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Baking with Coconut Oil

by on March 22, 2011 in Blog, Chocolate, Cookies, Ingredients, Recipes

I love chocolate chip cookies. Yesterday, after the success of my gluten free chocolate chip cookies, I had a desire to bake chocolate chip cookies with coconut oil. This desire was brought on by an urge to offer alternatives to butter in baking. The results were fantastic!

First, some background information…Coconut oil is commonly used for cooking in tropical areas where it is grown and it’s smoke point of 360°F (180°C) makes it ideal for frying. Coconut is similar to butter in many respects. They are both solid at room temperature, they have the same smoke point 360°F (180°C) and they have roughly the same amount of calories. One of the advantages of butter is that is has more micro nutrients than coconut oil. Micro nutrients of coconut are found in the meat. The fact that coconut oil is plant based makes it perfect for vegan cooking. Coconut oil is also shelf stable for up to two years. The health benefits of the coconut in general are reportedly vast and often overlooked due to the high saturated fat content.

I substituted coconut oil for the butter in my chocolate chip cookie recipe at room temperature, cup for cup.  It blended easily with the sugar and whipped up perfectly with the eggs. The coconut oil cookies baked flawlessly and the kids loved them. It was a success!

Now onto more adventures in baking with coconut oil! Pie dough and croissants next…

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Baking Tips: Crystallized Honey

by on March 2, 2011 in Blog, Helpful Hints, Ingredients

You can melt crystallized honey in a small pot over low heat to make it liquid again.

Allow to cool before placing in a clean jar or using in a recipe.

My favorite way to use honey instead of sugar in baking is when I make muffins.

Honey is sweeter than sugar so you can substitute 3/4 cups honey for 1 cup of sugar.

Happy Baking!

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Top 5 Ingredients to Bake a Better Cake

by on January 14, 2011 in Blog, Cakes, Helpful Hints, Ingredients

Are you looking for ways to increase your success at baking a cake? I want to share with you my top 5 ingredients to bake a better cake. I’ve been using these tips of the trade for over 20 years. Now it’s time you get the kudos you deserve. Let’s get started!

Cake Flour

I insist that you use cake flour for baking a cake. Cake flour comes from a different type of wheat than all purpose or bread flour. Cake flour is milled from soft winter wheat with a low protein content and it has soft velvety feel.

Cake flour needs to be sifted before adding it to your cake batter. Use a standard kitchen mesh strainer or a hand held flour sifter. In the bakery we use a large flat barrel sifter for sifting large batches of cake flour.

Unsalted Butter

Always use unsalted butter, sometimes referred to as sweet butter. Butter lends the best flavour to cakes and has good creaming qualities.

For long term storage keep your unsalted butter in the freezer. Take out only what you need for the week and store it in the fridge covered in plastic or wax wrap. Other flavours can easily transfer around the fridge to the butter so store the butter in the butter or cheese compartment of the fridge.

Bring butter to room temperature for best baking results.

Sea Salt

I recommend sea salt for baking as it will impart a pure taste to your cakes. Sea salt also has micro nutrients such as copper, magnesium, silicone, boron and iron that are removed during the refining process. Use sea salt as you would table salt.

Pure Vanilla Extract

You must use pure vanilla extract in your cakes for an intense flavour that can’t compare with the artificial kind. Pure vanilla is extracted from the seed pods (beans) of the vanilla variety of orchid that grows in humid tropical environments. The beans are macerated in an alcohol solution to extract the delicate and unmistakable flavour.

Eggs

Farm fresh eggs direct from the grower or from the grocery store offer the best results for baking cakes. Frozen eggs are a cheaper substitute but don’t offer the leavening power that fresh eggs do. Buy large size eggs for baking as they are a consistent 55 grams per egg, including the shell.  Shelled whole eggs are 50 grams. The egg white is 30 grams and the yolk 20 grams. Bring eggs to room temperature before adding to the cake batter.

Use these tried and true methods for baking your next cake and see the results for yourself.

I’d love to hear from you! Tell me how your next cake turns out. And if you like what you’ve read here please share this article on your social network.

Here’s to your success.

Happy baking!

Love April

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