My Chiffon skill is obviously "not there" yet. I tried making a slightly different recipe yesterday. The cake ended up in my "not so perfect" category.
You might think the above looks nice, but this cake shrank miserably once out of the oven.
Although on the whole it tasted like a Chiffon, the top portion (the shrinking layer) tasted a little rubbery. There were big holes in the cake though I had given the pan a bang before sending it into the oven.
I suspect I could have over beaten the egg whites a little. Although it didn't separate into liquid, it was very stiff and a bit difficult to fold in. Maybe that explains why I always have little specks of white in the batter.
In 周老师's tips on Chiffon, she mentioned that
"用機器打時，同一盆裡每個地方的發泡程度會有不同，需要不時停下來以大橡皮刀將盆邊的蛋白刮下來，全體輕輕拌兩下，同時測試一下是否可以拉出不下垂的尖峰。如果下垂，當然還不夠，如果拉不出尖峰，那就打過頭了。"
Meaning, if you can't pull the egg white to achieve a tip, it has been over beaten. That could very possibly be my problem as I always have difficulty testing for stiff peak. There wasn't much of a peak to test with, mine was just a whole chunk of stiff egg white when I pull the beater up.
I'm going to try this same recipe again tomorrow, bearing in mind not to over beat the egg white. Stay tune for my update then.
9 comments:
I faced the same problem of not knowing whether the whites have reached the stiff peak stage!! Even reading the quotes from your book, I am still at a lost ;)
I hope you are able to come up with a great Chiffon today, 加油!
Jia you... coz it took me few trials before i nailed the chiffon cake making.... now its priority bakes preference from my siblings ... =D
Yes, that is the spirit. Don't give up. I beat the whites until it has a little hook shape, before the totally stiff shape. And I knew when to stop because I had the problem of overbeating it many times before.
As for the bubbles, they look much better than mine. It took me about 4-5 cake trials to get it better.
HHB, I think I understand it a little bit more now. Look out for my next post, I'll be sharing with you the videos that have been great help to me.
Yan, thanks for your enouragement. I've tried Chiffon for 2 years before I finally see some results.
Teatime Treats, I can understand what you mean now after looking at my help videos. I have also overbeaten my eggs in the earlier trials.
Me too. I think I always underbeat the egg whites and make my chiffon cakes shrink every time. Hope we can improve and make perfect chiffon cakes soon! :)
Practice makes perfect..try again and you'll get it right one day. I think all those holes in your chiffon is cause your egg whites foam are not blended well with your egg yolks batter. It's takes rather longer time to get them mix and you have to do it gently and patiently.
SSB, I still think chiffon is pretty tricky, getting it right at one time doesn't mean you'll get it right the next time.
TinTin, does that mean I have undermix my yolk and white batter? I was afraid to overdo it and deflate the batter.
Did you bang the cake pan before and after baking to remove air bubbles? I do that all the time.
Blessed Homemaker, ya, I did, sometimes 2-3 times too.
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