Category Archives: stainless steel bowls

Mar27

Being a cookie monster.

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Being a cookie monster.

There is a saying that a cookie is made with butter and love! That is so true as nothing gives me more pleasure than whipping up home made biscuits.

Making perfect biscuits/ cookies is really really easy, and only takes about 20 minutes to prepare, which includes preheating the oven and 20 minutes to make. But as with all good things, they only take 5 mins to eat.

The ingredients you will have on hand and the magic is that this basic recipe can bed added to, doubled, tripled, frozen and made up and refrigerated for up to 5 days before baking.

So here are my tips for perfection and below that is the recipe:

  • Preheat the oven and arrange the shilves so you can bake as many trays as possible as one. Grease and line the baking sheet. (i always use the paper from the butter to grease…. saves time and uses every last speck off the wrapping)!

  • Use salt reduced or standard butter, I do think biscuits do need that touch of salt. Unsalted butter is better for cakes and pastry and shortbread – shortbread is traditionally made with unsalted butter to which a good pinch is added.  The salt helps give a little flavour and also helps with the crispness.
  • Brown sugar adds a delicious chew and white sugar (caster) is for crunch… so a combination gives the best result.
  • Use plain flour, but add a good couple of pinches or to be correct ¾ tsp baking powder. Don’t use self raising flour, as it has a higher (too high) proportion of raising agent
  • Cream the butter and sugar VERY well, until super light and fluffy

  • Use a small ice cream scoop to measure out the mixture onto the paper lined trays

  • Allow plenty of room for spreading and let the cookies / biscuits cool completely before storing

The ultimate cookie:

This is a recipe I have made so many times; it is engraved in my mind. The original was once an old classic that originated from a Country Women’s Association Book I had many years ago. it is very like an American Toll cookie if you add lots of choclate chips.  I have made a couple of my own tweaks… I hope you love these as much as my family do.

Makes: about 28 cookies/ biscuits

180g salt reduced butter, softened to room temperature

¾ cup (about 115g) brown sugar

¾ cup (about 155g) caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 x 60 g eggs (at room temp)

2 ¼ cups (about 330g) plain flour

1 tbsp  (aboout 10g) cornflour

¾ tsp baking powder

Flavours:  see below

1 (175g) cup choc chips,

100g chopped roasted hazelnuts,

125g sultanas or currants or chopped apricots,

Rind 1 lemon & 1 orange,

1/3 cup (29g) desiccated coconut,

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 C or 160 C fan forced. Grease and baking paper line 3 oven trays.

Place the flour and baking powder into the mixing bowl with the flat beater. Place on the food shield and mix on speed 2 until well combined. Set flour aside.  Wipe bowl and return bowl to the mixer. (a second stainless steel bowl is very handy for recipes like this)

Place the butter into the mixing bowl with the flat beater. Cream on speed 6 until whipped. Add the brown and white sugar and beat for 5 minutes, or until very light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs one at a time, beating well in between each egg.

Add the flour and choice of flavouring and mixing lightly on speed 2 until just combined.

Using a small ice cream scoop, place rounds of the dough onto the prepared trays. Allowing plenty of room for spreading.

Bake about 22 minutes or until lightly golden. Allow to cool 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. Biscuits will sink a little and crack on cooling, giving them a lovely crackle top.

Store in a air tight container for up to 5 days.

Gluten free option: Substitute the wheat flour with a gluten free flour mix, adding a good pinch of a gum such as GFG or Xanthan gum. Follow the remaining recipe.

Jun20

The Art of Creaming

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The Art of Creaming

Creaming butter and sugar is an art!  Really, well yes I think so. This easy first step (once mastered) can make or break your cake!  This technique is used for about 90 % of most cake and batter style desserts. The trouble is winter.

The butter is cold and that beautiful stainless steel bowl on the standmixer simply makes it colder. This is such a benefit in the middle of summer but oh not in the chilly months.  I have used stainless steel bowls for years.  All commercial based cooks / chefs & bakers love it – simply because the kitchen is hot and the stainless keeps it all cool.

However, for the new players to the world of stainless steel is it tricky – essentially.  So for the many who have written and asked how to easily cream butter and sugar …. here are the golden tips.

Use the flat beater only. This is the wooden spoon to the mixer. The wire whisk is used only for whipping cream & egg whites.

Make sure the butter is always at room soft temperature (not chilled) – this means you can lightly squash it between your fingers if you touch it. Now you can either gently warm it in the microwave – using short bursts on defrost (30 % power) or pop it into a bowl over hot water and allow to warm a little but don’t melt it. Melted butter will not beat up. This means your cake will not have a wonderful light texture.

In cold weather the stainless steel bowl can be quite cold (touch the outside of the bowl with your hands and you will feel this). Just before you begin the actually mixing, fill the bowl with hot water, or rinse in a sink of hot water then quickly and thoroughly dry. Stainless steel quickly returns to a cool temperature so work quickly.

Place the soft room temperature butter into the warmed bowl and beat (with the flat beater) begin on speed 1 then move up to speed 6and beat for about 20 seconds before you start to add the sugar. Whipping up the butter just a little first lightens it and allows the butter to easily incorporate with the sugar. Add the sugar in two additions, a little then the remainder. (Many pastry chefs believe adding the sugar in one go, causes the butter to choke and therefore you stop the mixture aerating)

Caster sugar (not A1 standard sugar). A1 sugar is very course in texture and is very difficult to ‘cream’ or dissolve in the butter (or in egg whites or cream). Treasured family / old recipes may have sugar listed as an ingredient – In years gone past only one sugar was available. In the past 20 years ‘caster’ sugar was created and A1 sugar has become much ‘courser’ in texture’ than it used to be, making it now not suitable to use.

The mixing is initially begun on speed 1, and then quickly moved through the speeds to 4, and 6 during the mixing it is best to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. The mixing time is generally around 3-5 minutes. This depends on the recipe. In some traditional recipes creaming could be up to 10! The mixture should be very pale and fluffy and the sugar well dissolved into the butter.

Quantity being mixed. Most home stlyle recipes begin with 125g butter and 1/2 – 3/4 cups caster sugar.   However, the mixer easily beats more than triple these quantities. Very small quantities can be creamed very successfully (75 g butter to 1/4 cup caster sugar) as well.

Add the eggs one at a time and beat well between each. Remember to wipe the sides of the bowl down as needed. Reduce the speed to 1 if mixing in the flour, milk etc and beat lightly and quickly once the flour has been added. Do not over mix or the air will be beaten out. Many remove the bowl and hand mix to fold in the flour. NO you can mix in the flour using the mixer but this must be mixed quickly – 2- 3 turns of the beater only.

Beater to bowl clearance: You may need to slightly correct the clearance of the beater to the bowl (see details in the instruction manual “Beater to Bowl Clearance” – use the flat beater when adjusting). This will only be needed if a little of the mixture right at the bottom of the bowl is not mixing.

Whole Poached Pear Cake

Happy Birthday Butter Cake