2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14
What is the formula for regular cake? This is a biscuit cake, cut lengthwise into three or four parts, which are soaked and smeared with cream. It is with this basis for the cake that culinary specialists have the most problems. Although after carefully reading the recipe for biscuit dough, there should be no difficulties.
In general terms, the process of making a cake looks like this. Beat the egg whites, rub the yolks with sugar. We combine both masses, stir. Add flour, if desired - vanillin, grated zest. Biscuit dough is ready! Pour it into a greased mold and bake. But this is all theory.
But in practice, either the proteins do not whip, or the dough falls off when kneading. Sometimes everything seems to be in order, but what comes out of the oven is not a fluffy cake, which can be divided into three or four parts, but a flat pancake. Some cooks resort to the help of baking powder. But if you overdo itingredient, the cake will have an unpleasant soda flavor. In this article, we will provide a simple and at the same time win-win recipe for a lush biscuit in the oven, with photos illustrating the process and a detailed description. With this guide, you will always make delicious cakes and cupcakes.
Ingredients
To prepare the right, airy, biscuit dough, you need to know a few secrets. The tricks begin already at the stage of product preparation. So, we read the classic recipe for a magnificent biscuit! In the oven, it should rise well, and as a result, you can build a very tasty cake that literally melts in your mouth. The list of ingredients is very simple and short. Five eggs, a glass of flour and sugar, a pinch of vanilla and a little oil to grease the mold. It seems to be easy and cost effective. But let's look at each ingredient separately.
- Eggs. They should not be the freshest - the protein in them is liquid and does not whip well. Choose those that lie with you for a week. Naturally, all this time the eggs should be stored in the refrigerator. Take them out last, just before use. Warm protein will not whip, no matter how hard you try. So the eggs must be well chilled.
- Flour. Definitely wheat and premium. Measure out a glass and sift the flour well. This simple trick will enrich it with oxygen. And due to air bubbles, your biscuit will rise.
- Sugar. It will be better if you turn large crystals into powder. But if you don't have a grinder to do this, don't fret. Powdered sugar is optional.
Classic Sponge Cake Recipe
In a gas oven, as you know, pies, alas, are not baked, but dried. This applies to yeast dough, and any other. The owners of an electrical appliance are much more likely to get lush, airy pastries. But do not rush to get upset. If you listen to the recommendations of experienced chefs, even with the use of gas equipment, it is quite possible to get the desired result at the output. What do you need?
It would not be an exaggeration to say that proteins are the most capricious ingredient in the dough. Sometimes they just don't want to beat, no matter how long we run the mixer. What tricks do you need to know so that the proteins still turn into a lush foam, or, as indicated in the classic recipe, become “steady peaks”? First of all, the eggs must be well chilled. Therefore, first we sift the flour, turn the sugar into powder, keep vanillin on hand. By the way, you can already turn on the oven. A fluffy biscuit in the oven is obtained when the dough immediately falls into a hot environment.
The second recommendation is to separate the yolks very carefully. If at least one drop gets to five squirrels, they will not whip. We prepare two containers - a larger one and a smaller one. Keep in mind that proteins will increase in volume when whipped. It is better to take a large container tall and narrow so that the mixer can better cope with the work. Experienced chefs advise wiping it dry.
Knife hit the middle of the egg. Let's keep itover a large container. Divide the shell into two halves. We roll the yolk from one to the other, while the protein flows into the container. We do this with all five eggs. Put the yolks in a smaller container.
Whipping egg whites
To get a fluffy biscuit for a cake in a gas oven, we need to make the most airy dough. And since eggs are its main ingredient, be sure to turn them into a stable foam. So how do you achieve those notorious "hard peaks" that the recipe mentions? Immerse the beaters of the mixer in proteins and turn on the device first at minimum speed. After a minute, increase the speed. Then again and again, until we reach the maximum speed. The whole whipping process can last 7-10 minutes.
