KitchenSavvy

Making Cinnamon Rolls with Self-Rising Flour

I have a question about self-rising flour. I have a recipe that calls for yeast and warm water. I was wondering if I can substitute self-rising flour and avoid all the yeast and it's complications (like water at 110 degrees etc.)? The recipe is for cinnamon rolls.

Thank you so much for your help.

--Shannon

Self-rising flour is a lower protein all purpose flour with baking powder and salt added in.  The amount of salt varies by maker.

You could substitute self-rising for bread or regular all purpose flour but what you will end up with will be more like a cinnamon tea biscuit.  In bread making, proteins in the flour form glutens that trap carbon dioxide gas produced by the yeast, similar to a balloon filling with air, to make the product rise.  During baking, evaporation of alcohol also produced by fermentation of sugars by the yeast cause the bubbles to inflate further.  Because yeast produces lots of gas over a long period, the gluten structure is needed to trap the gas and make bread recipes work right.

Unlike bread, cakes, biscuits and cookies don't rely on gluten to trap gases.  Instead of releasing lots of gas over a long period, baking powder releases relatively less carbon dioxide fairly quickly, mostly as the product is baking.  Starch in the flour or proteins from other ingredients like eggs set as the gas is released.  A balance of ingredients, temperatures and timing need to work together to make the the product set.

Self-rising flour is used in cakes and biscuits, not breads, and shouldn't be kneaded like bread.  If you do knead it, any gluten that forms will work against the baking powder, resulting in less rise and a flat, tough result.  So if you replace the yeast and flour in your recipe, you shouldn't knead the dough, which in turn means that you will end up with a cake or biscuit like texture.

Beyond that, you will likely need to reduce the amount of liquid since lower protein flour absorbs less water.  The amount of water you want to use will be enough to make a dough the consistency of rolled biscuits.  You will also want to reduce the salt in the recipe if your self-rising flour contains salt.  The exact amount you need to reduce it by is not easy to predict but may be as much as 1/2 teaspoon per cup of flour.

You may find that you need to alter the amount of fat in the dough, too, to get a satisfactory texture.

Finally, you may need to increase or decrease the amount of sugar in the dough to get the right balance of flavors.

The exact amounts for all of these changes is hard to predict, since they depend on the initial recipe, as well as other factors and personal tastes.  A better starting point might be to begin with a recipe for rolled biscuits using self-risng flour and take it from there, rather than starting with a yeast recipe.

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Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Beating Egg Whites - How Cream of Tartar Helps

While you mentioned that cream of tartar, in a properly sealed container, can be kept indefinitely, I used mine last evening and the beaten egg whites did not turn out to be stiff as described in the recipe.  I suspect the culprit is my cream of tartar being too old, even though it was kept in a tightly sealed container.

-- Lucy

Cream of tartar does not affect the stiffness to which egg whites can be beat nearly as much as it helps stop beaten egg whites from collapsing. 

When you beat egg whites, proteins in the whites unfold from their natural shape and become tangled with each other.  At the same time, you are beating air into the whites, forming small bubbles.  The protein molecules become attached to each other through chemical and electrical bonds that reinforce the skin of the air bubbles.  Over time, these bonds can pull the proteins closer together, forcing out the water trapped in the surface of the bubbles.  Eventually, the proteins pull themselves together so strongly that compact, grainy protein lumps form and the liquid pools in the bottom of the bowl.

This is where the cream of tartar comes in.  It helps prevent the formation of chemical bonds between protein molecules.

To understand this, first a little chemistry.  Protein molecules have, along their length, sulfur atoms that in turn may have a hydrogen atom attached.  If the sulfur atoms release their attached hydrogen into the surrounding liquid, then they can attach to something else.  Sometimes, that something else is a sulfur atom on another protein molecule.   If too many sulfur - sulfur bonds occur, the proteins pull together too strongly and the foam collapses, as above.

Because it is acidic, the cream of tartar increases the number of free hydrogen atoms in the liquid.  These extra hydrogen atoms either stop the sulfur atoms from releasing their attached hydrogen, or else provide another hydrogen atom to quickly take its place.  Because of this, the rate at which sulfur - sulfur bonds can be created is slowed down enough to help keep the egg whites stiff long enough to be used.

