how to use cake flour to making cakes

How to Use Cake Flour to Making Cakes.

Cake flour is a finely milled flour made of wheat. Its high starch content makes it ideal for deserts and baked goods. As its name suggests, cake flour is the preferred flour for cakes. Muffins, likewise, are dry and hard if baked with all-purpose flour, but cake flour gives them a light and fluffy texture. You can also use cake flour to make your cookies even better.

Steps.

1. Make a southern caramel cake. A southern caramel cake is a sweet cake made with layers of gooey and sweet. Serve this luscious southern caramel cake with tea and enjoy with your family or friends.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Use a hand mixer to mix 1 cup of butter, 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, and 2.5 cups of granulated sugar in a large mixing bowl. This will take about five minutes.

Add six eggs and two egg yolks to the bowl and continue mixing on medium for about two minutes.

Add 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract and continue mixing.

Slowly sift 3 cups of cake flour into the bowl. Alternate sifting the flour into the bowl with scooping spoonfuls of sour cream – 1 cup altogether – into the mix. For instance, sift a few spoonfuls of flour into the mixing bowl, blend it for a moment on low, then add spoonful or sour cream, and blend again. Repeat until all the flour and sour cream is incorporated.

Spray three 9-inch round cake pans with a nonstick spray. Pour the cake batter into the pans and bake them for about 25 minutes. Remove pans and let them cool.

Next, make the caramel icing. Mix 1.5 sticks of butter, 2 (12 ounce) cans of evaporated milk, and 2 cups of granulated sugar to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Leave in the saucepan, stirring occasionally. You can test if it’s ready by dipping a spoon in it. If it’s ready, it should stick to the spoon.

Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the caramel and mix it with a large spoon.

Finally, assemble your cake. Place one of the cake layers on a large plate, then spoon some of the caramel in an even layer of it. Repeat with the other layers of cake. Use a spatula to spoon some caramel over the sides, too.

2. Try an apple pie cake. An apple pie cake is the perfect marriage of apple pie and spice cake. A warm slice of apple pie cake is great in fall or winter, especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix 9 cups of peeled and chopped apples, 4 tablespoons of butter, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1.25 cups of water, and 1/3 cup of sugar in a large mixing bowl. Once everything is evenly mixed and the apples have a nice cinnamon coat, pour the contents into a 13’’ x 9’’ glass baking dish.

In another large bowl, mix ½ cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, 8 tablespoons of butter, 2/3 cup of milk, and 4 teaspoons of baking powder. Use a hand mixer to blend everything for two minutes on medium.

Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and 2 eggs. Mix for another two minutes.

Pour the batter over the cinnamon-apple mixture. Bake the cake for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.

3. Make a heavenly white cake. The heavenly white cake truly is a slice of heaven on earth. This cake is perfect for that weddings, baby showers, and anniversaries. To get started, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sift ¾ teaspoons of salt, 4 teaspoons of baking powder, and 2.75 cups of cake flour together.

Mix 4 egg whites in a mixing bowl until they are foamy. Gradually add ½ a cup of sugar. Continue to beat the mixture until soft peaks form in the mixture. This mixture is called “meringue.” Set aside for later use.

Next, beat ¾ cup of butter until it is smooth. You might need to warm it a bit for a few seconds in the microwave. Add 1 cup of sugar gradually, and mix until everything is fluffy.

Slowly add the flour and other sifted ingredients to the egg whites. Alternate adding the sifted ingredients with small spoonfuls of milk – 1 cup altogether. For instance, add a bit of the dry ingredients, mix together, then add a few spoonfuls of milk, and mix again until all ingredients are incorporated.

Mix in 1 teaspoon of almond extract and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Then, add the foamy meringue to the bowl and continue mixing.

Scoop the batter out into a 15’’ x 10’’ x 1’’ pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove and allow to cool on the rack.

How to Use Cake Flour to Creating Muffins.

Cake flour is a finely milled flour made of wheat. Its high starch content makes it ideal for deserts and baked goods. As its name suggests, cake flour is the preferred flour for cakes. Muffins, likewise, are dry and hard if baked with all-purpose flour, but cake flour gives them a light and fluffy texture. You can also use cake flour to make your cookies even better.

Steps.

1. Create a blueberry muffin. Blueberry muffins are one of the best kinds of muffins. Using cake flour to make the blueberry muffins gives them a bit more rise and a lighter flavor. This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Preheat your oven to 380 degrees Fahrenheit. Sift 1 teaspoon baking powder, a pinch of salt, and 12.5 ounces of cake flour.

