How to soak a biscuit with cognac: syrup preparation, application methods

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

In many cake recipes you can find the following phrase: "Next, soak the cakes with cognac …". And this is mentioned as if it is the most elementary action that even a novice cook can handle. But it's not. If you pour cognac on the dough, the cakes will become very soft, and they will smell too alcoholic, alcoholic. In this article, we will tell you step by step how to soak a biscuit with cognac.

For this, of course, you need to prepare the liquid itself. And brandy in it will be just one of the ingredients. There are many recipes for such impregnations. Cognac gives them only aroma and a slight aftertaste. Is impregnation necessary anyway? If your cake has a liquid cream (for example, custard), you can do without it. But impregnation is able to return the “second youth” to a dried biscuit. It is also necessary for cakes with thick cream. And you can’t do without it in the preparation of rumbab.

Biscuit with cognac

Recipes with photos of the most gorgeous cakes can be found today on culinary portals abound. Appetizing in appearance, soft, juicy, literally melting in your mouth, these desserts beckon to the kitchen - try to cook such a miracle yourself as soon as possible. But alas … It is quite difficult for a novice cook to bake cake layers. Biscuit dough is considered the most capricious of all. It may not rise due to the fact that a drop of yolk got into the whites. Or fall because the oven door slammed too hard. But you can make the biscuit dough pliable and hassle-free. To do this, you need to … "drink". Drunk dough is easily kneaded, it can be put even in a cold oven. In a word, even a novice cook can handle the preparation of a biscuit on cognac.

At what stage of the kneading should alcohol be added? Let's study the recipe in full:

1. Beat six eggs (without separation into proteins and yolks) with an incomplete glass of sugar and half a bag of vanilla.
2. When stable peaks begin to appear in the mass, add two tablespoons of cognac.
3. We should have cooked flour, that is, sifted through a sieve. It is necessary to take 1.5 cups.
4. Stir the eggs with sugar and cognac with a spoon from the bottom up. You can do this with a mixer.
5. Add flour in two or three additions.
6. Pour the dough into a greased form and bake like a regular biscuit.

Alcohol in the cakes is not felt at all. Only the weakthe smell and pleasant humidity indicate that cognac was added to the dough. It is no longer necessary to impregnate such cakes.

Classic recipe for impregnation for biscuit cakes

Children's cakes are usually made without the addition of alcohol. But you still have to soak the cakes, otherwise they will become very dry and tasteless. To do this, boil the usual sugar syrup. For impregnation of a biscuit with cognac, it will also fit. You can enrich the taste of the cake by adding various ingredients to the syrup - fruit juice, coffee, regular or mint tea. But before experimenting, let's master the basic recipe:

1. We take an equal amount of water and sugar. For an average cake of three to four layers, six tablespoons will be enough.
2. First, pour sugar into a saucepan.
3. Fill it with water (preferably warm) and stir.
4. Put the saucepan on a small fire.
5. Stir constantly until all the crystals dissolve.
6. Remove syrup from heat.
7. Cool it to room temperature.

Cognac impregnation recipe for biscuit

Now that we have mastered the skills of cooking ordinary syrup, let's try to diversify its taste. Fruits or juices from them will add a slight sourness to the impregnation. Strong coffee will provide an interesting taste to the syrup. It goes well with syrup and tea. You can create a milk impregnation by adding condensed milk to the base impregnation. But if you decide to enrich the flavor of sugar syrup, thenthe best way to do this is to add distillate with a characteristic odor. It could be:

• cognac;
• liquor;
• dessert wine.

At what stage should alcohol be added? So that the alcohol does not immediately evaporate, the syrup must be cooled down. For the amount of sugar and water that was indicated above, you need to pour 6 tablespoons of distillate. Stir and proceed to impregnation.

Other cognac syrup recipes

For novice cooks, a completely natural question arises: what is the best distillate to add to the cake? Cognac has a strong aroma. But it tastes completely unsweetened. Therefore, it is added to the syrup to increase the proportion of sugar in the confectionery. But you can use other distillates. For example, liqueurs have both sweetness and aroma.

Besides the classic biscuit syrup (with cognac), there are others. You can purchase one of the many syrups that are sold in stores - strawberry, mint, chocolate or whatever you like. This will save you time - after all, you don’t need to boil water with sugar, you no longer need to cool it. Just add some cognac to this syrup for flavor, stir and you're done.

Impregnation recipes without syrup

It is not at all necessary to moisten the cakes with water and sugar. After all, the last product is not very useful. Let's change the basic recipe for biscuit impregnation (with cognac and sugar). To add sweetness to the cakes, we will use honey. If it's too thick to soakcakes, heat it in a water bath. When it is slightly liquefied, pour cognac into it.

