![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
My elbows are bothering me again, so this will be brief.
I was emailed a super-secret family recipe, so![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
branna and I decided to try that. What transpired was in no way the fault of the recipe.
1. When I told Branna I had a mixer, she pictured one with paddles when what I actually had was one with beaters for whipping cream.
2. The mixing bowls were too small. Branna is probably still picking bits of dried batter off the walls.
3. Apparently "cream the butter and sugar" has a specific meaning that isn't "mix together until well-mixed."
4. The mixer was in no way capable of handling the doughy batter. In fact, just as we finally figured we were finished, it made an exploding noise as we turned it off.
5. The bottom burned.
6. The mixer proved to have died when the exploding noise happened, as we learned when we poured whipping cream into a bowl and attempted to turn it on. I'd just bought it, too. But failed to save the receipt.
7. Due to mixer failure, the dough was not sufficiently stirred, so the cake was full of chewy and inappropriately crunchy bits. It tasted really good, though, so in that sense the recipe stood up impressively under adverse conditions.
8. Tonight: snickerdoodles!
I was emailed a super-secret family recipe, so
branna and I decided to try that. What transpired was in no way the fault of the recipe. 1. When I told Branna I had a mixer, she pictured one with paddles when what I actually had was one with beaters for whipping cream.
2. The mixing bowls were too small. Branna is probably still picking bits of dried batter off the walls.
3. Apparently "cream the butter and sugar" has a specific meaning that isn't "mix together until well-mixed."
4. The mixer was in no way capable of handling the doughy batter. In fact, just as we finally figured we were finished, it made an exploding noise as we turned it off.
5. The bottom burned.
6. The mixer proved to have died when the exploding noise happened, as we learned when we poured whipping cream into a bowl and attempted to turn it on. I'd just bought it, too. But failed to save the receipt.
7. Due to mixer failure, the dough was not sufficiently stirred, so the cake was full of chewy and inappropriately crunchy bits. It tasted really good, though, so in that sense the recipe stood up impressively under adverse conditions.
8. Tonight: snickerdoodles!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
2. Hee. Use large mixing bowls.
3. Cream together means smoooooth.
4. Stiff dough will kill your electric mixer every time.
5. On the mixer or the cake? If it was the cake, Awwww. Move your oven rack up one row (in the middle of you oven). also, if you have aluminum foil down in the bottom of your oven, turn is so that the shiny side is down.
6. Go for a higher watt mixer next time and don't mix stiff dough with it.
7. Textured cake can be fun.
8. Mmmmm, snickerdoodles!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
In the mid-80's Kitchenaid went to plastic gears and those mixers, supposedly of good quality, now burn out regularly on their owners!
That said, our newer Kenwood has far more oomph than Mom's old Sunbeam, though much less jet-age style.
From:
no subject
(Except for Cuisinarting pie crusts, I have tended to eschew mixers in the kitchen. I beat my own whipped cream by hand! And wow was I sore afterwards, but triumphantly so!)
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
As television has explained to me, apparently the creaming of the butter and sugar is essential as it a) works air into the mixture (ergo the lighter color of the butter after proper creaming) and b) the sugar crystals poke teeny holes into something or the other which basically forms teeny seed bubbles that will eventually be cake bubbles that will determine the texture of the cake (even small bubbles vs. uneven large and small bubbles vs... who knows).
RIP, mixer.
Good luck on snickerdoodles!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
practice makes perfect
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
In hot weather, it will warm up much faster; don't let it melt. If it's deforming and sagging it might be close to liquefying. You cannot cream liquid butter. Don't use the microwave.
Superfine sugar gives superior results, but isn't necessary.
Using a flat paddle mixer (a stand mixer) gives best results, but isn't necessary; however, the average hand mixer will not mix more than about three cups total of butter and sugar effectively.
Start beating the butter slowly and scrape it down often. Don't let it just clump in the mixers. The point is to beat air into it. You are making an emulsion. When the butter is light (it will appear lighter in color as well as being lighter in texture), add sugar a little at a time and speed up the mixer. Sifting it in in a continuous stream is good, stopping and sprinkling it on top works too. Don't dump it all in at once; you want it consistent in both distribution and degree of mixing. The sugar is being dissolved into the fat with air beaten in at the same time.
Properly creamed butter and suger has a texture much like extremely stiff whipped cream; it is airy, light in color, and the granularity of the sugar should not dominate.
Eggs are usually mixed in after the butter and sugar cream together. As more ingredients are added---especially at the flour stage---don't mix too much, you don't want to toughen the batter (the flour can develop gluten if overbeaten) or overbeat the eggs (and flatten them again). A key step a lot of people skip is to halt mixing and scrape the beaters and bowl, keeping the batter from stratifying.
I killed a food processor once! I've never done in a mixer though.
Mixers turn up regularly in thrift stores and yard sales.
Snickerdoodles are the best. Don't skimp on the cinnamon.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
If you get the "balloon" version of a french whip, you can whip cream or egg whites faster and better than with a mixer, just btw.
From:
no subject
And we now have a really good excuse to buy a stand mixer. Bait for people to come over and cook cakes.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject