Lemon Glow Chiffon Cake - Baking Partner Challenge #12

So Baking Partners are back with a bang to celebrate it's one year anniversary of successful baking.. Yes, we have turned 1 year old. And this time there were 2 suggestions for baking the recipe of the month 'Cakes'. Humi suggested 'Medovik/Russian Honey Cake' & Saraswathy suggested 'Chiffon Cakes'. As I had an eye on baking Chiffon or Foam cakes from a long time, I chose Chiffon cake for this month's challenge. Thanks Saraswathy & Swathi for this wonderful challenge. Now let me share some facts with you that Saraswathy shared with us on Chiffon cake.

Chiffon (pronounced She-fon) cakes are a type of foam cakes and are light & soft & definitely yummy !! They contain egg yolks and whites separately whisked and folded in together with vegetable oil, all which makes them moist, soft & light.. This cake doesn't call for butter & the lower quantity of sugar gives me an extra reason to savor this low cholesterol cake;) Use of oil instead of butter aides in the airy quality of the cake & gives a longer shelf or refrigeration life. Refrigeration makes the oil in the cake soft & the cake becomes all the more tender. Deeps liked to have it chilled & directly from the fridge. He said, 'It tastes better when chilled'. Even my neighbor & friend 'P' was very happy with the cake & said it tasted awesome :D

The chiffon cake was created by Harry Baker, a Los Angeles insurance agent, in 1927.  Baker carefully guarded his secret technique for almost two decades, only selling his cakes to celebrities and the famous Brown Derby restaurant. The popularity of his cakes grew quickly, and he eventually sold the recipe to General Mills in 1947. 

I have halved the recipe here & used some substitutes for ingredients not available in this town. Refer the notes too while baking this cake, as they can help you get a perfect cake on your first attempt itself. The whisking of the egg whites is the most important part.. U get that right, consider half the work done. So lets see how to make this soft & tender cake. I have used normal buttercream icing & strawberries for serving.

Recipe Source: Adapted from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Serves: An 8 inch round cake pan with a ramekin in the middle

Store: Stays fresh for 3 days in room temperature, 10 days refrigerated, 2 months frozen

 

I Took:

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Baking Time: 50 minutes

Cooling Time: 85 minutes

I Used:

Dry Ingredients All purpose Flour - 1 cup (refer notes) Corn flour - 2 tbsp Caster Sugar - ¾ cup Salt - ¼ tsp Baking Soda - ¼ tsp Lemon Zest - ½ - 1 tbsp Wet Ingredients Canola/Sunflower Oil - ¼ cup Large Egg yolks - 1 no / 65 g Water - ⅓ cup Lemon juice - 1 tbsp Vanilla Essence - ½ tsp For Meringue Cream of Tartar - ¾ tsp (refer notes) Sugar - 1 tbsp Large Egg Whites - 3 nos
The Way:

1. In a large mixing bowl combine the dry ingredients. First work the sugar & lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is grainy & very aromatic. Add the all purpose flour, corn flour (or the cake flour - refer notes), baking soda and salt to it
2. Whisk together until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. If you have a stand mixer, use the beater attachment & beat on low
3. Then make a well in the center of the ingredients and add the oil, egg yolks, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix until the batter is smooth & has no lumps. In a stand mixer, mix for about 1 minute on medium speed
4. In a second large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until they are foamy. Add lemon juice (or cream of tartar) & beat (if on stand mixer, beat on medium speed) until they reach soft peak stage. This happens when the whisk or the beater start to leave a trail or when the peaks fall over when the whisk is raised
5. At this stage add the 1 tbsp sugar & continue to beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks when the whisk is raised
6. Using the balloon whisk (or a slotted spoon) add ⅓ of the egg whites to the cake batter & gently stir until incorporated. Add the remaining egg whites to the cake batter and very gently fold them into the batter until they are incorporated and no trace of egg whites remain
7. Pour the batter into an ungreased tube pan and run a metal spatula or knife through the batter to prevent air pockets. If you do not have a tube pan but would like to have a similar shape, then place an oven usable ramekin in the centre of your round pan and pour the batter to the sides of the ramekin as I did
8. Preheat the oven on conventional mode at 165 degrees
9. Bake in the lower rack of the oven for 50-55 minutes (refer your oven manual too) or until the cake bounces back when lightly pressed in the center
10. Once cooked, take the cake pan & immediately turn it upside down on a bottle (or another ramekin or tumbler - whichever suits best for the pan). Allow to cool completely which took about 85 minutes for me
11. Use a palette knife and loose the sides of the cake. Pull out the sides and work similarly on the bottom. Turn it over on to a plate upside down & sprinkle with a dusting of icing sugar or a topping of your choice & serve

Notes:

