Unique Original Articles » Two Very Important Techniques for Many Desserts

When making desserts, or any dish for that matter, there are a number of techniques that you need to pay attention to and know well to get the best results. In this article I will show you two techniques that are commonly used when making all desserts, but especially easy desserts.

Folding in

Folding, in essence, is nothing more than mixing very gently. The technique is used when you want to incorporate a very delicate product such as meringue into your dessert while minimizing the damage you do to the delicate item.
Typically, when folding you want to use a spatula as they have a wide surface but are also very thin. What you want to do is use the spatula to gently pull the mixture from the bottom of the bowl and bring it up over the top in a 'folding' manner. You continue to repeat this until the mixture is fully incorporated; just be sure to not over mix.

Not over mixing

Although not really a technique as such, not over mixing is very important in many situations.

Mixing too much when making some desserts can be quite detrimental to the final texture or look of the item so it's very important that if the recipe says to not over mix, you don't.

There are two main scenarios you'll run into from time to time that require you to be careful not to over mix:

1) Using flour - When making a flour-based dough or batter over mixing will cause the gluten to develop, there's no need to go into the details on this but rest assured, over developing the gluten will make the final product rubbery. One example that many of you may be aware of is when making pancakes, even if you use the store-bought pancake mix it warns you not to over mix, that the batter will, and should, be lumpy. An over mixed pancake batter will make tough pancakes. The same goes for most other batters and many doughs as well.

This is especially important to remember when making cakes and cupcakes.

2) Folding in light products - In some cases when making desserts you want them to be light and airy and sometimes to accomplish this, the recipe will call for you to fold in an airy product such as whipped cream or meringue. The airy texture of these products come from when you make them, whipping them until millions of tiny air bubbles get captured inside. This is why folding these light ingredients is so important; it allows them to be mixed in without losing too many of the contained air bubbles. But no matter how gently you can fold, over folding will cause the air bubbles to be released and the light and airy texture will be lost.

So be careful, if the recipe calls for you to not over mix, or if you think that's probably the case based on what I just said (the recipe author may have forgotten to write it in), only mix until the two products are just barely incorporated, no more.
Eric Schmidt has written many articles on how to make quick, easy desserts here and provides important information on how to make a cake at the page onmaking a cake.
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