Common Baking Ingredients

Transcription

1 Common Baking Ingredients With the following seven categories of ingredients you can make almost every type of baked good. 1. Flour a. Examples: Wheat (white or whole), rice, corn b. Purpose in baking: Gives body, holds everything together, when combined with a liquid makes gluten 2. Liquid a. Examples: water, milk, ½ and ½, juice b. Purpose in baking: when combined with flour makes gluten, adds flavor 3. Leavening Agents a. Examples: yeast, baking soda, baking powder, air b. Purpose in baking: makes baked items rise, less compact, softer texture 4. Fat a. Examples: Lard, butter, margarine, oil, shortening (Crisco) b. Purpose in Baking: Fat is flavor! To lower fat applesauce or puréed dried fruit can be used instead. 5. Eggs a. Examples: eggs! b. Purpose in Baking: gives flavor, color, nutrients 6. Sweeteners a. Examples: Sugar, Powdered Sugar, Brown Sugar, Honey, Agave Nector b. Purpose in Baking: sweet flavor, helps brown crust, makes more tender 7. Flavorings a. Examples: Nuts, berries, chocolate chips, peanut butter, herbs, spices, vanilla

2 Using the Stove A stove or cook top can be gas or electric. An electric stove can have coils or if it is an induction top, there is a glass-ceramic top covering the heat elements. Following are some of the ways to cook using a stove. 1. Boiling a. Definition: to cook covered in water that is boiling (over 212 deg F), you lose a lot of nutrients when boiling b. Example: Pasta, corn on the cob 2. Steaming a. Definition: to cook over (using steamer basket or colander) over boiling water, you lose fewer nutrients when steaming b. Example: vegetables, fish 3. Simmer a. Definition: cook in liquid, bring to boil then reduce heat (to approx 186 deg, med/low), you lose nutrients to the liquid but usually use the liquid with what you ve cooked b. Example: vegetables in broth, dry beans 4. Deep Fat Fry a. Definition: To cook in hot oil b. Example: French Fries, Doughnuts, 5. Sauté/Stir Fry a. Definition: to brown or cook in a skillet with a small amount of fat b. Example: Chicken and Broccoli, small pieces of meat or vegeta 6. Pan Fry a. Definition: to brown or cook in a small amount of oil b. Example: Larger pieces of meat 7. Braising a. Definition: to quickly brown or sear (for flavor) and then cook slowly for a long period of time b. Example: Roast beef, pork, usually a touch piece of meat that will become tender by cooking for a long time.

3 Using the Oven Oven can be gas or electric, conventional or convection (fan to circulate air). Some stove oven combinations (often called a range) use duel fuel; they have a gas stove and an electric oven. Before turning the oven on adjust the racks. Determine if you need to pre-heat the oven. 1. Bake/Roast: a. Baking and Roasting are different words for the same cooking method. Baking is used for a flour type product (cake, cookies, bread, etc) and roast is used for vegetables and meats. b. When you bake/roast the heat comes from the bottom. Because heat rise it surrounds the food in heat. c. You usually have to preheat the oven when you bake/roast 2. Broil: a. Heat comes from the top. You place the food close to the heat source. The food cooks quickly on the part that is close to the heat, but the middle or bottom do not cook as quickly. It is not surrounded in heat.

4 Breads There are two types of breads, leavened and unleavened. Examples of leaven bread are below. Examples of unleavened bread are tortillas and lefse. There are two types of leavened bread. 1. Yeast Breads, examples a. Liquid should be between 85 and _115 so the yeast will grow. b. Ingredients should be at room temperature before you begin mixing. c. Mix in a little flour at first to get your dough well mixed, continue mixing in flour until your dough turns into a ball d. Put your dough onto a floured surface to knead it. e. Knead dough according to the recipe, usually between 5 and 10 minutes. f. Knead dough until it is a smooth shinny ball. g. Cover dough in oil and place in a covered dish, let dough rise in a warm place free of drafts. h. Follow recipe for rising time but dough should double in size. i. After it has risen once (or more according to recipe), punch it down, shape it and let it rise again. j. Bake according to recipe. Bread is usually done when you tap it and it sounds hollow. k. Remove from the oven and from the pan place on a cooling rack to prevent it from getting soggy. 2. Quick Breads a. Mix dry ingredients together first b. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients c. Beat all wet/liquid ingredients together. d. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix just enough to _moisten the dry ingredients. Some floury lumps may remain. e. Fold in ingredients such as chopped nuts, berries or raisins.

5 f. If you over mix your muffins they will be heavy, dense and _tough with long narrow tunnels on the inside.

6 Common Thickening Agents What are some examples of foods that need to be thickened? Gravy, sauces, soups (cream soups), pudding, pie filling, jelly What are some common thickening agents or methods? 1. Flour a. Common Uses, gravy, sauces and soups b. When using flour to thicken something you must mix it with a cold liquid so that it does not clump or you can mix it with a fat before you mix in the liquid. c. You need to allow time for the mixture to cook so that the flour in the mixture develops a good flavor and doesn t taste like raw flour (paste). d. Approximate recipe for gravy with flour: mix one Tablespoon of flour to one tablespoon of fat to one cup of _liquid. If making a thinner sauce than gravy use more liquid. 2. Cornstarch a. Common Uses: sauces, pudding, gravy b. Cornstarch is a stronger thickening agent so you need to use less cornstarch than you would flour. c. Cornstarch provides a more shining and _clear sauce. 3. Reduction a. Simmer a liquid until it becomes thick. 4. Pectin a. Common Uses: jelly, cranberry sauce

7 b. Pectin is naturally found in _fruit. c. Fruits high in pectin are _apples, cranberries.

8 International Foods Students will need to be able to circle the general areas that we have studied. Asia and the Pacific East Asian: China, Japan, Korea, South East Asia: Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, The Philippines India Austrailia and New Zealand What is a staple food in East and South East Asia: _Rice In addition to rice East Asian and South East Asian countries also eat a lot of noodles. In Asia _fish and seafood are commonly eaten near the coastal areas. In Asia meat is eaten but it is _small_part (or flavoring) of the dish and not the main dish. In Japan the apperance of the food is as important as the taste of the food.

9 Rice, vegetables and fish rolled in seaweed is called sushi and is commonly served in Japan. Some common seasonings in Vietnam are: _lemon grass, _ginger, fish sauce, soy sauce hot peppers (or pepper sauce In India the staple grain is wheat and the most common meat is lamb. Latin America Regions: Mexico, Central America, The Caribbean, South America Mexico s food was influence by the people that originally lived there, the Aztec and the European conquerors, the _Spanish. The common bread of Mexico is called a tortilla Ground corn called masa made into dough often cooked with finely chopped chicken and cooked by steaming it in corn or banana husks is called a tamalle. In Central America corn and beans are staple crops. In the Caribbean a staple food is the plantain. They also eat a lot of fish and seafood because of their proximity to the ocean and rivers. The foods of South America vary greatly because of the diversity of the climate from north to south and east to west.