Baking Trial 008B 22 February 2013

Going Gluten-Free

Since any Tom, Dick, or Mary can use the Same Old Formulas to make a wheaten cake, I decided to take a break from Luscious Creme Filling R&D and venture into the market segment of what till recently has been quaintly termed “dietetic” foods: you know, the tiny, oddball section in the grocer’s where bland specialty products sit, mostly ignored by all but those desperate for something semi-normal to eat that won’t make them stupid, swell up, or send them to the ER.

So: gluten free is actually on the verge of mainstream, normal, really, ever since gluten intolerance and wheat sensitivities have become better diagnosed, and more food options made available. And while we’re at it, why not address those who are lactose-intolerant by removing that troublesome, indigestible disaccharide from the formula?

AP Flour        87g (Glutino® Beth’s GF Pantry All-Purpose flour:
                     white rice flour
                     potato starch
                     tapioca starch
                     guar gum
                     salt) 
Egg, separated 102g (as 3 Large eggs)
Flour, Rice RS  10g
Honey           30g
Oil, canola     45g
Raisins         40g
Sugar           80g (superfine)
Water           59g
WPC-80           9g (lecithinated/instantized)
Baking powder    5g
Lemon Juice      6g
Baking soda      1g
Lecithin      0.67g (sunflower, hydrolyzed)
Allspice      0.50g
Cinnamon      0.67g
Cloves        0.25g
Nutmeg        0.50g
Vanilla ext.     1 tsp.
Ascorbyl Palmitate 200mg. (fat-soluble Vitamin C; antioxidant)
Vitamin E oil    6 drops (antioxidant)

The tricky thing in deriving this dual-requirement formula was maintaining functional and baking properties while jettisoning the lactose and gluten—and of course making something fit to eat. But since I have a Master Spreadsheet that allows me to adjust and maintain correct macronutrient proportions, by simply increasing the whey protein and tweaking the starch & sugary fractions I was able to keep the mix In The Zone.

Zeroing out the lactose also meant dumping the fresh acid whey drained from yogurt, substituting Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC 80% protein) that has had the lactose substantially reduced. Fortuitously I was able to locate locally-sourced, organic grassfed WPC for our formula trials.

For this initial trial, a retail GF flour premix was used, rather than try to tackle a formula from scratch. The Glutino® brand is well-known in the GF “community” for both finished products and for their line of baking mixes.

Long-term, we would have to locate a functional equivalent in 55-lb. sacks for production. One issue in particular is the global shortage and price increases of guar gum, a kinda-weird commodity derived from ground-up guar beans. It finds thickener-stabilizer applications in food processing, in pharmaceuticals, and, of all things, in fracking. Other galactomannans that might serve just as well in NOT-winkie production might be got from fenugreek seed, long a traditional food plant with a host of dietary-medicinal benefits.

—

Anyway,  mixing and baking the formula was straightforward. I borrowed an old trick from French genoise baking in pre-heating the whey (milk) proteins up to the critical temperature of 165°F—but no hotter—before incorporation into the mix. The resultant denaturation of proteins improves the emulsification of batters, and maintains cake-loft rise and stability in baking.

Prior experience suggested that GF formulas often make a heavier, denser product with more entrained moisture, so for this trial the base proportions were increased 50%, and baking times extended. The results were pretty good.

Spiced Fingers of Delight

Baking time for the canoe cakes was increased to 20min at 320°F. Instead of cupcakes for the excess batter, 4½" (11.4cm) springform pans were employed; baking for these mini-cakes required 23min. at 325°F. for a clean toothpick.

With a custom release coating of palm shortening, 7% sunflower lecithin, and 10% RS rice flour, release from the canoe pans was very clean and unremarkable, requiring little wiping or scrubbing for cleanup.

Test Batch 008B

The 4½" mini-cakes finished with a mostly non-domed top. During baking it was observed that the centermost zone of the batter stayed depressed and wet until the last 3 or 4 minutes of baking, filling out and puffing up level with the rest of the cake just at the end of baking.

