Yoda

Oh, I don't think I've seen the double layered pans yet, I will google them, thanks! Idk what's up with my oven, but my cookies were (over)done after just 7-8 min at 180C (350F). Can't imagine baking for 12-15 or more like most recipes call for. And I use an oven thermometer. It is a very old oven though, so maybe that's a factor

I wanted to edit my last post to include pictures of the finished cookies, if anyone ever wants to try the recipe I included in the post. (I couldn't edit the post, so I'm posting a few pics here now) They hold shape lovely, but the dough was a nightmare to work with - kept getting stuck to cutters and stamps (flouring cutters/stamps helped enormously, but still not full proof for all of them also wanted to add - the taste was good also. I passed judgement on still hot cookies when I first posted, but shouldn't have The taste is nice and not overly sweet like the first recipe I posted *flouring stamps and cutters is a must!*

@AlaMoi thank you for replying and your suggestion! You think there was too little flour? I could baarely combine the flour into the shugar/butter mix so that it wasn't crumbling away as it was. I had a felling there was too much flour already O.O Btw, I tried a new recipe today: 200 g butter, 100 g powdered sugar 1 egg (whole) 30 g almond flour 270 g AP flour While the dough wasn't at all crumbly like the one yesyerday, it was soo dificult to make the cutouts as the dough kept sticking to the stamps. In the end I coated the stamps in flour prior to cutting/stamping, and it was a lot better, although still finicky. The cookies from this recipe held their shape much better - maybe it was the egg? The taste wasn't as good imo, but then again, I had some trouble getting them to bake at the riggt temperature...Idk whether it is my oven or just me, but they always come out some burnt, some pale.. And I had the fan on in the oven this time Does anyone have a full proof recipe that I could try and then compare my results with them?

I've tried making shortbread cookies today and the cookies really puffed up in the oven and the majority didn't retain their shape - I used cutout + stamps Can anyone help me to understand why or offer a similar simple recipe that should work? This is what I followed: Ingredients: - 115 g (1 stick) butter - 60 g (½ cup) powdered sugar - 175 g (1¼cu) AP flour The recipe : Soften the butter, add powdered sugar and smush together, add flour and mix. My dough was a bit crumbly so I "kneaded" it a bit until the butter probably softened a bit more and combined the flour so it wasn't as crumbly anymore. Rolled out to 0,5 cm (¼ inch) thick and made the cutouts and stamps. Pust the cutout cookies in the freezer for 2 hours and then baked in preheated oven at 180°C (350 F) for 8 min (recipe said 12, but were done a lot sooner). If you take a look at the video where I got the recipe from, you will see hiw clear the stamps remained in the video after baking. Mine really puffed up and lost shape. Any ideas? Edit: adding some pics for reference: cutout, after 5 min baking (doesn't look thqt bad "yet", but getting really puffy), Done baking (some overdone 🤭), some look better than others, but the flowery one, on the right to the corgi dog in the middle said "Merry Christmas), and the cookie on far right should be a cat on scratching post, and the furthest down and to the right is another corgi dog that just lost all of it's face. The dough was thick enough for the stamp to go deep enough I think.

@Smithy, I edited the original ost with a short update at the bottom (https://forums.egullet.org/topic/46725-lemon-chiffon-cake/?do=findComment&comment=2430801 ) Is there anything in particular you would like to know? I sas planning on making another one maybe this weekend, but it looks like I'll be making in next week instead. I have a lot of the Hermes lemon cream left over, so that's my excuse for mekimg one again so shortly, hehe😆😆 I'm also going to try to make a cake collar like @OlyveOyl suggested this way I can still make a high enough cake without it overflowing (hopefully). And hopefully next time I do not overbeat the meringue 🙈🙈🙈

That's a brilliant idea! You mean like a cylinder out of parchment that's higher than the rim? But I'm afraid the cake will fall out when I invert it then? Did you have something else in mind? Do you think I can stick the parchment collar starting from halfway or at the upper quarter of the pan with butter? So the cake will still stick to the bottom ¾ of the pan. Or will the butter melt down the sides and prevent the cake to stick to the sides and climb? 🤔

So... I made the cake.. I ended up making half of the batter the recipe calls for and baked in a 6" round cake pan. I made a few mistakes. 1. I managed to overbeat the eggs whites. So I ended up adding extra 15 g of egg whites into the overbeaten egg whites and while it did help a bit, I'm not sure it solved the issue lol. 2. I think I've somehow underbaked it. I baked at 160 C (325 F) for about 45 min amd then checked for doneness. The skewer came out clean, but when I pressed on the top of the cake, I could hear foam breaking/popping underneath which gave me an impression it wasn't set/fully baked yet? So I baked for another 7 min afyer which I just took the cake out because it was very dark already. I could still hear the foam popping when pressing on the top of the cake though - does anyone know what happened here? The cake did fall down a bit at this point. The sides that are sticking out like a mushroom (see photos) are very firm/hard crust. It's now inverted and cooling. So I am not sure yet what I managed to produce 😅 I am making this for a birthday cake tomorrow (yes, I'm so late 🤐🤐) so I will probably be doing another one tomorrow. I would greatly appreciate ANY SUGGESTIONS! Thank you very much! I'm including some pictures. P.s.the batter came about 1 inch from the top (using 6x4" pan) when I poured it into the pan Edit: UPDATE: The cake turned out delicious! Despite the whites being overbeaten (whoopsy). I made a layered cake (3x 3cm thick) with Hermes Lemon cream, mascarpone+whipped cream filling with strawberries. I have made too much lemon cream, so I'll have to make another cake for the weekend 🤣🤣🤣

Hey guys, I would appreciate some pointers for baking times and temperatures for the Lemon Chiffon Cake if I bake it in a normal, 6" round cake pan? How long should I bake the cake for? I'm afraid of overbaking it, or opening the oven doors too soon to check on it, so it might collapese? Do I adjust the baking temperature at all? Thank you!

This might be a silly question to some, but why do we temper eggs when making creme brulee? Is it just because we need to combine the hot milk infused with vanilla? Or is the tempering step necessary? If I were to infuse the milk overnight for more flavour (stored in fridge overnight), could I just combine the yolks and sugar and cold milk the next day and bake? Or better yet so the sugar dissolves - could I just steep the vanilla + sugar in milk and store on fridge overnight, and then just add the yolks the next day and bake?

@pastrygirl, have you ever gotten into checking the temperature of the meringue or PAB? What IS the safe temperature you have to reach to get the eggs pasteurized in a matter of seconds (and not cooking them)? Is creme anglaise a pasteurized product (by reaching 82°C)? Is there a good book or some other resource on food safety regarding temperatures and water content, etc. (preferably with graphs) anyone would recommend?

Thank you, I also think buying organic/BIO is best for lemons zest and think I will get those. Even a small amount of pesticides doesn't sound appealing, even though it's maybe not enough to cause harm. Mmmm limoncello. I also wanted to make it this year but didn't quite get to making it

Thank you very much for your reply and suggestions @blue_dolphin! Luckily my pan is anodized aluminium - so I guess it's not non-stick? And also light in color Oh, I also have a baking belt/ cake belt? That you dampen with water and place it around the cake pan - but I'm not sure whether this is favourable for this cake? I also did not use it for baking genoise - I think this was the right call? Otherwise I think it wouldn't bake without collapsing? One more thing, do you guys use regular storebought lemons for the zest? If so, how do you wash them to get rid of the waxes and potential pesticides? Eh..just writing this down made me feel it's best to use washed BIO lemons... How do you wash the fruits before zesting? Warm water and.....baking soda? I'm pretty sure not with dishsoap?.. I'm sorry for the awkwardness of my questions. I usually just buy the zest, but think it'd be better to use fresh zest. Please help me out 🙏

Hi guys, as I am nit a professional baker, and nit even that experienced one, I only have one cake pan for now, and it's a 6x4" (15x10cm) round cake pan without removable bottom. Could I still make this cake (from TCB) in this pan, or will it not rise enough since there is no tube in the middle? I'd like to make it as a birthday cake, so I actually would prefer it to be without a hole in the middle But I have no idea how important it is/ if it makes a big difference if I just use a regular cake pan for this cake? Any help or suggestions so very much appreciated, thank you!

I made 2. Forst one was the test one, amd the second one i used my mother was very happy and everyoneloved it, so success

Lol, no wonder my cake came out dense I scaled the recipe to fit 6" pan. I cca halved the recipe and baked all at once in the 6" pan. I had to bake for a bit over than an hour. This is the result It's a shame they didn't describe how the texture of the cake should be. The cake came out very dense, but rich in flavour. I like it. I had to add a bit more milk than in recipe to get a "droopy wet consistency" like instructed. I skipped the chocolate chips (although I see some chocolate spots in the cake - not sure what that is?? If anyone knows? The chocolate was completely melted when i poured it into the batter (76% couverture chocolate)

Another day, another attempt.. This time I decided to go woth the Genoise au Chocolat from The Cake Bible. (I opted for new recipe because of failure at previous attempt + I didn't like the overwhelming taste and smell of honey...I wanted a chocolate genoise :)) I scaled all ingredients to fit a 6x3" pan (and used 6x4") instead of 9x2" as instructions required (because I don't have that size pan). I lined the pan with parchment on bottom and sides. I also lowered the temperature to 325F (165C) with convection and baked around 32 min. Now I'm thinking I should have gone for at least 35 or 40 min. But the smell indicated to me that it was done, and when I inserted the toothpict it came out clean, so I decided to not return it to the oven. I think the center collapsed ever so slightly after a few seconds and after I gave it a gentle drop. I flipped it over onto a rack and I was a bit clumsy and so had to really pull at the parchment paper to get it off the cake. This is how it looked upside down - you can see a slight indentation... I guess I wont know how it turned out until I cut it. I turned it back to the right side up after cca 8 min, and you can see the cake did collapse a bit..I just hope it's not terribly underbaked in the center🤞 Section pictures: The bottom again was a bit more dense, the middle was soooo fluffy, so was the tip, but the top WAS a bit sunken in. While this didn't turn out as I idealy would have wanted, I think I'm happy with the result. I've noticed the sides look a bit dark but they didn't develop a crust, so I'm not sure, is that only caramelized sugar? What can I do to get a more beautiful top/ not sunken in (the toothpick was dry when I took out the cake) I did use a realy wide bowl when folding in the flour - I think it might have been a bit too large and the cream deflated a bit more than I'd have liked - is this possible? It wasnt teribly deflated though, so I was really, really hoping it wouldn't collapse this time. I'm not even sure how much it rose while baking, if at all?? (Hard to remember since I used such a deep pan) Will post additional pictures of the sections. What do you think of this attempt? Edit: I mesured the height because it looks a bit taller in the pictures. It's at 5 cm (cca 2"?)

I tried my first attempt at a chocolate mousse. The chocolate seized after I added a little portion of the pate a bombe to it - not sure where I've gone wrong :/ I was following this recipe, which to me looked very promising. I halved the portion, so I used: 3 egg yolks (24 g) 100 g dark couverture chocolate (which was so sadly wasted...) 30 g heavy cream for pate a bombe (which was also my first time making it) 30 g granulated sugar 225 g heavy cream (for whipping) I started by putting the chocolate in a bowl over boiled water (off heat) and stirred it a bit every now and then. The I put the 30g cream and 30 g sugar mixture on the stove and let it boil for a bit. I slowly poured (very thin stream) this mixture into the egg yolks while whisking with a balloon whisk. The eggs didn't curdle, so I proceded to warm up the mixture over the stove, while constantly monitoring the temperature of it with a probe thermometer. The temperature was around 65 - 67C (cca. 150 F). I did this for about 2 min. I'm not sure the mixture got any thicker though - was this a mistake? And I was only whisking gently with a hand whisk. With a handmixer at max speed, I beat the mixture until the pot no longer felt hot anymore. When I felt it with my hand it felt like body temperature. Here is where I made an obvious mistake - but still unsure to which instant it played a role in the seizing of the chocolate. The video says the PAB should not be too cold (mine felt a bit cooler than body temp) so I left it above the water which previously was melting the chocolate (cca. 15 min later), so I didn't think the bottom would get that hot :/... Meanwhile I whipped the heavy cream to soft peaks. I felt the chocolate, it was about the temp of body temp. Then I stirred the PAB that was sitting over the hot water - the bottom didn't feel too hot, but I did notice some chunks at the bottom of the pan, and it seemed like there was still some egg yolk that was really runny at the bottom... I was pretty sure there was no runny yolk after I had mixed it. Do you think the yolks might have curdled a bit and made the yolk runny? Or maybe I haven't mixed it well enough at all in the first place? I thought I might as well try anyway, so I took a spatula and poured a bit of the PAB into the melted chocolate. As I started mixing, it started seizing more and more ... I knew there was no coming back and I was left with a chunk of very sad seized chocolate.... I threw away everything but the whupped cream which is waiting for my second attempt in the fridge. Where did I go wrong? I would be grateful for some more details on what the temperatures should be (measurable with a thermometer) of the PAB, chocolate and whipped cream. Also, is it correct to add the PAB to the chocolate, or would doing it the other way around be better?

I just noticed your post after my genoise topic was merged with this existing genoise troubleshooting topic. By the looks of your pictures, it seems like I have a similar issue to yours (+ my bottom layer was more dense than upper layers). Mine also sunk in the middle (this is my post). As I was reading your posts I think I understand the problem in your case was only you needed to fold in cocoa powder separately (mixed with water) and it turned out good? I'm a bit confused by the temperature - you lowered it despite having a sunken middle? I thought if a cake falls in the middle l, the temperature is probably too low? In the end you baked at 325F for 50 min - is this without convection? I baked mine at same temperature but with the fan setting on

Update: I bought one 15x10 cm pan and one 20x10 cm pan. I hope I will be able to bake the whole cake in one 20x10 cm instead of two 20x7 cm pans (maybe I'll make a bit less batter). Any ideas how to adjust temperature or time if baking if there's more batter?

