10 things you need to know, to bake like a pro!
1. We must weight. Me must measure.
Because guess what?
8 oz isn’t necessarily 1 cup.
Say what?
I cup sugar is 8 oz, but 1 cup flour is not!!!
1 cup flour is 6 oz!!! So if you want to bake like a pro, this you need to know.
2. Ready set go, don’t move too slow!
When you mix eggs with sugar, the yolks “burn” as soon as the sugar touches them, so start mixing immediately when you combine the two.
If you don’t there will be little lumps of “burnt” egg crystals in the batter, which is not very “pro” like.
3. For the stiffest peak
If you are trying to whip egg whites with sugar to a stiff peak, first start with the egg whites only (no speaks of yolk in them) until soft peaks form, then add your sugar. If you add the sugar too early on in the process, you will never reach the ultimate peak. Egg whites should be room temp and the bowl slightly warm to reach maximum peak. WARNING: don’t fall off the edge. Stop when you have a nice peak, but whites are still moist.
4.Maximize the rise
Baking soda, and baking powder, will begin the process of rising as soon as it get’s in contact with wet ingredients, so have the oven preheated and ready to go, as soon as you combine wet+dry.
5. The just right rule, aka Goldilocks rule
If you are trying to mix melted chocolate with eggs or cream, always keep the chocolate slightly warm when adding your eggs (or cream).
If the chocolate is too hot, it will cook the eggs. If the chocolate is too cold, it will seize and freeze up.
6. Room temp is pro temp:
If you want to bake like a pro, your butter and your eggs should always be room temp.
7. Cream is cold
Egg and butter is room temp, but heavy cream should be cold.
“Manufacturing cream” is heavier than heavy whip cream, so it is a pro bakers dream cream.
8. Convection = crispy . Standard = moist
Convection setting should be used for cookies or anything you are trying to crisp.
Regular setting should be used for cakes, because we want them moist, and all the air blowing around in there, during convection baking,
can give the cake an uneven lift.
9. Freeze it!
Souffles can be made ahead and frozen, then popped straight into the oven from the freezer. Most cakes can be frozen and wrapped well in plastic wrap. Defrost, ready to serve.
10. Vanilla paste, is better than vanilla extract, and it’s alcohol free.
All below recipes are supplied by our baking pro, Trevor Zimmerman at www.deuceevents.com
Fallen chocolate Souffle Cake with chocolate mousse
For optimal success, read the recipe carefully all the way through before beginning.
1 lb + 7 oz chocolate (the better the chocolate the better the cake)
15 large eggs, separated (yolks in one bowl, whites in another)
1 tbs vanilla, and when he says vanilla, he means paste, not extract, although if you don’t care to be exact then use the extract
2 tsp Coffee extract
15 oz sugar
Chop the chocolate and melt slowly in a double boiler. Do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Try not to over heat the chocolate.
Whip the yolks with 10 oz of the sugar, but hey, say what, we learned what?
As soon as you add the yolks to the sugar, you need to start whipping. Otherwise we will get the little lumps of “burnt” yolk crystals in our cake.
So whip the yolk+sugar until the “ribbon” stage. Whip in vanilla and coffee extract.
Whip whites with the remaining 5 oz of sugar.
So we learned what?
Start whipping the egg whites first, when they reach a soft peak, then add the sugar. Whip until soft peaks form.
Now quickly fold the “ribbon stage” whipped yolks into the chocolate.
But wait, what did we learn?
Yes, the chocolate must be slightly warm when we do this, because otherwise it may “seize up”.
So we don’t want the chocolate so hot it’s going to scramble the eggs, and we don’t want it so cold it’s going to “seize”.
It’s a Goldilocks thing. We want it “just right”.
Then gently, right away, no texting in between, fold in the whites.
PRO TIP: Your whites should be whipped and ready to go, before you add the yolks to the chocolate, to minimize the chocolate’s desire to freeze.
Trevor prefers the “scoop and shake” method, which is hard to explain if you weren’t here, but start with 1/3 of the whites, and get that well folded into the chocolate, then add the rest of the whites, in two stages, getting them incorporated into the chocolate as gently as you can, scooping and shaking while you incorporate it all. There should be some visible light streaks of white through the batter, when the whites have been added.
You don’t want to mix the whites so well that you remove too much air from them, which will reduce the “lift” of our cake.
Pour onto sheet pan or into 3 ten inch cake rounds. Always grease and sugar your pans or use parchment paper.
Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for, depending on what they are in, sheet pan, 20 min, cake pan 25 to 30 minutes.
Serve as is with whipped cream and berries or proceed to the next step and fill it with some pretty awesome chocolate mousse.
1 lb semi sweet chocolate
1 quart whipping cream, and when he says cream, he means manufacturing cream, but any heavy cream is ok
Melt chopped chocolate in double boiler, don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water.
Whip the cream (cream is best if cold when whipped) to soft peaks.
Quickly fold in 1/3 of the cream and then gently fold in the rest.