In another mixing bowl, mix 1 cup of sugar, ½ a cup of vegetable oil, one egg, and 1 cup of yogurt.

Remove 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients to a small cup or bowl and mix the remainder in with the wet ingredients. Stir the mixture vigorously for about 10 seconds.

Mix 1.5 cups of blueberries with the tablespoon of dry ingredients you set aside previously. Stir 1 cup of blueberries into the mix for three seconds.

Use an ice cream scooper, scoop the dough into a greased muffin pan. Top each muffin with a few of the remaining blueberries. Three berries per muffin should be adequate.

Place the muffin pan in the oven and raise the temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool. Consume with friends.

Your muffins will stay good for two to three days in an airtight container.

2. Make a crumb cake muffin. Crumb cake muffins are a sweet treat you can share with friends. They taste great with a cup of coffee. And when you use cake flour, the flavor is even better.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line the muffin pan with baking cups.

Whisk together 1/8 teaspoon of salt, 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, and ¾ teaspoon of cinnamon.

Pour 8 tablespoons of melted butter over the cinnamon mixture and mix together. Add 1.75 cups of cake flour and mix until the ingredients turn into a thick dough. Set aside.

In a stand mixer bowl with a paddle attachment, combine 1.25 cups of cake flour, ½ a cup of granulated sugar, ¼ teaspoon of baking soda, and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Mix on low speed.

Slowly add 6 tablespoons of butter in one-tablespoon increments.

Continue mixing for one or two minutes until the mixture looks like wet crumbs.

Add 1/3 cup of buttermilk or plain yogurt, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, one egg yolk, and one egg. Continue mixing everything until the batter is fluffy and light.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and use ¼ cup measure to scoop the dough into the muffin tin. Sprinkle the dry cinnamon mixture you prepared previously on top of each muffin.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the crumb topping is golden brown. Remove and let cool five minutes before serving.

3. Bake a carrot muffin. If you love carrot cake, you’ll love carrot muffins. To get started, preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a muffin pan for later use. The following recipe makes 12 muffins.

Mix 2 tablespoons of rum with ¾ cup of raisins. You could use water instead of rum, but the muffin will be less flavorful. Stir them together so the raisins all get coated and microwave for 30 seconds.

Wait 30 minutes so the raisins rehydrate somewhat, then sprinkle them with sugar (superfine sugar, preferably).

In a large mixing bowl, combine ¼ cup of vegetable oil, 2 large eggs, 1 cup of applesauce, and 1 cup of brown sugar.

Stir in ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1 can (8 ounces) of crushed pineapple, and 1.75 cups of grated carrots.

In another bowl, sift ¾ teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of baking soda, 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder, ½ cup of oat bran, ¼ cup of buttermilk flour, and 2 cups minus 1 tablespoon of cake flour.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Add the raisins and ¾ cup of pecans or walnuts.

Scoop the dough into the muffin tins to a point just below their top edge.

Bake for about 23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean.

If you want, you could drizzle some icing and nuts over the muffins. Serve with whipped cream cheese.

How to Use Cake Flour to Baking Cookies.

Cake flour is a finely milled flour made of wheat. Its high starch content makes it ideal for deserts and baked goods. As its name suggests, cake flour is the preferred flour for cakes. Muffins, likewise, are dry and hard if baked with all-purpose flour, but cake flour gives them a light and fluffy texture. You can also use cake flour to make your cookies even better.

Steps.

1. Make chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate chip cookies are a classic. Rich and sweet, they taste great with a glass of cold milk. You can use different kinds of chocolate to mix up the flavor. Dark chocolate, for instance, has a somewhat bitter edge to it.

Sift 1.25 teaspoons of baking soda, 1.5 teaspoons of salt, 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder, 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons of cake flour, and 1.66 cups of bread flour into a mixing bowl.

Cream 1.25 cups of brown sugar, 2.5 sticks of butter, and 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar together in a mixer with a paddle attachment. Add a large egg, then another after the first is well-mixed. Pour 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract into the bowl.

Reduce mixer speed to low and pour in the dry ingredients you sifted previously. Mix them for about five to 10 seconds.

Remove the mixer bowl from the mixer. Slowly add 1.25 pounds of bittersweet chocolate disks. Mix the disks carefully into the dough and try not to break them.

Scoop the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap the dough in the plastic wrap carefully and refrigerate for a day or two. You can use the dough for up to 72 hours.

When you’re ready, heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place parchment paper along a baking sheet and scoop small spoonfuls of dough onto the parchment paper. The spoonfuls should weigh 3.5 ounces each.