• Do not grease or line or flour the cake pan. This will hinder the cake from rising up
• Always use large eggs as called for in the recipe. Do not use medium or small sized eggs
• Try to use castor sugar than normal ones 
• The recipe calls for cake flour, but since I could not get it here, I used the substitute. Take an equal amount of All purpose flour. Remove 2 tbsps of flour from it & replace it with 2 tbsps of corn flour (NOT corn meal). This works just fine
• Cream of tartar is used to stabilize the egg whites while beating up. Since I couldn't get those, I used the substitute lemon juice. Works perfectly OK
• Make sure that the bowl used to whisk egg whites are clean & grease free. Traces of grease or egg yolks will not guarantee you proper whisking of whites
• Proper & correct whisking of egg whites is essential to ensure the texture of the cake. Under or over beating can cause the cake to collapse or become too hard. Do the 'Overturn bowl test' to ensure that your whisking is the right amount. When you overturn the bowl of the whisked egg whites, it should hold & must not fall off
• Do not let the egg whites sit for long once whisked. Immediately fold it onto the cake batter as this stage of stiff peaks is short lived
• Take care while folding in the egg whites as over folding can cause the egg whites & thus the cake to deflate. Fold in gently using a whisk
• Before pouring the batter into the pan, take the bowl and hit against the kitchen counter. This will cause bubbles to rise up to the top and pop. Do not hit the pan after pouring the batter as this may cause the formation of more bubbles

Here are some links that helped me greatly. Hope you guys too find it useful !

http://allthatmatters2rei.blogspot.no/2008/07/chiffon-cake-tips-and-trouble-ii.html

http://www.ironwhisk.com/2012/07/tutorial-chiffon-cake/

http://www.ehow.com/info_8399101_chiffon-cake-tips.html

Cheers,

Chitz

Wanna see what the others in the Baking Partners group baked?? 

Wheat & Rye Bread - Scaled Flour Method - Scandinavian Bread - Baking Partner Challenge #8

Never in my life had I imagined that I would ever bake a loaf of bread. And little did I knew what was in store when I told Swathi that I wanted to join 'Baking Partners'. That I would have to bake a bread for my first challenge itself.. But it should say, it was lots of fun and even more of knowledge that I gained :) I am happy that I took the challenge and lived up to the first one. But I should admit that I was skeptical till the last moment of how I was going to pull this through.. Had a very busy two weeks that involved some travelling and a marathon of baking that I still was in dilemma deep inside, of how this is gonna work. 

So I woke up yesterday morning ready to bake.. But felt like the weather cheated on me. It was snowing like anything. Then I thought to myself 'This is the price you pay for procrastinating things.. See what happened coz u waited for the nth hour !!' It was shining pretty well for the past two weeks and little did I expect that it would snow. But no. This is not going to stop me. So I whipped up some hot chocolate and set off to work. 

For this month's challenge we were asked to choose from two different methods of bread baking. Tangzhong or Scaled Flour method. First is Asian and the second Scandinavian method of bread baking. I choose Scandinavian as I am residing in one presently and having tasted their bread often, I wanted to know if I could reproduce one :) The taste was not very close.. But it was nice and I enjoyed having it !!

And I would definitely bake the Tangzhong bread, maybe some time in the coming week. Yup, I will post that too. And now without further mumbling, on to my experience :)

Adapted from: Cornercafe

Yield : 1 loaf (23*10*10)

Consume: Best within 3-4 days

Storage: May be frozen to keep longer, defrost before serving

I Used:

For Scalded Flour:

Bread flour     -  100 gm (I used coarse wheat & rye flour) Boiling water  -  100 ml

Main Dough:

Bread flour	-	350 gm (I used coarse wheat & rye flour)
Milk powder	-	20 gm/2 tbsp
Caster sugar	-	35 gm
Salt	-	5 gm/1 tsp
Instant yeast	-	8 gm
Lukewarm water	-	200 ml (adjust as required)
Butter	-	35 gm (chopped into small pieces at room temperature)

The Way:

Scalded Flour:

1. Take bread flour in a bowl. Add the boiling hot water all at once over the flour and stir quickly with a fork until fully combined. There should be no more visible dry flour & it should be a doughy clumpy mixture
2. Set aside for 5 minutes for the dough cluster to fully absorb the heat and the moisture
3. Cover with cling film and let it cool to room temperature (Takes about ½ - 1 hour)

For the Main Dough:

• Sift bread flour, milk powder, caster sugar and salt onto the working surface
• Add instant dry yeast and mix well 
• Make a well in the flour mixture and add the scalded flour mixture
• Then gradually add just enough lukewarm water to form into a slightly sticky, soft dough 
• Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic
• During this kneading, the dough also needs to be thrown onto the working surface once every few minutes to improve the dough structure
• You can pick up the dough to about head-high and throw it down onto the working surface 10 to 20 times, every few minutes between kneading

• Knead in butter until incorporated
• Form the dough into a round ball and place in a large greased bowl and cover with a cling film
• Allow the dough to rise until double in size (1st proofing)
• This will take about 1 hour in warm weather, longer in winter months
• To test if the dough has risen properly, dip a finger into bread or plain flour and poke down into the center of the dough as far as your finger will go and pull out again – the hole should remain if it is ready. If the dough springs back, then it is not ready, continue to prove further.
• Once the dough is ready, roll it out into a long oval shape. Divide it into three equal portions

• Take the first portion and using a rolling pin roll it up (Pic 4). Then roll up from the short end like a Swiss roll (Pic 5 & 6)

• Continue the same rolling process with the other two portions of the dough
• Place the rolled-up dough into the oiled bread loaf mould (23 cm (L) x 10 cm (W) x 10 cm (H))

• Cover loosely and allow the dough to rise to almost the top of the tin, which is the secnd proofing (would take around 45 minutes - 1 hour)  
• Once proofed, bake at 175°C in a preheated oven for 30 - 35 minutes or until golden brown

Cheers,
Chitz