Now remember, the chocolate what?
Yes, needs to be slightly warm, or it what?
Yes, it will “sieze” or call it “freeze” up, and we want soft pillows of billowing mousse.
Once you put this mousse in the fridge it is going to harden, which is good for the cake, because it means we will be able to slice it . If you want to make mousse to eat as soft mousse later in the day, then you should be making a ganache to fold into the cream instead.
ASSEMBLY LIKE A PRO
We are going to pull off the crunchy top of the cake/s to use as garnish, we are going to fill with the chocolate mousse, the garnish with crunchy bits.
1. Pull of crunchy tops of cakes and reserve
2. Pour and spread mousse onto the exposed soft layer of the cake.
3. Garnish with broken crunchy tops of cake. Sprinkle with powder sugar and cocoa powder.
4. GREAT NEWS!!!
Put in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours to let the mousse harden enough to cut neat slices and get this:
you can freeze this baby for up to one month!!!!!!
Makes 12 six oz ramekins
butter and sugar your ramekins
14 oz good quality dark chocolate
4 0z (1 stick) unsalted butter – pro tip, always use room temperature butter
1/2 cup milk
11 yolks, and 11 whites – pro tip, always use room temperature eggs
6 oz sugar
Place chopped chocolate into a bowl with the room temperature butter. Set aside.
Place milk in a saucepan and bring to boil. Pour the hot milk over the chocolate and butter and whisk together until it’s all a melted yummy mixture.
Place the egg whites (with no traces of yolk in them, even the tiniest drop of yolk will prevent your whites to whip stiff) in a clean grease free slightly warmed bowl and whip the whites on high speed until beginning to slightly peak, then slowly add the sugar, and keep whipping until all sugar has been incorporated and we have reached a soft peak, 3 to 4 minutes.
Now whip the yolks with the chocolate mixture, and say what, last time I am going to say this, so I hope you are paying attention.
The chocolate needs to be slightly warm, so it will not seize, when you gently fold in the whipped whites.
And what did we learn?
Yes, we want to see white streaks, we don’t want to over blend the whites into the chocolate, because then we will beat all the air out of the whites and they will not rise!
Great news!!!
If you want, you can now freeze your soufflees until ready to bake.
Bake 425 degrees, for 10 to 12 minutes. A few minutes more if frozen. Serve with whipped cream and a dusting of powdered sugar.
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups milk
4 fresh bay leafs – optional
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
6 large egg yolks
In a heavy sauce pan, combine the cream, milk, bay leaves (if using) and 1/2 cup sugar. Bring to a simmer. Set aside and let cool for a few minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk 1/4 cup of sugar with the eggs and egg yolks until smooth.
And remember what did we learn?
Do not let your sugar sit on top of your eggs while you are doing something else. As soon as you combine the sugar with the eggs you need to start whisking otherwise you will what?
Yes, thank you for paying attention. You will “burn” the eggs, which creates little crystals in your custard which is not pro like.
Now whisk in a tiny bit of the warm, but not boiling hot, milk mixture into the eggs, then slowly add more and more milk until all milk is incorporated. Adding too much hot liquid into the eggs too quickly, may cause the eggs to scramble, which we don’t want.
Strain the mixture in a bowl and chill for up to 2 days.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Pour custard into ramekins. Place in a baking pan, place on the oven rack. Now pour in some very hot water to reach 2/3 up the sides of the ramekins. Once the hot water has been added, be careful moving it around too much as the hot water may spill into your ramekins which is why the above instructions says to: place on the oven rack, then add the water. The less distance you have to move the water filled baking pan, the less chance you are going to get hot water into your custard.
Cover with foil and poke a few holes in the foil with a tooth pick or skewer. We want some steam in there, but not too much. Once again, Goldilocks, we want it just right.
Bake for 30 minutes, then lift the corner of the foil to allow more steam to escape.
Re cover and bake for 10 to 15 more minutes. The custard should be set around the edges but have a little jiggle in the center. Let cool at room temp, then cover and chill over night.
Assembly: sprinkle with turbinado or regular sugar, whip out your blow torch, and heat the sugar until it just turns brown and crispy.
Pro tip: the creme brulees are now ready to serve and will keep a few hours at room temp. Once you refridgerate the brulees your crispy sugar will melt into a goey syrup.
PRO TIP: guess what? You just learned three things!!
1. A flan is an upside down creme brulee!
2. So if you don’t feel like whipping out the blow torch, and making a crispy caramelized top, make a caramel (sugar boiled with water until brown and caramelized) and pour into a baking dish, then just pour your custard on top and bake per instructions above. To serve, un mold the baking dish by turning it upside down so the caramel will be on the top.
3. Really, don’t feel like baking? Your custard can now be super yummy ice cream*!!
*However, if you choose to make “custard ice cream”, you must return the custard to the stove and gently cook while stirring for 3 to 5 minutes to pasteurize the custard. It is done, when you dip a wood spoon in the custard, and you draw a line with your finger, the line remains.