The slight surface irregularities, which I think add “character” but would be cause for loathing and derision by other professional bakers, might be fixable with a bit more extensive mixing of meringue and flour phases before dispensing the batter. Maybe a smidgen of Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate would help...

Small-Cake Rise and Structure

For shelf-life testing, samples from the bake were placed in Pyrex® dishes and sealed with consumer-grade commercial shrink-wrap film, providing exposure to ambient diffuse light and shirtsleeve temperatures without unrealistic packaging means.

Shelf-Life Long-Term Testing

Each canoe cake weighs an average 38.5g—curiously, exactly the same as with the 005B formula; weird—and each 4½" mini-cake about 140g. Nutritional breakdown of each 008B canoe cake is:

Protein    2.7g
Fats         6g
Carbs       10g
Fiber      0.5g
Sugars      14g
Sodium     177mg
Energy     159kcal

Multiply these figures by 3 for each 4½" mini-cake. It should be noted that the Fiber fraction includes soluble and insoluble fiber from the raisins, as well as resistant starch from the rice flour.

With the particular WPC-80 used in the 008B formula, lactose content is only about 85mg per canoe cake. Since the USFDA has no fixed definition for “lactose-free” or even “lactose-reduced”, maybe comparing lactose content to regular and 70% lactose-reduced milk in groceries would be in order.

Whole milk contains about 4.8% lactose, so our 85mg per cake would be found in 1 2/3g milk or 1/3 tsp. fluid milk: not very much. And in the case of 70%-reduced milk, raise that to 1 tsp. more or less: still not a lot.

If 85mg./cake were deemed still too much, it would be little trouble to use Whey Protein Isolate (WPI), which contains about as much lactose as you’d inhale walking downwind of a cow. But WPI is much more costly than WPC...


The 008B cake is 100% wheat-free/gluten-free, and 99.7% lactose-free. There are only trace amounts of corn/maize (anticaking agent in the baking powder) and non-GMO soy (Solubilizer in organic WPC); with a little effort, even these could be purged.

—

Sensory evaluation & comments from the Browne Crowe Bakes Sensory Evaluation Team:

• Firm texture, not crumbly, gummy, or sticky
• Clean taste, not overly-sweet or cloying
• Satisfying and wholesome
• Attractive spice-cake appearance
• Distinct, aromatic spicy aroma & taste
• “Goes well with tea”
• Moist, slightly chewy crumb

Overall the outcome of Trial 008B is satisfactory.

Beekeeping for Poets

 “—” ‘—’’

Baking Trial 005A & 005B 11 February 2013

 

I decided to try some formulations that omit the sunflower extract aka “goop”, for several reasons: 1) It is time- and labor-intensive to make; 2) Any unique functional advantages may be purely hypothetical; and 3) There are people out there who do have sensitivities, if not allergies, to seeds and nuts.
 
Base Formula:
Flour, cake     100 g
Flour, RS Rice   10 g
Baking Pdr.       5 g
Baking Soda       1 g
Sugar, gran.     85 g
Oil, canola      50 g
Lecithin, hydr.   2 g
Salt, kosher    1.7 g
Eggs, whites    75-80 g (from 2 large eggs)
Eggs, yolks     42-38 g (from 2 large eggs)
Whey, sour       51 g (from skim milk yogurt)
Vanilla ext.     5 ml
Lemon extract    8 drops
Ascorbyl Palmitate 200mg (fat-soluble vitamin C)
plus
005A variant:
Honey            52 g
or
005B variant:
Honey            26 g
Baking Soda     0.7 g additional
Raisins          36 g
Cinnamon, gr.   1.7 g
Nutmeg, gr.     1.1 g
Allspice, gr.   1.0 g
Cloves, gr.     0.3 g
Whey, sour      7.4 g additional to hydrate spices

Setup and make-up similar to that described in previous posts this weblog (see).

The Canoe Cakes were baked at 320°F for 18min. Cupcakes were baked in a separate oven, 13min. at 325°F, both with water pans.

