LEAF GELATINE: Yes, size does matter. Don’t be fooled by packets of leaves as their size and strength varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. For this reason, we’ve given a weight of gelatine (and approximate number of leaves) for each of our recipes that make use of this setting agent.
Never boil any mixture that contains gelatine because otherwise you risk losing its setting properties.
HOW TO MELT CHOCOLATE
You can either melt chocolate in the microwave (our chef Fred’s favoured method) or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water (otherwise known as a bain marie). Whichever method you choose, first pop the chocolate pieces into a heatproof bowl. Make sure that they are broken or chopped into equally sized pieces to ensure an even melting.
Fred is a big fan of melting chocolate in the microwave because you are not creating unnecessary heat in your kitchen and the worst enemy of chocolate is humidity. Put the bowl of chocolate in the microwave and heat it in short blasts of 30–40 seconds on a low power setting to avoid scorching or burning the chocolate. Stir the chocolate between each bout of heat. If the bowl you are using becomes too hot for you to handle after it has been microwaved, it is also too hot for your chocolate, so pour it into a cool bowl.
While you can buy a pair of pans that have been specifically designed to nestle together as a bain marie, you can also easily make your own. Choose a heatproof bowl that just sits over a saucepan, but not too far into the pan. Heat some water in the pan to a gentle simmer, then turn off the heat and place the bowl of chocolate over the top. Stir it occasionally as it melts until the chocolate is smooth.
GÜ TIP Make sure that the bowl and any other equipment you are using are completely dry. If any water comes into contact with chocolate as it is melting, it becomes unworkable as it turns grainy and rough in texture.
GÜ TIP Likewise, if chocolate becomes hot when you are melting it, it can become very thick and lumpy. Try whisking in a knob of butter (although this won’t help when tempering).
HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE CURLS
One of the easiest ways to make chocolate curls at home is to use a chocolate bar that has been left at room temperature. Take a metal pastry cutter and scrape it lengthways along the bottom – the flat side – of the bar. This will give you generous large curls to scatter over your chocolate creations.
GÜ TIP Milk and white chocolates are easier to use for curls because there is more fat in the chocolate.
HOW TO BUTTER AND LINE A CAKE TIN
Before lining a cake tin with baking parchment, butter the tin. Be generous with the butter, ensuring that you push it well into any corners (keep hold of your butter wrappers for this, or use pieces of kitchen paper) and up the sides, especially if you are using a fluted tin. For a round, shallow cake tin, you only need to line the base using the bottom of the tin as a template for cutting out the baking parchment. For a deeper cake tin, you may want to line the side as well. Cut a strip of the parchment slightly longer than the circumference of the tin and a few centimetres higher. Fold over one of the longer edges and snip regularly along it. Put this strip into the cake tin first, with the snipped edge running across the base. Cover with the piece of parchment cut out for the base.
If you are lining a loaf tin, cut out a rectangle that is long and wide enough to fit up the sides of the tin. Stand the tin in the centre of the rectangle and draw around the base with a pencil. Then remove the tin and cut into each pencilled corner just once from each side. When you place the paper in the loaf tin and push it down to the base, you will then have four overlapping sections, one at each corner. With a bit of coaxing, they will lie flat around each corner.
BAKING BLIND
In the basic Chocolate Sweetcrust Pastry recipe we explain how to bake a pastry case blind. This means that the pastry needs to be baked completely before the filling is added to prevent it from become soggy. The pastry case is lined with baking parchment and baking beans, which prevents the pastry from rising up when in the oven. After it has been baked for the recommended length of time, remove the parchment and beans from the case and return the pastry to the oven until the base is cooked through.
GÜ TIP You can buy ceramic baking beans, but they are expensive and usually only sold in small quantities. A good alternative is to use dried beans or pulses instead (keep them just for this as they will be inedible, even after the first time you have used them), or you could fill the paper-lined base with a pile of coins. Not only are the coins good and heavy, but they also heat up quickly and speed up the cooking process.
COOKING A CUSTARD
We have given you several custard recipes in this book and for some of our puds a custard forms the basis of the mixture. A custard is a creamy sweet sauce that has been thickened with egg yolks. For the thickening process to happen, the eggs need to be gently heated and stirred continuously. ‘Gentle’ is the key word here because if you cook the eggs in the sauce too quickly they become thick at the bottom of the pan. Instead of getting a custard, you could end up with a lumpy scrambled mess.
If you think your custard is about to curdle, promptly pour it through a sieve into a bowl and place it in a larger bowl filled with ice to cool it down quickly. Hopefully, this will save the day.
GÜ TIP When you are making custard, warmed milk and cream are poured over whisked egg yolks and sugar and then the mixture is returned to the pan. To avoid burning any residue of the creamy milk when returning it to the pan, leave some of the heated milk or cream in the pan in the first place.
COOKING A SABAYON SAUCE
A sabayon sauce is a light and frothy custard that is cooked in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. As with cooking a custard, the eggs need to be heated in the bowl to thicken the sauce, but gently does it. In contrast to a custard, the eggs are whisked in the mixture rather than stirred so that as much air as possible is incorporated, which helps the eggs to do their thickening job.
GÜ TIP The whisking can easily take 10 minutes, so be patient. The texture you are looking for is a thin trail of the mixture remaining on the surface when the beaters are lifted from the sauce. This is known as the ribbon stage.
COOKING A CARAMEL
A caramel is made by heating sugar in a pan to a rich golden brown colour. The colour is important because otherwise the sugar will be very sweet. Just watch out that you don’t cook it for too long as it becomes extremely bitter.
GÜ TIP If you are adding a liquid to the caramel it can splutter and splash, so always cover your arms and hands to avoid being burnt by this extremely hot mixture, stand back and make sure the pan is off the heat.
GÜ TIP To prevent sugar sticking to the side of the pan and burning, use a pastry brush dipped in water to brush down the inside of the pan once the sugar has dissolved and before you bring the syrup to the boil. Alternatively, cover the pan with a lid until it starts to boil, then remove the lid.
MAKING A SUGAR SYRUP
Some of our recipes require sugar syrup that is then heated to ‘soft-ball’ stage. Heat the sugar and water gently so the sugar can dissolve without burning. It is ready to be further heated once there are no crystals left on the bottom of the pan. Increase the heat and bring the syrup to the boil and then continue to cook to the required temperature.
This is where a sugar thermometer comes into its own. As the syrup boils, the liquid evaporates and the sugar levels become more concentrated and so can reach higher temperatures.