Blind baking?

Merlin5 · 16 Dec 2018 at 17:40

I've decided I want to create a yummy Bakewell Tart and I've been out today to buy things including a food processor, only £30.

I can't expect too much at that price but hopefully it won't break too quickly.

So, before I make the frangipane filling, I'm going to have a go at making my own sweet shortcrust pastry case which I've not done before but it seems quite easy.

I believe it's best to initially blind bake instead of baking together with the filling straightaway, to avoid a soggy bottom. Anyone got experience of this?

So once the dough is in the flan tin, I'll need to put holes in it, then push baking paper into it, and then weigh it down. Apparently this helps crisp the base and keeps it from arching up and losing shape.

Also, I've read that coins are good to use instead of baking beans as they conduct heat well. Anyone tried that? With the cutoffs from the dough, I'm going to make little jam tarts.

ElliorR · 16 Dec 2018 at 18:07

I made my first ever pastry recently also for a Bakewell tart but I used baking beans I got from Amazon.

One little tip for the pastry, don’t trim until after you blind bake as it does shrink a bit.

I used this recipe

https://www.bakingmad.com/recipe/bakewell-tart

Merlin5 · 16 Dec 2018 at 18:55

That looks very good, Ellior, well made! I will at some point make one with a fondant topping. Last night I had watched Luis Troyano's tutorial on blind baking and yeah, he says trim it after the blind baking. Mind you, that means I can't use the excess dough to bake jam tarts.

Anyway, this is the one I'm making.

https://www.myvirginkitchen.com/recipe/bakewell-tart/

jpaul · 16 Dec 2018 at 20:25

happened to be this evenings pudding (no trellace though)

can usually blind bake without filling with anything , just fork the base/sides to avoid air pockets... (prepare pastry roll+fill dish and refrigerate days before)
10-15minutes in the oven, then, then add the jam (apricot) and the topping(butter&castor, ground rice+ almonds, egg+essence)
also added some cut up pieces of marzipan
its a thin crust 2-3mm

edit: food processor attachment for kenwood mixer was one of best purchases over past years, pastry's easy .. 10mins

bsoltan · 16 Dec 2018 at 21:59

Merlin5 said:
I believe it's best to initially blind bake instead of baking together with the filling straightaway, to avoid a soggy bottom. Anyone got experience of this?

So once the dough is in the flan tin, I'll need to put holes in it, then push baking paper into it, and then weigh it down. Apparently this helps crisp the base and keeps it from arching up and losing shape.

Also, I've read that coins are good to use instead of baking beans as they conduct heat well. Anyone tried that? With the cutoffs from the dough, I'm going to make little jam tarts.

Blind baking is a very easy method to get good pastry results before adding your fililng.

If you don't have baking beans, which are normally ceramic and conduct the heat, then coins are OK and reusable, or any dried beans, or rice. However dried beans or rice cannot be used/eaten after.

Basically anything heavy that isn't going to burn/melt.

Merlin5 · 17 Dec 2018 at 01:19

That looks really nice and moist, jpaul. Ground rice, interesting, as well as ground almonds? And you threw some marzipan into the mixture? Sounds good to me. By the way, I went and bought some cocoa. It won't be the best I'll admit but should be decent enough to make your chocolate recipe. I also want to make choc brownies with it.

I made a failed suet roly poly the other night. The pastry came out fine although could have been much thinner. The problem was that as I rolled it, tons of jam squeezed out and I thought it was just excess with still enough in there. But I ended up with Jamless roly poly

bsoltan, yeah, I'm gonna use a bunch of my one and two pence coins that I have collected in a tin. I'll make sure they're on baking paper and don't come into contact with the dough.

ci_newman · 17 Dec 2018 at 10:14

Merlin5 said:
That looks really nice and moist, jpaul. Ground rice, interesting, as well as ground almonds? And you threw some marzipan into the mixture? Sounds good to me. By the way, I went and bought some cocoa. It won't be the best I'll admit but should be decent enough to make your chocolate recipe. I also want to make choc brownies with it.

