Book of the Week: Flour
14 Feb 2015
After working on cooke recipe substitutions, I needed to learn more about baking. This week I read Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe by Joanne Chang. These recipes were modified to work in your home kitchen from her bakery. Overachiever Joanne graduated with degrees applied mathematics and economics from Harvard and worked at a management consulting firm before going into the food industry. What’s with Asians food people and degrees from prestiges schools? Ming Tsai majored in mechanical engineering at Yale. She got job after job in the food industry after gliding through brief interviews, so she learned from experience and not culinary school. Eventually she opened up her ownsuccessful bakery called Flour. She also mentions that Chinese meals have no dessert, which is relevant, because she’s Chinese and makes desserts. The last chapter of the Language of Food explains why. Techniques There are a dozen techniques that a home baker should know. She goes over each technique with insightful tips.
- crumb coat
- blind baking
- cooking sugar
- creaming
- filling a pastry bag
- folding
- fraisage
- scalding
- slashing bread
- splitting cake into layers
- tempering
- whipping egg whites
Equipment One of the most important pieces of equipment a baker should have is a scale. The Tartine Bread cookbook also emphasizes the importance of a scale. Having a scale makes a recipe repeatable, because measuring by volume can result in large variations. There is one drawback to owning a scale. A scale covered with white powder makes it look like you sell crack. Especially if you have a small apartment and are measuring things in your living room area. Crème Fraîche
If there is a “magic” ingredient in my baking arsenal, it’s crème fraîche.
Crème fraîche is not a very standard thing in the States, so Joanne gives instructions on how to make your own by mixing a quarter of heavy cream with 4 tablespoons of buttermilk and letting stand over night at room temperature. It is also one of the magical ingredients in Gordon Ramsay’s scrambled eggs. It adds a rich tangy lift.
Joanne’s Top 12 Baking Tips
- Preheat the oven and make sure oven temperature is calibrated
- Get things in order and read recipes carefully before starting
- Weigh your ingredients
- Measure flour carefully
- Pay attention to the temperature of ingredients
- Use salt
- Toast your nuts
- Don’t overwhip
- Roll out your dough properly
- Bake tart and pie dough all the way through
- Make things ahead and use your freezer
- Have fun and relax
Recipes I like how her recipes are written. The recipes are Joanne, her life, her experiences. Joanne feels like a person with a story. She gives her sticky bun recipe, which beat Bobbly Flay on Food Network Show Throwdown. She also talks about how it is hard to make croissants by just following the recipe. It is a lot easier when someone is showing you and guiding you. Coincidentally, she offers classes on how to make croissants in Boston. Time to get fat.