On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1076

until it forms a homogeneous mass, then rested The large proportion of fat limits gluten development, thus providing tenderness, and also acts as a kind of water repellant, thus providing a barrier against cooking juices The precooking swells and gelates some of the flour starch, which takes up water and gives the dough a thick, workable consistency in place of an elastic gluten structure Cookies Common cookies are simple pleasures, but the microcosm of all cookies is a summa of the baker’s art Cookies include sweet bitesized baked goods of all sorts: crumbly and laminated pastries, wafers, butter and sponge cakes, biscuits, meringues, nut pastes The term comes from the medieval Dutch for “little cake.” The French equivalent is petits fours, or “little oven goods,” and the German klein Gebäck means much the same Their miniature size and the numerous possibilities for shaping, decorating, and flavoring have resulted in a great diversity of cookies, many of them developed by the French and named in the same spirit that gave us Italian pastas called butterflies, little worms, and prieststranglers: hence cat’s tongues, Russian cigarettes, eyeglasses, and Nero’s ears Cookie Ingredients and Textures Most cookies are both sweet and rich, with substantial proportions of sugar and fat They’re also tender, thanks to ingredients, proportions, and mixing techniques that minimize the formation of a gluten network But then they may be moist or dry, crumbly or flaky or crisp or chewy The diversity of textures arises from a handful of ingredients, and from the proportions and methods of ... Most cookies are both sweet and rich, with substantial proportions of sugar and fat They’re also tender, thanks to ingredients, proportions, and mixing techniques that minimize the formation of a gluten network But then they may be moist or dry, crumbly or...klein Gebäck means much the same Their miniature size and the numerous possibilities for shaping, decorating, and flavoring have resulted in a great diversity of cookies, many of them developed by the French and named... minimize the formation of a gluten network But then they may be moist or dry, crumbly or flaky or crisp or chewy The diversity of textures arises from a handful of ingredients, and from the proportions and methods of