cake recipe that calls for oil? [closed]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Conversion rule: how to switch oil and butter?

Most box cake mixes call for adding oil and water. What would be the effect of using butter instead of oil, and what ratio should be used to substitute butter for the oil? 1:1?

Asked by Ryan Elkins

Answer

I would do a 1:1 ratio with the following caveats -

First make sure you are using unsalted butter (if you use salted it will change the flavor and the texture of the cake, usually not in a good way)

Second, I would clarify the butter (i.e. melt it skim off the foamy/cloudy bits that float at the top)

After that I would use an equal ratio. Be warned that the clarification process will reduce your butter a bit (8 tablespoons averages about 6 tablespoons after clarification), so make sure you measure after clarifying.

Answered by djmadscribbler

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What flavor (besides chocolate) goes well with hazelnut?

Question

I have a family recipe for a to-die-for hazelnut torte with chocolate frosting. I want to bake it for an occasion coming up, but there will be at least two, possibly three people there who are allergic to chocolate. (No, none of them are related to each other. Just one of those things.) What sort of frosting can I make that will go well with the hazelnut, but which doesn't involve chocolate?

The cake is pretty sweet — equal parts sugar and ground hazelnuts, plus egg whites — so I usually make a bittersweet chocolate frosting by combining a good half or two-thirds cup of dutch cocoa with 2 or 3 tablespoons of sugar, 6 tablespoons water, and 8 egg yolks, cooking until thickened, and when cooled mixing it with two sticks of unsalted butter. I'm thinking if I leave out the cocoa, I will have to substitute something for the volume as well as the flavor.

I often see raspberries paired with hazelnuts and chocolate. Do raspberries still go well with hazelnuts if there is no chocolate involved? Also, unsweetened raspberries tend toward the sour, while unsweetened chocolate is bitter; how would that affect things?

Asked by Marti

Answer

Coffee goes well with hazelnut and has a slightly bitter note, so you could make a coffee infused crème pâtissière by simply folding in a shot or two of espresso (or just some good strong coffee) into whipped cream (or make a coffee frosting).

Answered by ElendilTheTall

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How to use gelatin on fruit pie?

Question

I feel very stupid for asking this, but I've never worked with gelatin. I know how to work with powder or sheets, if you put it in something like panna cotta. I also know there's an issue with gelatin and temperature.

But I want to put gelatin on top of my banana pie, like the professional ones. So I have the bottom, which is the dough, then the cream and then some slices bananas. I would like some gelatin on those bananas. Should I bake the pie first and afterwards, put some gelatin on it? Or put gelatin on it and bake then?

And does it make a difference here if I use powdered or sheet gelatin?

Asked by Mien

Answer

It makes no difference whether you use sheet or powdered. Just make sure to use the right amount. It should be given on the package, like "this sachet is enough for 500 ml liquid". You can try to use less than indicated for a softer texture, but if you don't use enough, it will stay liquid, so you may need to experiment until you get it right.

You can't bake gelatin. It is a protein and denaturates at 50°C. The proper way is to bake your pie or fruit cake as always, and after it is ready, pour the gelatin containing liquid over the fruits and wait for it to congeal. (I am assuming here that you just want a gelatin glaze over a complete pie. If you want a complete gelatinized filling, everything below applies. Bake a shell, put the fruit in it, then fill it with the liquid).

The liquid itself can be pure water, or water syrup, or, if you used canned fruit, you can catch the liquid from the can and strain it. Then use it, pure or diluted with water. Sugar of food coloring don't interfere with gelatin, use them as you see fit (I think it's popular to color the gelatin on strawberry cakes a light red).

The mixing is very similar to panna cotta. First, bloom your gelatin by putting it into a cup with some water (1-2 tbsp) and leaving it for awhile. It should soak up the water, use it while it still looks moist, before the granules stick to each other. It usually takes around 5 minutes. Meanwhile, warm your liquid on a very low setting. It is best to use a thermometer. Dump the gelatine into the liquid while still on the heat. Stir until dissolved completely, never let it get too warm. When dissolved, remove from the heat and pour immediately.

There aren't many things which interfere with gelatin, but some fruits (or the enzymes in them) do. These tend to be tropical fruits with at least moderate acidity, like papaya, mango, kiwi and pineapple. If you pour gelatine on them when they are raw, it will have trouble setting. Cooking them should help, but I don't know how long or what temperature. If they are canned, it should be OK. Bananas are not a problem, even when raw.

And because you said you want to make it "professional": If you are talking about a thin glaze, gelatin is not your only choice. You can use starch as a thickener, many professional bakeries do so. It eliminates the possibility of getting the right texture of the glaze (which will be rubbery with too much gelatine and half liquid if you don't use enough), and maybe you'll feel more comfortable with it.