Batter expansion, as before, showed good habit, rising above pan surface while retaining flat-topped shape integrity; no mounding or “muffin-top” overflow.

Vital to this desirable baking behavior as well as good pan release is a well-greased pan using palm shortening plus a generous application of lecithinated nonstick spray.

Batter and post-bake stats are:


Measurement             005A   005B
Batter per canoe-cake   34.8   38.5 g
Baked, per canoe-cake   32.0   35.6 g
Baking loss              8.2%   7.5%

These loss figures are rather lower than and therefore an improvement over prior trial losses: more moisture is being retained, and so less energy is misspent evaporating water from the batter.

This would make the NOT-winkie a kinda-sorta “green” product, just so long as it is understood that this refers to low-energy processing, not the color of the cake!

Trials 005A and 005B resulted in moist, supple cakes with good color and even open-cell surface structure

—

Sensory evaluation & comments from the Browne Crowe Bakes Sensory Evaluation Team:

• Attractive light-golden and darker spice-cake colors
• Sweet and fluffy
• Good cake structure & integrity; breaks easily in-hand
• Good aroma and flavor
• A fine box cake-like texture (but in the best meaning)
• Good spice balance — reminded one tester of Mom’s Spice Cake
• Moist and slightly chewy crumb

Overall the outcomes of Trials 005A & 005B are satisfactory.

—

We now move on to serious Luscious Creamed Filling R&D.

Beekeeping for Poets

 “—” ‘—’’

Filling the Void:

Musings on the Art and Science
of Creamy Filling

The now-defunct Hostess Suzy-Q snack cake was a Devil’s Food sandwich-slab with a filling that was probably substantially similar to that of the Twinkie. There are rumors of a pale, banana-flavored variant also being sold regionally, but I never encountered one in my many years.

There is one ingredient list for an ersatz Suzy-Q Creme Filling to be found on various baking sites, given below:

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• ½ cup milk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons salted butter, cold
• 4 tablespoons shortening, cold
• ½ cup granulated sugar

 
Whether this formula actually makes a good filling will be set aside for now. What is interesting is looking at the macronutrient breakdown of this mixture:

• Water       35%
• kCal         4 kCal/gram
• Protein      2%
• Fats        29%
• Misc. Carb   4%
• Sugars      31%

The breakdown of the butter-shortening fat mix is as follows:

• Saturated        38%
• Monounsaturated  31%
• Polyunsaturated  16%
• Trans             8%
• Trans-monoenoic   7%

The reason for all this up-close-and-personal on this filling is that I recently came across a 2008 patent that describes a stable whipped frosting/filling/topping concoction that has a composition suspiciously similar to that of the Suzy-Q filling. Its macronutrient balance goes:

• Water       39%
• kCal       3.9 kCal/gram
• Protein    0.3%
• Fats        30%
• Misc. Carb 0.4%
• Sugars      31%

It is hard to see how the owner of this patent could collect royalties since the cooking world has evidently long known of these proportions.

Note that due to various plant oils and shortenings being used instead of the Suzy-Q's butter-shortening 50:50 mix, the fat analysis of the patent formula is quite different:

• Saturated        86-88%
• Monounsaturated  12-10%
• Polyunsaturated   2%
• Trans             0%
• Trans-monoenoic   0%

The upshot is that in either case the formula specifies about equal thirds of water, sugar, and fats. Of course what makes these come together to whip up into a Luscious Creamed Filling (and stay that way) are the various extras—a pinch of this, a dash of that—that amount to typically 2-3% of the total.

Mixing It Up: Emulsifiers

One class of emulsifiers breaks up (destabilizes) the surface tension between the different fractions. About the only natural destabilizing emulsifier for the NOT-winkie would be lecithin.

Another class of emulsifiers stops recombination of (stabilizes) those same dispersed fractions. For us, the saturated glycerides naturally present in butter, coconut oil, and palm oil would be the most suitable and accessible.

