Ever wondered why cooks executing the same recipe can get radically different results? While there can be many culprits, let’s look for a minute at ingredients.
What you use, how you store it and preparation method are all important when baking. Take flour for instance. There are several types with different characteristics:
All purpose flour: 8-11% protein. Comes bleached (chemically) or unbleached. Chemical bleaching will lower the protein in flour and should therefore be limited to use in quick breads and cookies. Unbleached flour is best for applications where you want air pockets in the dough such as bread and pastry.
Bread Flour: 12-14% protein and best used in yeast dough applications.
Cake flour: 8-10% protein and finely milled allows for cakes and quick breads to rise well. This product is bleached.
Self Rising flour:Low protein, not for use with yeast as it already contains rising agents. Usually bleached.
There are many other flours in the world (and a range of gluten free options), but most home cooks use the aforementioned most often. Mark the purchase date on the bag when you bring it home. Flour should be used within 3-6 months if you are storing in a dry, dark, room temp. location. If you store it in the freezer in an airtight bag it will keep for several years. Frozen flour should be brought to room temperature before using with yeast or it may decrease rise. Never store flour next to strong smells or it will absorb them.
So now you have the perfect flour for your application, let’s talk vanilla. If you have never made your own, I encourage you to try. My first foray into vanilla came when my mom bought me a perpetual vanilla kit for Christmas.
An adorable glass jar came with a handful of vanilla beans and instructions. All I had to do was remove the beans, slice them down the middle, return them to the jar and fill with vodka, rum or bourbon, label with the date then wait at least 30 days before using. Since I still had some vanilla, I put it together then tucked it away and forgot about it. Three months later, while searching for the cream of tarter (why do I always have to empty the spice cabinet to locate this??), I found the bottle. Opening it yielded a beautiful, complex and rich aroma not even close to the supermarket product. I have never gone back.
If you don’t have a kit, any glass bottle (the cuter the better) in the 4 to 8 oz. range will do. Vanilla beans can be purchased from many sources but I get mine from Beanilla. There are several origins for beans and each carries a different taste profile. Madagascar beans have that classic, sweet and buttery scent. Mexican beans are rich, sometimes a bit smokey or even acerbic/spicy. Indian beans have a rich scent but I find them interchangeable with the Madagascar kind. Tahitian pods have an amazing caramel, fruitiness that makes them a favorite. Once you have your beans, slice them down the middle. I like to remove some of the ‘caviar’ and put that paste into the bottle, then put the sliced pods back in. 
Don’t worry if your pods break apart when you slice them open. Just put the pieces into the bottle and proceed. Fill the jar with your choice of vodka, rum or bourbon until the pods are covered. 
Label the bottle with a reminder not to use until after at least 30 days from when it was made.
The longer it sits, the richer the taste. Shaking the bottle every day or few days for the first month, also increases the extract flavor. Once it is done, use like you would any vanilla. If you top up your bottle with more alcohol every time you use some, you can have ‘perpetual vanilla’. I have a bottle that is going on 3 yrs. now but I think new beans will be needed soon.
Once you are a vanilla fan, you will find new excuses to include it in food. Putting it in salad dressings, most baked goods, custards, whipped coconut cream, stews, rice blends, anything with curry and vegan ice creams only makes each recipe better IMHO.
So other tips and tricks for great baking?
1. Test your oven temperature. You aren’t baking at 350 deg. F unless you test it with an oven thermometer. I test my ovens at least twice a year.
2. If you have a convection setting for your oven, bake with that. If not, turn the baking sheets or pans half way through baking.
3. Use parchment or silicone oven mats on baking sheets to prevent excessive bottom browning.
4. Know the texture you are trying to achieve with a batter. Good recipes should include this information but don’t be shy about penciling it into your cookbook to remind yourself or your kids, how it should look. Flour will vary in moisture content depending on humidity. If too dry, add small amounts of water until the batter looks right. If too wet, add spoonfuls of flour until reaching the desired consistency. This is something only experience can teach so good baking is often a matter of lots of baking.
5. Store any ingredient with oils that can go rancid, in the freezer such as flour, nuts and seeds.
6. Bring eggs (if you use them) and butters/oils to room temperature before use as they incorporate better. If you use flax eggs- ALWAYS store your ground flax seed in the freezer. It goes rancid very quickly and is then bad for your baking and health.
7. If you are using sugar and fats in a recipe, cream them together. This is not a step to skip. Ever see those cookies at the bake sale that consist of a flat dough disc with the chips standing up like mountain peaks? The sugar and fats were not blended and the batter was probably too wet.
8. Don’t over beat quick breads, muffins, pancakes and cookie doughs. The rising power of baking powder and soda lasts only a short time once it touches the liquids. You must move fast to preserve that lift and over stirring the batter will develop the tough gluten fibers of the flour. Folding the wet into the dry ingredients keeps the results soft. Who wants a hard muffin?
All this talk of baking is making me hungry. I’m off to the kitchen until next post.
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