What is the reason why there is obviously a big hole in the middle of Qifeng cake?
Protein didn't foam until it was dry.
Excessive mixing of flour leads to gluten.
The baking time is not long enough, and there is still a lot of water in the cake ... The way to judge is that you can gently pat the surface of the cake with your hand, which will be very elastic and there will be no rustling sound. In addition, you can insert a thin bamboo stick without getting the batter wet. So you can bake for another 5 minutes. I usually have an experience that I bake cakes for 10 minutes or more when I smell their baking fragrance.
The baked cake can be shaken on the table to release water, and then cooled upside down.
In these steps, step 3 didn't notice that the side of the cake was concave and the surface was flat. Step 4 only applies to thick model cakes. When baking a flat cake, the bottom of the cake must be covered with release paper. After baking, the cake will be demoulded, the release paper will be torn off, and it will be cooled flat. In fact, cream cakes are the easiest to bake, and novices can start with this. If you want to make decorative birthday cakes, you can bake Qifeng cakes on a flat plate and print them out one by one with Mu Si circle. This way.
Many people say that Qi Feng didn't shrink until it was turned upside down. When the cake cooled, it had shrunk to half its height. The most likely reason for this shrinkage is that there is still too much water in the cake. If the cake is colored before baking and patted on the surface by hand, it won't be baked. If the cake is coated thick enough, cover it with tin foil to prolong the baking time. In addition, avoid taking the cake out for inspection and then throwing it back for baking, especially Qifeng cake with high water content. The vibration when moving and the cold wind after baking are easy to shrink the cake that is not fully baked.
Qifeng cake is a transliteration of English chiffon cake, which belongs to the basic type of sponge cake. The making method of Qifeng cake is similar to that of egg-splitting sponge cake (the so-called egg-splitting stirring refers to the method of mixing egg white and egg yolk separately), that is, on the basis of making egg-splitting sponge cake, the proportion of raw materials is adjusted, and baking powder and tartar powder are added respectively when stirring egg yolk and egg white.
Qifeng cake is one of the most popular cakes at present, because of its bulky texture, high moisture content, light but not greasy taste, moist and smooth. It should be noted here that Qifeng cake is extremely soft in texture. If you bake the same weight of whole egg mixed sponge cake batter at the same time, the size of Qifeng cake may be twice that of the former. Although Qifeng cake is soft, it is very elastic and does not feel soft and rotten. It's delicious with all kinds of sauces. In addition, Qifeng cake can also be made into various cake rolls, Boston pies and so on.
Next, I'll introduce the recipe, making method and key technology of Qifeng cake to you.
Because Qifeng cake is made by mixing eggs, in the following two recipes, the author lists the yolk part and protein part respectively for everyone to master.
Mid-range Qifeng cake formula:
Egg yolk part: egg yolk 250g low-gluten flour 500g water 325g baking powder 10g sugar 350g salad oil 250g refined salt 5g.
Protein part: 500g of protein, 300g of sugar and 5g of Tatar powder.
High-grade Qifeng cake formula:
Egg yolk part: egg yolk 500g low-gluten flour 500g water 300g sugar 150g salad oil 250g baking powder 10g refined salt 10g.
Protein part: protein 1000 g white sugar 500 g tata powder 10 g.
Production method:
1. Put the egg yolk and white sugar into a stainless steel basin, beat with an egg beater until the white sugar is dissolved, then add salad oil and clear water in several times and stir well, then add the sieved flour, baking powder and refined salt and stir well.
2. Put the egg white and tartar powder into a stainless steel basin, beat with an egg beater until the egg white is thick white, then add sugar, and continue to beat until the egg white is soft-peaked (that is, the peak of the egg white stands upright without sagging) and the foam is hard.
3. First, pour about 1/3 of the protein paste into the egg yolk paste and stir gently, then pour it back into the remaining protein paste and stir gently.
4. Pour the mixed cake paste into the mold and scrape it flat, then put it into the ovens at 180℃ and 150℃ and bake it for about 40 minutes, and then take it out after baking.
Production key
First, material selection
1. Frozen eggs are the best choice, followed by fresh eggs, and old eggs cannot be selected. This is because protein and yolk of frozen eggs are easier to separate than fresh eggs. In addition, if the fresh egg white is left alone in the refrigerator for 1 ~ 2 days, and then taken out and whipped, it will foam more easily than the fresh egg white. This change in foaming capacity is actually caused by the PH value of protein dropping from 8.9 to 6.0.
2. Sugar should choose fine (or medium) white sugar, because it is easier to dissolve in egg yolk paste and protein paste.
3. Low gluten flour should be used instead of high gluten flour. High gluten flour produces a lot of gluten when it meets water, forming a gluten network, which affects cake foaming.
4. Liquid oil, such as salad oil, should be used as grease. This is because the oil is added after the egg yolk and sugar are evenly mixed. If solid oil is used, it is not easy to stir evenly, thus affecting the quality of the cake.
5. When using baking powder and tower powder, pay attention to its shelf life and whether it is damp. If ineffective baking powder and tartar powder are used, it will affect the expansion of the cake.
Step 2: Prepare egg yolk paste.
1. After adding sugar, the egg yolk must be whipped until it is milky white, so that the egg yolk and sugar are mixed evenly.
