Simple Substitutions in Baking

Updated on Oct 28

Baking Powder:
1/2 tsp cream of tartar +1/4 tsp baking soda +1/4 tsp cornstarch = 1 tsp baking powder

Cake Flour:
Take 1 cup of plain, replace 2 tbsp of plain flour with cornflour = 1 cup cake flour

Note: Pls try to use the actual ingredients required on the recipe as the substitution maybe yield the same results in some recipes.

Milo Doggie Cookie

We used to add 1 teaspoon of milo to Bevis' bottle milk cos he didn't like the taste of the plain milk powder. Recently he seemed to have outgrown it and have stopped asking for milo milk... So now I am stuck with big tin of milo! J and I are ardent coffee lover...hey milo are for kids lah!

Now I am left to figure out how to finish up the balance milo :-) As i google, I find several post of the milo doogie cookie. This recipe was first published in the papers. After that almost every baker baked their versions!

This is an interesting cookie, I mean, it's not like choc chip cookie which you can get off the supermarket (and probably at a cheaper price) right? Being a mummy who is always thinking of how to entice her little boy to EAT and EAT, I decided to have a go!

This no-egg cookie has suitable for vegetarian. Also no sugar but I find it a little to bland. 25-50g of icing sugar will make it perfect! Apart from that, the cookie is really aromatic and rich with the milo favour.

The shaping actually took longer than I expected - it has to be shaped perfectly round, pick up the tiny choc rice to make its eye, a white choc ship to make its mouth and a pair of ears with the koko krunch! The ears a little tricky cos you need to push it into the dough to make it stick. Otherwise it will fall off during the baking process.

It's a bit of hard work but as they say, worth every effort when you see the sparkles in your child's eyes!

Verdict : Bevis brought the cookie and was finish up in 20 minutes cos all his friend wanted to share!

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Ingredients:

200g top or cake flour (I use AP flour)
25g corn flour
25g milk powder
80g milo (or horlicks)
180g unsalted butter, at room temperature
25g icing sugar (optional, but I added cos it tasted very flat without sugar. 25g is not very sweet anyway)

Some chocolate chips, chocolate rice and koko crunch for decoration.

1. Preheat oven to 140°C. Grease the baking tray.
2. Sieve flour and milk powder.
3. Cream butter and milo for ~3 minutes on low speed. Do not overbeat.
4. Add flour mixture and beat for about 1 min to form dough.
5. Divide dough into 10g each and shape in to doggie etc.
6. Bake for 25 min. May need +/-5min depending on oven. (my oven took 10 min more)
7. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan then remove and allow to cool completely.

Baker’s note:
With sugar added, the dough spread quite alot during bake. So when shaping, make the dough taller so that it will look ok after baking.

Low Down on Cookies

3 basic method of making cookies

1. creaming method:
butter, margarine or veg shorterning and sugar are beaten together with electric mixer (or wooden spoon) until light and fluffy, then add in egg and other dry ingredients.

2. rubbing-in method:
flour is slowly worked into the fat with a pastry cuter or food processor or simply your fingers before egg, liquid and dry ingredients are added. This method is slower and one has to be very light fingered or the dough will be tough.

3. melting method:
Butter and sugar, honey, golden syrup are melted over gentle heat and then mixed with the other ingredients such as egg, flour and raising agent.

Basic methods in shaping cookie:

Roll out cookie:

• Dough is roll out thinly and cut with a knife or cookie cutter, hence needs firm dough.
• Roll the softer dough between the greaseproof papers and chilled in the fridge until firm enough to handle. This method is easier than to roll out the dough on a floured surface as too much flour will make the cookie tough.
• For intricate design, it is easier to straight away rollout the dough on the baking sheet, cut out the cookie, then remove the excess dough around the cut-outs, wrap the dough and refrigerate for 15min before baking. This helps to retain the shapes better.
• Some recipe will spread alot when baked. One good way to avoid that is to freeze the cutted dough for 15min before sending it into the oven.

Shaped and hand-moulded cookie

• dough is soft but heavier drop cookie dough.
• It should not be too sticky otherwise it will be difficult to handle.
• Damp or lightly dust the hand with flour before handling the dough.
• Work as quickly and lightly as possible – too much pressure will make the cookie too compact and hard.
  
  

Drop cookies

• usually made from soft and light mixture, with ingredients like nuts and raisins added.
• Mixture is soft enough to drop by rounded spoonfuls onto lined baking sheet.
  

Pressed cookie

• easy to make : the smooth, creamy mixture can be pipe thru either a cookie press or piping bag into many shapes.
• It can be baked plain or topped with fruits and nuts.

Sliced or bar cookies

• easiest to produce: baked into 1 piece and then cut into squares and bars.
• Dough is poured or pressed into the baking sheet and spread with a topping if desired.

How the ingredients affect Cookies

Flour:

• High-protein flour, e.g. All-purpose flour. Makes cookies darker in color and flatter.
• Low-protein flour, e.g. Cake flour. Making cookies pale, soft and puffy.

Fat:

• Fat with sharp melting point, like butter: Makes cookies spread.
• Fat that maintains same consistency over a wide temperature range, such as solid vegetable shortening: Makes cookies that do not spread as much.

