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I don't want to boast but … okay, I do You want to boast. I make the best angel food cake in the world. It inflates like a cloud in the oven, lifting it up from the pan, and every slice is so fluffy that the whipped cream looks dense.
The secret ingredient? Cake -flour. Soft wheat is ground even finer than dough flour, ideally up to 8%protein content. While this is only two to five points lower than the universal, this is a critical difference in cake dough that contains significantly more water than cookie dough is a condition that makes it easier gluten formationOr
For more than a century, the American cake flour has been bleached, but in recent years, several manufacturers have introduced unleashed alternatives (while DIY fans tend to make their belt at home). Forever and always, I will give a championship to any company that widens the high quality flour market and any baker who is more home -made. I unconditionally support everyone's right to decide what food they belong to their chamber.
The chemistry of baking
This does not mean that I am willing to throw a whitened cake flour under the bus, simply because it is a chemically processed food. From sucrose to sodium chloride, baking depends on the chemicals in each turn. I mean, what is the recipe if not a formula written in a language that anyone can understand? No one is excited about C12H22O11, δ = 2H20 C24H36O18, but we all agree that sugar + heat = caramel is something great … especially with a generous NaCl dose. I mean sodium -chloride, er, uh, salt.
Do you see what I mean?
When understanding the chemistry of baking, it is crucial that we are not afraid, well, chemistry! There is no reason to reject the ingredient simply because its name can be expressed in a scientific sense. I can easily admit this whitened It doesn't sound delicious, but it is a noteworthy and widely misunderstood process that deserves more than a summary judgment.
How to whiten the flour
To understand why the cake flour is treated with CL2, which is better known as chlorine, we must rise up Lovejoy's law And hyperbole – you want to drink whitening, Yuck! Such rhetorical devices deliberately ignore the purpose of chemical treatments and greatly exaggerate the use of chlorine.
For starters, manufacturers do not pour buckets of chlorine by cake flour, treating it with low levels of chlorine gas. Concentrations between 0.008% and 0.3% relative to the weight of the flour. But by no means does it do so much chlorine in your food in shape or form.
The essence of adding chlorine is the reactionSo when the gas mixes with the cake with flour, both are transformed. Liszt goes through a series of chemical interactions that disrupt glycoside bonds, depolmerize starch, and oxidize lipids, amino acids and carotene. It is a lot of scientific jargon, but it means that flour is not simply white; This is conditioned by influencing absorbance, taste and pH.
Meanwhile, chlorine is changing. In contact with the water content of the flour, it triggers hydrolysis, a reaction that leaves the chlorite behind (of course in whiteless flour), hypochloro (something our own immune cells produce to fight infection) and chloride (basic electrolyte).
There are some real cognitive dissonance when shy from whitened cake flour, “scary” chemicals, such as chloride, and then for chloride in bottled water, simply because brands are smart enough to be billed as minerals or electrolytes. This is just a small example of why the ingredients should be appreciated, not how it is framed.
Despite thinking about it, American Millers are likely to be easier to revive the resuscitation effort-Smart Flour: Electritete improved to get better cake! Compared to the dubious statements of bottled drinks, this would be at least true. The chlorinated cake flour improves the volume, structure, crumb and dome symmetry of high sugars cake formulas scientifically measurable study after study after studyOr
Studies have not shown that by -products of chlorination pose any risk to consumers. THE generation A British research team concluded that “no carcinogenic, teratogenic or other toxic effects were not observed to be attributed to chlorination,” (Read the Summary hereor pony to get behind the paying wall to completely look through the paper.)
Of course, lack of evidence is not evidence of absence. I am not saying that we should not continue to examine the effects of chlorination on flour processing; Just to inform our decision, not as a reaction. I spent months to examine literature, after the studies, to talk to food components and read the best practices of the World Health Organization. Who has no chlorinated flour destruction at all. At the end of the day, I can't find a single reason to leave the chlorinated cake flour, which can ever exceed its proven benefits.
Namely, this is a fluffy, gentle, four -inch beauty.
How does whitened flour work
Chlorine treatment changes the normal speed of starch gelatinization in the flour, slowing down to improve gas retention. This allows the dough to rise more time, resulting in super-bad, fine granular cakes. Double this effect, chlorination also Increases protein denaturation temperatureSimilarly, buy the cake to get more time.
In fact, chlorination reduces the pH of cake flour Average 5.9 approx. Until 4.8. The displacement towards acidity inhibits tanning, which is crispy bread and golden cakes are significant, but a nice touch of the snowy crumbs of an angel food cake. Inhibition of the maillard reaction can also be useful in highlighting mild flavors, such as almonds or vanilla, which can be flooded with darker caramel notes of Browning.
Why would I ever give such a cake? Especially taking into account how the unleashed alternatives fall. Literally.
This cake of the same egg whites and the same technique, the same oven, the same cake -frying, the same dough temperature, the same baking time, the same cooling method, the same cooling time. The only difference is that I decided on an unpleasant cake flour, which soaked too much moisture and stood too fast for the cake to rise. And if you are curious about how people made the angel food cake without whitened cake flour in their age, then the answer is no. The story of Angel Food Cake is directly related to the invention of bleaching a whitened cake flour in the 19th century, but it is a whole “noother story.
Not only the unheated cake flour is not questionable, but also the DIY alternatives. Bakery experts promise strangely that homemade cake flour is as simple as cutting the universal flour with the corn starch, but it's not that simple. The corn starch can dilute the total protein content of the flour, but it raises the starch in a completely different way. The result is a very absorbent dry mixture that soaks too much moisture for a cake that is heavy and dense.
At least when it comes to a sensitive recipe like the Angel Food Cake, DIY cake flour simply cannot compare (and does not match the low pH of chlorinated cake flour). Obviously, this is still a better choice than white -free cake flour, but angel foods are wet, spongy and hard. It may work in a pinch, but the better solution would be to make something else.
Due to its performance and the conclusions drawn from my own research, the bleached cake flour always has a place in my chamber, especially with regard to the very limited effect of the use: a unique subset of recipes they enjoy during moderation. You may feel differently and that's okay! It is worth doing your own research and you should! An important thing is to enter your decision well and hopefully have enough information to lead you in the right direction.