2. The purpose of adding salad oil is to make the cake moist and soft, but the dosage should be accurate. If the salad oil is added too little, the cake will dry; If you add too much oil, it will be difficult to blend evenly into the egg yolk paste. Too much oil will destroy the foam of the protein paste and ultimately affect the quality of the cake. In addition, salad oil needs to be stirred several times, which makes it easier to stir evenly.
The purpose of adding water is to adjust the consistency of egg yolk paste, so it should be added several times.
4. When adding flour, baking powder and refined salt to the egg yolk liquid, you can't beat too much, just stir it gently, otherwise it will produce a lot of gluten and affect the cake.
5. When making yolk paste, add baking powder, which is used to generate gas when the cake is baked and heated, so that the cake expands, and the dosage is about 2% of the flour.
Step 3: Stir the protein paste.
The beating quality of protein paste is the key to making Qifeng cake, but there are many factors that affect protein foaming.
1. Egg whites should not be mixed with egg yolks when separating eggs, and the equipment for beating eggs should be clean and free of grease.
2. The function of adding tower powder to protein is to make protein foam more stable, because tower powder is an organic acid salt (potassium hydrogen tartrate), which can reduce the PH value of protein paste to 5 ~ 7, and protein foam is the most stable at this time. The dosage of tower powder is 0.5% ~ 1% of that of protein.
3. Because sugar can help the protein to form a stable and lasting foam, white sugar should be put when beating the protein. In order to achieve good foamability and stability of protein cream, the amount of white sugar and the timing of addition are very important here. White sugar can increase the viscosity of protein, too high viscosity will inhibit the foaming property of protein, making it difficult for protein to fully foam (the more white sugar is used, the worse the foaming property of protein), but adding proper amount of white sugar can make protein foam stable and lasting. Therefore, the amount of sugar should not affect the foaming property of protein, but also make the protein achieve a stable effect. In addition, the best time to add white sugar is when the protein is whipped into coarse white foam, which can not only reduce the adverse effects of white sugar on protein foaming, but also make the protein foam more stable. If sugar is added too early, protein is not easy to foam; If it is added too late, the stability of protein foam is poor, sugar is not easy to be whipped, and protein paste may be whipped too much because of excessive whipping.
4. The method of beating the protein paste should be slow first and then fast, so that the protein can be easily sent away and the volume of the protein paste is larger.
5. Pay special attention to the foaming degree of the protein cream, that is, achieve hard foaming. Whipping protein cream can be divided into four stages: foaming, wet foaming, hard foaming and beating. In the first stage, the protein was mucinous when it was whipped, and foamed after about 65438 0 minutes. In the second stage, after adding sugar for 5 minutes, the protein is shiny and creamy. When the eggbeater is lifted, the peak of protein droops, which is wet foaming. In the third stage, beating for 2 ~ 3 minutes, lifting the eggbeater, you can see that the protein peak is upright, with poor luster and hard foaming; In the fourth stage, if we continue to fight, protein will fight too much in the form of a ball of cotton. When the protein paste is stirred until it is hard to foam, it has the characteristics of fine foam, milky white and dull, and does not flow when poured into a container.
4. Mixing of egg yolk paste and protein paste
1. Egg yolk paste and protein paste should be stirred evenly in a short time, and the stirring action should be light and fast. If the stirring time is too long or too fierce, the bubbles will easily disappear, the cake paste will gradually become thinner, and the volume of the baked cake will shrink. As we all know, two kinds of batter with similar concentration are easier to stir evenly, while the concentration of egg yolk paste is high and the concentration of protein paste is low, so it is difficult to stir evenly. Therefore, we should first dilute the egg yolk paste with part of the protein paste, and then mix the diluted egg yolk paste with the protein paste, so that it is easy to mix evenly and the mixing time of the two is shorter.
2. The preparation of egg yolk paste and the beating of protein paste should be carried out at the same time, and stirred evenly in time. Any kind of paste left for too long will affect the quality of the cake. If the egg yolk paste is left for too long, it is easy to cause oil-water separation. However, if the frost is left for too long, it is easy to make bubbles disappear.
Verb (short for verb) bake.
1. Before baking, the mold (or baking tray) can't be coated with grease, because the batter of Qifeng cake can only swell by sticking to the mold wall, and if there is grease, it will lose its adhesion.
2. When baking, choose a movable mold. This is because Qifeng cake is too soft and brittle when it is taken out. Only by using a movable mold can it be easily taken out.
3. Baking temperature is also the key to making cakes. The oven must be preheated before baking. In addition, the thickness of the cake blank will also require the baking temperature and time. If the cake blank is thick and large, the baking temperature should be reduced and the time should be extended accordingly; If the cake blank is thin and small, the baking temperature should be increased correspondingly and the baking time should be shortened relatively. Generally speaking, the ignition temperature of thick billet is 180℃ and 150℃. The furnace temperature of thin slab should be ignition 200℃, ignition 170℃ and baking for 35 ~ 45 minutes.
Whether the cake is mature or not can be tested by gently pressing the surface with your fingers. If there are fingerprints on the surface or you feel soft floating inside, it is immature; If it feels elastic, it is ripe. Take the cake out of the baking tray immediately after baking, otherwise it will shrink.