Keeping in line with temperatures…it’s extremely important to heed one important fact: all ingredients must be at room temperature. In order to more perfectly define “room temperature, it refers to about 68º F (unless otherwise stated in the recipe).
If you take a combination of ingredients, such as flour, butter and eggs, then try to mix them together while they are all varying temperatures, you will have a cold, messy lump–resulting in a baked, messy lump. Knowing that a cake’s (or bread’s) final internal temperature is about 200º, when you begin all ingredients at the same temperature (68º), they will all reach the final temperature at the same time.
- Cold butter does not beat well; room-temp butter will break-down and create air bubbles, allowing aeration
- Cold eggs will not blend properly; room-temp eggs are maleable and will beat fluffier and act as a binder between wet/dry ingredients
- Cold milk (or water) will coagulate and clump in the batter, requiring extra beating time to mix the ingredients; room temperature liquid will moisten the dry ingredients without the need over-beat, therefore avoiding gluten (when flour and liquid are over-mixed—tasting like glue, with a gluey texture)
Problems:
- Batter too thick, won’t spread evenly in pan
- Outer edges cook faster while middle is still raw
- Finished product is dense, not aerated
- Heavy product, gluey-taste
Solution:
- Allow butter to come to room temperature naturally; to speed up, cut into smaller pieces and rest in single layer
- Heat eggs in bowl with hot tap water for five minutes
- Warm milk (or liquid) in microwave
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