If you see any chocolate pieces poking out of the cookies, push them down into the cookie or turn them to a more horizontal orientation.

Bake the cookies for about 19 minutes. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes. Consume with your friends.

2. Bake some sugar cookies. As their name implies, sugar cookies are a sweet treat. You can use cake flour to make lots and lots of sugar cookies. If you want, you could also add a coat of frosting to your sugar cookies after they’re ready.

Mix 3 cups of cake flour, 3 teaspoons of baking powder, and ½ a teaspoon of salt. Set aside for the moment. Place the bowl somewhere safe so it won’t spill.

Place 1 cup of sugar and 2 sticks of room-temperature butter in your electric mixer. Stir until the two ingredients have creamed to take on a light and fluffy appearance.

Remove the mixing bowl. Add an egg, then another after the first has been thoroughly mixed into the cream. You can use a wooden spoon or wire whisk to mix the eggs in.

Finally, add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 2 tablespoons of sour cream.

Gradually spoon the dry ingredients into the mix. Combine with a wire whisk or similar device.

Place the dough in the fridge for about one hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Roll 3 tablespoons of dough into a ball, then flatten it with your hands to a thickness of about ½ an inch. Place the flattened disk on the parchment paper.

Continue adding the flattened cookie dough disks to the parchment paper. Space them about 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

If you wanted to eat frosted cookies, you can whip up an easy frosting by combining 1 stick of butter and 3 cups of powdered sugar in an electric mixer. Add the sugar slowly as you use the mixer. When all the sugar is added, pour 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 3 tablespoons of milk. If you wanted colored frosting, you could add a few drops of your favorite color to the mixing bowl while the ingredients are being mixed.

3. Try some blueberry lemon cookies. Blueberry lemon cookies really let the cake flour shine through. You’ll love the fluffy, light texture of these slightly citrusy and sweet little cookies. Bake enough so your friends can try some too!

Place 1 cup of butter and 1 cup of granulated sugar in a stand mixer bowl. Use a wire whisk and beat until the mixture is fluffy.

Add an egg. When it’s mixed into the mixture completely, add a second egg and mix it in thoroughly, too. Add zest of one lemon, juice of one lemon, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix ½ a teaspoon of salt, ½ a teaspoon of baking powder, ½ a teaspoon of baking soda, and 3.25 cups of cake flour. Attach the mixing bowl to the stand mixer. Slowly add these dry ingredients to the fluffy mixture as the mixer combines the ingredients on low speed.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in 1.5 cups of blueberries.

Allow the dough to chill for between 1 and 12 hours.

When you’re ready to bake, heat the oven 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spoon a spoonful of dough onto the parchment. Continue until you’ve filled the parchment paper.

Don’t place your cookies too close or they might get stuck together when they expand during baking.

Bake for 11-14 minutes. You’ll know they’re ready when the bottoms are slightly brown.

Desember 20, 2019

how to bake with whole grains

How to Bake with Whole Grains.

White flour usually loses most of its nutrients during production, which makes baking with whole grain flour a healthier alternative. However, it’s not simply a matter of swapping one ingredient for another. If you’ve never baked with whole grain flours before, knowing which ones are most ideal for beginners is an important first step. After that, keeping a few guidelines in mind regarding what to expect and how to adjust recipes from white flour to whole grains will lower the amount of trial-and-error that you’ll have to do. Even better, searching for recipes that specifically call for whole grains will help make your introduction to baking with them a cinch.

Ingredients.

Whole Wheat Scones.

4 cups whole wheat flour, plus more for dusting (500 g).

2 tablespoons baking powder.

1 teaspoon salt.

1 stick unsalted butter.

1 cup packed light brown sugar (220 g).

1 cup raisins (165 g).

1.5 cups buttermilk (355 ml).

Spelt Cookies.

¾ cup packed brown sugar (165 g).

½ cup softened butter (113.5 g).

1 egg.

1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

1.75 cups spelt flour (210 g).

1 teaspoon baking soda.

½ teaspoon salt.

Barley-Buttermilk Muffins.

1.5 cups barley flour (180 g).

1 teaspoon baking soda.

2 teaspoons baking powder.

¾ teaspoons sea salt.

2 tablespoons brown sugar.

¼ cup vegetable oil (59 ml).

1.33 cups buttermilk (315.5 ml).

1 large egg.

Method 1 Choosing Which Flour(s) to Use.

