A lesson learned

[ksmith]

When the recipe calls for "cake flour", they really really mean it.

Freezing for 3-4 hours and freezing overnight are not the same thing.

Comments

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

They don't always mean it on the flour. But then, it would be *useful* if flour came with a label that gave you protein content, instead of saying "bread", "cake", "all purpose" etc.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I should've Googled to see what the difference was. In this recipe--the Palmer House brownie recipe--OMG it mattered. I'm running my oven through the cleaning cycle now. Honestly, did you ever hear of brownies bubbling over? I checked the recipe a dozen times to see what I screwed up.

Yes, these things are gooey--one cup flour to two cups butter and two and a half cups chocolate, yes, gooey. But I wound up with something the consistency of flourless chaoclate cake, and I know it's not right. Cake flour isn't supposed to rise as much as the all-purpose stuff, and rising a little too much was what this batter did.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

Hrm, I always use my variant on the Hershey's brownie recipe. Cocoa based, and if I'm careful I can add some straight semi-sweet chocolate for more chocolate flavor without ruining the texture.

Straight up chocolate based brownies make me crazy, and not in a good way. Too easy for things to go wrong.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Straight up chocolate based brownies make me crazy, and not in a good way. Too easy for things to go wrong.

A-yuh.

[tezmilleroz.livejournal.com]

What is cake flour, may I ask? Self-raising flour?

Have a lovely day! :-)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

According to various cooking websites:


Cake flour

Cake flour is made from a low protein ( 6 - 8%), fine-textured soft wheat so the flour contains a high amount of starch and less gluten resulting in lighter, less dense textures or a more "tender, fine crumb" for various cake and pastry items.

Equivalents
1 pound, 4 3/4 to 5 cups sifted

Substitutions

Best substitute for 1 cup cake flour use 7/8 cup all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons cornstarch. Pastry flour or substitute 7/8 cup of all-purpose flour for one cup of cake flour (product will be a bit more dense)

*********

It's different than all-purpose flour. I really should've looked it up before plunging into an untried recipe.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

I know I shouldn't laugh--especially at the thought of yummy chocolate baked goods being destroyed by something other than a human digestive system--but I got this mental image of Alton Brown lecturing you on different flours. The episode of Good Eats where he makes brownies was on just a couple of days ago.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Hah. Hah.

;-P

Did he use a messy melted chocolate recipe with cake flour?

Mom used all-purpose all her cooking life. I never knew there were different types. Never tried baking all that much until now. Call it learning by doing, and making a mess in the process.

I did look for cake flour when I went shopping, but I couldn't find it at the store I frequent. Figured it wasn't common, so it wasn't needed.

I salvaged everything but the center, but I'm not sure the stuff's edible. I said before that it was the consistency of flourless chocolate cake, all sticky-gooey. I don't believe it's as baked as it should be. The baking times in the newspaper recipes never correlate with the times obtained using my GE Spacemaker range.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Melted chocolate and cake flour, indeed!

I never knew there were different kinds of flour, either, until I started watching Good Eats. Similarly, I never knew that we should weigh our dry ingredients (as the Europeans do) instead of go by volume, because the density changes with humidity.

Baking is really chemistry, and a small screw up can lead to spectacular failures (as you have discovered). Regular cooking is much more forgiving. I'm always impressed by all the old ladies who learned to bake without measuring anything!