Every week, baking expert Alice Medrich will be going rogue on Food52 -- with shortcuts, hacks, and game-changing recipes.
Today: Go rogue the right way with Alice's tips for changing up baking recipes.
Altering recipes is a fantastic way to invent whole new dishes, but tinkering with cakes and cookies is not as straightforward as playing with soups and stews! Here are my tips to help you experiment and create more successfully.
Start smart! Don’t try to turn a cake recipe into a cookie or vice versa: start with a recipe that you already know and like, then have your way with it.
Focus on flavors and inclusions rather than messing with structural ingredients: Extracts, liqueurs, herbs, spices, grated citrus zests, and such can be exchanged for one another, as can inclusions like chopped nuts or dried fruit or chocolate pieces -- all without changing the ingredients that provide the structure and texture of the recipe. Inclusions can be added to most cookies, scones, biscuits, etc., but they may sink to the bottom of cakes. For a sure thing, start with a cake recipe that already has inclusions and substitute some new ones. Otherwise, you may be inventing a new upside-down cake. (Psst, pretend it was intentional.)
To make significant changes in a recipe that may affect structure and texture (such as those that follow) -- make just one change at a time and take it slow: If the recipe does not turn out well, you want to know which change caused the problem. And, if the change is gradual, you will learn how much change you can get away with before the recipe is destroyed.
To reduce sugar or fat: Start by cutting by just 10 or 15 percent of the sugar or fat. If you like the results, you can try cutting a little more the next time.
To add whole grain flours: Start by replacing just 10 or 15 percent of the flour in the recipe with an equal amount of a whole grain flour. If you like the results, you can replace a little more the next time.
To replace butter with a non-dairy fat: Substitute another fat that is plastic (not liquid) at room temperature, such as coconut oil, or a non-dairy spread such as margarine -- the latter should be labeled "suitable for baking", otherwise it may contain too much water.
To replace dairy milk: Substitute unsweetened non-dairy milk such as soy, almond, rice, hemp, oat, or coconut. Lite or lowfat coconut milk is a better substitute for an equal amount of whole milk than is regular coconut milk; it also has more coconutty flavor. Often you can replace dairy milk with water!
The following substitutions are more complicated, likely to change or ruin the structure or texture of baked goods, affect browning, or react with leavings. Don't try them without further research.
- Substituting liquid fats for butter
- Substituting liquid sweeteners for sugar
- Substituting (or adding) acidic ingredients such as buttermilk or lemon juice for milk or water (or vice versa)
- Substituting (other than in small amounts as above) gluten-free flours for wheat flour
More: Get more tips on converting recipes to gluten-free from Shauna Ahern.
Alice's new book Seriously Bitter Sweet is a complete revision of her IACP award-winning Bittersweet, updated for the 54%, 61%, and 72% (and beyond) bars available today. It's packed with tricks, techniques, and answers to every chocolate question, plus 150 seriously delicious recipes -- both savory and sweet.
Photos by James Ransom
Written by: Alice Medrich
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29 Comments
Yes reduce the sugar is in every HA cookbook I own or read.
One enjoyable Cook Book First published in 1903 "Rocky Mountain Cook Book" by Caroline Trask Norton. For High Altitude Cooking.
Baking and all other cooking.
Baking is a science. Correct Measurements are important for success. I certainly had many failures until I learned to ask, experiment and make loads of notes.
Food Preservation is another aspect that needs to be extremely researched and followed for safety.
Great article.. It took me several years to find the 'best' IMHO banana bread.. and yes I use ripe but NOT overripe bananas...and rum. Have a great Oct 1st all.
Don't dos that I have done and worked well: used almond flour in pineapple upside down cake. Came out amazing! And I sub veggie oil for butter/ lard in pie crust .... Light and flaky!
Whole grain flours should almost always be mixed in along with non whole grain flours unless you like the heavy texture. In bread baking I always autolyse the dough for 20 minutes to allow the heavier whole grain flour to soak up the liquid. The reason to do this is to avoid adding more liquid because the dough looks dry and accidentally adding too much liquid. The effect isn't as obvious in cakes because they often use more liquid ingredients, but with whole grains they usually can use more time in contact with the liquids before more liquid is added.
Fats: creates tenderness and/or flakiness (sp) in baked goods. Fats that solidify at room temp create a different texture so subbing with liquid oils can work in something like a cake because the cake will not harden up like it would if you used butter. Some cakes work best with butter tho. If the recipe calls for oil don't automatically sub butter or other hard fat.
Acids: can be flavoring or used as a catalyst for rising via baking soda. My favorite way to add more acid flavor to a recipe without adding more liquid (lemon juice etc) is to add a small amount of granulated citric acid. Great stuff to have around.
Eggs: Emulsifiers, fats and create air and rising in baking. I don't know enough about eggless baking to advise but for GF baking whipping egg whites separately and folding into the average cake recipe is a good strategy for getting GF cakes to rise better without the Gluten. McGee's chapter or Michael Rhulman's book about eggs are great reads.
Sugar: Sugar draws water so creates moisture and tenderness in baked goods. Reduce the sugar by too much and you may find it tough and dry. Experiment wisely. Again McGee is great to read about sugar and how it works.
Flours: Gluten free flours work best in baking when the item doesn't need a lot of structure like cakes, quick breads, biscuits, cookies. GF makes a more tender product as well. Regular yeast breads, pie crusts, pizza dough are all harder to make with GF flours. Adjust expectations but continue to experiment. Happy baking:)
Increase baking temperature by 15 to 25 degrees
Reduce baking powder and baking soda by half
Reduce sugar by 1 to 3 tbsp per cup
Increase liquid. For each cup add 3 to 4 tbsp
Sometimes reduce fat by 1 to 2 tbsp for eac cup
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