Any acid can be used for this purpose, although cream of tartar and lemon juice are the most common.  The amounts needed are 1/8 teaspoon per egg white for cream of tartar and 1/4 teaspoon per egg white for lemon juice.

If you are having trouble beating egg whites to stiff peaks, there may be one of three causes.  If you got any of the yolk from the eggs into the whites while separating them, this can lessen the ability of the eggs to form stiff peaks, as can contamination from oil, fat or detergent on the utensils.  You should never use a plastic bowl to beat egg whites, since fat molecules are attracted to some plastics and may leave a film on the inside of the bowl.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com

If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com

Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

How Can You Prevent a Cheesecake from Cracking?

How can you prevent a cheesecake from cracking?

--Sr. Celine

Cheesecakes crack because the filling expands during cooking and then contracts while it cools.  If the filling is not able to relieve the stress caused by this contraction in some way, it cracks.  There are a few ways to help prevent cracking, according to Harold McGee.  They come down to ways to either reduce expansion or allow the filling to contract more uniformly.

To reduce expansion start by not over mixing ingredients.  The longer the ingredients are blended, the more air is incorporated, which expands during cooking, causing the filling to expand.  If you are using an electric mixer, use the lowest speed possible to do the job.  The downside, though, is that the resulting cheesecake may be more dense.

Also, cook the cheesecake at as low a temperature as possible.  A longer cooking time means more time for bubbles to escape.  If you can, use a water bath to moderate the cooking temperature.  If you are using a springform pan in a water bath, place the pan onto two or three layers of aluminum foil and then bring the foil up around the outside of the pan to keep water out.  The water bath may extend the cooking time, but it is the best way to cook egg custards, like cheesecake.

To get the filling to contract uniformly after cooking, do not overcook the cheesecake.  Shirley Corrihersuggests that there should be an area about three inches (7.5 cm) in diameter in the middle that is "still wobbly and shaky and ... looks undercooked."  For a more accurate estimate, use an instant read thermometer.  Insert the thermometer, starting at the corner edge so as not to poke a hole in the top of the cheesecake, angling down and in so that the tip is close to the center of the filling.  For food safety, eggs should be cooked to 160°F (71°C), however too much above that and the filling may start to separate and become grainy (see the KitchenSavvy posting Custards and Sauces).

If you are using a water bath, you can cook the filling to about 145-150°F (63-66°C), remove the cheesecake from the oven and allow the cheesecake to remain in the water bath, out of the oven, for another hour.  During that time residual heat will finish cooking the filling until it has reached the desired temperature.  If the temperature reaches 155°F (68°C) before you take the cheesecake out of the oven and you are using a water bath, remove the cheesecake from the bath and allow it to cool on the counter.  If you didn't use a water bath at all, cook the cheesecake to 155°F (68°C).  In either case, heat transferred from the edges to the center will finish the cooking to a safe temperature.

Cooking to a higher temperature, or until the center is no longer wobbly makes the filling less elastic, and more likely to crack.

Once the cheesecake is cooled to lukewarm, cover and refrigerate.

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Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Creaming Butter II

My wife says I have to cream butter and sugar with electric beaters in one direction only. She says this will help incorporate the air into the mix and make it creamy.  I seem to be getting results moving the beater through the mix ad hoc. Is there any science to beating in one direction for the purposes of creaming butter?

--Ling

Because of its complexity and the fact that cooking has evolved over thousands of years, it tends to be filled with both sound, provable science and popular folklore.  For example, one similar "rule" is that you need to stir in one only direction when making a custard and that changing direction or  whisking in a random pattern will cause the custard to curdle.  I can say with certainty that the custard thing is false, because I never bother to stir in just one direction and my custards don't curdle.

I know of no science that would either support or disprove your wife's theory but looking over my various references, I can't find any that say creaming needs to be done by beating the ingredients in only one direction.

