Baking Trial 001 29 January 2013

First trial! An initial formula was scaled to provide cakes sufficient for a week’s worth of shelf-life testing—assuming the result would be edible in the first place!

The basic shape of the NOT-winkie until further notice will result from the Norpro pan as shown below. For the home and blogger-experimenter this will have to do, even though it has only eight cups and a dark, nonstick coating that interferes with the baking and release processes.

Norpro 3964 “Cream Canoe” pan

Now I’ll list the ingredients below with the understanding that the result falls far short of Golden Sponge Cake perfection. I do not recommend using it:

Flour, cake     100 g
Flour, RS Rice   10 g
Baking Pdr.       5 g
Baking Soda       1 g
Sugar, gran.     85 g
Oil, canola      60 g
Salt, kosher    1.7 g
Eggs, whites     75 g (from 2 large eggs)
Eggs, yolks      34 g (from 2 large eggs) 
Whey, sour       52 g (fresh-drained from skim milk yogurt)
Honey            52 g
Vanilla ext.     5 ml
Extract, Sunflower kernel +10 g

Mise-en-place setup for the batter make-up was basic chiffon-style:

1. Sift together flours, leavenings, ½ the granular sugar, and salt.
2. Separate eggs, whites into meringue bowl with other ½ sugar on the side; yolks into primary mixing bowl.
3. Mix liquids: whey, vanilla, honey, and sunflower extract.
4. Grease (palm shortening) and flour Canoe pan cups (mistake; see below)
5. Preheat oven to 320°F; place pan of boiling water in rack under main rack.

Make-up as follows:

1. Whisk egg yolks until ribbon stage.
2. Gradually drizzle oil into yolks while whisking, forming a mayonnaise-like emulsion.
3. Drizzle liquid mixture into yolk emulsion, whisk until uniform.
4. Reduce mixer speed and sift in flour mixture, beating until fully moistened and uniform.
5. With cleaned utensils, whip the egg whites until soft-peak is reached, then sift in sugar and whip until a medium-peak French meringue is formed.
6. Lighten flour-egg batter with ¼ the meringue, then fold this into the remaining meringue until uniform.

The batter was then portioned into the pan using a ¼-cup measure to fill the cups halfway. Each pan portion weighed about 37.7g. Excess batter was divided into six cups of a standard cupcake pan lined with papers.

Prepped pan and batter

Baking for the Canoe shape was 20min. at 320°F. Cupcake shapes were baked in a separate oven, 15min. at 320°F, without water pan.

First batch looking pretty plump

Remove respective pans after passing toothpick tests, let cool with all-around air circulation.

Pan of canoes post-bake

Depan canoes while still warm by inverting with smart drop onto cutting board.

Torpedoes, Trial 001

Cake average weight was 30.3g, for a baking loss of  1-(30.3/37.7)=20%: a little high, probably overbaked.


Sensory evaluation:

• Too sweet
• Slight tongue-coating greasiness
• Chalky-gritty residue left on teeth
• Good texture
• Sponge cells a little uneven
• Good vanilla flavor
• Notable lack of egg taste or aroma
• Cake skin wrinkly-puckered

Resolution and adjustment for next trial:

• Reduce liquid oil content
• Pre-hydrate RS rice flour
• Blend meringue into egg-flour batter a little longer
• Reduce sugar in meringue; try cream of tartar as foam stabilizer
• Mix soda with whey-honey (neutralize) rather than add to flours etc.
• Do not grease/flour pan; try alternate release means.
• Try hydrolyzed sunflower lecithin
• Add a drop or two of lemon oil
• Test for doneness at 17min.

The Browne Crowe Bakes Sensory Evaluation Team will continue evaluating Trial 001 cakes over the next week, to check for shelf-life related issues. 

So what is this Sunflower Kernel Extract Stuff, Anyhow?

Well,  sunflower kernels contain a lot of lecithin, some good oils, proteins, and a good bit of vitamin E, all of which should have some utility in NOT-winkies.

Grains & seeds being tried for additives

While remaining a little vague about exactly the processes used, I will say that after studying and discarding various patent processes for isolating this or extracting that, I have settled on a simple kitchen-counter method using ordinary ingredients and household appliances.

These suffice to make a smooth “cream” that is yummy and inoffensive for inclusion into NOT-winkies. It is probably also deliriously nutritive, but again lacking a food analysis lab, I’ll have to rely on the USDA NAL Database to guess what goodness resides in the NOT-winkie.

Mysterious extracts of sunflower kernels

Trial 002 due to start soon...

Beekeeping for Poets

 “—” ‘—’’