Continuing with the gluten-free trials, a couple more tweaks to the Spice Cake variant were tried. Here is the ingredients list for the least-unsuccessful:
AP Flour 130.5g (Glutino® Beth’s GF Pantry)
Sugar 120g
Milk, whole 108.8g
Egg whites (3) 103.4g
Egg yolks (3) 52.9g
Oil, sunflower 63g
Raisins 60g
Honey 45g
Mucilage 32.8g from 2.7g dry flaxseed; ~420mg dry matter
Flour, Rice RS 15g
Butter 12g
Baking powder 7.5g
Vanilla extract 4.7g
Spice, cinnamon 3.9g
Spice, nutmeg 2.3g
Spice, allspice 2.0g
Spice, cloves 1.7g
Spice, ginger 0.9g
Salt, sea 2.6g
Rice bran ext. 1.5g
Lecithin 2.4g (dry-powdered from Spanish sunflower)
Baking soda 2g
Ascorbyl Palmitate 400mg (fat-soluble Vitamin C; antioxidant)
Lemon extract 12 drops
Vitamin-E Oil 7 drops (antioxidant)
Analysis of ingredients and outcome provides these figures for this trial:
Figure per 41.3g (average) cake
Protein 2.0g
Fats 6.1g
Starches 9.2g
Fiber 0.8g
Sugars 12.9g
Sodium 132mg
Energy 149kCal
Baking Loss was 7.1%; not bad. The 4 fluid-oz. portions rose remarkably high above the surface of the “canoe” pan, then subsided in the last two minutes of baking.
Excess batter went into the 4½" springforms at 12 fl. oz. portions each, and on a lark I tried upping the baking temperature to 350
°F, which drove the baking time down to a brisk 15 min. from leisurely 23 min. at 325°F. Results were not the best: the finished 4½" cakes
peaked and cracked, atypical in these trials. So unless the batter inclusions such as rice bran extract, flax mucilage, or milk were to blame, I suspect low & slow is the way to go.
There were several issues driving changes in the formula and process of
Trial 008B. The most significant arose earlier today, this 10th day post-bake: the '008 cakes still had good appearance and flavor, but the crumb had become tough and lacking in cohesion—kinda
day-old-muffin-y.
Another change was in moving from whey powder to
whole milk. I desired the casein proteins in the whole milk for extra emulsification, and a little milk fat to add richness to the crumb; indeed, I traded around the fats by backing off the oil in the initial mayonnaise emulsion, and adding a pat of melted
butter before mixing in the drys and meringue.
Still another change was adding
mucilage from flaxseed: a marvelously slippery-slimy goop that evolves when flaxseed is immersed in water. This flax hydrocolloid has long been used by the allergy and vegan crowd as an egg-white replacer in some applications (though it won't whip or set like egg white). Instead of the slimy CMC (cellulose gum from wood pulp) and modified starches of the Twinkie for adding body and stabilization to batter, why not use
natural slime? Time will tell what the effect will be.
Finally I decided to throw in
a touch of commercial
rice bran extract (see how it is made
here), which is claimed to aid emulsification, make for a softer crumb, improve mouthfeel and moistness, and extend shelf life. Again, time will tell...
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One gripe I have about
GF mixes is that cakes seem to turn a bit
rubbery and display a good bit of
shrinkage as baking finished and as the cake cools. Clearly the guar gum, xanthan gum, and other
wheat gluten replacers are doing the
trick in holding up the sponge as it sets, but cannot really maintain the structure as water is lost and water vapor and leavening gases cool.
To be sure GF “flour” makers endlessly tweak and refine their concoctions of various starches (both native and pregelatinized) and
faux-gluten gums, colloids, and other slimy muck; just okay so far, but man-o-man do they have a ways to go!
—
It takes about an hour to coax the mucilage slime from a cup of flaxseed: okay for R&D work, but not
something I'd willingly pay a union worker too do, if a dime’s worth of powdered extract in a premix would serve instead.
So I e-chatted recently with a very nice and persuasive rep from a major food-ingredients supplier that offers a certain well-characterized
flaxseed extract might do the trick. It stands to replace the
bacterial barf xanthan gum and the
fracking-fluid ingredient guar gum (also BTW. subject to wild price fluctuations) in baking formulations. What the heck, certainly worth a try!
Sensory evaluation & comments from the Browne Crowe Bakes Sensory Evaluation Team:
- Very rich taste, more of a creamed-butter cake impression
- Sweetness and spiciness similar to 008B
- All evaluation samples disappeared quickly
- Tender, moist, slightly chewy crumb
Overall the outcome of Trial 014 is
satisfactory.
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Creamed filling, you ask impatiently? Working on it. There are few prototypes to start with, and almost all of the usual cooked-flour & milk, marshmallow creme, and powdered-sugar based filling formulas available do not even come close.
I do have one candidate in the works, but it was mixed up just yesterday, and needs to “mature” in the fridge for a couple days before being whipped. It might serve as the matrix substrate for a variety of fillings, such as one suitable for a certain Spice Cake.
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