FLOUR MIXTURES

FOOD ITEMS MADE FROM DIFFERENT FLOUR MIXTURES

 Balters

It is a mixture of flour and an egg to which some liquid has been added to make it flour,

• N/B- mixture should be eaten well to trap air,

Mixture becomes light because air and steam expand when it is heated.

• It should be allowed to stand covered grains absorb liquid before cooking,

Types 

• Trim/pancreas batter
• Coating/thick batter

General rules for making balters

• Dry ingredients should be sieved together to mix well and incorporate air,
• Only ½ amount of liquid should be added together with egg to form a thick mixture that can be beaten in entrap air and avoid lumps,
• Mixture should be beaten well 5-10 minutes using a wooden spoon to incorporate air,
• Remaining liquid should be added to get the right consistency when surface is filled with air bubbles
• Bowl should be covered and left standing for sometime
• Food to be coated must be dry before dipping in batter in prevent altering consistency
• Heat oil to right temperature to avoid it being absorbed by food or burning of batter before food is cooked.

Balter recipes

1. ii) Doughs g pastries

Rules on pastry making

• Ingredients to be weighted accurately
• Trap as much air as possible

e.g  by

• sifting flour and salt together
• rubbing in fat very lightly into flour and salt mixture
• Keep pastry as cool as possible during preparation why: For gases to expand as much as possible to give a light pastry,

FLOUR MIXTURES

Ways of ensuring pastry remain cold

• Using flour kept in a cool, dry place,
• Using refrigerated fat/one kept in a cool place
• Use of finger tips to rub in fat because they are the coolest parts of hand
• Using a pastry knife/spatula to mix; they are cooler than fingers,
• Rinsing hands in cold water before handling pastry
• Not over handling pastry,
• Using a rolling pin and palette knife to lift and shape pastry
• Relaxing it in a cool place between rollings and before cooking
• Use a mixture of laid and margarine to get better results
• Roll on a lightly floured board using light, short forward strokes
• Bake in a fairly hot oven
• Add all measured liquids at once to give an even texture

General points to successful results in pastry making

1. dampen edges of pastry to help fix it to rim of baking dish when lining with pastry,
2. dampen edges of shaped pastries e.g pie (e.g Cornish pastures to help seal them)
3. glace pastry just before baking after shaping and relaxing.

Short crust pastry method

Uses of short crust pastry

• pastries e.g Cornish pastries,
• tarts e.g jam tarts and bakewell tarts,
• tartlets e.g bakewell tartlets
• sweet and savoury flans e.g banana flan, cheese flan
• turnover e.g pineapple turnover, goose berry turnover

Common faults and causes

Hard and tough pastry

1. a) melting of fat during rubbing in

• fat not enough
• water a lot
• too heavy pastry rolling
• over kneading
• too slow cooking

too short and crumbly pastry

• fat a lot
• water too little

pastry rough/flaky in appearance

• insufficient rubbing of fat
• uneven water mixing
• a lot of flour for rolling

Shrunken cooked pastry

• pastry stretched during rotting and shaping
• insufficient relaxing

CAKE MAKING

Methods 

• rubbing in method
• creaming method

Cake making can be plain/rich.

N/B:- rich cakes have a high fat proportion to flour and are made by creaming method. –       Plain ones have a lot fat proportion to flour and are made by rubbing in method,

• Eggs: for aerating mixture
• Flour: main ingredients that provides gluten
• sugar: sweetens and softens cake
• Fat:       shortens a cakes i.e shorten gluten strands  make it rich and                      prevents it from drying

improves flavour of cake e.g margarine and butter

• Liquids: g water, milk, eggs

Bind ingredients together  they give steam that helps cake rise

• Fruits: to improve flavour

To add nutrients in large amounts they preserve cake and help keep cake moist e.g lemon mind

7) Nuts:    to improve flavours and add nutrients

8) Flavouring: give desired flavour to cake;

N/B: essences are volatile and normally dry the cake   rest of lemon is oily so keeps cake moist

Preparation of ingredients

a) Dry ingredients

Sieving e.g cocoa, salt and flour sieved

1. Fruits and nuts

Chopping large ones,

Blanching of nuts with a hard skin

Cleaning dried fruits and drying them before use because wet ones normally alter proportion of liquid and spoil mixture consistence

1. Lemon/orange ones

Washing and drying fruit

Grating rind finely removing only the yellow the white (pulp) gives a butter taster.

