I stumbled on this one by accident when I wanted to bake cookies and realized that I had no baking soda in the house. If you like soft, chewy cookies, substitute cornstarch and baking powder for the baking soda in the recipe. Replace up to 1/4 cup of the flour with cornstarch, and instead of 1tsp baking soda, use 1/2 tsp baking powder in conjunction with the cornstarch. For cookies that are soft through, replace up to half the butter with crisco. For cookies with soft middles and crispy edges use all unsalted butter. Margerine just won't cut it.
When making pie crust, put the butter in the freezer for a few hours before using so it gets really hard. Then grate it into your flour with a cheese grater for guaranteed flaky goodness. What makes pie crust flaky is when particles of butter are coated with flour. During baking, the butter melts leaving butter-lined air pockets in the crust. Grating the butter in ensures a minimum of processing of the crust, making it easier to achieve these air pockets.
No comments:
Post a Comment