Verrines and Cuillères

french appetizers verrine
Verrines
In recent years verrines have become very popular in France for appetizers. They are small glasses that contain two or three bites of some yummy combination. One uses a small spoon to enjoy the contents, which are truly limitless in their possibilities.

A craze for cuillères, or spoons, has followed close on the heels of the verrine. Here a bite of food will be artfully arranged on a special spoon - many times these look a little like Chinese soup spoons.

Canapes

8 Tips for Successful Canapes

1. Successful canape recipes please the eye as well as the palate. They are little works of art.
2. Vary your pleasures by using different sorts of bread for the base: white bread, rye bread, walnut bread, black bread. For classic French appetizers, the bread you choose should have a compact crumb, be soft, and have the crusts removed.
3. You may be able to find special small squares or rounds of bread made specifically for canapes.
4. Don't make your canapes too big. They should be easily eaten in two polite mouthfuls.
5. Change the form of the bread or the toppings, by using a cookie cutter. Try rounds, squares, rectangles, hearts, stars, etc.
6. Serve several varieties on one plate. I often see them served in France in tidy little lines, each variety gets its own row. It really does make a lovely presentation, but you could think up something even more creative - how about a checkerboard?
7. Don't assemble your canapes too far in advance, because, alas, the bread dries out, the topping gets absorbed, and generally things look a lot less attractive.
8. However, to make these easy appetizer recipes, do get everything ready to go for the assembly line. Cut the vegetables, prepare the spreads, snip the herbs, cut the bread (put this in a plastic bag and don't put it in the refrigerator).

Compound Butters

In French canape recipes, a flavored butter is often spread on the bread before adding an additional topping. Here are some possible compound butters you might like to try. For each of these recipes, use 1/2 cup softened, unsalted butter:

• Anchovy Butter: Mix in 2 ounces anchovy paste. Season with pepper.
• Gorgonzola Butter: Break up 2 ounces of gorgonzola cheese and mix with the butter.
• Garlic Butter: Mix in 3 cloves crushed garlic and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Season with salt and white pepper.
• Mustard Butter: Mix in 1 teaspoon French mustard.
• Smoked Salmon Butter: Mix in 1 ounce of pureed smoked salmon. Season with white pepper.

Other possible spreads include: crème fraiche (have a look at this creme fraiche recipe), cream cheese, herb cheese, paté, tapenade, mayonniase, and foie gras.

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Canape Recipes - Toppings

If you've decided to have a go at the compound butters, here are some suggestions for possible canape recipes:

• Plain butter, small shrimp, mayonnaise, and capers.
• Plain butter, caviar, finely chopped onion and crushed hard-boiled egg.
• Salmon butter, salmon, a very thin slice of lemon, white pepper.
• Anchovy butter, anchovy filet, grilled red pepper.
• Mustard butter, thin slices of sausage, pickle.

Pick from list of classic French toppings and invent your own canape recipes: shrimp, smoked salmon, sardines, caviar, capers, cheese, hard boiled egg slices, young salad greens, aspragus tips, pickles, olives, bell peppers, cucumbers, dill weed, chives

Definition of baking

Baking

Definition
Baking is the cooking of food by dry heat in an oven in which the action of the dry convection heat is modified by steam.

Methods
Three methods of baking can be identified.

• Dry baking: when baking, steam rises from the water content of the food; this steam combines with the dry heat of the oven to cook the food, e.g. cakes, pastry, baked jacket potatoes.
• Increased humidity baking: when baking certain foods, e.g. bread, the oven humidity is increased by placing a bowl of water or injection steam into the oven, thus increasing the water content of the food and so improving the eating quality.
• Bain marie: when baking, place food in a container of water (bain marie) which modifies the heat so that the food cooks more slowly, does not overheat or overcook.
  
  Advantages
  
  
  • A wide range of savoury and sweet foods can be produced
  • Bakery products yield appetising goods with eye-appeal and mouth-watering aromas
  • Bulk cooking can be achieved with uniformity of colour and degree of cooking
  • Baking ovens have effective manual or automatic controls
  • There is straightforward access for loading and removal of items
  
  Disadvantages
  
  
  • Requires regular attention
  • Ovens are expensive to heat
  
  Examples of foods which you might choose to cook by baking
  
  

  Eggs, e.g. in cocottes Meat, e.g. steak and kidney pie, cornish pasties Chicken, e.g. vol au vent Vegetables, e.g. potatoes

  Apples Fruit flans Baked egg custard Cakes Bread

tipes of cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms.
Cheese consists of proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. It is produced by coagulation of the milk protein casein. Typically, the milk is acidified and addition of the enzyme rennet causes coagulation. The solids are separated and pressed into final form.^[1] Some cheeses have molds on the rind or throughout. Most cheeses melt at cooking temperature.
Hundreds of types of cheese are produced. Their styles, textures and flavors depend on the origin of the milk (including the animal's diet), whether they have been pasteurized, the butterfat content, the bacteria and mold, the processing, and aging. Herbs, spices, or wood smoke may be used as flavoring agents. The yellow to red color of many cheeses is from adding annatto.
For a few cheeses, the milk is curdled by adding acids such as vinegar or lemon juice. Most cheeses are acidified to a lesser degree by bacteria, which turn milk sugars into lactic acid, then the addition of rennet completes the curdling. Vegetarian alternatives to rennet are available; most are produced by fermentation of the fungus Mucor miehei, but others have been extracted from various species of the Cynara thistle family.
Cheese is valued for its portability, long life, and high content of fat, protein, calcium, and phosphorus. Cheese is more compact and has a longer shelf life than milk. Cheesemakers near a dairy region may benefit from fresher, lower-priced milk, and lower shipping costs. The long storage life of some cheese, especially if it is encased in a protective rind, allows selling when markets are favorable.

Eating and cooking

At refrigerator temperatures, the fat in a piece of cheese is as hard as unsoftened butter, and its protein structure is stiff as well. Flavor and odor compounds are less easily liberated when cold. For improvements in flavor and texture, it is widely advised that cheeses be allowed to warm up to room temperature before eating. If the cheese is further warmed, to 26–32 °C (79–90 °F), the fats will begin to "sweat out" as they go beyond soft to fully liquid.^[19]
Above room temperatures, most hard cheeses melt. Rennet-curdled cheeses have a gel-like protein matrix that is broken down by heat. When enough protein bonds are broken, the cheese itself turns from a solid to a viscous liquid. Soft, high-moisture cheeses will melt at around 55 °C (131 °F), while hard, low-moisture cheeses such as Parmesan remain solid until they reach about 82 °C (180 °F).^[20] Acid-set cheeses, including halloumi, paneer, some whey cheeses and many varieties of fresh goat cheese, have a protein structure that remains intact at high temperatures. When cooked, these cheeses just get firmer as water evaporates.
Some cheeses, like raclette, melt smoothly; many tend to become stringy or suffer from a separation of their fats. Many of these can be coaxed into melting smoothly in the presence of acids or starch. Fondue, with wine providing the acidity, is a good example of a smoothly melted cheese dish.^[21] Elastic stringiness is a quality that is sometimes enjoyed, in dishes including pizza and Welsh rarebit. Even a melted cheese eventually turns solid again, after enough moisture is cooked off. The saying "you can't melt cheese twice" (meaning "some things can only be done once") refers to the fact that oils leach out during the first melting and are gone, leaving the non-meltable solids behind.
As its temperature continues to rise, cheese will brown and eventually burn. Browned, partially burned cheese has a particular distinct flavor of its own and is frequently used in cooking (e.g., sprinkling atop items before baking them).

steps to make bread

The Steps

STEP ONE
Gather your ingredients and equipment. Flour bread board and grease your pans (and bowl, if not using rapid yeast.)

STEP TWO
With a wire whisk, mix sugar, salt, rapid yeast and some flour.

 
STEP THREE
In a saucepan, bring liquids and butter to boil or until small bubbles form around edge of pan.
STEP FOUR
Gradually, add warm liquid mixture to flour mixture. Combine with an electric mixer for 2 minutes on medium.

 STEP FIVE
With a wooden spoon, gradually add enough flour to form a soft dough. (Be careful not to over add flour.)

STEP SIX
On lightly floured bread board, knead dough until smooth and elastic. About 8 to 10 minutes.

STEP SEVEN
Cover dough with lightly greased plastic wrap and let rest for 10 minutes. (If using Active Dry yeast, at this point, the dough is placed in a greased bowl. Turn over to grease entire dough ball. Cover with greased plastic wrap. Let rise for one hour or so in a warm and draft-free place.)

STEP EIGHT
Divide dough according to recipe directions. If shaping into a loaf, roll out dough into rectangle. Starting at short end, roll tightly like a jelly roll. Pinch seam and ends. Place in pan seam side down. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap.
STEP NINE
Let dough rise in pan(s) for an hour in a warm, draft-free place.
STEP TEN
Bake dough for required amount of time.
STEP ELEVEN
Remove from pan to wire rack. If loaf unseeded, brush with melted butter. Cool slightly before cutting.