On the face of it, I also can't think of any good reason why it would be so.  As I explained in the posting "Creaming Butter" the purpose of creaming is to incorporate air into the butter to help leaven the final product.  According to Corriher, creaming is perhaps the most important step in making good cakes.  Air bubbles are incorporated both from the air trapped between grains of sugar when mixing starts, and then by air blended in by the mechanical action.  Neither of these would appear to depend on what direction the beaters move during blending.  In fact, at the level of the beaters, regardless of how you move your hand, one blade is going clockwise while the other goes counterclockwise!

To test whether the direction of beating makes a difference, you would need to compare cakes made by creaming the butter by beating in only one direction versus cakes made when the beating is in random directions.  You would need to be careful to control every other aspect of the cakes -- the ingredients would need to be accurately measured, the butter would need to be at the same temperature starting and ending, and the beating time would need to be the same duration.  The cakes would then need to be cooled to the same temperature and under the same conditions.

After all of that, what I'm guessing you would learn is more likely that there are so many steps, involving so many factors, that ascribing differences in the result to the direction in which the butter is creamed is too simplistic.

The bottom line is that if your "ad hoc" beating technique produces good cakes, then you have shown that direction doesn't matter.  Now, go and enjoy your cake.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com



Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Squash Casserole Turned Black

I have recently started cooking with whole wheat flour because of the nutrition and flavor.  I recently made a squash casserole using whole wheat flour.  I put it in the fridge until I had time to bake it the next day.  When I took it out of the fridge, it had turned dark on the top.  What happened and why did it turn dark?  Was it the flour or was it in the fridge too long?

--Donna

Actually, it is probably neither of those things.

Without actually seeing your recipe, it is hard to say what happened, but some recipes for squash casserole call for diced or grated raw squash and/or other vegetables, such as carrots. If that is the case for you, what may have happened is that the raw ingredients oxidized in much the same way as many raw fruits and vegetables will after they have been cut. You likely sliced apples ahead of time, only to find when you are ready to use them that they have turned brown on the outside. 

This is caused by the release of an enzyme naturally found within the cells of fruits and vegetables.  As long as the enzyme is safely tucked away inside undamaged cells, nothing happens, but once the cell wall is damaged through cutting, mashing or some other mechanical action, the enzyme is released and starts to cause browning.

Had you covered the unfinished casserole with plastic wrap, that still may not have been sufficient to keep oxygen out.  As described in How to Stop Guacamole from Turning Black, not all plastic wraps are effective at keeping oxygen out.

Chances are good that had you cooked the casserole immediately after it was assembled there would have been no browning.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com



Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Inconsistent Gelatin Results

I find that I get inconsistent results when I use gelatin.  Even for the same recipe, sometimes it will come out softer or firmer than other times.  What is happening?

--Sara

Gelatin is a protein-based thickening agent used primarily in making desserts, aspics and jellies.  It comes in a powdered form which is easy and convenient for home cooks, and in a sheet form which is more often used commercially.   It can be tricky to get good results though, for a number of reasons.

First, despite the assurances of the manufacturers of the envelopes of gelatin which state that they are supposed to contain just enough to thicken two cups, never trust the contents to be measured accurately.  In my own kitchen, I have found up to about a 25% variation in the amount of gelatin in a pouch.  That is enough to make a difference in the result.

Gelatin should be soaked for about five minutes in a cool liquid first, before being heated or combined with hot liquids.  This soaking allows moisture to penetrate into the granules so that they will dissolve more readily in heat.  If you pour powdered gelatin directly into a boiling liquid, it will form clumps that take longer to dissolve.  Gelatin that remains undissolved results in a grainy texture and does not help to thicken the dish.

According to Corriher, gelatin loses some of its thickening power when boiled.  It should be heated only until fully dissolved, or should have the hot liquids added to it off heat, depending on your recipe.

Also, other ingredients such as sugar and salt can affect the result.  Salt will interfere with the bodong of protein molecules, making a weaker product, while sugar will attract water away from the gelatin molecules, causing a firmer result.

If you are using fruit, be sure it is not one that can affect the setting of gelatin, such as raw pineapple or kiwi (see Jellied Fruit Salad Won't Set). 

