I suspect a major disaster. I never made lemon chiffon cake so I went by a recipe which called for about a cup or so of salad oil. I got all my mis en place and went to work, step by step by the recipe. I have no idea what the batter should look like since, as I said, I've never done this recipe. I folded in the whipped egg whites and put it in the pan then into the oven. As I started to make the glaze for the top I saw a little bowl on the table full of the oil that I measured out. I'll find out in about ten minutes but I have a question: How disastrous will this be that I forgot the oil?
It will result in a drier cake...something like a fatless sponge. You can add the oil by folding it to the mixture but the batter specific gravity will be higher( about 0.60 or more) meaning the cake will come heavier....but it depends on your skill. You will not need to fold it all the oil but just a half or two thirds of it to minimize that increase in batter specific gravity. In the past I have experienced making chiffon cakes like that...but the recipe I was using have higher amount of egg whites( around 110-% based on flour and when I folded in the oil( around 45% based on flour ,the batter specific gravity was still in the light side ( around 0.45 from
0.35) therefore the cake still comes out satisfactory....
The cake did, in fact, turn out satisfactory, but the texture was very wrong. It didn't taste dry, but I learned that chiffon cake should have a certain feel which this apparently didn't have. I showed it to my mom who predicted it would probably be more like a lemon angelfood cake, but after tasting it, she said it tastes more like a lemon chiffon cake than any kind of angelfood cake, but the sponge was wrong. Nevertheless, after the lemon glaze had a chance to soak-in, it tasted pretty good, and I concur with her opinion. I'm happy the batter was so forgiving. I couldn't as easily get away with that making bread. I can't usually eat cake, though I can drink a pint of hot sauce without consequences. I don't know why; maybe it's because of some crazy combination of the fat and sugar content. This cake didn't give me an upset stomach. Maybe next time I will cut the fat in half or by a third **but not fail to include it**. That way I will be able to safely eat it and somewhat approximate the correct texture.
By the way, I didn't have the opportunity to use the standard 10" x 4" tube pan with the removeable sides because I don't have one. Instead I used a bundt pan. It was difficult to remove from the pan, probably because of my failure to include the oil.
I hope you're not suggesting folding in the oil AFTER folding the yoke mixture into the stiffly-peaked egg whites if I forgot to add it earlier. I'm pretty sure that once the whites are folded in, it's already too late to start thinking about adding the oil, but I could be wrong.
. I'm happy the batter was so forgiving. chiffon batter had better tolerance than normal sponge batters so you find that it still come out satisfactory.
In my experience bread is more forgiving than cakes...
I can't usually eat cake, though I can drink a
LOL you have a penchant for hot stuff! than the sweet ones..good for you! you can put finely chopped jalapeno, or even habanero in your chiffon if you want.... to make it hot and sweet
With Chiffon the vegetable oil content can range from 25-60% based on flour weight.therefore you had lots of options.
Actually if you bake such cake like angel food and chiffon in the tube pan that particular cake tin is left ungreased as the cake is supposed to climb the walls to attain maximum volume. If you greased it up9 the cake tin) it will slide up during baking but the cake just slide down when done resulting in poor volume and overall cake quality.
The way how chiffon is made is technically first to emulsify the fat with the yolk together with the rest of the batter ingredients same principle as in mayonnaise. Then theegg white foam will supply structural properties confering the desred qualities in the finished cake. If you add the oil after the yolk was stirred into the batter you will have difficulty in having the egg yolk components bind with the oil...if you don;t stir it properly you will see blobs of oil somewhere in tthe batter... Although it happens sometimes..that you forget to add the yolks until the last time and you can still incorporate the oil with vigorous stirring, If you had good quality cake flour and baking powder you can see much significant difference but if your flour is of poor quality you will get large holes in the cake.
I really don't know where to start, but I'll just jump in with a few comments. The cake did have a few holes, but not large ciabatta-like holes, maybe because I used A/P flour; I didn't have any cake flour. I was careful to not overmix the batter so I wouldn't create too much gluten and toughen-up the cake.
Wow! Jalapeño-Lime Chiffon Cake! What a concept! Would it work? Substitute the lemon amounts with half jalapeño and half lime? Hmmm.... Craziness approaching 2:00 am on the west coast USA. I suppose a shot of tequila would do something to the cake too. No, that would probably ruin it. Maybe I'll just take the shot of tequila directly into my stomach first, then attempt this. Please advise.
Yeah, I'll keep the fat on the lower end, closer to 25%-30%.
The cake DID climb--up and over the top; I thought It was acting like a soufflé. I thought I was going to have to saw off the bottom so the cake would stand straight and level after I took it out of the form, but after it cooled that turned out okay.
It's interesting you mentioned mayonnaise since we had to make mayonnaise last semester in cooking class. We had to do it by hand--no electric mixers allowed. We had to hold the bowl with one hand, wire whip in the other hand, and with our third hand (as if we had a third hand--no helpers allowed either for this competency exam) slowly drizzle-in the oil. I hated it. My arm was sore for two days after that. It's so much easier with an electric mixer. Anyway, that's the idea? Perhaps I should ignore the written recipe or rewrite it to include this concept. My recipe calls for mixing the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, etc., then, in this order, add the oil, egg yolks, water, lemon zest and vanilla, then beat until smooth. Are you suggesting that I emulsify the oil, egg yolks, and water first then add it to the dry ingredients? I was also thinking about adding the zest to the sugar early and then mixing it in with the dry ingredients before adding the liquid. That way the flavor of the lemon zest would be completely distributed. So my instructions are a little off? This is not a very complicated recipe, but it isn't written in standard "baker's percentages" as I would have liked. I want to totally rewrite this and use ounces and/or grams instead of cups and then calculate the percentages. This time I'll use the lessons learned through my conversations with you to adjust the prodecure while I'm at it. I'll eagerly await your reply. Thank you.
By the time I'm done will it still be called chiffon? Or will it be something original?
Rich
"chembake" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Theoritically it would.... Pouring some liqueur when the cake has cooled down can add a variance in taste...
My recipe calls for mixing the
Nope everything is fine...you can do either way in adding the lemon zest and some lemon juice or lime..whichever you like...
Well the cake is still basically based on chiffon batter...therefore the outcome will be likely similar. but you better chopped the pepper in the food processor and blend it well with the batter so that it will be evenly distributed.
If this ever happens again, cool the cake in the pan and then poke holes in the bottom of the cake with a thin rod (the handle of a slender wooden spoon worrs well), Pour about 2/3 c of sweet (pineapple or orange) over the cake, cover it and let it set for about an hour in the fridge. Then you can remove it from the pan (may have to wait until it comes back to room temp). It will be moist and taste wonderful.
Okay, here's the latest. I went back to school on Thursday and discussed this whole idea with my chef. He cringed at the idea of putting Jalapeño in the cake itself, but instead suggested I make a regular lime chiffon cake and then put the Jalapeño only in the glaze. Yes, this does sound interesting. I'm going to try it this afternoon.
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