Answered by rumtscho

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Why does flatbread have to be microwaved / cooked / toasted?

Question

I was eating at a sub making restaurant the other day and they asked if I would like my flatbread toasted... I responded with a "No thanks."

The Chef said, "Well technically the flatbread still HAS to be toasted, so would you like the meat toasted ?"

In confusion, I asked, "Why? I would prefer it un-toasted."

The Chef said, "We are required to toast all flatbread, as it releases some chemical... or something."

Can anyone clear up what he may be referring to? Does flatbread (non-homemade) HAVE to be toasted / cooked / microwaved ?

Edit:

Ingredients: Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid, malted barley flour), water, soybean oil, yeast, contains 2% or less of nonfat dry milk, salt, wheat gluten, sugar, dough conditioner (acacia gum, guar gum, ascorbic acid, L- cysteine, enzymes), calcium propionate, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate), and sodium stearoyl lactylate.

Asked by Foxtrot

Answer

If we're talking about the same sub making restaurant, their flatbread contains the following ingredients:

Enriched wheat flour (flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, malted barley flour, ascorbic acid), water, soybean oil, yeast; contains 2% or less of: nonfat dry milk, wheat gluten, salt, dough conditioners (guar gum, Arabic gum, sodium stearoyl lactylate, enzymes), sugar, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate), calcium propionate.

I can see nothing in there that isn't in found in commercial soft white bread. It may well be a case of an overzealous legal department acting on the merest possibility of a hint of an idea that one ingredient may perhaps have the potential to maybe sometimes cause a problem if not cooked.

Answered by ElendilTheTall

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Difference between Maida and All purpose flour

Question

I'm baking tonight and I'm out of All purpose flour. I'm lazy to run out to the grocery store. Can I replace All purpose flour with Maida (Maida is better known to Asian Indians - we use it for making Naans and such)

Asked by Narmatha Balasundaram

Answer

Maida is wheat flour - all-purpose is usually a mix of wheat and barley flour. You can use it as all purpose flour for bread and cakes, as well as chapatis, parathas and puris!

You might find that bread and cakes made with maida don't keep as well as the same things made with all-purpose flour, but home baking never stays around for more than a day in my experience.

Answered by klypos

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Making madeleines without the special pan?

Question

I don't have the special pan or any cupcake or muffin tins.

Can I just plop spoonfuls on a cookie sheet? Does anyone know whether I have to alter the recipe? If so, how?

Asked by Jeronimo Pinks

Answer

I have never made madeleines myself, but looking at the recipe and reading Elendil's concerns about the batter running, I would think you could fashion an impromptu "madeleine pan" out of aluminum foil. It won't be the easiest thing in the world, and you're not going to get the perfect shell look, but I think you'll be able to get the right general shape and depth with a little craftwork.

These look like something I would love to make, so I did a little research and a few people said they poured the batter into a sheet pan (in a very thin layer) and then cut them into squares after. Not exactly the same final product, but if you're dying to use the batter I think it would still taste great. As Elendil suggested, the people who said they were able to make them on a cookie sheet found that they were very flat and crispy (though still tasty).

Answered by stephennmcdonald

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How to get rid of the taste of flour in homemade bakery?

Question

I usually get random cookie and cake recipes from the internet and try them. They are good but all of them have floury taste to me. Possible culprits are the flour I use and how I mix and bake dough. I use Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour and my hands to mix ingredients, having no mixer. What can I get wrong? Is there an easy fix?

Asked by puri

Answer

Assuming you aren't very unlucky and happen to download a series of bad recipes I think it's one of a few things.

It's possible you could be undercooking your goods. Fully cooked baked goods should not taste like flour.

It's also possible that you could be mixing insufficiently. If this were the case though you'd likely have some cookies that weren't floury.

The most likely culprit though is packed flour. If you are using volume measurements (most likely given the source) for flour, it's quite possible to use nearly twice as much flour as the recipe intends simply because your flour is packed down more than the author's was.

I recommend using either a food processor or a sifter to sift your flour adequately before measuring. Don't undo your sifting by rapping your measuring cup on the counter either! Simply scoop, scrape to level and dump it in the mixing bowl.

See Also:

• What Kinds of Recipes Should I Sift/Aerate The Flour?
• How can I make sifting easier?
• Sifting dry ingredients

Answered by hobodave

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What is meant by “place 4 inches apart on cookie tray”?

Question

Does this mean place some cookie dough every 4 inches (i.e. 4 inches center-to-center), or have a 4 inch gap between each cookie?

Asked by jontyc

Answer

It means to have a 4 inch gap between each cookie. Of course, if you use less dough per cookie, you can put them a bit closer together.