 

Raising (Leavening) Agents

Varieties

• Chemical Raising Agents
• Biological Raising Agents

A raising agent is a substance used in doughs and batters that causes a foaming action. The raising reacts with moisture, heat, acidity, or other triggers to produce gas that becomes trapped as bubbles within the dough. When a dough or batter is baked, it "sets" and the holes left by the gas bubbles remain, giving breads, cakes, and other baked goods their soft, sponge-like textures. Predominantly, there are three types of raising (leavening) agents.

Chemical Leavening (Raising) Agents
Chemical leaveners are chemical mixtures or compounds that typically release carbon dioxide when they react with moisture, heat, and acidity. They usually leave behind a chemical salt. Chemical leaveners are used in quick breads and cakes. Chemical leavening agents include:

• Baking Powder
• Bicarbonate of Soda (A.K.A., Sodium Bicarbonate and Baking Soda)
• Ammonium Bicarbonate (A.K.A., Hartshorn, Horn Salt, Bakers Ammonia)
• Potassium Bicarbonate (A.K.A., Potash)
• Potassium Bitartrate (A.K.A., Cream Of Tartar)
• Potassium Carbonate (A.K.A., Pearlash)
• Monocalcium Phosphate

Biological Leavening (Raising) Agents
Microorganisms that release carbon dioxide as part of their lifecycle can be used to leaven products. Varieties of yeast are most often used. Yeast leaves behind waste byproducts that contribute to the distinctive flavor of yeast breads. In sourdough breads, the flavor is further enhanced by various lactic or acetic acid bacteria.

Leavening with yeast is often a slower process, requiring a lengthy proofing.

Yeast can also be used to make carbonated beverages like beer, which can then be used as leavening. Some typical biological leaveners are:

• Beer (Unpasteurised - Live Yeast)
• Buttermilk
• Ginger Beer
• Kefir
• Sourdough Starter
• Yeast
• Yogurt

Mechanical Leavening
Creaming is the process of beating sugar crystals and solid fat (typically butter) together in a mixer. This integrates tiny air bubbles into the mixture. Creamed mixtures are usually further leavened by a chemical leavener. This is often used in cookies.
Using a whisk on certain liquids, notably cream or egg whites can also create foams through mechanical action.

Other Leaveners
Steam and air are used as leavening agents when they expand upon heating. To take advantage of this style of leavening, the baking must be done at high enough temperatures to flash the water to steam, with a batter that is capable of holding the steam in until set. This effect is typically used in popovers and Yorkshire puddings, and to a lesser extent in Tempura.

Nitrous oxide is used as a propellant in aerosol whip cream cans. When the gas boils out of the cream, it also instantly creates a foam.

Types of baker's yeast

Baker's yeast is available in a number of different forms, the main differences being the moisture contents. Though each version has certain advantages over the others, the choice of which form to use is largely a question of the requirements of the recipe at hand and the training of the cook preparing it. Dry yeast forms are good choices for longer-term storage, often lasting several months at room temperatures without significant loss of viability. With occasional allowances for liquid content and temperature, the different forms of commercial yeast are generally considered interchangeable.

• Cream yeast is the closest form to the yeast slurries of the 19th century, being essentially a suspension of yeast cells in liquid, siphoned off from the growth medium. Its primary use is in industrial bakeries with special high-volume dispensing and mixing equipment, and it is not readily available to small bakeries or home cooks.
• Compressed yeast is essentially cream yeast with most of the liquid removed. It is a soft solid, beige in color, and arguably best known in the consumer form as small, foil-wrapped cubes of cake yeast. It is also available in larger-block form for bulk usage. It is highly perishable; though formerly widely available for the consumer market, it has become less common in supermarkets in some countries due to its poor keeping properties, having been superseded in some such markets by active dry and instant yeast. It is still widely available for commercial use, and is somewhat more tolerant of low temperatures than other forms of commercial yeast; however, even there, instant yeast has made significant market inroads.
• Active dry yeast is the form of yeast most commonly available to noncommercial bakers in the United States. It consists of coarse oblong granules of yeast, with live yeast cells encapsulated in a thick jacket of dry, dead cells with some growth medium. Under most conditions, active dry yeast must first be proofed or rehydrated. It can be stored at room temperature for a year, or frozen for more than a decade, which means that it has better keeping qualities than other forms, but it is generally considered more sensitive than other forms to thermal shock when actually used in recipes.

A single grain of active dry yeast.  The numbered ticks on the scale are 230 µm apart.