I made a failed suet roly poly the other night. The pastry came out fine although could have been much thinner. The problem was that as I rolled it, tons of jam squeezed out and I thought it was just excess with still enough in there. But I ended up with Jamless roly poly

bsoltan, yeah, I'm gonna use a bunch of my one and two pence coins that I have collected in a tin. I'll make sure they're on baking paper and don't come into contact with the dough.

Maybe wash them first too

jpaul · 17 Dec 2018 at 10:43

(when i thought i needed them) I had looked into getting a bag of new coins - a fivers worth of 2ps - but afaik you cant walk into you bank and order them,
otherwise ebay rolls of old low-value denominations seemed better... but yes they are filthy things

Steampunk · 17 Dec 2018 at 21:39

If you don't want to use the ceramic beans, you can get polished stainless ones. MIL brought some home from France or Spain for the wife in a little bottle, and they seem to work well.

Merlin5 · 17 Dec 2018 at 23:54

Ok, I made the pastry today, rolled it, and blindbaked it for 10 minutes, then another 2 minutes. Forgot to leave the pastry edges on until after the blind bake. Was a bit uneven around some of the edges.

I used a bunch of old one and two pence coins as seen in my photo.

Then made the filling. Oh, I sliced my finger on the food mixer blade, forgot to remove it before putting my hand in the bowl.

So I added a teaspoon of almond extract and a teaspoon of sicilian lemon extract, sprinkled with flaked almonds, baked for about 35 minutes. Came out quite nice I think.

bsoltan · 18 Dec 2018 at 09:02

Looks nice, I'd eat a slice of that!

jpaul · 18 Dec 2018 at 10:33

looks good, nice crumb - the cling was still on the coins ? ... wonderied if either stainless ball bearings or copper washers would work.

I had suggested adding marzipan bits - and had used shop bought ..

but has anyone tried home made marzipan - planning an xmas battenberg ,
I saw 'in the factory' where they (pressure)cooked the almonds+sugar mix, which was a new one on me, the cold stuff I have made before is often too crumbly. ?

jpaul · 18 Dec 2018 at 17:31

jpaul said:
but has anyone tried home made marzipan - planning an xmas battenberg ,

saw an interesting article/recipe http://www.kvalifood.com/page/homemade-marzipan/uuid/079857bf-4f7c-11e6-b574-1622d8788920
that also explained why, you still put (bitter) almond essence in with the 'blandish' californian ground almonds, for bakewell etc

In a danish "pure raw marzipan" the marzipan must consist of at least 60% almonds according to danish law. The rest is sugar and water. There are some recipes online with 50/50 sugar and almonds. But that is far too sweet for a danish marzipan.
Almond type and content
In California almonds (the most common and inexpensive sort), there is virtually no bitter and complex taste. So they are hard to make a really good marzipan of.
Spanish Valencia almonds are slightly more bitter and contains more oil. So they behave and tastes differently. Therefore there should also be used less bitter almond. Try using ½ instead of 1.
Organic almonds may contain some bitter almonds, but it is hard to know in advance exactly how bitter they are, or how many of them there are. So it is a little bit of a Russian roulette to use them for marzipan. Maybe it will be good maybe not.
For my tests, I used the "boring" (and inexpensive) Californian almonds. The result was a good marzipan with the same quality as regular "Pure raw marzipan" from the main danish manufacturers like "Anthon Berg", "Odense Marcipan" and "Chef's Kitchen". Better almonds will result in a better taste, but California almonds are quite acceptable for a basic marzipan though.

The almonds should not be over a year old (harvest date), they oxidize and develops a rancid taste. The packaging date may be a hint as to when they were picked, but there is usually no way to be sure. Unfortunately, it is usually difficult to get any information about the harvesting date.

Merlin5 · 18 Dec 2018 at 18:43

Thanks guys, I've saved you a piece.

It tastes very nice with crisp crust. However, jpaul, your filling looks like it's really lovely and super moist and I was wondering how you achieved that moisteness?

About Marzipan, I had been considering making my own and then coating in melted chocolate to make chocolate marzipan bars. It'll never be as good as my favourite Niederegger stuff but should be nice. I was going to use this recipe with a bit of whiskey added. Hardest part will be peeling the almonds. Apparently wouldn't be as good if I just used a bag of ground almonds.