1. Prunes

Washing and steaming till soft (approx 10 minutes)

Removing stones and cutting into small pieces

1. Dates

Removing stones cutting into small pieces

1. Substances, raisin, currents, mixed peel and cherries cleaning, checking for stalk and dust and drying appropriately

FLOUR MIXTURES

Preparation of cake tins

(iii)Small cakes

• greasing patty tins,
• dredging with flour
• shaking off any extra flour

N/B: if using paper cases avoid greasing

• Large cakes plain and sandwich ones

Grease and line bottom of tin with a grease proof paper/grease and dredge with plain flour.

• Rich fruit cakes
  1. when tin completely with greased grease proof paper,
  2. a double thickness brown paper to be tied round the tin to prevent cake burning since they take long to bake

To test whether a cake is cooked

• it should be well risen and brown,
• slightly shrunk from tin sides,
• firm to touch all over
• no bubbling sound produced
• smell cooked
• a sliver (thin knitting needles comes out clean when inserted into the middle of cake)

N/B:- The test if done when the five points have been fulfilled

It shouldn’t be done too early it will cause cake sink in the middle

Cooling cakes

• should be cooled on a wire rack to allow free air circulation round cake so making steam escape
• large cakes should cool a little in the tins to prevent breaking though shouldn’t be left in them for too long to prevent them having a heavy texture

RUBBED IN MIXTURES

Fat is always rubbed into flour till a mixture looks like bread crumbs before adding other ingredients.

COMMON FAULTS AND THEIR CAUSE

Heavy texture

• baking powder not enough
• oven too cool
• fat to flour not proportional
• liquid a lot
• fat becoming oily during rubbing in

Dry texture 

• raising agent a lot
• over cooking
• liquid too little

Course open texture –

• raising agent a lot
• temperature too high
• insufficient mixing

Cake sunk in middle 

• insufficient cooking
• raising agent a lot
• opening over door before cake is set so cold air comes in
• mixture too soft – oven too cool

Large holes in middle

• insufficient rubbing in
• mixture transferred to tin in small portions so traps air between them

Buns burnt underneath

• cake too low in oven

Buns spread in tin

• water a lot
• oven too cool

 Large cake rising to a peak in the middle

• cake too high in oven
• too hot at just first oven then turned down later

Uneven rising 

• insufficient ingredient mixing,
• not pre heating oven to correct temperature before putting cake

Fruits sinking to bottom

• too high mixture
• wet fruits added
• too cool oven so mixture doesn’t set quickly to support fruits

Uses of rubbed in mixtures 

(i) Small cakes

e.g chocolate buns, coconut buns, coffee buns, ginger buns, lemon buns, rock buns

(2) Large cakes Chocolate cake

Coconut cake

FLOUR MIXTURES

CREAMED CAKE MIXTURES

Fat and sugar are creamed together to trap air.

Points to note when making them

• butter and margarine are the best because;
  1. they are easy to cream
  2. they have a good flavour
• N/B:- fine sugar is more suitable than coarse its easy to cream
• eggs used should be fresh
• flour should be soft and dry
• weight of fat and sugar should be equal and flour double amount of fat/sugar
• amount of baking powder will depend on number of eggs and their size

i.e the more the eggs the less the amount of baking powder

Oven temperatures and cooking times

• small cakes 190⁰C (375⁰F) Gas No. 5 20-25 minutes
• large cakes with little/no fluids 150⁰C (350⁰F) Gas No. 4 1-3 hours depending on size cakes being baked for more than 1 hour temperature should be reduced after one hour to 170⁰C (325⁰F) Gas No. 2 for next 1½ hours, reduced further to 150⁰C (300⁰F) Gas No. 2 rest of cooking time till ready.