1. Decide between white and regular whole wheat. Regular whole wheat flour is arguably the most widely available whole grain flour, and perhaps the most often cited in recipes. However, be aware that it has a nutty and tannic flavor that may not always lend itself well to your baked goods. As an alternative, consider using white whole wheat instead, which has a milder flavor and can be used in direct ratios when substituting regular whole wheat or white flour in recipes.

The difference between the two is which type of wheat berry is used to make them. Regular whole wheat flour comes from red wheat berries, while white whole wheat comes from white wheat berries.

2. Opt for whole wheat pastry flour for lighter bakes. Both regular and white whole wheat flours tend to result in heavier finished products. If the baked good you’re making is supposed to be light and crumbly, but the only whole grain available is whole wheat, go with whole wheat pastry flour. Expect pastry flour to have less protein than regular flour, and therefore less gluten when baked, which is what weighs down the texture of baked goods.

3. Start with spelt when branching out from wheat. If you’re looking to use flours other than whole wheat, begin with spelt. Utilize its sweet but mild flavor to avoid overpowering your baked goods, which is a risk with stronger grains that have bolder flavors. At the same time, eliminate the need to convert measurements in recipes, since spelt can be substituted in direct ratio to whole wheat flour.

4. Add barley for creamy textures. If you want a baked good that melts in your mouth, go with barley. However, be aware that it’s texture is very soft, so don’t ditch the whole wheat or all-purpose flour entirely. Instead, use half of the original amount that the recipe calls for (or, if you’re using spelt, an equal measurement of that), and then substitute the other half with barley.

5. Use oat to support chocolate, fruits, and nuts. Whole wheat flour usually results in a heavier baked good, which you often need to support the weight of solid add-ins (like chunks or whole pieces of chocolate, fruits, and nuts). However, if you want your baked good to be less dense while still mixing in these ingredients, substitute half of the whole wheat or all-purpose flour in your recipe with oat flour. This will result in a lighter bake that’s still sturdy enough to keep those ingredients from sinking to the bottom as it bakes.

6. Avoid “multigrain.” If you’re looking to eliminate baking with white flour entirely, read the package of any flour labeled as multigrain. Obviously, “multigrain” means that it is a combination of multiple grains, including whole grains. However, expect to find white flour listed as one of the flours mixed into many varieties of this product.

Method 2 Adjusting from White Flour to Whole Grains.

1. Expect changes in flavor and texture. Keep in mind that using whole grains instead of white flour will affect your baked goods’ taste and consistency. This doesn’t mean that all baked goods will taste better or worse with whole grains--just different. That said, depending on the type of baked good you’re making and your own personal tastes, anticipate having to do some trial-and-error with some recipes before you nail it.

2. Start with darker baked goods. Expect the difference in whole grains’ taste to be most striking when used in goods whose finished color really reflects the use of white flour. Because of this, start off with baked goods whose color tends to be on the dark side with or without white flour. Give your taste buds a chance to adjust before attempting a bake where the difference will be more noticeable.

For instance, go with a chocolate cake instead of a vanilla cake if this is your first bake with whole grains

3. Ease into it with partial substitutions. When you first attempt to bake with whole grains, don’t ditch the white flour right away. Instead, use the white flour for half the total flour called for by the recipe, and use whole grains for the other half. Note the difference in flavor and texture of your first batch. From there, decide if you'd like to increase the percentage of whole grains used in your next bake, or if you'd like to try again with a different type of flour.

4. Convert measurements when needed. Whole wheat and spelt flours can generally be used in equal measurements to the amount of white flour that a recipe calls for. However, expect other whole grain flours to require conversions. For example, if you’re branching out into nuts and using almond flour, you should use double the amount called for in white flour.

Search online for conversion charts to determine what if any conversion is needed for the type of flour that you’ve chosen to work with, like this one:

5. Add more liquid than called for. Be aware that whole grain flours absorb more moisture than white flour. If you’re using a recipe that calls for white flour, expect the finished product to be on the dry side if you substitute the white flour entirely with whole grains. To compensate, add two more teaspoons of each wet ingredient than specified for each cup of flour used.

6. Give the dough more time to absorb moisture. At the very least, let it sit for 20 to 25 minutes after you make it before you go and knead it.[12] For even better results, let it sit overnight. Additionally, try adding a tablespoon of lemon juice or another acidic ingredient. This allows the grains more time to soften while also breaking down more starch, which will make kneading easier.

Method 3 Trying Whole Grain-Specific Recipes.

