wait it out: a lesson on shorteners

i think of a dreamy crescent moon two nights ago. and i learnt that the difference between a drizzle and a rain is a short walk through the underpass.

today was mothers' day baking at jia en's house. i did a big batch of shortbread cookies, and then a sour cream streusel pound cake. weiyang did a chocolate mousse cake, recipe from nigella. jia en did the boston cream pie, recipe from nigella too.

shortbread:

i didn't exactly get a recipe for this. it was a formula i picked up in the baking science book i borrowed. it says 2 cups butter: 4 cups flour: 1 cup sugar. after that, it's really up to the baker - how to make the dough, what to use to bind the dough together.
some bakers use the creaming method, but because i wanted a flaky shortbread, i went for the rubbing method. and use some liquid to bind the dough together; i used egg yolks to enhance the richness.
anyhow, i think the formula was not very good, because there was clearly too much butter in the dough. when it baked, the cut pieces of dough all spread and merged with each other. and, i might try to use other types of sugar, perhaps brown sugar, to introduce more flavour; i could smell the butter in the cookies, but i could only taste flour and sugar, though weiyang really liked it.
the texture of the cookies was very extremely flaky - so perfect it was already like eating pie crust. this is the hallmark of butter rubbed well into the flour. proteins in flour will form long chains of gluten with each other when water is added. gluten formation toughens the dough and makes it less tender, more ideal for bread making. (the gluten network is tough, and can trap air produced by yeast fermentation.) this is the exact opposite of what you want in cookies, cakes, pies and tarts. you want tenderness.

baking fats (butter, lard, margarine, shortening, oils...) are able to surround protein molecules and prevent the formation of long-chain gluten. for this reason, they are also called 'shorteners'; they shorten gluten chains. shorter gluten chains means a more tender dough. as the name suggests, shortbread itself has enough butter in it for you to not worry about tenderness. the only difference is whether you want it grainy (creaming method) or flaky (rubbing method).

lunch:

lunch was procured at gastronomia, the high-end place at great world city. that place has the most beautiful breads and desserts packed in boxes, all fetching high prices, though i must say they do look worth the money. like, $3.20 for a small cupcake that looks as if into it has been stirred some very good earthy brazilian cocoa.
anyhow, i bought a big olive ciabatta (say je-bah-tuh) for a goodly $4.20. didn't measure, but it could be 40cm, or even 50cm long. and weiyang bought a beef and potato pie that was so hearty.

sour cream streusel pound cake:

this is the cake whose recipe comes from the american book. streusel just means 'scattered' or 'sprinkled'. and so in the morning i tossed up the streusel filling at home before bringing it to jia en's house.
the cake batter which contains sour cream for some tang. i scattered the streusel filling onto the batter, folded it with three bold strokes and poured the batter into the loaf pan. and i'm done. it's that easy.
the pound cake rose prettily and cracked down the middle, almost like a deliberate artistic show-off. and the cake was very nice. soft and moist, with streusel swirled throughout the cake.

chocolate mousse cake:

i helped weiyang a little in this; only separated eight bloody eggs. yes, most of it is his work. this is clear evidence that baking provides the simple pleasure which cannot be underestimated.
before weiyang got to doing this cake, he was whining about being tired and everything. but when he started melting his chocolate in jia en's amazing improvised double boiler, making a cold sabayon that 'forms and falls in ribbons when the whisk is lifted', and whisking up eight egg whites to soft peaks, he got so excited and proud that a whole bulk of the work was done by him, alone.
nigella has worked her magic: there's something about seeing such elemental change, that flour, butter, eggs, sugar could become this - and more, that you've brought it about - that's so satisfying. and can i just say, in her tone, how gorgeous the batter looked.
the cake and the mousse. well, nigella says that if you want a mousse, simply chill the batter. if you want a mousse cake, pop it in the oven. and since the amount of batter was insane, we managed to get a mousse cake for weiyang to bring back, and another tray of good, sweet, sticky mousse. i think, when paired with shortbread, it's divine.

apparently, weiyang's ladies say the mousse cake was damn good. still, he thinks that baking is harder than army work.

boston cream pie:

this was jia en's project. which looks like it's going to be a decadent piece of work. not easy too, this cake involved cooking up a crème pâtissière, though never as hard as a pastry cream or custard.

during the making of the ganache, i quoted nigella again. first, you can see it flecked and rippled, but sooner or later everything gives way to chocolate, which is, afterall, the natural order of things.
the victoria sponge which was done so slowly. believe me, i watched the making process. no one wins jia en. and she forgot the milk anyway. i'm waiting for her to assemble the cake and tell me the outcome tomorrow.

miscellaneous:

so, here's a happy mothers' day in advance to all mothers. i got offered the double degree at NUS. clearly, the interview was not taken into consideration. there can never be too much chocolate. you would think that with all the buzz today, images of things that were and things that have yet to come would stop surfacing in your mind.