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Although it was a short(er) week this week, it was no less intense than the preceding weeks. As we had come back from Balingup on Sunday night, we had a free day Monday. Just enough time to catch up on the washing that had piled up whilst I was away.
Tuesday and Wednesday were devoted to recipe conversion. The task was to take a standard baking recipe and adjust it to take into account the wholefood principles we have been learning. We had four attempts to take the recipe from a white flour/white sugar format to a recipe containing unrefined sugars and whole grain flours. Matt and I worked on a traditional muffin recipe, converting it to one containing barley flour. We’re not yet happy with the result, but intend to keep working on it. Once we nail it I’ll share the recipe with you.
It is often said that baking is a science. I had not truly appreciated how much until we started to play with the recipes. Even something as simple as changing the type of flour can have a huge difference on how the recipe behaves. The biggest revelation to me was the influence that sugar plays in moisture content. In our second attempt we drastically reduced the sugar; the only change we made to the recipe at that point. The resultant mixture was noticeably dry, and the muffins didn’t rise properly due to the lack of moisture. What I now realise is that if you reduce the sugar in a recipe then you also need to increase the fat or the moisture content to compensate for this.
Thursday was a fun day. Chocolate and ice cream. Peanut, salted caramel and chocolate bars, chocolate truffles, raw chocolate fudge and chocolate pot au creme. You can have too much of a good thing. Then on to praline vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream. I came away extremely inspired to make lots of ice cream, which should please The Princess no end.
I would love to say the week ended on a high, but we had our final written exam on Friday. Exhausting, but at least I now have a much clearer idea of what I still don’t know.
That’s really interesting about sugar affecting the moisture content of a recipe. I have been playing with muffin recipes recently too but hadn’t managed to work that one out. It explains a lot though. Thankyou!
It was fascinating to me the effect the sugar had. A definite eye opener. It does explain a lot doesn’t it.