1. Make whole wheat scones. First, preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (163 degrees Celsius). Then, in a large mixing bowl, combine your flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut your butter into half-inch cubes (1.25 cm) and then work them into the flour mix with your hands, pinching them together, until they form what looks like breadcrumbs. Next, stir in the brown sugar and raisins, followed by the buttermilk. Now that you have your dough:

Dust a surface with flour and then roll the dough into a rectangular shape approximately a quarter inch thick (0.64 cm).

Cut it up into a dozen squares with each measuring about three inches, then roll any leftover trimmings together to make extra.

Line a baking sheet with cooking oil. Fold each square diagonally so it turns into triangle, then place it on the baking sheet.

Bake for a half hour, or until the tops brown to golden.

2. Bake spelt cookies. First, move one oven rack down as low as possible and another to a higher position. Then set your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius). While it preheats, use an electric mixer to beat together your brown sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. In a second bowl, combine your spelt flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the second bowl’s contents to the first and stir to combine. To bake:

Use a spoon to portion your dough out onto a baking sheet to form the size cookies you desire, leaving at least an inch (2.5 cm) between each one.

Place the baking sheet on the lowest rack and bake for five minutes.

Switch the sheet to the higher rack and bake for roughly five more, until the edges begin to brown a bit.

3. Make barley buttermilk muffins. Let your oven preheat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (204 Celsius). Then either spray your muffin pan with nonstick spray or line it with paper muffin cups. Next, stir together the barley flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar in a medium mixing bowl. In a second bowl, use a whisk to combine the buttermilk, vegetable oil, and egg, then add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and stir to combine. Fill the tins with the batter and bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

The batter doesn’t need to be creamy smooth, so don't worry if it's a little lumpy.

Things You’ll Need.

Whole Wheat Scones : Measuring cups and spoons, Mixing bowl, Knife, Spoon for stirring, Oven, Baking sheet, Cooking oil.

Spelt Cookies : Oven, Measuring cups and spoons, Electric mixer, Baking sheet, Spoon.

Barley Buttermilk Muffins : Oven, Muffin tray, Nonstick spray or paper liners, Measuring cups and spoons, Whisk, Spoon for stirring.

Januari 25, 2020

How to Pull Off Thin Hand-Pulled Lamian Noodles (part 1).

How to Pull Off Thin Hand-Pulled Lamian Noodles  (part 1).

By TIM CHIN.

Hand-pulled noodles are notoriously difficult to make, let alone master. But with the help of science (and some nutritional yeast), they're easy to make at home.
If you’re a fan of Hong Kong cinema, you might be familiar with the 1997 action comedy Mr. Nice Guy, starring Jackie Chan. In the film’s opening scene, Jackie is on live television, standing at a flour-dusted table, stretching, twisting, and pulling a piece of dough into fine strands of noodles, a process the TV host can only describe as alchemy. “When I first saw [that movie],” recalls Luke Rymarz, a software engineer and hand-pulled noodle enthusiast based in San Jose, “I thought, ‘Oh cool, special effects. That’s neat.’ And then I realized that hand-pulled noodles were actually a thing. And I thought, all right, time to figure out how to do this.”
Luke spent the next year experimenting and documenting those experiments, blindly tinkering his way toward a passable recipe for lamian. Lamian translates to “pulled noodles,” and specifically refers to the thin variety famous in China. “At the time—this was 12, 13 years ago—there was hardly anything on the internet in English, or any information about it. All of my experience is [based on] the little bits I could glean off of Google translate. And just making dough, over and over again, for hours.”
Like Luke, I have spent the last few years learning how to make lamian. I first encountered these noodles at a tiny hole-in-the-wall lunch joint in Montreal. A rail-thin cook was throwing, twisting, pulling, and generally manhandling a mound of dough nearly the length of his body. Within seconds—after a few nimble flicks and plenty of flair—he created hundreds of strands of noodles. He tossed the noodles in a boiling cauldron of water, reached for another log of dough, and repeated this dance for the remainder of my meal—no hesitation, no breaks, not even a paltry sip of water. Talk about a real dough-slinger.
Of course, this guy made pulling those noodles look easy, even natural. It’s neither of those things. In fact, I’m willing to bet that anyone who has ever tried to make thin pulled lamian at home, with no prior experience, will tell you: It's hard. Recipes and videos exist online, but there’s a swamp of conflicting information, most of which leads down a treacherous black hole teeming with Reddit neckbeards, disgruntled YouTube commenters, and holier-than-thou Chowhound geeks.