Further natural, non-exotic magic ingredients can and should be included to make the filling a reality:

• Gelatinized Starch (as in the cooked flour of the Suzy-Q filling prototype), which acts as both destabilizer and stabilizer.
• Denatured Proteins, as in the cooked milk and flour, also help destabilize and stabilize.
• Salt reduces the influence of other soluble minerals, improving the properties and stability of the mix.
• Flavors, notably vanilla for a Golden Sponge Cake.

And for shelf-life, natural preservatives such as vitamin E (tocopherols) and vitamin C could and should make their way into the mix.

—

The Top Secret R&D Lab of Browne Crowe Bakes will shortly begin formula and process trials for Luscious Creme Filling.

On the baking Trial 004A and 004B (not previously reported), one week after baking the unfilled cakes are still quite good in flavor and texture. They have been stored unrefrigerated on a plate covered with a glass bowl—a rather severe test of moisture-retention!—and are just beginning to dry out and harden. No sign of spoilage, mold, or rancidity.

The next baking trial will adjust the balance of fats and proteins a bit. Stay tuned...

Beekeeping for Poets

 “—” ‘—’’

The Filling

The Luscious Creamed Filling inside the Golden Sponge Cake, far from being an incidental, nice-to-have bonus, is actually the Main Event of the Twinkie, and to a great extent of the NOT-winkie.

The Creamed Filling, too, is worthy of the Gods.

In Twinkie, Deconstructed, author Ettlinger claims the filling likely comprises more or less sugar, shortening, corn syrup, water, polysorbate 60, and salt, plus the key ingredient cellulose gum.

As described earlier, cellulose gum, aka sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), is indigestible synthetic stuff derived from wood pulp. Say what you will about the utility of CMC in baked-goods fillings, but the bottom line is that it has no drop-in natural equivalents or replacements, and therefore no relevance to the NOT-winkie.

Sleuthing Again For Fillings

Nosing around for information of and ingredients in commercial snack-cake fillings, the following ingredient list for White Creamed Filling popped up:

• Sugar
• Vegetable shortening:
•   partially hydrogenated soybean and palm oils
•   mono and diglycerides
•   polysorbate 60
• Water
• Corn syrup
• Corn starch
• Modified food starch
• Emulsifier:
•   mono and diglycerides
•   TBHQ (antioxidant)
•   citric acid (antioxidant)
• Salt
• Natural and artifical flavor (including milk derivatives)
• Sorbic acid
• Even more Polysorbate 60

Anybody who has already perused the original Twinkies Ingredients List will recognize most of these ingredients as Old Friends. What is not so obvious is the traditional-recipe basis for these synthetics and additives.

What I’ll call formula Type 4 of commonly-cited home-made or small-bakery Twinkie-like fillings includes the following recognizable foods (additives and their functions):

• Wheat Flour (starch, modified starch: thickening)
• Milk, fluid (water, flavor, emulsifiers: moisture & mixing)
• Vanilla extract (flavor)
• Butter or Margarine (fat, flavor, emulsifiers: fats)
• Shortening (fat, emulsifiers: fats)
• Sugar (sugar, corn syrup: sweet!)
• Salt (salt: flavor)

In the Type 4 process, the flour and milk are cooked until a starchy paste is formed, whereupon the vanilla is added. Separately the sugar, butter/margarine, shortening, and salt are whipped, the paste added, and the final mixture whipped some more.

It should be noted that there are numerous patents pertaining to the use of starch gels as fat-replacers in baked goods. It seems ironic that much of this so-called intellectual property could be invalidated in patent courts, due to the prior traditional use of wet-cooked (gelatinized) flours and starches in fillings etc.

Filling Functional Criteria

A successful Golden Sponge Cake filling formula will lie within the all-natural limitations of the NOT-winkie Project, while striving for that je ne sais quoi of the authentic Twinkies’ Luscious Creamed Filling.