I'm guessing it should work for Battenberg? By the way, you should really buy real flavour extracts instead of essences. According to some experts whose recipes I've watched, essences are not very good by comparison.

jpaul · 18 Dec 2018 at 21:01

Merlin5 said:
you should really buy real flavour extracts instead of essences

indeed .. I stocked up last month, when, annualy, nielsen massey is £3 in js ... it also does say bitter too, on the jar.

60g ground rice/25g almonds, 1 egg, 80g castor/80g Stork, 1/2tsp baking powder ... there is a debate on whether water in marg can give better cakes thab butter

Merlin5 · 18 Dec 2018 at 23:20

jpaul said:
indeed .. I stocked up last month, when, annualy, nielsen massey is £3 in js ... it also does say bitter too, on the jar.

60g ground rice/25g almonds, 1 egg, 80g castor/80g Stork, 1/2tsp baking powder ... there is a debate on whether water in marg can give better cakes thab butter

Interesting. I'll try with some ground rice next time. Also, maybe Stork makes things more moist? I've just been using bog standard unsalted butter.

I've just had a go at making chocolate cupcakes and made use of the cocoa powder you inspired me to buy. Came out well. I used the Mary Berry recipe and halved the ingredients as I only made 6. I also added some of my own things, white choc chunks and milk chocolate drops. The sponge is delicious and very light and moist .

I kind of ****** the buttercream topping though. Tastes great but it was too runny, like a puree and when I piped it on in swirls it wouldn't hold in position, just dripped and went flat, lol. Only used 1 and a half tablespoons of water which was exactly half of the recipe. I think I know why. The recipe says to melt the butter and then add the icing sugar and milk. In other recipes, the butter isn't melted, it's just creamed in a mixer.

I'm pleased with the overall bake though.

jpaul · 23 Dec 2018 at 17:42

jpaul said:
planning an xmas battenberg ,

artisanal proof of concept completed - have to wait until xmas day for first slice.

marzipan - (earlier link) mixing ground almonds into a tepid (dissolved granulated) sugar syrup+bitter essence was pretty easy, dash of icing to get good moldability.
cake - vanilla tessilated with orange-zest+rum ( no cochineal ) and, apricot, as opposed to rasberry, jam

Merlin5 · 23 Dec 2018 at 19:51

Oh my. Can you email me a slice or two

jpaul · 30 Dec 2018 at 20:59

Marzipan for battenberg and bakewell tarts were perhaps not marzipany enough in taste, so researching during xmas am wondering if I buy some benzaldehyde
from ebay it would intensify the taste (or poison me) ... are there any commercial bakers here - in the know ?

Almond flavour, you either love it or you hate it with such a passion that you will willingly share your distaste with others. For those who adore this sweet licquer-like flavour there are fortunately many applications for almond aroma in your baking regime.

But one question is frequently asked of almond aroma and almond essence and that question is “Why do recipes that call for almond aroma or almond essence not taste like actual almonds?” The answer is fairly simple. That heady marzipan flavour comes, not from everyday table almonds, but from the original specimen, the wild almond.

Wild almonds on their own are extremely bitter and a hard nut to crack (literally!) They are also the source of one of the world’s most deadly poisons, cyanide. So why do we crave the taste of almond aroma and how come it doesn’t kills us?

Firstly, the flavour extracted from wild almonds in its pure concentration is quite unpalatable. This is an evolutionary response by the wild almond to deter grazers from consuming the fertile nut by producing Hydrogen Cyanide should the kernel be disturbed, but it is the biproduct of cyanide, benzaldehyde that humans crave.

the extracts from the supermarkets all have alcohol diluting them so much more needed

Merlin5 · 31 Dec 2018 at 07:05

jpaul said:
Marzipan for battenberg and bakewell tarts were perhaps not marzipany enough in taste,
the extracts from the supermarkets all have alcohol diluting them so much more needed

I used only half a teaspoon of lemon extract and half a teaspoon of almond extract in mine and they really brought out the flavour. You mentioned earlier you use essence. As far as I can tell, essences are synthetic so perhaps that has something to do with it?