baking soda & baking powder

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate NaHCO₃, an alkali. It exists naturally, for example dissolved in the water of thermal springs. It will begin acting immediately in the presence of an acid, which means you need to act quickly with recipes that rely on it alone. While buttermilk, citrus and yogurt are obvious triggers, baking employs a variety of other acidic ingredients, including honey, brown sugar, molasses and chocolate.

Baking powder is an all-in-one leavener, containing baking soda and a precise amount of acid to use up all the soda. It begins reacting when liquid is added to it. Baking powder includes cornstarch, which helps absorb moisture to moderate the leavening reaction.

How they work
Both react to release carbon dioxide (CO₂). Importantly, they only enlarge bubbles that already exist in the dough. They do not create a single new bubble. That means that adding them to your dough or batter won’t automatically make them rise. You must pay attention to the mixing method in a recipe, such as creaming butter and sugar, beating eggs, or turning over your dough to create the air bubbles the leavener will inflate. Note that it is easy to over-leaven. The CO₂ bubbles get big, float to the top and pop, the baked goods get heavy and fall. And if you notice a soapy flavour that can mean too much baking soda or insufficiently mixed baking powder. Baking soda and baking powder are not interchangeable. In recipes with both the baking powder is doing the leavening while the baking soda helps neutralise acid in the dough so that doesn’t interfere with the baking powder. Reducing the acidity of the dough also helps it to brown by the Maillard reactions.

Rules of thumb
1 cup of flour can be leavened by ¼ teaspoon baking soda or 1 to 1¼ teaspoons of baking powder.
½ teaspoon of baking soda will neutralize 1 cup mildly acidic ingredient (sour cream, buttermilk) / 1 teaspoon of lemon juice / 1¼ teaspoons of cream of tartar.
You can make a crude baking powder replacement with 1 tb baking soda, 2 tablespoons cream of tartar and 1½ tb cornstarch

Baking soda and baking powder lose their potency over time so store in sealed containers. To test their viability, mix ¼ teaspoon baking powder into ½ cup very hot water or ¼ teaspoon baking soda into ½ cup very hot water mixed with ¼ teaspoon white vinegar. If you see fine bubbles, you’re good to go.

Source: Becky Crystal in The Washington Post

Sourdough starters

Blog posts about sourdough are like cat videos: they’re everywhere and everyone’s an expert. This is just me keeping track of what I’ve found to work. The sourness of a starter is caused by acid from fermentation.

Sourdough starter

General tips about sourdough starter, from Jamie who gave me his starter.

• It’s easiest to keep the starter in the fridge and just take it out when you want to make bread.
• A jar of about 700-800mL is probably about right. Choose one that’s not too tall and narrow or else it will be tricky to get the starter in and out.
• About 450g of starter is quite a good amount to keep. It depends on the size of the loaf you usually make and the proportions of flour to water that you like to use.
• The starter will be most ‘active’ if you use/feed it at least once a week, but will make decent bread even after 2-3 weeks in the fridge. It will probably survive for a month or two in the fridge, but will get sleepy and you will need to feed it before making bread with it.
• The first step in making bread is always to feed the starter. You can also feed the starter without making bread but then you will need to throw away some of the starter to get back to the original quantity (or you can give it to someone else!).

Feeding the starter

• Scrape your starter out into a large bowl (if doing it by hand) or into a breadmaker (if you have one that can knead dough without baking it). Soak and clean the jar (jar needs to be clean but not sterile).
• Add 300g of flour (white is easiest to work with but 1/3 wholemeal gives extra flavour) and 150mL of water. You can adjust these quantities if you like.
• Mix until a uniform consistency. You don’t need to knead it properly.
• Leave for at least 4-6 hours until it has expanded a lot and has lots of bubbles – leaving overnight is easiest.
• Scrape half the mixture back into your starter jar and put the jar back in the fridge for next time.  (Always remember this step – if you bake your starter it will be dead!).
• Use the other half for making the bread.

Biga

This is a watery starter with a milder taste. Use this instead of dough starter in bread, but double the quantity. It is not as lively so you can increase the fermentation time and dried yeast to compensate. You’ll need to reduce the amount of water added for the dough.