• Corn syrup (or molasses): Makes cookies browner.
• Brown sugar and honey: Makes cookies that soften the longer you keep them.
  

You want the cookies to spread more:

• Use all butter OR
• add 1 to 2 tablespoons liquid (water, milk or cream -- not egg) OR
• use BLEACHED all-purpose (but not one that is chlorinated) OR
• add 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar.

You want the cookies to spread less:

• Use solid vegetable shortening or
• substitute some solid vegetable shortening for an equal amount of butter OR
• use cake flour OR
• cut the sugar by a few tablespoons OR
• switch from baking soda to baking powder OR
• chill the dough before baking it.
  

You want the cookies to have a chewy quality:

• Melt the butter instead of simply using it at room temperature.
  

You want the cookies to have a cakey quality:

• Use the butter at room temperature or use equal parts butter and solid vegetable shortening.
  

You want the cookies to be more tender:

• Use cake flour OR add a few tablespoons of sugar OR
• add a few tablespoons of fat.
  

The cookies are too tender and you want them to be more substantial:

• Substitute a few tablespoons of bread flour for an equal amount of all-purpose flour OR
• cut the sugar by a few tablespoons OR
• cut the fat by a few tablespoons
  

You want the cookies to brown better:

• Substitute 1 to 2 tablespoons of light corn syrup for an equal amount of sugar OR
• substitute a few tablespoons of unbleached or bread flour for equal amounts of the all-purpose flour.
  

The cookies are browning too much, despite the correct oven temperature:

• Substitute water for for an equal amount of liquid ingredients OR
• use cake flour or bleached all-purpose flour
  

Source: baking911, Betty Saw "Cookie Galore"

Baking Supplies

These are some of the good baking supplies that I have visited. I will update as and when I find out something new.

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Coyaku Food Products Pte. Ltd
No. 1, Sims Lane #01-11
Singapore 387355
Tel: 67470069 (Anna Phua)
somewhere near Aljunied MRT (next to Phoon Huat)

Anna Phua has the best Konnyaku powder in Singapore - it's very chewy.
(Thanks Aunty Yochana for this "secret"!)

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Ailin Bakery House
#01-47/48 Tanjong Katong Complex
Tel: +65 6743 2693

Good for:

• vanilla essence - I hear from the users in KC that this is far better than Phoon Huat and Bake King.

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Sun Lik Trading
33 Seah Street (behind Raffles Hotel)
Tel: +65 63380980

Good for :

• easy going boss - I brought back the baking tray which couldn't fit into my oven over a month later, and, yes, the boss allowed me to exchange for something else!


• pineapple paste - if you are not prepared to slog over the oven to make pineapple paste for your pineapple tarts, get one of the best pineapple paste here.


• Chef Master colouring - this is far far cheaper than Wilton's food colouring. Good if you use alot of dye.

I only wish the boss can stop pushing his ready-muffin-mix each time I am there. I have nothing against it, but I love to play with all different ingredients... and the unpredictability!

BTW, if you buy your flours (bread flour, plain flour etc) from Sun Lik, I strongly suggest that you sift them before use. I won't tell you what I see in my fresh pack of bread flour ! *ugh*

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Bake-It-Yourself
182 Bt Timah Rd,
Tel: +65 61002253

Good for:

• Friendly staff
• Neat and tidy layout.
• Rental service - baking mould, cupcake stands, and books are avail for rental.
• Full range of Wilton products

Not so good for:
Price - most items are generally dearer here then elsewhere. e.g. I bought Valrhona 70% at SunLik for $10.80 (300g). 500g pack here costs $20+.


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Jones the Grocer
B9 Dempsey Road #01-12 Dempsey Hill S247697
Tel +65 6476 1512

This is not a baking supplies store but has a small baking section carry quality ingredients.
Great for :

• vanilla extract - this is the real stuff ok :-)
• taking a break when you are tired after groceries shopping - there's long tables all around the store, and an extensive menu for you to rest and recharge! They have very pretty s'mores cupcake too!

Only grouse is it's out-of-the-way location!
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Kwong Cheong Thye
61/63 Lorong 27 Geylang
off Sims Ave (near Aljunied MRT station)
Tel +65 6748-0128
http://www.kctsoya.com/

Great for getting all the mooncake-making stuff; the different types of ready made filling, snow skin mix, boxes etc.

I will probably use only the snowskin premix from KCT from now on - really soft skin for days!

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StarNet
2 Jurong East St 21 #04-33V
IMM Bldg
Singapore 609601
Tel: 6562 0438 Fax: 6562 5439
http://www.starnetmarketing.com/product_of_star_net_bakery.html

• The packaging materials like cookie bags and plastic containers etc are cheaper here than other retail stores.
• They also provide edible imaging printing service.

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SKP - Packaging Supplies
Check website for store locations: http://www.partyware.com.sg/

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On-line Bakery Products - Malaysia
http://bakeryproduct.blogspot.com/

• 16-hole cupcake box (with the cupcake insert to hold cupcake in its place) for RM2.70 !!!
• 25-hole for RM3.00!
• The wedding cupcake box (on right) is RM1.50 each!

PLS NOTE THAT THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED TO PUBLIC.

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Updated 25 April 2014