Gathering Place
In this precise art, the fun is found by feeling your way through.
Feeling your way through the baking process.
BY JERRELLE GUY BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
I started to appreciate how much of the baking process is learning the way the food and ingredients should behave.
Rules and precision aren’t naturally my thing. I’m a hypersensitive baker, preferring to get lost in the smells and textures of food and the sizzling sounds they make while boiling in a saucepan or roasting under an oven’s coil. So in this way, I’m not the baker you might expect; I’ve never studied under some tough-as-nails patissier in
France to survive and tell the tale, and I also have really hot hands, a curse when trying to work cold butter into flour before it turns to mush.
But my grandmother was a resilient baker—resourceful, intuitive and smart, and the thing that just recently dawned on me is that she never used a kitchen scale. Yet every Sunday her biscuits were spot-on, so tender and ready to be split to lie beneath a hard scramble of peppered eggs. May she rest in peace.
After realizing that, I started to appreciate how much of the baking process is learning the way the food and ingredients should behave—the proper thickness of a yellow cake batter when my spoon is lifted, the smell of fruit when it’s ripe enough to bake, the correct tackiness of dough for the bread or pastry I’m kneading—and how to set these things right if they’re not already. It’s something that just comes with years of practice—and failure.
I’d never even thought about getting a scale until I wanted to start baking for other people: my fluky cookie business postgraduation, and when I agreed to write a cookbook. I froze up, started second-guessing myself, wondering whether everything I made had a texture that would please the baking gods. But boy, I tell you, life before those times was heavenly, and I was happily munching away at whatever unmeasured, off-the-cuff pie I threw together, and friends and family close enough to steal a slice would rave.
While there definitely are tips I’ve lifted from books and YouTube videos that help me understand why a cake collapsed
cups (240 grams) white whole wheat flour
2⁄3 cup (160 grams)
cocoa powder
11/2 tsp. (6 grams)
baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
11/4 cups (250 grams) sugar 1 cup (235 ml) buttermilk 1/2 cup (120 ml) canola
or vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. (15 ml)
vanilla extract
1 cup (235 ml) hot coffee 2
cup (175 grams) dairy-free semisweet chocolate chips, melted 3 Tbsp. (42 grams)
coconut oil
1 can (15 oz.)coconut cream, chilled in refrigerator overnight Fresh berries, optional
1
1. Preheat oven to 350° and have two 8- or 9-inch greased cake pans lined with parchment nearby. Place a metal mixing bowl in the freezer.
2. Stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk sugar, buttermilk, oil and vanilla until smooth. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and fold them together gently to combine until almost completely blended, being careful not to overmix. Pour in coffee, whisking to combine.
4. Divide batter between cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25-30 minutes. Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
5. In a small cup, mix melted chocolate and coconut oil together until silky. Let cool to room temperature. Remove coconut cream from refrigerator and, being careful not to shake it, flip it upside down and open can from bottom. Discard unsolidified liquid, keeping thick cream at the top. Scoop coconut cream into cold metal bowl. With a handheld mixer, beat coconut cream until fluffy, then slowly drizzle in melted chocolate, continuing to beat until cream gets stiff. Place bowl in refrigerator to chill for 20 minutes. 6. When cakes are completely cool, place 1 upside down on a cake stand or large serving plate so top is completely flat. Spread onequarter of icing over top, then add second layer on top of icing. Finish frosting the top and sides with remaining icing. Top with fresh berries if desired.