• Instant yeast appears similar to active dry yeast, but has smaller granules with substantially higher percentages of live cells per comparable unit volumes. It is more perishable than active dry yeast, but also does not require rehydration, and can usually be added directly to all but the driest doughs. Instant yeast generally has a small amount of ascorbic acid added as a preservative. Some producers provide two or more forms of instant yeast in their product portfolio; for example, LeSaffre's "SAF Instant Gold" is designed specifically for doughs with high sugar contents. These are more generally known as osmotolerant yeasts.
• Rapid-rise yeast is a variety of dried yeast (usually a form of instant yeast) that is of a smaller granular size, thus it dissolves faster in dough, and it provides greater carbon dioxide output to allow faster rising. There is considerable debate as to the value of such a product; while most baking experts believe it reduces the flavor potential of the finished product, Cook's Illustrated magazine, among others, feels that at least for direct-rise recipes, it makes little difference. Rapid-rise yeast is often marketed specifically for use in bread machines.

For most commercial uses, yeast of any form is packaged in bulk (blocks or freezer bags for fresh yeast; vacuum-packed brick bags for dry or instant); however, yeast for home use is often packaged in pre-measured doses, either small squares for compressed yeast or sealed packets for dry or instant. For active dry and instant yeast, a single dose (reckoned for the average bread recipe of between 500 g and 1000 g of dough) is generally about 2.5 tsp (~12 mL) or about 7 g (1/4 ounce), though comparatively lesser amounts are used when the yeast is used in a pre-ferment. A yeast flavor in the baked bread is generally not noticeable when the bakers' percent of added yeast is less than 2.5.

working with bread

Formulation

The proportion of water to flour is the most important measurement in a bread recipe, as it affects texture and crumb the most. Professional bakers use a system of percentages known as baker's percentage in their recipe formulations. They measure ingredients by weight instead of by volume, because measurement by weight is much more accurate and consistent than measurement by volume, especially for the dry ingredients.

·         The amount of flour is always stated as 100%, and the amounts of the rest of the ingredients are expressed as a percent of that amount by weight. Common table bread in the U.S. uses about 50% water, resulting in a finely textured, light bread. Most artisan bread formulas contain anywhere from 60 to 75% water. In yeast breads, the higher water percentages result in more CO₂ bubbles and a coarser bread crumb. One pound (450 g) of flour will yield a standard loaf of bread or two French loaves.

·         Calcium propionate is commonly added by commercial bakeries to retard the growth of molds.

working with bread

bread is the staple food in Europe, European-derived cultures such as the Americas, and the Middle East and North Africa, as opposed to East Asia whose staple is rice. Bread is usually made from a wheat-flour dough that is cultured with yeast, allowed to rise, and finally baked in an oven. Owing to its high levels of gluten (which give the dough sponginess and elasticity), common wheat (also known as bread wheat) is the most common grain used for the preparation of bread, but bread is also made from the flour of other wheat species (including durum, spelt and emmer), rye, barley, maize (corn), and oats, usually, but not always, in combination with wheat flour. Spelt bread (Dinkelbrot) continues to be widely consumed in Germany, and emmer bread was a staple food in ancient Egypt. Canadian bread is known for its heartier consistency due to high protein levels in Canadian flour.

• White bread is made from flour containing only the central core of the grain (endosperm).
• Brown bread is made with endosperm and 10% bran. It can also refer to white bread with added colouring (often caramel colouring) to make it brown; this is commonly labeled in America as wheat bread (as opposed to whole wheat bread
• Wholemeal bread contains the whole of the wheat grain (endosperm and bran). It is also referred to as "whole grain" or "whole wheat bread", especially in North America.
• Wheat germ bread has added wheat germ for flavoring.
• Whole grain bread can refer to the same as wholemeal bread, or to white bread with added whole grains to increase its fibre content, as in "60% whole grain bread".
• Roti is a whole-wheat-based bread eaten in South Asia. Chapatti is a larger variant of roti. Naan is a leavened equivalent to these.
• Granary bread is made from flaked malted wheat grains and white or brown flour. The standard malting process is modified to maximize the maltose or sugar content but minimise residual alpha amylase content. Other flavour components are imparted from partial fermentation due to the particular malting process used and to Maillard reactions on flaking and toasting.
• Rye bread is made with flour from rye grain of varying levels. It is higher in fiber than many common types of bread and is often darker in color and stronger in flavor. It is popular in Scandinavia, Germany, Finland, the Baltic States, and Russia.
• Unleavened bread or matzo, used for the Jewish feast of Passover, does not include yeast, so it does not rise.
• Sourdough bread is made with a starter.
• Flatbread is often simple, made with flour, water, and salt, and then formed into flattened dough; most are unleavened, made without yeast or sourdough culture, though some are made with yeast.