Spending huge amounts of our income on food became an annoyance to me. I'd rather go to Europe thank you very much!! We wanted four things, to eat well and enjoy our meals while keeping our weight and our expenses under control. Incentive was born and I started to do something about it. I hope to use this Blog to share what I've discovered.

Friday, July 08, 2005

Cooking Weather

Your surroundings may affect the final product.

Recipes for meringues, for instance, made by beating egg whites with sugar, look simple. They go together very easily.

It also helps to know that they're best made on dry days.

Sugar dissolves into the egg whites as you beat them.

Then as sugar attracts moisture from the air, you'll notice little beads of syrup form on the surface of the baked meringue.

If meringues sit on the counter on a humid afternoon, or if they're stored in the damp atmosphere of your refrigerator, they can become as sticky as the weather.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Low Fat Muffins

Those low-fat muffins look great in the photo and the instructions simply say to "stir the ingredients together." And so you do.

In fact, you give the batter a little extra stir so those muffins will be even better.

What the recipe doesn't tell you is that stirring develops gluten, which gives strength and elasticity to batters and doughs.
While these qualities are important in doughs made with yeast, strength and elasticity are not desirable in quick breads.

Muffins and biscuits need a tender framework that rises quickly as baking soda and baking powder give off carbon dioxide.

Stirring is even less optimal in low-fat, low-sugar baked goods, because both sugar and fat are tenderizers.
When you reduce tenderizers, keep structure-builders to a minimum too. In this case, stir as little as possible after the flour is added.


http://www.exploratorium.edu/

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Sugar in baking

Two of the great myths of working with food are that all recipes are good, and that flops are usually the fault of the cook.

It's a relief to learn that recipes often fail for reasons that have little to do with cooking skills.

Let's look at several factors that help guarantee success in the kitchen.
A good recipe is balanced.

In cakes, cookies, muffins, and pastry, the best recipes are cleverly designed so ingredients that tenderize don't overpower those that create structure.

When a cake flops, for instance, it's sometimes because the recipe calls for too much sugar.

While appealing to one's sweet tooth is important, too much sugar creates a batter so tender that it's too fragile to support the volume of the rising cake.

So it falls before it sets, and that has far less to do with your cooking expertise than that of the recipe writer.

Be aware that not all recipes are good recipes.



www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/7-02_article.html