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Chiffon Cake



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Amarante




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jan 13 2023, 1:17 pm
This was a bit more of a potchke because like a sponge cake, you need to beat the egg whites separately but it really was a delicious cake with a divine texture. The history of the cake and how it developed is fascinating

A lot of eggs but considering the price of high quality baked goods, still a relatively inexpensive dessert.

See advice regarding adding potato starch to the egg whites for the best result.

In 1927, a former insurance agent in Los Angeles was fiddling obsessively with ingredients in his home kitchen when he came up with a cake that was weightless yet rich — angel and devil at once — which we know today as chiffon. His secret: Instead of butter, he used vegetable oil in a batter thick with yolks, folded together with glossy peaks of whipped egg whites. The cake’s kinship to clouds makes it an ideal dessert for Christopher Tan, who lives in Singapore, where the temperature and humidity are enemies of more traditional, butter-based cakes. Here, he uses mandarin oranges, packing in as much juice and zest as possible. The most difficult part is beating the egg whites properly. Tan has a baking secret of his own: He mixes a little potato starch (which absorbs more liquid than other starches) into the meringue, to guard against deflating.


Chiffon Cake
Recipe from Christopher Tan

INGREDIENTS
Yield: One 10-inch cake (8 to 12 servings)
For the Meringue

¾ cup/140 grams superfine (caster) sugar
1 tablespoon/10 grams potato starch
9 large egg whites (325 grams)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

For the Cake Batter

1¾ cups/215 grams cake flour
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
⅔ cup/120 grams superfine (caster) sugar
7 large egg yolks
½ cup/110 grams sunflower oil (or other neutral-tasting oil)
Grated zest of 4 large mandarin oranges (about 2 tablespoons)
¾ cup/170 grams fresh mandarin orange juice (see Tip)
1 tablespoon/10 grams fresh lime or lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon fine salt

PREPARATION


Arrange one oven rack in the lower third of the oven and heat oven to 325 degrees.

Have ready a 10-inch ungreased, unlined chiffon cake pan (a 2-piece tube pan).

Make the meringue: Mix sugar with potato starch. In a clean bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric stand or hand mixer on low speed, gradually increasing the speed to high, until the foam starts to pile up in floppy mounds. Gradually add sugar mixture while beating constantly, then beat until meringue is slightly glossy and stiff peaks just start to form. When you lift the whisk quickly and vertically out of the meringue, it should leave behind a pointed peak which curls over just slightly at the tip. Set meringue aside briefly while you proceed.

Prepare the cake batter: Sift cake flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and whisk very well to thoroughly combine everything. Set aside.

Whisk egg yolks, oil, orange zest and juice, lime juice, vanilla and salt together in another bowl until well blended. Scrape this mixture into the flour mixture and whisk gently just until batter is smooth.

Briefly re-beat meringue for 10 seconds or so to redistribute any moisture which may have settled out. Add one-third of meringue to the cake batter and fold gently until almost blended. Add half of the remaining meringue to the batter and fold in likewise. Lastly, scrape the batter into the meringue mixing bowl and fold it into the remaining meringue until incorporated.

Pour finished mixture gently into the pan. Bake on a low oven rack for 55 to 65 minutes. When the cake is done, a cake tester inserted into it midway between the pan side and the central tube will emerge damp but clean, with no gooey batter clinging to it.

Remove the cake from the oven and immediately turn it upside down. Stand it on the cake pan’s feet, or, if the pan has no feet or if the cake has risen higher than the feet, balance the central column on a narrow jar or bottle neck. Let cake cool completely.

To unmold, turn cake right side up, then run a long, thin, sharp knife around the cake’s edge and around the central tube. Lift tube and pan base insert out of the pan, and the cake with it. Run the knife around the base of the cake to free it from the insert, then invert it onto a serving plate and remove the insert. Slice cake with a very sharp plain or serrated knife to serve. Once fully cool, the cake can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 5 to 6 days. Well-wrapped individual slices can be frozen for up to 2 months.

Tip

Use only freshly-squeezed orange juice for this cake. Canned or bottled juice does not have the same freshness of flavor, and may be too acidic, which affects the cake’s texture. Mandarin orange juice and zest make this cake especially aromatic. You can use a combination of regular juice oranges and mandarin oranges.
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Chayalle




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jan 13 2023, 1:27 pm
Thanks Amarante.

I remember my grandmother AH making Chiffon cakes in tube pans (I think she called it a kugelhopf pan). She used to turn them upside down over an empty apple juice bottle (the old-fashioned glass kind they had back in the day) till it cooled, so it wouldn't loose it's height.
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Amarante




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jan 13 2023, 1:35 pm
Chayalle wrote:
Thanks Amarante.

I remember my grandmother AH making Chiffon cakes in tube pans (I think she called it a kugelhopf pan). She used to turn them upside down over an empty apple juice bottle (the old-fashioned glass kind they had back in the day) till it cooled, so it wouldn't loose it's height.


The wisdom of Bubbes 😂 These instructions do include the need for elevating the cake while it cools upside down.

My Bubbe said you needed to pick whitefish with RED eyes for gefilte fish and my mother and I would smile behind her back because we thought it was a Bubbemeiser. But then my mother and I were watching an interview with a very famous food expert (nit Jewish and nit discussing gefilte fish specifically) who said the best quality whitefish had red eyes. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
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