At this time, we begin to add sugar in a thin stream and in small portions. Proteins should increase in volume by four to five times. Their surface will become smooth, shiny, like packed snow. How do you know if your efforts have been successful? When you remove the mixer whisk from the bowl, the proteins will form a peak that will not fall off. If you tilt the container, the foam will remain motionless. But what if the squirrels do not want to whip? Apply plan "B": put a little lemon juice in them. You can pre-lubricate the walls of the egg white bowl with it.
Yolks
Set the squirrels aside and take on a smaller capacity.
- Pour a tablespoon of sugar into the yolks. Rub first with a spoon.
- Then beat them with a fork or a hand whisk.
- Re-immerse the mixer in the egg whites. Turn on the device and add the yolks to the whites. Not vice versa! Such a mistake by the cook will lead to the fact that the foam will fall off and the magnificent biscuit will not turn out in the oven.
- We continue to work with the mixer turned on at maximum speed. Don't be discouraged if the egg mass becomes thinner than it was before. The main thing is that she did not exfoliate at all.
- The mass will turn slightly yellow, it will become more dense in consistency. Peaks will be softer, but not falling off. Now we will add flour, slowly, in small portions. It is good to do this through a strainer to sift it once again.
- First, we work with a mixer at low speed, then stir the dough with a wooden spatula.
Knead
The main secret of such a test is that you should work with it as little as possible. After all, what is a biscuit? It's basically baked egg foam. Unfortunately, no matter how well we beat the squirrels, as soon as they stand, they fall off. Air bubbles are inexorably rushing up. So our task is to keep them. Therefore, the batch should be short, but correct. We use only a wooden spatula, preferably a flat one. We interfere with it not in a circle, and in no case chaotically, but from the bottom up. All we need is for the flour to come into contact with the egg mass.
But you should also watch carefully so that there are no lumps left. Suppose you decide to spice up the dough with some flavors.additives that the selected recipe prescribes. A fluffy biscuit in the oven will not work if the dough is not made according to the rules. However, when you mix it with additives at the right time, namely at this stage, then everything will be in order. Dry the raisins thoroughly with a towel, as the slightest moisture will cause the dough to fall off. Sugar crystals also dilute the medium, so it is better to use powdered vanillin. You can do otherwise: grind vanilla sugar with yolks.
Shape selection
Even before we start preparing the dough, we must prepare the dishes that will form the cake. What does the recipe for a magnificent biscuit prescribe for us? In the oven, the product must be baked in a detachable form. This is what we will use to make the cake. It happens that we want to end up with a cupcake. Then cooks recommend using a special form with a through hole in the middle. This will bake the cake better.
You can also use now fashionable and easy to handle silicone molds. They do not need to be lubricated with anything, and cupcakes are easy to get out of them. In any case, the form should be (for a given number of products) not wide, no more than 22 centimeters in diameter. After all, in order for the foam of the biscuit dough not to fall off, you need to leave it as narrow a surface as possible through which air bubbles can escape. If the farm does not have such a detachable form, you can take a small saucepan. The main thing is that it be high enough, because the classic fluffy biscuit in the oven will rise somewhereby a third.
Form preparation
Many cooks are accustomed to greasing a baking tray with vegetable oil. But with a biscuit test, such a number will not work. The porous structure of the cake immediately absorbs liquid fat. As a result, the dough will fall off, and the cake will firmly stick to the baking sheet. If we use a detachable metal form, we put a piece of culinary parchment on its bottom. We put on and fasten the sides. Cut off the excess paper sticking out along the edges with scissors.
In the case of a saucepan, put a circle of culinary parchment equal to its diameter on its bottom. Lubricate the walls of the dishes, as well as the sides of the detachable form, with a piece of cold butter. The fat layer should be thin. We will sprinkle the butter with flour. For some reason, many recipes are often silent about such a simple technique. A fluffy biscuit in the oven will rise well thanks to the thinnest layer of flour, as it enhances the adhesion of the dough to the walls of the mold. And the fat layer will not allow the cake to stick.
