Food and drink

Baking

Cakes
Cookies
Quick Breads

Cakes

The food value of cakes

The food value of cakes will vary according to the ingredients used to make them. Vegetable shortenings will add calories. However, if either butter or margarine is used, the cake will have vitamin A. Milk and eggs will supply valuable proteins, in addition to selected vitamins and minerals. If enriched all-purpose flour is used, the amount of vitamins and minerals in the cake will further the food value.

Food value varies from one class of cake to the next. The classes of cakes, in turn, differ in terms of the ingredients and mixing method used.

Classes of cakes

There are essentially four classes of cakes. These include shortened/buttered cakes, chiffon cakes, sponge cakes, and angel cakes.

The shortened or buttered cakes are leavened by carbon dioxide gas, provided by baking powder or by baking soda added to an acid. The liquid ingredient in such cakes, usually milk, becomes steam, another product serving as a leavening agent. The final leavening agent is air, incorporated into the batter through mixing. Air bubbles, when heated, expand and this expansion, in turn, causes the product to rise.

Sponge cakes are leavened entirely by eggs. They take their golden or yellow color from the egg yolks, used in addition to egg whites. It should also be noted that sponge cakes are made entirely without fat.

Angel cakes resemble sponge cakes in that they too are leavened by eggs. Whites only are used, however.

Chiffon cakes are actually a combination of angel and shortened/buttered cakes. Chiffons obtain only a small portion of their leavening from eggs. Baking powder is often used.

Steps for making cakes

In making a chiffon, first pour vegetable oil in a well made in the center of the sifted, dry ingredients. Add beaten egg yolks, water and flavoring. In another bowl, beat egg whites until they are foamy. Add cream of tartar. Beat in sugar to make a stiff meringue. After beating flour, oil and egg yolk mixture until smooth, fold it into the meringue. Bake in an ungreased tube pan. Invert the pan to cool the cake.

Steps in making a sponge cake are similar to those of a chiffon, save using baking powder.

Angel cakes are made in the same way as chiffons, except that baking powder and egg yolks are not used.

Forms of cakes and their uses

The form in which a cake is baked has some influence on the way in which it will be used in a menu. Layer cakes are made by placing two or more shallow layers of baked cakes in a stack. Jelly, jam, marmalade, or frosting is used between the layers to stick them together.

Loaf cakes are more plain in appearance. These may or may not be frosted. Such cakes as these are sliced and served alone as a dessert or with fruit or ice cream.

Cupcakes are also ideal in that each one is an individual portion. Cupcakes may be made from batter from any of the four classes of cakes.

Sheet cakes are made by pouring the batter of the cake (made either with or without fat) into a large shallow pan. If very thin, sheet cakes may be used to make jelly rolls.

Upside-down cakes are served bottom side up. A fruit mixture of separate pieces of fruit is placed in a large greased pan and the cake batter is then poured into the pan, on top of the fruit. The cake, when removed from the pan and inverted, has an appetizing appearance, with the fruit on top.

Cookies

The food value of cookies

The food value of cookies is similar to that of unfrosted cakes. Because of their sugar and fat content, cookies provide mostly calories. They contain some additional nutrients, depending on the other ingredients used. For example, raisins, nuts, peanut butter, molasses, whole-wheat flour, and rolled oats add food value to cookies.

Kinds and forms of cookies

Cookies are grouped into different types according to the consistency of the dough.

Soft dough is used to make bar and drop cookies. Drop cookies are made from a soft dough, which is pushed from a spoon onto a baking sheet in the size desired. These are less evenly shaped than rolled cookies. Bar cookies are also made from a soft dough and baked in a shallow pan; when cool, the baked sheet is cut into oblong or square shapes, as desired.

Stiff dough is used to make refrigerator, rolled, pressed, and molded cookies. Refrigerator cookies are cut from a roll of dough which has been chilled until very stiff. They are less evenly shaped than rolled cookies, and thick or thin, as desired. Rolled cookies are cut from a thin sheet of stiff dough with cutters of various shapes. They are evenly shaped and usually thin. Pressed cookies are made from a stiff, rich dough that is forced through a cookie press to make cookies of various shapes. Molded cookies are made from small portions of a stiff dough that are shaped or molded with the hands. They may be left in the shape of balls, or slightly flattened.

Meringues are cookies made with beaten egg whites.

Cookie ingredients

Most cookies contain the same basic ingredients as cakes: fat, sugar, salt, eggs, flour, a leavening agent, liquid, and flavorings. The functions of these ingredients are the same as in the making of muffins and other quick breads (see below).

