The blog of cooking-ez.com
For well opened (puffed) cakes
You have noticed, when you buy bread, a baguette for example, there are openings on the top of the bread, the "grignes". They are there because at the moment of putting the dough in the oven, the baker "blades" or "nibbles" the top, with a very sharp blade, so that when the bread is cooked it opens up well, and has that elegant and appetizing aspect, typical of French breads.
How does it work? It's very simple, the blade stroke on the dough creates a weakness on the surface, and when the bread swells in the heat of the oven, it will spread in the direction of this weakness, and thus accentuate the opening given by the initial blade stroke.
If the baker doesn't blade, the bread will burst during the baking, or rather it will split in an anarchic way, but this can also be desired for a "rustic" style, like here:
Anyway, all that to say that if you don't blade your dough, the bread is less beautiful, but that's not the whole point of this post
In fact, and this is not obvious, but it also applies to cakes like cake or 4/4. During the baking process, the same phenomenon happens as with breads, except that steam is pushing the cake, so the top of the cake will open more or less well. Now, we all want to have beautiful cakes well opened on the top, how to do?
Well, almost like the bakers, we're going to sift the cake, but since we're not dealing with a firm dough, but with a very soft one, we have to be a bit tricky.
Here's the idea:
- You make your cake normally, you pour the dough into a mould
- Just before putting it in the oven, you dip a maryse, or a spatula, or a simple knife, in a little neutral oil (peanut for example)
- You draw a line in the middle of the dough with the oiled spatula (note that the furrow remains thanks to the oil)
- Put the dough in the oven and bake it normally
And this is the kind of result you will get.
Some pastry chefs do things a little differently: they use a very thin piping bag to place a thin line of butter on top of the pastry.
You will have understood, it is always the same principle, it is enough to create a weakness in the paste, weakness which will be transformed into nibble under the action of gases of cooking, CO2 for the bread, and vapor for the cakes.
To sum up: If you want a nice cake, well opened on top, like this one, you have to "split" the top with a lightly oiled marysee.
Lasts posts
Wipe meats and fish before cooking
When you want to cook meat or fish, there's a very simple yet very important step to take before you even start: It's to dry, or wipe, each side of the meat or fish, sometimes called "dabbing" or "sponging". But why? And how? Let me explain.7275 April 14th 2024
Toss the salad
When you've finished preparing a salad, green or otherwise, it's usually time to add the dressing and toss. It's often said to "toss the salad", which means to season and mix. Is it easy? Not so easy...2,3615 March 8th 2024
Half milk, half cream
In a multitude of recipes, savoury or sweet, milk is used as the main ingredient, or at least as the main liquid ingredient. Milk is used instead of water, for example, because milk contains a proportion of fat, which adds roundness and softness to the recipe. This mellowness is very pleasant on...2,299 February 27th 2024
Cutting soft cheeses
As you may have already noticed, when you have to use a "soft" cheese in a recipe - their exact name is "soft cheese" - such as Camembert, Munster or Mont d'or, it's not easy to make anything other than thick slices.2,4375 February 20th 2024
It's spinning too fast!
When you need to grate or slice vegetables, you generally use an electric machine that does all the work: a food processor, a mixer with a "slicer" extension or similar. Are these machines really suitable? Generally speaking, yes of course, but there's one criterion that often poses a problem,...5,3345 November 12th 2023
Other pages you may also like
Fruits which can ruin your jelly
There are many ways of making a fruit mousse, but one of the simplest is to prepare a fruit jelly (basically a fresh fruit coulis with gelatine) and then mix this jelly before it sets completely with whipped cream. The result is perfect for filling a charlotte, for example. But do beware;...67K4.0 March 6th 2013
85 grams of eggs?
Some time ago, I already spoke to you about the difference between baking and pastry-making, I emphasized, among other things, the precision of pastry-making which requires grams, cm, degrees and minutes. That's why, on the one hand, you have baking and cooking, where a certain tolerance is...46K4.6 November 26th 2018
Butter doesn't make you fat, unless you eat too much of it.
Whenever I'm discussing cooking and recipes, there is one idea which comes up frequently, like this: "Oh no! But that's got butter in it" (I should add, for the sake of accuracy, that this is something I hear more frequently from women, who are almost all concerned with keeping their figure). ...38K4.5 March 26th 2012
Foie gras service
For the upcoming christmas meals you too may be sacrificing to the tradition of foie gras? If so, I suggest you take a look at everything that revolves around serving foie gras: how to serve it, and what to eat and drink with it.10K4.9 December 23th 2017
Drawing a pattern in pastry
Often in the kitchen, in pastry-making, or in baking, we need to trace a pattern on a pastry. It's just a question of aesthetics but it has its effect after baking on a galette, pithiviers, pâté en croute (terrine in a pie crust), etc.25K4.1 May 23th 2019
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.