Instead of purchased syrups, you can take toppings for ice cream. They also come in different flavors. Action algorithm:

1. Let's dilute them with a little cognac. This distillate pairs well with coffee.
2. Let's make a cup of espresso.
3. Strain the liquid from the coffee grounds.
4. Cool and mix with brandy of your choice.
5. Do you want to soak cakes with condensed milk? We breed milk with drinking yogurt. To soak the dough, condensed milk should be more liquid.
6. Introduce cognac into this milk mass.

Impregnation process. Step One

We have already told you a lot of recipes for cognac impregnations. It's time to put them into practice. Let's now consider how to properly soak a biscuit with cognac. When baking, the cakes are covered with a dense fried crust. If you pour syrup or other impregnation on it, then it will not let the liquid inside. You will only make puddles.

The first thing to do is to cool the cakes. Then they need to be carefully removed from the baking dish. This can be quite difficult to do, because biscuit dough often sticks. Therefore, it is recommended to bake cakes in a silicone mold. If you do not have it, grease the metal well with vegetable oil. It will be better if it is a detachable form.

It happens that the cake is damaged when pulled. It doesn’t matter: pieces of dough can then be fastened with cream. The assembly of the cake begins with impregnation. But first, with a very sharp knife or a harsh thread, we divide each cake intolayers. If the biscuit turned out to be high, then by three or four, and if low, then by two.

Step two

We put one of the layers of the cake on a flat beautiful dish on which we will serve our cake. The toasted side should be on the bottom, and the cut on top. How to soak a biscuit with cognac syrup? Just pouring liquid on top is in no case impossible. For such purposes, there is a confectionery brush. Silicone is ideal. On this material, the liquid does not linger, it flows evenly. The silicone "bristles" are soft and won't damage the surface of the cake.

Dip the brush into the syrup and draw it over the surface of the entire cake. The porous structure of the biscuit cut will absorb the syrup like a sponge. Therefore, it is important not to overdo it. Otherwise, the dough will not soak, but simply crumble. The cakes will lose their shape, float, a puddle will form on the dish. Yes, and the cream will not hold well on such a wet dough. If you notice that you overdid it with impregnation, make this cake not the bottom one, but the top one. The liquid under the weight will go down, and thus this drainage will save your cake.

Dry biscuit with very sweet cream

Don't like sugary taste in confectionery? Then you can do without syrup at all. Then the question arises: how to soak the biscuit with cognac in this case? Very simple - using the same confectionery brush. Cognac can be mixed with a small amount of liquor. But even if the liquidwill not be too thick, it can also be evenly impregnated with biscuit cakes.

Dip the brush in cognac and shake it, knocking the handle on the finger of the other hand. Then the droplets of distillate will be evenly distributed over the surface of the cake. After that, you need to wait a bit. Do not immediately apply the cream. Better yet, cover the cake with cling film for a quarter of an hour, because cognac is a volatile substance. So we will more effectively soak the biscuit and give it flavor. Then we remove the film and proceed to smearing the cakes with cream. Sprinkling cognac over a sponge cake can help bring freshness back to stale baked goods.

Impregnation with thicker substance

We have already covered how to moisten cakes with simple alcohol and "drunk syrup". But in many recipes it is proposed to make a thicker impregnation. Tightly boiled purchased syrups and honey require a special approach. A silicone brush will help you out in this case too. But how to soak a biscuit with cognac, if it is not?

We take an ordinary teaspoon. We scoop up her impregnation. You need to collect not a full spoon, but about half. The back side will also be covered with impregnation. Perhaps there is even a drop formed. With it, that is, with the back of the spoon, we draw over the surface of the cake. When she wipes herself in this way, we tilt her a little. It is required that a thick liquid slide from the edges of the spoon onto its convex bottom. We draw it on the surface of the biscuit. But here, too, one should not overdo it. We just need to moisten the cakes a little.

Very thick impregnation

If there is not a lot of cream and it is only enough to decorate the sides and top of the cake, confectioners use confiture for a layer. Jams, toppings and condensed milk are quite thick substances, and remain so even when diluted with distillate. How to soak a biscuit with cognac in this case? This time we need a wide bladed knife.

Smear the impregnation like butter on a sandwich, but in a very thin layer. Since the substance is thick, it will not immediately go deep into the dough. You need to let the crust stand. But wrapping it with cling film is not recommended. After half an hour, we begin to collect the cake. As already indicated, smearing with creams in this case is not necessary. But it won't hurt the cake either. Cream will only improve the taste of the confection.

Decorate the cake

We have already told you how to soak a biscuit with cognac. It's time for some advice on decorating the cake. When working with cakes, crumbs and scraps of dough always remain. And after impregnation - a certain amount of unused liquid. They can be used to camouflage the not-too-pretty sides of the cake. Grind the dough scraps into crumbs. And mix it with cognac syrup or other impregnation. Cover the sides of the cake with the resulting sticky mass.