BIS-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Novamber 18, 1995 What You Need To Know About Baking Perfect Cookies, Cak LOU ANN GOOD Lancaster Farming Staff LEBANON (Lebanon Co.) It’s the season for prolific baking. And, what can be more frustrating than spending hours baking cook ies that bum on the bottoms or bake unevenly? Maybe you don’t understand why one batch can turn out perfect ly and the next batch is burned on the bottom and underbaked on the top. According to Alletta Schadler, Lebanon extension director, there are scientific reasons for baking problems. “If you want top quality cook ies, cakes, and pies, there are tricks to the trade,” Schadler said at a recent workshop held at Prescott Firehouse. “You can use the same cookie batter and have the cookies turn out entirely different depend ing on the cookie sheet used.” The texture, dryness, appear ance, flavor, doneness, and vol ume of cookies are affected by the type of baking sheet used. Here are some tips from Schadler: • The best conductor of heat is aluminum. A medium weight mod erately shiny aluminum pan or cookie sheet will produce the same degree of browning on the bottom of the pro duct as will occur on the top. Keep your pans clean and shiny by washing thoroughly and cleaning with a steel wool pan. The alumi num pan that has been painted on the outside will absorb heat at a dif ferent rate than an unpainted pan. Food will be browner. • Air cushion alumi num cookie sheets and baking pans bake slower than single thickness pans. Additional baking time will almost always be needed. Cookies may flatten more because they bake and set slow er. Be sure to cool sheets completely between uses. The center of thick cookies may tend to be underdone. ■ Dark pans such as non-stick coated or black aluminum will absorb heat and will cause the bottoms and edges to brown faster than the tops of food. You may need to reduce heat or shorten baking time. It may be hard to get evenly baked cookies. • Glass baking dishes will absorb and hold heat, resulting in greater browning and some drying out of the product unless the oven temperature is reduced by 25 degrees. Shorter baking time may be needed. This characteristic of holding heat is desirable when baking pies. Do not reduce the temperature for pies. Ceramic bak ing pans may take longer depend ing on how thick they are. • Shiny aluminum foil pans reflect heat and may need extra baking time to achieve proper browning. Foil pie pans almost always produce underbaked bot tom crusts and maybe underdone fillings. Placing the foil pan on a baking sheet may help remedy this problem. • Non-stick coated tin pans will resist rust and be easier to clean. Depending on how dark the coat ing is on the outside or bottom of the pan, the browning rate may be increased. ■ Stainless steel baking pans not good conductors of heat Thi are slow to respond and unever effect FAT SUBSTITUTING INGI DIENTS Many people are trying to wi calories by reducing their intake. For this reason, cooks experimenting and trying low dessert recipes—often with dij pointing results. Schadler said, “Changing form or type of fat in the recipe have significant effects on the ture. Other alterations musi made to compensate. Fats tend* ize bakded products and impr keeping qualities. Reducing will ususally affect the fini! product’s texture and shelf She suggests reducing the amount of fat in a recipe by - fourth. This works best in fruit and nut breads, cake recipes and sauces. Do not do this in rolled cookies or pie crust recipes where fat is critical. Drop cookies might by using igt. Schadler, Lebanon County Deitz, right, listens. lend themselves to fat reduction. Be prepared for some change in texture. The best way to modify a recipe is to try to find a lowered fat recipe of a similar type and com pare to the recipe you are thinking of modifying. * A. Victorian Gift Shop ’ | Yankee Candle Sale!! “ u only at I The Herb Merchant | | 70-72 W Pomfret Si • Carlisle. PA 17013 g tS (717)249-0970 I-800-404-berb » y Mon -Sal. 10-5, Starting Oct. 22 Sundays 1-4 > 26 Pages of Ads, Informative Articles, Good Business Buys- Plus interesting stories that your whole family will enjoy. I 1 Your Name: ' Address: I Gift Subscription for: Address: I Mail your check for $l5 (12 issues) and this form to; I | Plain Communities Bniineu Exchange | |RO. Box 328, Dept L. Lampeter, PA 17537 Phone 717-295-7667 • Fax 717-295-7686 j >xpk 7 . extension director, while Fran TYPE OF FAT IN A RECIPE • If the recipe calls for oil, use an oil that is lower in saturated fat The lowest is canola, then sun flower or com or olive. It will not (Turn to Page B 19) s Easy! Complete the vm below and mail it ilong with your payment to us no later than De cember 11th, 1995 and we will mail a gift sub scription certificate to your friend or loved one—just in time for | the holiday! Then, beginning with the January 1996 is sue, they will receive 12 monthly issues! Only $l5
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