• Excellent taste, texture, and aroma
• Right balance of sweet and salt
• Attractive color
• Not custard-like, heavy, or frothy
• Lack of gummy or greasy mouthfeel
• Stable over reasonable temperatures, freezing & thawing
• Long life in-cake without going rancid or off-flavor
• Not especially supportive of microbial growth
• Will not migrate into cake
• Will not gain or lose moisture
• Will not break down, separate, curdle, or harden

So it is just a matter now of admitting je ne sais pas exactement comment, getting over it, and mucking about until it comes out right. No worries, then!

Beekeeping for Poets

 “—” ‘—’’

Baking Trial 004A 04 February 2013

 

It has been said that Luck favors the prepared and persistent.

This latest formulation is pretty close to good, even though it does not fully address shelf-life issues, and still wants Luscious Creamed Filling:

Flour, cake     100 g
Flour, RS Rice   10 g
Baking Pdr.       5 g
Baking Soda       1 g
Sugar, gran.     85 g
Oil, canola      36 g
Lecithin, hydr.   ¼ tsp (sunflower, Spanish non-GMO origin)
Salt, kosher    1.7 g
Eggs, whites     72 g (from 2 large eggs)
Eggs, yolks      31 g (from 2 large eggs)
Whey, sour       52 g (from skim milk yogurt)
Honey            52 g
Vanilla ext.     5 ml
Lemon extract    8 drops
Extract, Sunflower kernel +20 g (from 1.0M extraction)

Mise-en-place setup as typical chiffon-style:

1. Combine whey, honey, soda, vanilla, lemon, sunflower extract, lecithin, blend until uniform.
2. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, ½ the sugar, and salt.Measure RS rice flour, oil, and set by batter bowl.
3. Separate eggs, whites into meringue bowl with remaining ½ the sugar on the side; yolks into primary mixing bowl.
4. Preheat oven to 320°F; place pan of boiling water in rack under main rack.
5. Baking pan(s): grease plus nonstick oil-lecithin spray.

Make-up as follows:

1. Whisk egg yolks until ribbon stage;
2. Gradually drizzle oil into yolks while whisking, making emulsion.
3. Drizzle liquids mixture into yolk emulsion, whisk until uniform.
4. Disengage beaters and manually sift in drys: first RS rice flour, then wheat flour mixture, mixing gently 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-yolk batter with ¼ the meringue, then pour this over the remaining meringue and fold up & over until uniform.

Batter portioned into prepared canoe pan using a ¼-cup measure to fill the cups halfway. Excess batter divided into six cups of a standard cupcake pan (prepped as with canoe pan).

 

Standard Pan Test Load: 8x Canoes + 6x Cupcakes

The canoe portion was baked at 320°F for 19+min. Cupcakes were baked in a separate oven, 14+min. at 325°F, also with water pan.

Batter expansion showed good habit, rising above pan surface while retaining flat-topped shape integrity; no “muffin-top” overflow. This suggests good moisture balance and a rise that does not cling unduly to the cup sides.

Perfect Rising Shape

Cooled cakes showed no signs of collapse.

Post-bake settling

Depanning was by inversion onto a parchment-covered surface. Release was quite clean this time.

Clean cake release

Trial 004A resulted in a moist, tender cake with good color and even open-cell surface structure. Canoe cake average weight about 28.6g, remarkably similar to earlier trials.

Perfect Shape & Color

Sensory evaluation & comments:

• Attractive golden color
• Sweet and fluffy
• Good aroma and flavor
• Good manual breakage and crumb integrity
• Open-cell interior sponge ready for filing injection!

Overall the outcome of Trial 004A was satisfactory.

—

On the seventh day after baking, the last of the 002 cakes remained fresh-like and good, though they never were really great.

On the fourth day post-bake, the 003 cakes, never very good to start, are no fun at all; I have tossed the remaining ones. Besides being off-flavor, they had become quite gooey on the top (flat) surface, suggesting that they were underbaked in the first place, and possibly made worse by an excess of hygroscopic fructose from the honey.