Product shaping
Before you begin to separate the proteins from the yolks, prepare the form (butter it and sprinkle with flour), and turn on the oven. The recipe for fluffy biscuit usually indicates that the temperature in the oven should be 180 degrees. Once you have completely crushed the flour lumps, without hesitation, pour the dough into the prepared form. It should flow out in a wide ribbon, showing a smooth, uniform texture.
If the dough falls out in flakes or flows like liquid sour cream, thenSomething went wrong. In this case, you need to apply plan "B", which we will report below. It should be remembered that the biscuit will rise by one and a half to two times during baking. Therefore, we fill out the form with a test only two-thirds. And immediately put in a preheated oven.
Dough Rescue Plan
Cooking is a kind of magic. Even if you strictly follow the recipe, the product may not work for some reason. Therefore, the culinary specialist should always have in stock options for correcting the situation. How to bake a magnificent biscuit in the oven if the dough turned out to be too dense, “clogged”? We will not analyze the reasons for such a failure here, there are many of them (stale eggs, long kneading, etc.). Just take more proteins (1-2 pieces) and beat them with a pinch of citric acid. Carefully introduce this foam into the dough.
If, on the contrary, the base for the cake turned out to be too liquid, use the mixer again. Sift a little flour, mix with baking powder. Whisking constantly, add the powder mixture to the liquid mixture. If necessary, you can change the mixer attachments (from whisks to spirals).
Baking
As the recipe for a simple and fluffy biscuit prescribes, the oven should not be opened for the first twenty minutes of cooking the cake. The foam dough is so delicate that it can fall off due to the temperature contrast. You can't even slam the doors to the kitchen hard. After all, concussion also has a bad effect on the biscuit. What to do for those cooks whose oven is not equipped with a transparent door? It is impossible to name the exact cooking time of the cake, since it depends on the shape, strength of the fire, the size of the oven and manyother factors. You can carefully open the door after 20 minutes and look inside. If the edges of the biscuit are browned, but the middle remains white, reduce the heat. But do this in several steps, as a sudden change in temperature will cause the cake to settle.
Usually it takes 45 minutes to an hour to bake a large biscuit, much less time for small cupcakes. To check the cake for readiness, take a toothpick or a splinter of a match and pierce the middle of the product with it. The wooden stick should come out dry. If there are pieces of dough on it, bake the cake further.
Correct cooling
Beginner cooks imprudently pull the product out of the oven immediately after turning it off. And the capricious cake shrinks within five minutes, like pebbled leather. It would be better to leave a magnificent biscuit in the oven. A photo with a beautiful cake can be posted on social networks later. Turn off the oven and open the door a little. The smaller the temperature difference, the higher the guarantee that the cake will not fall off.
When the biscuit is barely warm, carefully take out a detachable form or saucepan. Take a long and narrow knife and go through the blade along the walls of the dishes. This is done in order to separate the caked areas of the dough from the metal mold. Now we take a flat lid from a large dish. We cover it with a cake in a saucepan. Turn the entire structure upside down. The cake should sink under its own weight onto the lid. And then we turn it over again - this time on a dish. Detachableshape will make it even easier to remove the cake. Just remove the sides and transfer the biscuit to a dish.
Shaping the cake
So, you have learned how to make a fluffy biscuit in the oven. But do not rush to immediately cut the cake into layers to soak them and smear with cream. Recipes are often silent about the fact that the biscuit needs to “lie down” for at least eight hours. So the cakes should be baked on the eve of the celebration. If you cut a barely cooled biscuit, it will crumble. And if you soak the layers, then the dough that has not rested will soften.
So it's better to cover the cooled cake with a napkin or towel and leave overnight at room temperature. And the next morning already proceed to the construction of the cake. The cake can be divided into layers with both a knife and a harsh thread. Another thing is if you baked a cupcake. Then sprinkle the biscuit with powdered sugar and serve immediately.
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