Normally, if you put cookie dough on the tray, the surface of the cookie won't be very big (perhaps an inch). So it would not make a very big difference if you would've placed the cookies 4 inches apart center-to-center. Just be careful during the first batch. If you see you have a lot of space between the finished cookies, you can put the dough closer together for the next batch (if you use the same amount of dough per cookie).

Answered by Mien

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baking bread with all-purpose flour

Question

I'm a bread-baking novice and have acquired a vast quantity of all-purpose flour.

If I follow a typical bread recipe, for example one of these, but use all-purpose flour instead of the recommended variety, what will happen? Will the bread be edible?

[How] could I modify such a recipe to work with all-purpose flour?

update

Used Canadian all-purpose flour with this recipe, unmodified; results were delicious.

Asked by intuited

Answer

Bread is basically just flour, water, and yeast, so it's pretty hard to make it inedible unless you burn it to a crisp in the oven.

The difference between all-purpose flour and bread flour is gluten strength; if you substitute all-purpose flour then your bread won't rise as high or be as strong; this is a desirable quality in, say, cake, but not bread.

However, AP flour isn't that far off from bread flour in terms of gluten; while cake flour may be as low as 6% and bread flour can be as high as 14%, AP flour tends to weigh in at around 10% or more, which is why it's called "all-purpose". As Michael says, yeast bread is actually not as sensitive to the exact quantities as (for example) most pastries, but it's still better to use a recipe that was actually built around AP flour instead of just trying to substitute it for bread flour.

If you are determined to make the substitution, then I would suggest you try to find some wheat gluten and add a small amount of that to the AP flour. Mathematically, if you assume that you're lacking some 3% protein, then you'd want to add about 1 tbsp of gluten for every 2 cups of flour. It's really not much, though, and if you don't have or can't find wheat gluten then your bread would probably survive anyway with AP flour, it just might be a little denser than you expect.

Answered by Aaronut

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What to place beneath the vegetables before placing them on the baking tray?

Question

In order to present their surface from burning what should be placed beneath the vegetables before placing them on the baking tray?

I am thinking of applying oil to the tray, not sure if that's enough.

Asked by Anisha Kaul

Answer

I usually put tinfoil down and then lightly oil it. If done carefully, the tray stays clean and doesn't need to be washed and the foil can be thrown out (or used for a second batch of veggies if you have one).

Answered by FrustratedWithFormsDesigner

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Crusty french bread

Question

The crust on my french bread never turns out "crusty" like it does in restaurants, what am I doing wrong?

Asked by curriegrr

Answer

To promote a crust on a bread (ie. getting it 'crusty'), the bread must be baked in two phases. First, steam must be introduced (and not vented) for about a third of the bake time. Then, you must evacuate the steam and bake the remainder of time dry. This is the trick to making crusty breads. Also critical in the promotion of crust is temperature. You must bake crusty breads at a high temp., at least 400 degrees (which is what I bake my crusty-style breads at).

Also of note, crusty breads tend to be lean doughs, that is one without a high fat content.

Answered by mrwienerdog

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How to recognize when American style chewy cookies are done?

Question

I made chewy chocolate chip cookies. The recipe gave baking time suggestions, but noted

check your cookies before they’re done; depending on your scoop size, your baking time will vary

and suggested to bake them "until the edges are lightly toasted". However, I used dark brown sugar, so my dough was much darker than in the pictures, it was an ochre shade. I didn't notice any changes in color, and I don't think I could in the dark dough, but my second sheet got rather hard after cooling, I suspect I overbaked them.

How can I notice the right moment to take cookies out of the oven?

Asked by rumtscho

Answer

Most cookie recipes (including the Nestle Tollhouse recipe) call for 9 - 11 minutes at 375 ° F (for a 3-bite sized cookie). Within this range, finding the exact time (and temperature) for your preferred done-ness and with your equipment can be a fussy business.

One of the best indicators is the darkening color at the outer edge of the cookie, as shown in the last picture in your recipe. (For what it's worth, substituting dark brown sugar for brown sugar may make a significant difference in the outcome of the cookie.)

You can also gently poke the edge of a cookie to test it. (Only do this if your fingers are used to enough kitchen abuse to be OK with poking hot cookies and gooey melty chocolate.) The edge of the cookie should be a little crispy and have a texture when done. When un-done, it will be liquid and gooey, like the middle of the cookie.

If no other methods prove useful, I fall back to the "test cookie" method, where I bake one cookie at at time at different intervals of time (30 seconds), wait until they cool, and then re-use the time from the best resulting cookie. (Same for dialing the best temperature.) Go with a slightly overdone cookie for a tie breaker; when baking your batches of cookies, the extra mass will take a little longer to bake to the same done-ness. Yes, this is a tedious and fussy procedure, but once you've got this figured out, you can replicate it ever time. And, as with all baking, practice makes perfect.

Answered by KatieK

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