Acids found in fruit juices, wines and other ingredients can also affect the result by making the gelatin proteins less likely to bind together, by creating an electrical charge on the molecules which force them to repel each other.

Finally, when cooling jellies or other foods containing gelatin, resist the temptation to put it in the freezer, as the gelatin molecules need to move freely in the cooling liquid so that they can become entangled.  Too fast of cooling can prevent this from happening.  According to Harold McGee, jellies that are snap-chilled will regain a more normal consistency after a few days.

While not as fussy as some ingredients, gelatin does require some care in measurement of the ingredients used in preparing any dish.

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For fans of KitchenSavvy, our local paper, the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, recently ran an article titled "In the Kitchen with ... Dave and Patricia Katz".  This is the most recent installment of their In the Kitchen series.  In the article you can find five of our favorite recipes including Pissaladiere, which is already posted here, and Shrimpniks, a lemon-butter-garlic shrimp recipe created in tribute to Cousin Nik's restaurant, which we used to like goiing to before it went out of business.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com



Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Crystals in Honey

A few days ago I was planning to make cookies using a recipe that had honey in it.  When I went to measure the honey, it had large grains of something in it.  What were these, how did they happen and what can I do?

--Jamie

The granules that form in liquid honey are precipitated crystals of glucose.  Honey is a supersaturated liquid, meaning that there is more sugar in it than can stay dissolved at room temperatures.  Slowly glucose molecules separate out from the water.  As they do so, more glucose and some other sugars attach to the forming crystals, making them grow larger.  This is similar to what happens when you make rock candy.

Many factors affect the formation of sugar crystal including moisture content, temperature and even the kind of flowers that the bees visited in gathering nectar to make honey.  A friend who used to process honey complained about the difficulty in making a smooth honey from hives that had been visiting Sainfoin flowers.  Sainfoin  honey is very sensitive to how it is processed and will deposit crystals quite easily.

The best way to avoid crystals is actually to store your honey at temperatures below 50°F (10°C), although this is not practical for home use as the fridge is considerably colder and makes honey too stiff to handle easily.  Temperatures above 50°F encourage crystallization.  At temperatures above 81°F (27°C), crystallization is avoided, but the heat causes the honey to degrade quickly.  Honey should kept in an airtight container at room temperatures, and used within a year or so.

To remove crystals that have formed, either place the container of honey in a bowl of hot water for 10 to 15 minutes or microwave it for about 30 seconds per cup.  Stir after heating to help dissolve crystals.  If necessary, repeat until the honey is smooth again.

Two things to keep in mind, though.  First, as noted above, when honey is heated over 81°F(27°C) it starts to degrade so repeatedly having to heat honey because new crystals have formed since the lat time you used it will decrease the quality and flavors of the honey.  If you find you are doing that, consider buying smaller quantities.

Second, your recipe likely calls for butter or perhaps shortening.  If you heat the honey to remove crystals and then go straight to making the cookies, the heat of the honey may melt the fat and dramatically affect the end result.  You should be sure to allow the honey to cool down completely before proceeding.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com



Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Making Gingerbread Cookies Chewy

'Tis the holiday season.  I really enjoy gingerbread cookies, but  every time I make them, my gingerbread turns out hard and flat.  I was wondering what makes a cookie chewy, but not necessarily soft?

--Lindsay

The first thing you need to check is whether the gingerbread recipe you are using is one intended to be used for making gingerbread houses.  Cookies tend to swell and round off during cooking.  Some gingerbread recipes used for making houses try to avoid this by using a drier dough and less leavening so that the pieces will fit together after they are baked.  That makes for a hard, flat cookie that isn't very good for eating.