Position of oven

• small cakes ¹/₃ way up in oven,
• large with little/no fruits ½ way up
• fruit cakes with high fruits proportion one rack below middle of oven Assign

Common faults and their causes

Heavy and close texture

• insufficient creaming of fat and sugar
• insufficient creaming during addition of eggs
• raising agent not enough
• liquid a lot
• too slow oven
• too hot oven so mixture forms a crust before air expands,
• insufficient cooking

Cooking risen to a peak and cracked

• oven too hot
• cake too high in oven

Fruits have settled to bottom of cake

• wet fruits used
• too light mixture

Open and coarse texture 

• baking powder a lot
• wrong fat to sugar or flour to liquid proportion
• insufficient creaming
• oven too hot

Dry and crumbly texture

• baking powder a lot
• cooking temperature too slow
• curdled mixture

Sinking in the middle

• creasing overdone
• baking powder a lot so gluten over stretches
• opening of oven door before cake sets so allows cold air to come in

Large holes in cake

• inadequate flour mixing so not evenly distributed
• putting mixture in tin a little at a time so air pockets form,

FLOUR MIXTURES

BREAD/DOUGHNUT MAKING

Made using CO₂ from yeast as a raising agent.

N/B:- Yeast is a living organism so needs         (

• food for growth
• warmth for growth
• moisture “ “
• works best at 25⁰C (80⁰F) that should be maintained through out process of handling the mixture

N/B:- All equipment should be warm same to ingredients.

• Yeast will produce CO₂ and alcohol under these conditions.
• CO₂ will raise the dough
• Alcohol will give the flavour to the mixture

Ingredients used in yeast mixtures

(1) Flour

Wheat flour used has high gluten content, that softens and stretches during fermentation.

–     Kneading is done in (i) divided gluten strands (ii) spread them evenly through mixture and holds CO₂ produced during fermentation.

(2) Salt

• It flavours bread
• it prevents yeast from working too fast that can cause production of coarse textrose

N/B:- It should never be mixed directly because it tends to draw moisture from yeast hence kills it.  Instead it should be mixed in flour and liquid.

• Sugar

It is essential for fermentation  because it provides it with food

should be in excess because it will slow down yeast action.

N/B:- amount should be weighted accurately

• Liquid

-e.g water, milk/mixture of water and milk

N/B:- Shouldn’t be too hot should be lukewarm

• Fat
• it improves their keeping qualities
• it improves flavour
• adds nutritive value to product.

N/B:- Should not be excess it slows down action of yeast.

Precautions to take when preparing yeast mixtures

• Avoid too much sugar because it raptures yeast hence retard fermentation process.
• Avoid too high temperatures they kill the yeast cells
• All ingredients should be warmed to 25⁰C and held there through out mixing and pouring process

• Avoid cold temperature it retards growth. Avoid drought they cause a cooling effect,
• Salt shouldn’t be put direct in yeast it tends to draw water from yeast hence kill it. Instead mix with flour and liquid
• Fat shouldn’t be excess it retard/slows down yeast action

FLOUR MIXTURES

Common faults and their causes in creamed mixtures

A heavy a close dough with little or increase in bulk after the rising.

too hot liquid so kills yeast

A well risen loaf but with a wrinkled surface

• over proved dough so gluten over stretches and collapses,
• too cool oven at initial stage
• too long period of time between mixing and cooling

Burnt on underside and uncooked top

• too low in oven
• too light baking sheet not lined uneven rising – pouring unevenly
• ingredients mixed inadequately

Strong flavour of soda and brown specks on scones

• flour not sifted with raising agent
• high bicarbonate of soda to creaming of tar proportion

Spreading of scones and loss of shape

• liquid a lot
• fat for greasing tin a lot
• raising agent a lot
• poor shaping

BISCUIT MIXTURES

Cakes and biscuits are classified according to method usd for making. Difference between biscuits mixtures and cake; Mixture is in proportion of liquid used in baking.

Guidelines on biscuit making

•  fine sugar should b used because it gives better results than granulated ones.  Coarse crystals normally give a specked appearance to product.
• Mixture should be well kneaded to a stiff dough
• Biscuits with low fat and sugar content should be baked in lightly greased baking tins but those with high fat and sugar content in baking sheets lined with grease proof paper
• They should be cooled on a wire tray for moisture to escape hence give a crispy and dry products
• Should be stored in air tight tins to retain crispness.
• Use temperature 170⁰C (325⁰F) Gas No. 3.

N/B:-

• cinnamon biscuits are sandwiched with jam and dredge with icing sugar
• chocolate biscuits with chocolate butter icing and coated with chocolate glace icing,

FLOUR MIXTURES

ALL HOMESCIENCE NOTES FORM 1-4 WITH TOPICAL QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 

PRIMARY NOTES, SCHEMES OF WORK AND EXAMINATIONS