Pulling noodles is something I never imagined pursuing. The technique seemed unattainable, unapproachable, reserved for masters of a time-honored and mystical craft—certainly inappropriate for home cooks. But as luck would have it, while working at my last test kitchen job with Sasha years ago, I was assigned to learn about pulled noodles in all their forms. After slurping virtually every pulled noodle Boston had to offer, I set about developing recipes. Lamian sat squarely among them. But after almost 50 tests, I still didn’t have a working recipe. Even building on the work of people like Luke, my method was fickle, riddled with inconsistencies, and difficult to replicate. The recipe never saw the light of day.
Time passed. I tried, here and there, to tinker with my formula. I watched videos. I spent hours reading archived forum posts from the furthest reaches of the web. I reached out to family members to help translate texts. I tried interning at noodle shops (the owners of which either shunned me or swore me to lifelong secrecy). I reached out to Luke for guidance. I was determined to figure out a recipe that would work for the home cook—no special equipment, no advanced noodle degree, no secret ingredients, no secrecy required.
Then I had a breakthrough. And it all came down to understanding gluten.

How Hand-Pulled Noodles Are Typically Made.
The de facto Mecca of pulled noodles is Lanzhou, the capital city of China’s Gansu Province. The city is the birthplace of Lanzhou beef noodle soup, a dish that’s inspired the creation of over 35,000 noodle shops across China. You can even attend one of a handful of noodle-pulling schools, with programs ranging in duration from a few days to a few years. There, students learn the ins and outs of making lamian, always by hand, starting from mixing and kneading dough all the way to pulling and cooking. In order to be certified, students must pass a final exam: Roughly twenty minutes to produce nine varieties of noodles of different sizes and shapes.

The process is simple: Wheat flour, water, salt, and sometimes an additive are mixed and kneaded until a pliable dough forms. This kneading stage takes anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour, depending on the formula and the practitioner. The dough is stretched, doubled over, twisted, and stretched again, and this process is repeated until the dough can be stretched easily to arm’s length. The dough is then rolled in flour or oil and pulled into thin strands. The key to success is repeatable extensibility—or the ability to stretch the dough over and over without it breaking or tearing—which, as we’ll see, defies many of the commonly understood laws of gluten.

Sometimes additives like fat, alkalis, or other ingredients are incorporated into the dough to improve texture or to facilitate extensibility. The most common and traditional additive is a mysterious powder called penghui, which is derived from a desert plant called penghuicao (halogeton). The plant is roasted and processed with potassium carbonate and packaged as a commercial powder. Minute quantities of penghui are mixed with flour, resulting in a dough with ideal extensibility and chew. One source claims that the addition of penghui transforms the dough to putty, allowing the cook to stretch the dough seemingly at will.

The problem? Unless you or someone you know lives in China, finding penghui isn’t easy. And seeing as I didn’t feel comfortable asking people to import a sketchy white powder across international borders, I was left to find other ways to develop that all-important repeatable extensibility.

Gluten’s Role in Dough: Beyond the Basics.
To fully understand my noodle journey, it’s useful to know a bit about dough, and specifically gluten. If you’ve ever dealt with a dough in your life, you probably know something about gluten. Simply put, gluten is the protein matrix (basically a molecular web) that forms when wheat flour is mixed with water. Gluten is what gives wheat flour dough its structure and properties: The stretch, the texture, the snap, the stickiness, and flow.
If you’ve delved a little deeper, you might also know that gluten comprises two protein molecule units: glutenin and gliadin. The larger glutenin molecules are mainly responsible for the strength and elasticity of a dough. Look at them closely enough and you'll see they are kinked, linear, and chain-like, and have many sites for bonding with other glutenin molecules.
Smaller gliadin molecules, on the other hand, are said to contribute to the extensibility of a dough. They are spherical (or “globular”), have less surface area, and have limited capacity for bonding with other molecules.
Together, these two proteins are what give dough its viscoelastic properties—meaning it can simultaneously flow (viscosity) and be elastic.
Before going any further, let’s also define elasticity and extensibility—both of which are important to understanding noodle-pulling.

Elasticity.
Elasticity refers to a dough’s ability to return to its initial position after deformation. If you stretch a dough and it snaps back to its original shape, that dough is said to be elastic. Elasticity is important because it gives dough both structure and integrity. Without elasticity, a bread dough wouldn’t hold its shape or have any chew. Similarly, without elasticity, a noodle dough would fall apart if stretched too far, and likely disintegrate when cooked. On the other hand, a dough with too much elasticity would tear under too much stress, like a rubber band snapping.
Elasticity is the result of those large, chain-like glutenin molecules bonding together. Mixing, kneading, and resting dough all encourage this bonding. The more bonds between glutenin molecules, the more elastic a dough becomes.
(In some circles, dough nerds like to distinguish tenacity from elasticity. Tenacity is the property of a dough to resist a stretching action or deformation in the first place. You might encounter this phenomenon while trying to shape or stretch a low-hydration bread dough, for instance. For our purposes, this distinction is not too important. But the more you know, you know?)