Preparation of cookies

The principles of preparing cookies are the same as those for preparing cakes with fat. The gluten in the flour holds the expanding leavening gases, then the heat of baking makes the cookie firm. Usually baking powder, baking soda, or a combination of both serves as the leavening agent in cookies. In some recipes, beaten egg whites are used for this purpose. Soft, cake-like cookies contain a high proportion of liquid and flour, while crispy, thin cookies contain a high proportion of sugar and shortening.

Ways to use and serve cookies

Cookies make a nice snack or convenient dessert to carry in lunches. Crisp cookies go especially well with cut up fruit, fruit sauces and frozen desserts. Examples are gingersnaps with pear halves, or shortbread with frozen yogurt.

Because they are easy to handle, cookies make good refreshments for guests. Arrange cookies with complementary flavors, textures, and shapes on a tray, and serve them with fruit punch.

Care of cookies

Store all types of cookies in tightly covered containers. You can keep bar cookies right in the baking pan, securely covered. Packages of commercial cookies are usually lined with moisture-resistant paper. After opening a package, close the paper around the remaining cookies as tightly as possible. You will need to refrigerate some cookies. Follow the recipe or package directions for storage.

Do not store soft cookies and crisp cookies together. If crisp cookies become soft, put them in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 5 minutes before serving. If soft cookies begin to dry out, place a slice of bread, apple, or orange in the container.

You can bake a batch of cookies when you have the time and freeze them for later use. This is especially handy during the holiday season. Most cookies freeze well, whether baked or unbaked. But cookie dough is also simple to freeze and requires less storage space than baked cookies. You can store baked cookies in the freezer for up to twelve months and frozen dough for up to six months. Simply thaw and serve or bake.

Quick breads

Quick breads include such things as waffles, griddle cakes, cobblers, shortcake, coffee cakes, dumplings, biscuits, muffins, cornbread, and loaves such as lemon loaf and banana bread which do not use yeast.

Quick breads differ from yeast breads in that quick breads become leavened and rise faster than yeast breads and are more convenient to prepare. The leavening agent in quick breads is needed to make the batters and dough rise during baking, giving the fininshed products a porous, light, tender texture. Two examples of leavening agents used in quick breads are baking powder and baking soda.

Knowing the leavening agents used in quick breads, it is also good to know the other ingredients used in preparing batters and doughs. These include flour, salt, liquids such as milk or water, sugars (granulated, syrups or fruits), fats (shortening, butter, margarine or vegetable oils are all good examples), and eggs.

Although some quick breads employ whole wheat or bran flour, most recipes use all-purpose flour because it contains enough protein to form a delicate and elastic gluten framework.

The mixing methods used in making quick breads

The three mixing methods used in making quick breads are the muffin method, the biscuit method and the cake method.

In the muffin method, the liquid ingredients are combined and then added to the combined dry ingredients. Both are mixed until the dry ingredients are slightly moistened.

In the biscuit method, fat is cut into and combined with the dry ingredients (using a pastry blender or two knives) until the mixture has a coarse texture. A small amount of liquid is added and all is stirred. This continues until the dough is firm enough to handle.

In the cake method, the shortening or other solid fat is creamed with the sugar and eggs. Then, the sifted dry ingredients are added alternately with the liquids. Then the flavoring, nuts, and fruits are folded in at the end.

In making quick breads, it is important to use the pan size specified so that the batter or dough will bake at the rate and at the time specified in the recipe.

Quick breads are done baking when they have pulled away slightly from the sides of the pans, the tops have turned a golden brown, and the surface is firm, yet springs back with lightly touched.

Storing quick breads

If unopened, quick breads should be stored in the same way they are stored at the market: refrigerated, frozen or in a cupboard. All prepared quick breads should be kept securely wrapped and in a container or box that closes tightly. In hot weather, quick breads keep better in the refrigerator and may be kept for two to four months if kept in the freezer. Quick breads should be frozen as soon as they are cooled and be wrapped in foil or freezer bags or stored in freezer containers. Waffles or batter may be stored in form containers.

Types of batters

Pour batters such as waffles, pancakes, crepes, and popovers are thin in consistency and can be poured from the mixing bowl. Such batters usually contain one part liquid to one or one and one half parts flour.

Drop batters such as coffee cake, muffins, and tea breads are of a consistency too thick to be poured and therefore, must be lifted from the bowl and dropped by spoonfuls into baking pans. Such batters contain one part liquid to two parts flour.

The final type of quick breads, the soft doughs such as biscuits and doughnuts are stiff in consistency and can easily be molded and shaped onto a floured board. Such doughs contain one part liquid to three parts flour.

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