Heavenly Angel Food Cake

We were supposed to be having a birthday dinner for my lovely mother-in-law. Unfortunately, a stomach virus has hit me and the dinner was canceled. Dear hubby was excited about the opportunity for a made from scratch angel food cake, so he went ahead and made one and took pictures so I could blog it. Thanks hubby! He is made one that he adapted from a recipe Alton Brown has on the the food network web site.

Let's get started!

Alton Brown's Angel Food Cake

Adapted by Neil Thiele

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup cake flour, sifted

12 egg whites (the closer to room temperature the better)

1/3 cup warm water

1 teaspoon vanilla extracts or extract of your choice

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Directions:

Wash all your utensils, bowl and cake pan to make sure they are free from any oils. Be sure to use a stainless steel or glass bowl and not any plastic bowls. Separate your eggs and let them come to room temperature (about an hour).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oven rack placement is important; Alton Brown's recipe doesn't say anything about it. However, an Internet search confirmed my original belief that removing one rack and baking on the lowest oven rack gives better results for Angel food cakes.

In a food processor spin sugar about 2 minutes until it is superfine. Sift half of the sugar with the salt the cake flour and set aside. Sift the remaining sugar but keep separate from the flour sugar mixture and set aside.

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Oven rack placement is important, Alton Brown's recipe doesn't say anything about it.   However, an Internet search confirmed my original belief that removing one rack  and baking on the lowest oven rack  gives better results for Angel food cakes.

In a food processor spin sugar about 2 minutes until it is superfine. Sift half of the sugar with the salt the cake flour and set aside.  Sift the remaining sugar but keep separate from the flour sugar mixture and set aside..

In a large bowl, use a mixer of your choices (I like using my hand mixer when making anything that requires stiff peaks but hubby used the Kitchen aid) and mix on low to thoroughly combine egg whites, water, vanilla extract, and cream of tartar. After 2 minutes, slowly add the sifted reserved sifted sugar, beating continuously at medium speed.

Once you have achieved medium peaks, sift enough of the flour mixture in to dust the top of the foam. Using a spatula fold in gently (I was taught to never ever never use plastic when making angel food cake but hubby used it!). Continue until all of the flour mixture is incorporated.

Carefully spoon your mixture into an ungreased tube pan. Cut through the batter with a knife to remove air pockets. Bake for 35 minutes before checking for doneness with a wooden skewer. (When inserted halfway between the inner and outer wall, the skewer should come out dry).  The instructions said to "Cool upside down on cooling rack for at least an hour before removing from pan", however, my mother taught me to invert the pan over the top of a narrow bottle and so I choose to continue with that method.

Garnish with fruit, whipped cream, caramel, chocolate or whatever catches your fancy... we chose caramel and whipped cream with sprinkles (of course! have to have my sprinkles!)  Grab a fork and

Enjoy!

Meringues on a rainy day

     As much as I liked the idea of doing my own blog, my insecurities arise and I chickened out posting last week.  I'm not fabulous with a camera and have no give aways to draw people in.  I had to go back and reflect upon my reasoning for starting this blog. I'm in this to have fun and keep my creative juices motivated. 

Let's move on.

This is my second week following a diet from "Curves".  I have to consume way too much protein for my taste but I still get my yummy carbs.  I just don't know what I would do if I couldn't have my fruit!  I was craving something sweet today and also in the mood for some baking, but, and this is a biggie, it had to remain low in carbs.  So ultimate brownies is out the window but surely there had to be another option.  I quick search in allrecipes and I found some delightful recipes for meringues and chose this one called " Authentic French Meringues," by RANDIVH.  Browsing through the comments I made some of my own adaptations to the recipe. 

One thing I forgot about making a meringue is that it comes out best on non-humid days... guess what its doing right now?? Yep, its raining.  It took 29 minutes for my egg whites to reach the stiff peak stage and silly me decided today would be the day to whip out the hand mixer.  It also took extra time in the oven to get the meringue to be fully set.  In the end, while they turned out to be fabulous in texture, I found this recipe to be nothing more than tasting of confectioner's sugar.  I will try another recipe in the future using regular granulated sugar. 


Authentic French Meringues
                adapted by Vivian Thiele

4 egg whites   (I had about 1/2 a cup using large eggs)
1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
1 1/4 Confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla.

Directions:

1.Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C). Place the oven racks up to the highest possible position.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2.In a glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy using an electric mixer. Sprinkle in sugar a little at a time, while continuing to whip at medium speed. Add cream of tartar and vanilla.  When the mixture becomes stiff and shiny like satin, stop mixing, and transfer the mixture out onto the lined baking sheet by dropping spoonfuls (use a metal spoon only, not plastic!) or you may pipe the mixture onto the parchment paper.

3. Reduce oven temperature to 185 Degrees F and bake for 3 hours without opening the oven to check on them.  After the 3 hours, check to see if  the meringues are dry, and can easily be removed from the pan. If not, place them back in the oven for additional drying time.  Allow cookies to cool completely before storing in an airtight container at room temperature.

Here is what my stiff peaks looked like.  It took me almost thirty minutes to get them to peak because of the humidity!