Assuming that you have a recipe for cookies that are to be eaten, then here are some things you can try:

• If the recipe uses only white sugar and molasses, try replacing some of the white sugar with either brown sugar or honey.  Both brown sugar and honey are hygroscopic, meaning that they will absorb moisture from the air.  Your cookies may come out of the oven hard, but over a day or so they will become more chewy.
• When you add the dry ingredients to the wet, stir as little as possible to get all of the ingredients mixed.  Over stirring can build glutens which will make the dough tougher.
• If you are using all-purpose or bread flour, try substituting cake flour for some or all of it.  Cake flour absorbs less water per volume than all-purpose or bread flour, leaving a moister dough that will rise better and and a cookie that crumbles more easily.
• Finally, if the only fat used in the recipe is butter, try replacing some of that with vegetable shortening.  Different fats will react in different ways during baking.  Be careful though, because butter contains 16% to 18% of its weight in water, whereas shortening has none.  If you substitute 1 for 1, your dough will be drier, so you may need to add some water.  If your recipe calls for a 1/2 cup of butter, try using 1/4 cup of butter and 1/4 cup of shortening plus two teaspoons of water.

Some resources suggest that if you let the cookie cool longer on the pan before moving them to a rack they will end up more chewy.  I can't see the reason this would work, but it may be worth a try.  Just remember that because the pan is at oven temperature, it will continue to cook the underside of the cookies even after they come out of the oven, so they may end up too dark on their bottoms.

As always, when you fiddle with ingredients, you may need to try several combinations until you get the result you want.  Once you have a recipe you like, though, be sure to share it with KitchenSavvy readers.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com



Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Blending Hot Liquids

Why is it that when you blend hot liquids they blow the lid off the blender if you aren't holding it in place?

--Dave

Actually, the science of this is pretty straight forward.  As you know, when you heat a gas, it expands.  So, you put hot liquid into the the jar of the blender and put the lid on.  At this point you have a near boiling liquid with some near room temperature air between it and the top of the jar.  When you start the blender, the air is pulled down through the liquid into the blades where it is broken into millions of tiny bubbles.  At the same time, all of that air gets heated up and expands to about a quarter again the volume it had before^*.  Because some of it is incorporated into the liquid, the effect of the expanding air is to push the liquid upwards.   Both the now hot air above the liquid plus the expanding liquid force the lid off the container.

In order to be safe, it is recommended when you blend hot liquids that you never fill the jar more than half full, that you put the lid on and then cover it with a dry towel and hold it down by hand.  Also, use as slow a speed as possible.

^* If you are interested in a more scientific explanation, the basic equation that describes the relationship between pressure, volume and temperature of a gas is PV=nRT, where:

P is the pressure of the gas;
V is the volume it occupies
n is the amount of the gas there is;
R is a scientific constant; and
T is the temperature of the gas in degrees Kelvin.

Kelvin is a temperature scale that has the same scale as Celsius, except that 0°K is the absolutely lowest temperature that anything can possibly reach.  0°K is the same as -459.67°F or -273.15°C.  What the formula says is that if you double the temperature, either the volume will double, the pressure will double (if the gas is tightly contained), or some combination of the two will occur.

So, the air in the blender jar is at room temperature, which is about 293°K.  You turn on the blender, and all of a sudden it is heated to around 373°K.  Assuming that the pressure tries to stay the same, which it will do if possible since the container has a lid that can be blown off, the gas expands by 373/293 = 1.273 times.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com
Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Smoke Point

I recently heard a TV chef say that she prefers a certain kind of oil because it has a high smoke point.  What is a smoke point, and why does it matter?

--Sean

The smoke point of any oil or fat is the temperature at which it begins to smoke.  This is  important because at or near the smoke point, the oil begins to also undergo chemical breakdown.  The byproducts of this breakdown can ruin the taste of the food being prepared.  Also, at this temperature there is greater risk that the fumes given off could igniting, causing a fire.

Oils with a higher smoke point will withstand higher temperatures for longer periods of time without degrading as quickly.  Chefs prefer certain oils like peanut oil for deep frying because of their high smoke point,  and neutral color and flavor.

According to The New Professional Chef, Sixth Edition from the Culinary Institute Of America the smoke points for some common oils are:

	Smoke Point
Oil or Fat	°F	°C
Butter, whole	300	150
Butter, clarified	300	150
Corn Oil	350	175
Lard	375	190
Olive Oil	375	190
Peanut Oil	440	225
Safflower Oil	510	265
Vegetable Shortening	325	165
Sunflower Oil	440	225

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com
Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward