cocoa chiffon

[filipe]

I've made my fist chiffon tonight. I had eaten many, but had never done one.

I started by a cocoa chiffon. The result surprised me A LOT - it was even better than all those I had eaten before and made by other people. It was really soft and wet... oh God, there goes my diet!

I've covered it with a chocolate meringue, based on a simple italian meringue to which I added melted chocolate+butter.

I'll share my recipe with you so that we can compare recipes and maybe achieve an even better one.

I've used:

Dry items :

180g wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

50g corn flour (MAIZENA, is it known on your countries?)

70g cocoa powder - I've used Valrhona

350g yellow sugar

Wet items:

7 yolks

8 whites

125ml corn oil

200ml water

And this was the result....

Edited January 17, 2006 by filipe (log)

[Patrick S]

That looks really delicious, filipe. I love cocoa chiffon; the only recipe I've tried is this one. I might try your recipe next time I make a chocolate cake. Is Maizena a corn starch?

[MightyD]

wow does that ever look luscious! i am intrigued by your use of corn flour in your recipe - i've never done that before!

have you considered replacing the water with coffee (i use espresso-strength coffee) for a mocha chiffon cake?

[Ling]

That cake looks beautiful, Filipe!

Is "yellow sugar" sugar that's in between white (granulated) and brown sugar? I have "golden sugar" in my pantry...it's yellow-ish.

[CanadianBakin']

What a beautiful cake! I've got to admit I've never tried making a chiffon. I'll have to put that on my "to do" list.

[kaneel]

That looks really delicious, filipe. I love cocoa chiffon; the only recipe I've tried is this one. I might try your recipe next time I make a chocolate cake. Is Maizena a corn starch?

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Yes, maizena is cornstarch.

[filipe]

That looks really delicious, filipe. I love cocoa chiffon; the only recipe I've tried is this one. I might try your recipe next time I make a chocolate cake. Is Maizena a corn starch?

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Patrick,

the recipe link you've posted goes to a tiramisu recipe...

Yes, Maizena is a corn starch. I prefer to use that brand which I guess is also known in other coutries because it guarantees me the best quality. But any corn starch will do.

[filipe]

That cake looks beautiful, Filipe! 

Is "yellow sugar" sugar that's in between white (granulated) and brown sugar? I have "golden sugar" in my pantry...it's yellow-ish.

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Exactly. I've called it yellow because its how we call it here, but I guess that the correct translation is golden sugar.

[filipe]

have you considered replacing the water with coffee (i use espresso-strength coffee) for a mocha chiffon cake?

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In the original recipe I've followed for this cocoa chiffon they suggest to add 2 Tsp of cognac. I thought that it would spoil all the cocoa aroma so i didn't use it.

For a mocha chiffon cake i guess that you would achieve a better result by taking out the cocoa and replace it for some powder coffee and mix it it the flours and the sugar. And then again a strong expresso instead of the water. But that's just a hint...never tried to do it

Using the same base recipe and method you can flavour it anyway you want and achieve a very soft and wet cake.

[Patrick S]

That looks really delicious, filipe. I love cocoa chiffon; the only recipe I've tried is this one. I might try your recipe next time I make a chocolate cake. Is Maizena a corn starch?

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Patrick,

the recipe link you've posted goes to a tiramisu recipe...

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If you take a look, you'll see that it includes a recipe for cocoa chiffon cake.

[filipe]

If you take a look, you'll see that it includes a recipe for cocoa chiffon cake.

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Oops eheh just saw it sorry

Anyway, if you take a look at therecipe I've posted on RecipeGullet, the method used is very different. The major difference, for me, its about the greased and floured pan - a chiffon, by definition, its cooked on a non-greased and non-floured pan. And part of the final result as to do with this. When you take it out of the oven you should turn the pan upside down and let it rest "in the air", supported by somethig - glasses, other pans, whatever) so that the air can freely circulate under the cake pan and near the cake surface. And only after that you remove the cake from the pan. If you use a greased and floured pan the cake will fall by itself when you do this operation.

[jgarner53]

What about using rum instead of the cognac? It would also enhance the chocolate flavor. You could use vanilla, too.

[Patrick S]

If you take a look, you'll see that it includes a recipe for cocoa chiffon cake.

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Oops eheh just saw it sorry

Anyway, if you take a look at therecipe I've posted on RecipeGullet, the method used is very different. The major difference, for me, its about the greased and floured pan - a chiffon, by definition, its cooked on a non-greased and non-floured pan.

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Personally, I would consider any cake in which the butter is replaced by oil and the whites are whipped to be a chiffon cake, whether they are baked in a tube pan or as a sheet.

When you take it out of the oven you should turn the pan upside down and let it rest "in the air", supported by somethig - glasses, other pans, whatever) so that the air can freely circulate under the cake pan and near the cake surface.

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Actually, I think the point of inverting the chiffon is simply so that it doesn't deflate under gravity. After all, air can circulate just as freely around an upright cake pan on a rack as it can around a chiffon cake that has been inverted.

Edited January 17, 2006 by Patrick S (log)

[filipe]

Personally, I would consider any cake in which the butter is replaced by oil and the whites are whipped to be a chiffon cake, whether they are baked in a tube pan or as a sheet.

Actually, I think the point of inverting the chiffon is simply so that it doesn't deflate under gravity. After all, air can circulate just as freely around an upright cake pan on a rack as it can around a chiffon cake that has been inverted.

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Sure that air can circulate freely wheter its upright or inverted...but you should try both ways and compare the result. When you invert the pan and let it rest that way the cake is much softer and light. As I've said this was my first self-made chiffon cake, but my mother did them a lot and sometimes she just took them off the pan without that "inverted rest period" and those cakes were defenetly worst than those she did properly.

[Wendy DeBord]

Actually, I think the point of inverting the chiffon is simply so that it doesn't deflate under gravity. After all, air can circulate just as freely around an upright cake pan on a rack as it can around a chiffon cake that has been inverted.

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All chiffon cake recipes are not identical. I've baked ones that were very light and fragile that couldn't take the pressure when you sliced into them. Then I've baked ones where they were structurely strong enough to be de-paned while warm and soaked with syrup with-out loosing any volume/height. It all depends on the structure of the particular chiffon.

I think most people will agree that it's best to cool them adheared to the pan. Upside down cooling.......ah......it can't hurt if your not sure how strong your chiffons structure is.

[Patrick S]

Personally, I would consider any cake in which the butter is replaced by oil and the whites are whipped to be a chiffon cake, whether they are baked in a tube pan or as a sheet.

Actually, I think the point of inverting the chiffon is simply so that it doesn't deflate under gravity. After all, air can circulate just as freely around an upright cake pan on a rack as it can around a chiffon cake that has been inverted.

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Sure that air can circulate freely wheter its upright or inverted...but you should try both ways and compare the result. When you invert the pan and let it rest that way the cake is much softer and light.

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Of course. I'm not disagreeing with that at all. Maybe I wasn't clear. The chiffon will be softer and lighter because it does not loose volume, i.e. does not sink/sag under gravity. Whenever a cake looses volume, it increases in density. That's what I meant when I said the cake is inverted so that it doesn't deflate. So my point was not that cooling inverted doesn't make the cake lighter, but that it makes it lighter by preventing deflation rather than by facilitating air circulation.

I've only made one cocoa chiffon, but I've made plenty of other types of chiffon cakes, and I always invert them on a wine bottle to cool (unless for some reason I'm baking them in something other than a tube pan).

[ablosh]

All chiffon cake recipes are not identical. I've baked ones that were very light and fragile that couldn't take the pressure when you sliced into them. Then I've baked ones where they were structurely strong enough to be de-paned while warm and soaked with syrup with-out loosing any volume/height. It all depends on the structure of the particular chiffon.

I think most people will agree that it's best to cool them adheared to the pan. Upside down cooling.......ah......it can't hurt if your not sure how strong your chiffons structure is.

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I have personally only tried baking a chiffon cake once and did the invert cooling as the recipe stated. But my sister who has more experience with baking dozens or maybe even a hundred chiffon cakes does not follow the method and her cakes still remain fabulous in looks (height and volume) and in taste!

So maybe it does depend on the recipe...

[Ling]

I think I would invert the pan no matter what the recipe says, just to be safe. I've made hundreds of chiffon cakes (maybe a thousand over the years? ) and I've only left ONE to cool right-side-up, just to see what would happen. The cake did not fall too much (less than an inch) and it was a bit denser...so I always invert.

[filipe]

I did it again tonight Getting addicted to this cake

But tonight I've decided to create (beside the main big cake, of course) 4 muffin-size versions, which i called as the Four Seasons Cocoa Chiffon. What do you think of them?

Starting with Winter, with a dark chocolate rain wetting it

Then Spring, seasoned with red fruits jam and banana slices

Then Summer, with a "heart" of lemon sorbet

And finnaly Autumn, rolled with puf pastry and seasoned with a chocolate sauce

[Ling]

^I love your creative spin on the cocoa chiffon cake! Which one did you think tasted the best? I think I would've really enjoyed the "Autumn" dessert.

[Patrick S]

Very creative, filipe.

[filipe]

^I love your creative spin on the cocoa chiffon cake!  Which one did you think tasted the best? I think I would've really enjoyed the "Autumn" dessert. 

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Although I didn't dislike the mix between banana & chocolate I guess that Spring was the less successfull one - what didn't work at all was the mix between banana and the red fruits jam

Autumn was a really nice surprise - if you eat it while hot the contrast between the soft and light texture of the chiffon cake and the crispy puff pastry will surelly delight you

Summer was also very nice, although I might try a different sorbet/ice cream next time. Lemon and chocolate is a nice flavour combination, but yuzu and chocolate would be even better. Just need to find some yuzu....

Winter becomes better the day after, after the cake gets all the moisture from the ganache.

Every version is very easy to do, so you could check them by yourselves and maybe you'll reach a different conclusion