Tuesday, 15 July 2014

CAKE FLOUR

What is cake flour.. ?
I first came across the term in   "The Cake Bible " by Rose Levy Beranbaum ..
The term is commonly used in American recipes .
According to my dictionary of food by Charles Sinclair   " it is a very  high extraction  low protein  white flour used for making  light textured cakes."
Well that cleared up nothing ......!
I asked two qualified cooks , one didn't know ... the other said it was just self raising flour ..really ?
At this stage I`m still unsure ...... actually I`m none the wiser.
Why do I need to know  ? Because my friend Laufa sent me recipe for a cake with just 3 ingredients and you guessed it one of them was cake flour !!!
Grrr.
Surely , somewhere in my collection of cookbooks there must be a simple definition of cake flour.
Got it .
In the glossary of Women`s Weekly .. COOK.
Cake flour has a lower protein level and the least amount of gluten of all wheat flours , therefore delivering a delicate and tender finish .... so much for the trained chef ...it is an all purpose flour .. plain flour .It`s ideal in sponge cakes and some cookie batters.
So if the recipe calls for cake flour  and of course we haven't got it , substitute plain, all purpose flour  and simply subtract 2 level tablespoons of flour for every cup of flour called for in the recipe.
Now we can all have a go at the 3 ingredient cake recipe.

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