Extensibility.
Extensibility is defined as the ability of a dough to stretch. For a pulled noodle dough like lamian, extensibility is crucial. In general, the more compact and spherical gliadin protein molecules contribute to extensibility because they move freely within the gluten matrix. They do not bond in the way that the larger glutenins do.
The balance between elasticity and extensibility determines how well a noodle dough fares. In general, the ideal noodle dough has high extensibility and just enough elasticity to retain its structure and chew.

Bonds Between Gluten Molecules.
The last and most critical concept—the one that most people gloss over—has to do with bonding between gluten molecules. Both glutenin and gliadin involve disulfide bonds. For gliadins, these bonds occur within single molecules to stabilize their spherical structure. But for glutenins, disulfide bonds (a.k.a. disulfide bridges) can occur between their larger, chain-like units. These bonds are strong, and they’re believed to determine the elasticity of a dough. In other words, the more disulfide bonds there are between glutenin units, the harder a dough is to stretch.
Think of a single glutenin molecule as a train with several train cars hooked together. Now imagine a second train on a parallel track with chains joining it to the first train. Those chains are disulfide bonds. That’s basically what occurs between glutenin units, but in multiple directions and multiple orientations, forming a complex, strong web that is difficult to break.
Luckily, these bonds can be broken.

Testing.
Trial 1: Hand Mixing, No Additives
By certain accounts, it was possible to pull noodles through sheer force of will and a little elbow grease. Apparently, you could even do it without additives. This was the first strategy I tested years ago: I mixed flour, water, and salt, and kneaded until the dough came together. I kneaded, tore, and stretched the dough further until I could get some semblance of extensibility. On average, this process took anywhere from 40 minutes to over an hour of sweaty, rage-inducing labor. At best, I could get the dough to stretch a couple times before tearing. At worst, I was stuck in dough purgatory, cursed with a dough that refused to relax and tore at the slightest suggestion.
I tinkered with hydration, flour type, and salt concentration. I tried no less than 35 times. But no matter which formula I used, I couldn’t readily produce a dough with repeatable extensibility. I did have some success with low-protein cake flour, which seemed to relax after persistent kneading and twirling, but I was still nowhere near pulling passable noodles.
One source recommended an overnight rest after initial mixing. In theory, this extended rest allows the dough to hydrate and gluten to develop fully, and relaxes gluten enough to facilitate stretching (a familiar phenomenon if you’ve ever made fresh egg dough pasta). There is also some enzymatic breaking of disulfide bonds, which contributes to extensibility. At first, this technique seemed promising. I could stretch the dough a few times easily. But after a few more passes, the dough eventually snapped back and tore in my hands. I still wasn’t producing enough extensibility.
If hand-mixing didn’t work—or wasn’t feasible in a sensible amount of time—then how else could I get an extensible dough?

Trial 2: Really, Really Aggressive Kneading.
The second strategy I found involved kneading a dough in a stand mixer for an extended period of time. The logic here was that aggressive, sustained kneading weakened the gluten network sufficiently to produce a plastic dough with low elasticity and high extensibility. (Initial mixing and kneading develops gluten to a point, producing a decidedly un-stretchy, elastic dough. But excessive kneading beyond that point could actually weaken the gluten network.) More precisely, those strong disulfide bonds could be broken mechanically; with sufficient force over time, enough bonds could be broken to produce a dough with repeatable extensibility. And instead of the back-breaking work of stretching and kneading by hand, a stand mixer could accomplish this more efficiently and in less time.

