Whisking experiments

 

This coming weekend we have raspberry meringue kisses and brownies ready for order.  For the following weekend, I will be taking time off.

I had a very full food week.  I made lots of chocolate snack cakes, roasted pecans, various salads, and experimented with plant-based meat substitutes, and more.  It was fun, busy, and very rewarding.  I get great reward from making lots of food and also from the experimentation that is routinely happening in my kitchen.

I am always intrigued by the effects of different mixing techniques. As I was making chocolate snack cakes this week, I decided to do a little extra whisking at one stage, just to see what would happen.  Yes, that means that anyone who ordered was a bit of a test subject for me.  Usually I try to do that sort of thing with a separate batch, but I didn't have any extra time -- remember I already said I had a very full food week.  I really wanted to try this little experiment and since I knew who had ordered and how forgiving they can be, I decided to take the risk without knowing exactly how different the final product was from normal. 

So I whisked a full two minutes extra a medium speed at one point.  The batter was certainly fuller and creamier, less liquid.  And when I baked up the final product, I liked it.  But I couldn't really tell how much different it was from the original.  So that means I really need to do a side-by-side test with two batches on the same day.  Perhaps I'll put both those batches up for order after I take my week off that is on the schedule.

Whisking at high speed, medium speed, for long time or short -- each difference can produce sometimes a dramatic change and sometimes very little change at all.  Since I love to know as much as I can about anything that I do, I often do multiple batches of recipes so that I can record the effects of these changes.

I go through a lot of ingredients that way, and it takes a lot of time, but I learn from doing it, so it's well worth it.  Knowing more about doing what you love is always worth the effort.  I apply this principle to piano, to chess, and to making good food.  It's what I do.