900 ml water
150 g organic wheat flour
75 g organic wholemeal flour
75 g organic rye flour

Mix together in a glass container, cover and leave at room temperature. Mix well once a day. After 10 days it will be ready to use, although it may be ready sooner. Check the taste and smell as you go. It should smell like a strong dark beer. After this always stir daily. Transfer to a new clean container now and again.

Feed it with:
150 ml water
25 g organic wheat flour
25 g organic wholemeal flour

Feed at any of these times:

• after 1 week (discard some of the original)
• if it is getting too sour (discard some of the original)
• 8-24 hours before you want to draw it for use

To slow it down put it in the fridge, it will not need feeding for 2 weeks.
To pause it for longer put it in an airtight container in the fridge. When you return take it out for 3-4 days then feed.

Banana cake

A moist, textured cake.

rugbrod (Danish rye bread)

Despite lots of heavy food, sugar, alchohol and grey winters the Danes are a surprisingly healthy bunch.  Their legendary rye bread has a lot to do with that. Makes 1 loaf or multiply quantities by 2.2 for two.

Scheduling:
Making the starter – at least 24 hours day before baking
Soaking the grains – 24 hours before baking
Kneading, proving and baking takes 4 hours – start no later than 7  in the evening

Lotte’s famous breakfast rolls

This is delicious bread-making without kneading or fuss.

cannelés bordelais

Cannelés bordelais are delicious little pastries, wonderfully aromatic, darkly caramelised and crunchy on the outside with a soft, yellow, custard-like centre. Truly a revelation. Rather than in Bordeaux, I discovered these in London, while having breakfast at the wonderful Wolseley.

Russian fudge

A New Zealand staple using distinctly NZ ingredients. When done properly this is the ultimate sugar bomb.

100 g butter
1 cup white sugar
1/4 c golden syrup
1 400 ml can regular condensed milk

Put everything in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until starting to bubble. Cook fairly briskly for 7 min and then start testing for ‘soft ball’ stage, stirring continuously while scraping up the bottom so nothing sticks. Drop a small spoonful in a cup of cold water and see if you can gather the mixture into a soft ball in your fingers. The cooking should take no longer than 10 mins in all and the mixture should be darkening. Take off the heat and beat hard for 3 mins. Line a 180 x 200 mm tray with baking paper and pour in.

From: Ollie’s mum

Chocolate & Raspberry Layer Cake

Lisa made this for her son’s 2nd birthday. Lucky son! The deep chocolate with raspberry filling is simply evil. From Smitten Kitchen, adapted from Gourmet, March 1999.

Helle’s courgette cake

3 eggs
200 grs muscovado sugar
150 ml oil
300 ml roughly grated courgettes
250 grs flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp fine salt
75 grs chopped hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Whisk eggs and sugar until foamy, slowly add oil, then the grated courgettes. Add the remaining ingredients and finally fold in the chopped hazelnuts. Bake in a buttered and dusted 1,5l cake tin. Bake for 70 minutes.

Viennese Topfenstrudel

This is the real thing from Vienna. Topfen, called Quark in Germany, is an unsalted curd cheese that’s used a lot in sweet and savoury dishes in Austria. You could use cream cheese or ricotta as a replacement.

60 grs butter at room temperature
50 grs sugar
2 eggs, separated into yolks and eggs whites
250 grs unsalted fine curd cheese
125 ml sour cream
finely grated zest of 1 organic lemon
40 grs raisins

additional butter to brush the outside of the strudel
1 package of filo pastry

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Prepare the filling: Whisk the egg whites until very stiff. In a separate bowl, whisk the butter until soft, then add sugar, yolks, strained curd cheese, sour cream, zest and raisins. Mix well, then carefully fold the beaten egg whites into the rest of the mass.

On your counter-top, place a slightly moist kitchen cloth, then open the package of filo pastry (it dries out in minutes, so wait until the last minute). On the towel, place one sheet of pastry on top of a second sheet. Spread the filling on one fifth of the pastry sheets, leaving space on the sides around it. Then fold in the sides and start to roll up the strudel with the help of the table cloth underneath it. Place on a greased baking tray, brush with melted butter and bake for 30-40 minutes until golden

Dust with icing sugar and serve warm. For added richness, the strudel can be served with hot home-made vanilla custard.

Source: Hess, Wiener Küche