Anecdotally, this logic made sense to me. I remembered spotting a giant Hobart mixer at that noodle shop in Montreal, whirring away, kneading dough for the entirety of my meal. I even found interviews of noodle chefs in which they admitted to using large bread mixers to meet the demands of a large operation. In the most extreme example, I found a recipe that recommended kneading a dough for nearly two hours in a stand mixer.
And you know what? This method definitely worked. After two hours of kneading in a KitchenAid, I found this “over-kneaded” dough to be pliable, extensible, and similar to silly putty in texture. There was very little elasticity. Just a few minutes of stretching and twirling later, I was able to pull some respectable noodles.
But I still wasn’t satisfied. After all, I couldn’t justify the risk of burning out the motor of a pricey stand mixer just to make some noodles. I didn’t want to leave legions of would-be noodle pullers with $300 paper weights. Plus, two hours is a criminally long amount of time. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Fortunately, there exist recipes with more moderate kneading times. The most popular of these comes from Luke Rymarz himself. The key feature is a 12-minute kneading time in a stand mixer, followed by another 15 minutes of stretching and twirling by hand. “I was doing it all by hand initially,” he says. But one day, after posting his recipe online, he was invited to demo his technique at a nearby cooking school. The instructor prepared his dough in a huge industrial mixer. “When he gave me that dough, I went, ‘Holy cow. This is amazing. This is the best dough.’ It was warm, it had a nice texture, it was like clay. Very pliable.”
Up until that point, Luke’s recipe was the closest I had come to successfully and consistently pulling noodles within a reasonable amount of time. The resulting dough was pliable, extensible, and fairly easy to pull into thin noodles. But the technique still had some disadvantages: The cooked noodles lacked the chew and structure I was after; the recipe required very specific brands of flour; and the technique demanded extensive stretching and twirling for success, despite all that time kneading in a stand mixer. The recipe had too many variables, and took too long to make. It was inconsistent. Most of all, I wanted a simpler method that didn’t rely so heavily on machinery. “I’ve repaired my stand mixer probably four or five times,” Luke warns. “So it’s not a great option for the home cook.”

Trial 3: Alkali Madness.
Since I couldn’t rely on machinery, I turned toward uncharted territory: additives. Using penghui was out of the question—I just couldn’t get my hands on any. But could there be any substitutes?
Popular opinions online suggested that it was the alkali in penghui that changed the texture of the dough and made it extensible. In reality, adding an alkali to a dough just made it tougher and harder to stretch. According to Luke, who tried every possible combination of kansui (a popular alkali solution used in ramen noodles), baking soda, and baked baking soda (sodium carbonate), “it helps with texture, and gives you a better chew, but it makes it harder to pull.”
I found his observation to be largely true. I tried adding baking soda and lye water in varying concentrations to a working dough recipe, kneading by hand and stretching until I could stretch the dough. As the concentration of alkali increased, the dough became increasingly difficult to stretch—in many cases tearing under stress.
If adding alkali wasn’t relaxing a noodle dough, then what was it doing, and how? This study suggests that the addition of kansui increases disulfide bond formation between glutenin units. More disulfide bonds mean more elasticity, and more elasticity means more chew at the expense of extensibility. Long story short, it appears that adding alkali makes pulling noodles harder, not easier.

to be continued .

Agustus 02, 2020

How to Add Gluten to Flour

How to Add Gluten to Flour.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. It adds elasticity to bread dough and absorbs moisture to add structure and make the finished product moist and fluffy. White bread flour has more gluten than whole wheat, which is why whole wheat breads tend to be denser and more crumbly. Other flours, such as rye and all-purpose wheat, also have lower gluten contents and tend to make drier, more crumbly breads. However, you can increase the gluten content by adding vital wheat gluten to your flour.

Steps.

1. Add the vital wheat gluten on a per-recipe basis and not to the entire bag of flour. The standard gluten/flour ratio is 1 tbsp. (15 ml) for every 2 to 3 cups (473 ml to 711 ml) of flour.

2. Mix in the vital wheat gluten before you add the other dry ingredients once you have determined how to add gluten to flour.

Add your flour to a bowl, add the gluten and mix it together with a fork or pour it into a sifter and sift it into a fresh bowl.

3. Combine your wet ingredients per the instructions in your bread recipe.

Once you have mixed the gluten into the flour you can use it as you would any other flour.

Tips.

Gluten ratios are very exact. If you add more than the recommended amount of gluten, your bread will not rise properly and could dry out. Add less and the bread will crumble.

Avoid adding too much additional flour during the kneading process and knead the dough with a gentle touch. Excess kneading and additional flour actually creates more gluten and you could end up with excess gluten in your product.

Avoid adding gluten to cake, cookie, or pie recipes, where it will make the final product heavy and tough. These recipes rely on other factors, such as the steam produced during the baking process, to maintain moisture in the final product. Gluten is best reserved for breads, which need the protein to maintain the structure.

Warnings.

Do not add gluten to your flour if you are using gluten-free flours for recipes specific to celiac disease or gluten intolerance.

Things You'll Need.

Vital wheat gluten.

Measuring spoon or cup.

Bowl.

Fork or flour sifter.

Desember 10, 2019