—

Further cake-baking trials can wait while I ponder the issue of Luscious Creamed Filling. There are quite a few recipes around, generally falling into four classes:

1. Whipped-fats-and-sugars: some variants hereof are rated highly for their resemblance to Twinkies filling; sometimes have milk added.
2. Marshmallow-fluff: containing gelatin and sugar or corn syrups.
3. Cheese or cheese-like: featuring mascarpone or cream cheese, or (*gag*) tofu or imitation soy-based faux-fromage.
4. Boiled-starch-and-milk: these rely on forming an emulsion or suspension of fats within a gelled starch matrix.

I tend to favor the 4th category, thinking that the pre-gelled starch-and-milk cookup would be sterile (leg up on extended shelf life), and that such partial fat replacement would have “organoleptic” (yumminess & “mouthfeel”) and nutritional advantages. Progress on fillings R&D will be reported here...

Beekeeping for Poets

 “—” ‘—’’

Baking Trial 003 03 February 2013

Pushing the boundaries of the Sweet Spot in cake formulations, I went to the brink and promptly fell over. The result was Baking Trial Formulation 003, a failure by all accounts. Shows what comes from making too many changes at once.

It is recommended that nobody else try this because it is rather awful:

Flour, cake      95 g
Flour, RS Rice   15 g
Baking Pdr.       5 g
Baking Soda       - g
Sugar, gran.     82 g
Oil, canola      35 g, melted with
Short., palm    3.6 g (1 tsp.)
Salt, kosher    1.7 g
Eggs, whites     70 g (from 2 large eggs)
Eggs, yolks      38 g (from 2 large eggs)
Whey, sour       52 g (drained from skim milk yogurt)
Honey            22 g
Raisin purée     36 g
Vanilla ext.     5 ml
Lemon extract    8 drops
Extract, Sunflower kernel +25 g (from 1.0M extraction)

Mise-en-place setup was modified chiffon-style:

1. Grind raisins, whey, and honey in blender. Filter, and combine with vanilla, lemon, sunflower extract.
2. Sift together cake flour, RS rice flour, baking powder, 40g. of the sugar, and salt.
3. Separate eggs, whites into meringue bowl with remaining 42g. sugar on the side; yolks into primary mixing bowl.
4. Melt oil with shortening, let cool on the side of egg white.
5. Preheat oven to 320°F; place pan of boiling water in rack under main rack.
6. Baking pans ungreased.

Make-up as follows:

1. Whisk egg yolks until ribbon stage;
2. Gradually drizzle oil-shortening into yolks while whisking, making emulsion.
3. Drizzle liquids mixture into yolk-sunflower mix, whisk until uniform.
4. Disengage beaters and manually sift in flour mixture, mixing gently 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 portioned into the pan using a ¼-cup measure to fill the cups halfway. Each pan portion weighed about 34.7g. Excess batter was divided into six cups of a standard cupcake pan, two paper-lined.

The Canoe shape was baked at 320°F for 18min. Cupcake shapes were baked in a separate oven, 13 min. at 325°F, also with water pan.

Depanning was with an inverted slap against a sturdy wooden surface.

Canoe cake average weight was about 28.6g, for a baking loss of 18%: still a little high. Noticeable decrease in rise and final cake volume.

Trial 003 resulted in a moist, somewhat greyish cake with open-cell surface structure.

Sensory evaluation:

• Fragile crumb, falls apart in mouth
• Sweet, but not too too sweet
• Noticeably heavy, chewy, and gummy
• Weird smell; unexpected
• Uneven sponge cell structure

Overall the consensus was Not Good. It is likely the un-neutralized acid of the raisins adversely affected the flavor. Excess RS rice flour and/or sunflower extract, and probably underbaking conspired to make a rather-less-than-fun experience.

Adjustment for next trial:

• Revert to 002 formula and technique as new baseline.
• Increase canoe baking time to 19-20min.

—

Happily, five days after baking, the 002 cakes remain fresh-like and quite yummy, longing though they are for a Luscious Creamed Filling to complete their existence.

More trial results coming up...

Beekeeping for Poets

 “—” ‘—’’