flours in baking - part 2

Cake flour – finely milled grains that make cakes soft. Suitable for cakes or cookies.

LEMON SPONGE CAKE

6 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans

method
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Beat yolks of eggs until thick and lemon colored. Gradually beat in the sugar, grated lemon rind, and juice. Fold in half of the stiffly beaten egg whites.
Cut in sifted flour and salt, add nuts, and remaining egg whites.
Bake in a slow oven for about one hour or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out nearly clean.

flour in baking - types of flour and thier uses

Types of flour and their uses.

There are many types of flour around but do you know what they are, and what they are used for? Over the coming weeks, I will introduce a type of flour and a recipe to go with it.

Wheat flours

Plain flour – this is the common type of flour. It is a blended mix of flours, and is suitable for general purpose baking.

Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour (120g)
1 ½ cup castor sugar
3 eggs lightly beaten
150g chopped butter
125g chopped dark chocolate
¼ cup cocoa powder (20g)
1 tsp. vanilla essence
pure icing sugar to dust

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 180C ° (355 ° F) Grease 20cm (8”) square tin with oil or melted butter
Line the base with baking paper, extending over two opposite sides (to help you lift the brownies out). Alternatively, grease the sides with butter or margerine

Method:

1. Bring small pan of water to a simmer. Put butter and chocolate in heat proof bowl.
2. Place the bowl oven the pan, but do not let the base of the bowl sit in the hot water. Stir
occasionally until smooth.
3. Remove from heat and cool slightly
4. In a large bowl whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla together
5. Add melted chocolate mixture and whisk together
6. Stir in the combined sifted flour and cocoa. Careful to not over-beat
7. Pour into the greased tin and bake for 40 minutes or until slightly risen and just firm.
8. Leave to cool in the tin (brownie will sink back down on cooling)
9. When cool lift out and cut into squares.
10. Dust with icing sugar and serve

Variations:

For nut brownies, add 1 cup of chopped roasted macadamias, walnuts, or pecans to the mixture.

For white chocolate brownies, use white chocolate melts instead of the dark chocolate.

For marshmallow brownies, add 1 cup of mini marshmallow to the raw mixture.

To make a brownie ice-cream sandwich, cut brownies into small squares and sandwich two squares together with vanilla ice-cream.

Serve with hot chocolate fudge sauce as a dessert.