Hi, I'm very new to baking cakes and need a little help deciding what kind of pan to get. I found a store that sells (PME) anodised aluminium cak pans with removable or solid bottom and of different heights for the same diameters. I was wondering which height should I get? 1. If I get a pan with higher sides, could there be a problem while baking if my batter only fills a third or half of the pan? 2. If a recipe calls for two pans to bake cakes in, could I just use one pan with sufficient higher edges to bake one high cake and then cut it into two layers? Or will I increase the risk of cake sinking,baking this way? (I'm refering to this recipe in particular - seems a bit of a waste buying two identical pans, but am willing to if I have to) Would I have to adjust the temperature and baking time baking this way? 3. Is there any reason to opt for either the pan with removable bottom or solid one?

I'm from Slovenia so the flours differentiate by type (400, 500, 800), the higher the number, the more whole grain it is. And by soft and coarse - with soft flours being more appropriate for leavened doughs and coarser ones for cookies, crepes, pies, etc.(supposedly- that's what the instructions state :)) My flour was type 400, but I opted for the coarser mill instead of powdery like (like the 00 type in italian flours) Going with the coarse one was the mistake probably, along with not diluting it with starch? The thing is, I have a manitoba 00 flour which is veery soft and powdery, but it is meant for baking bread and so has 13% protein. I think I will go with the AP flour and add to it some starch like others suggested. Ap flours here have around 11% protein so it shoul work, hopefully So you guys think it was the flour? Edit: Do you think the temperature was appropriate? (I'm always confused with baking, when the recipe says to bake at a certain temperature - is it meant to bake at that temperature with or without fan? .. And since I have the option of baking with fan on, should I lower the temperature of baking and vy how much. For this recipe though, I think the instructions were meant to bake with fan, since the instructed temperature was 165C. While I was looking qt a lot of other genoise recipes, they all said to bake at 180°C (so I'm guessing that was meant without the fan on?)

Yes, oopsi :) But it was the only honey I had at hand. And I really didn't think the small amount would take over the cocoa flavour x) the kitchen, while baking, smelled like I was making gingerbread lol

O my gosh, I didn't even think of trying to find a cake flour substitute (or that it was even possible). Thank you so much, I'll definitely take a look at the link you've posted! (Though I'm still not sure whether I should use the smooth or coarse flour as the main flour... I'm thinking I should have gone with the smooth one since the crumb was kind of crunchy here and there - similar texture to a pie)

That's exactly why I wanted to use the 76% one instead of buying a new one I also thought the taste of it was going to go well with the cherries, but really wasn't sure if the fluidity makes a difference when making the ganacheganamostly used this chocolate to make shells for bonbons. I made a trial genoise today, my first one ever, and it wasn't the greatest success- the taste was really prevalent in honey, so I'm hesitant of making it as I'm not sure it would go well with chocolate ganache and cherries? You can't taste chocolate/cacao at all in it I wonder if the honey I used (chesnut) was maybe too strong. I could already smell only honey while it was baking

Hi all 👋 I made my forst genoise today (or at least attempt to). I was following this recipe. Sice I only had a 18x7 cm pan, I increased all the ingredients by factor 1,4. Ingredients: 217 g eggs 123 g sugar (regular, krustal, white) 14 g honey 84 g flour (not cake flour probably) 25 g starch 18 g cocoa powder 38 g butter (melted) I followed the recipe precisely (only my butter was melted and waited at room temperature not at 40-50C like recommended in the video). Firstly, my ribbons while beating egg, sugar and honey mixture were really priminent - is there a thing as overbeating the batter? Secondly, I noticed my oven temp was 160°C (with fan on) instead on 165°C as recommended- this mistake I know i made - is 5°C dofference big enough to cause the genoise to nit rise at the middle? And ine more thing - the very important one - here in Europe, we don't have names for flour as in America and maybe some other countries. Here we have soft/smooth flour (like manitoba 00) and coarse flour that isn't ground that mich to a powder consistenci, but rather a tiny bit less. I read that cake flour is supposed to have between 5 and 8 % protein. I was choosing a flour for a long time..in the end I got the coarser flour and chose the one with least protein I could find. It has the folowing characteristics: Fat: 1% Carbohydrates: 72% Protein: 9,8% Fiber: 2,3% Was the flour a bad choice? Here are some pictures of the genoise: Batter when poured into the vake pan Whilebaking in the oven (first 5 minutes) After 30 min I checked on the genoise (the smell was hinting it was ready) and when i inserted a toothpick in the center it came out clean. So I removed it from the oven after 30 min. This was the result Here are pictures of sections: Bottom section Middle section Top section All the layers side by side (bottom left to top right) Btw, the honey is very prominent in smell and taste (a bit too honey-y. I used chesnut honey). The bottom section was most dense and probably wouldn't break easily (not as spongey). The middle one was very light and not dense at all - it had the most pleasant consistency and structure in my opinion. Plese share your opinions with me - where did I go wrong?