Tuesday, January 4, 2011

How Do You Know If a Recipe Will Work Before You Try It

How many times have you tried a recipe someone told you about only to be disappointed? It happens. I can share some things to look out for BEFORE you make the recipe. First, a little background. I have never been to culinary school, even though I tried to go. I have only taken the Wilton classes of cake decorating that you can sign up for at places like Michael's. With that said, let's consider a cookie recipe.

The first thing to look at is what type of fat is being used. Butter gives a better flavor, but it also has a tendency to make the cookie a little more crisp and has a tendency to spread a little more in the oven. Shortening doesn't have the same flavor, but it produces a softer cookie usually, and doesn't spread as much in the oven as butter. I know shortening has a bad rap, but consider this. If you compare butter to shortening, the room temperature test is equal. Both are soft at room temperature. You also have to consider the quality of the butter or shortening you use. The preferred butter for me is Land Of Lakes, unsalted. I've tried many others over the years and found this one to be stable. I used to use supermarket brands until I had cookies go flat. When I researched the store brand I found out that the manufacture had decided to make it a little cheaper by adding more water. Well, after this happened to several brands, I decided that if I was going to go to the trouble of making the cookies, I would prefer they turn out right. Therefore I only use Land of Lakes for my cookies. I use store brand for other things, just not cookies. The same thing goes for your shortening. I only use Crisco, because they have proven their reliability time after time. You have to find the best shortening and butter for where you live, but do your research.

Now, all that said, I usually mix shortening and butter for my cookies. I want soft cookies always. If I want a crispy one, I bake it a little longer or flatten it more.

The next ingredient you need to look at is your eggs. I usually use large because most standard recipes specify that large be used. If however, all you have is medium, I usually use 3 medium to replace 2 large.
Next would be the dry ingredients. Be sure to use the flour specified. Most cookies require all-purpose flour.
Cake flour would make cookies too soft and fragile and bread flour would make them tough. Self rising flour usually isn't used because when you are making cookies, you need better control of your salt and baking powder.

Lastly, comes the flavoring or extract. I try not to use imitation flavors, but sometimes it is all you have. For the best flavor, especially in sugar cookies, you need an extract like Neilson-Massey. They have a top quality product. They are more expensive, but the flavor will prove to be worth it. Of course Watkins products are good too, but I think Neilson-Massey edges them out a little.

So, since you have your information about the specific ingredients, let's take a look at the overall recipe.
You  should always omit ingredients that you are allergic to or just plain don't like. When I peruse a recipe for the first time, I look at ingredients first, then amounts of ingredients. Finally I look at the directions and see if they make sense. If you look at a recipe and notice it has an ingredient you're not sure of, take a minute to look it up online. Find out if it is necessary to the recipe. For instance, once I looked over a recipe from Martha Stewart that included Creme de Cassis as one of the ingredients, but didn't know what it was, except that it was a liqueur. Since I live in a dry county, I decided to make it with a non-alcoholic substitute of something else. The cookies looked the same, but until I remade them with the Creme de Cassis, I didn't know what difference it made. I found out that it didn't make much difference to me. I don't usually drink except a little wine now and then, but they did taste different. Creme de Cassis liqueur is a currant flavored liqueur. I'm not a great fan of liqueurs anyway, but they do serve a purpose.

Tomorrow I will give you a recipe for a pound cake that is excellent, but includes an alcoholic ingredient that works great.

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