Rich, fruity olive oil is a fantastic ingredient to cook with. It works in all kinds of meat and pasta dishes, and can be used to make delicious salad dressings and mayonnaise. It is not usually an ingredient used by bakers (especially if you like to bake sweets!), because its strong flavor isn’t what you want to taste in your average vanilla or chocolate cake. Neutral vegetable oils, like canola oil, are more popular choices for baking because they don’t add any additional flavors to a recipe but still leave you with a moist, tender baked good. But olive oil can be a wonderful choice for baking if you use it in a recipe that suits it.
When baking with olive oil, there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure that you get a good result. You want a recipe where the flavor of the olive oil can stand out and where it will be a complimentary flavor in the rest of the dish. Olive oil can have many layers of flavor to it. In addition to the flavor of olives, many also have very floral or nutty notes and grassy or earthy flavors. You want to choose a recipe where these flavors won’t be out of place (as they would probably be in a vanilla birthday cake), and if they can stand out and shine, so much the better.
Olive oil goes extremely well with fruity flavors and can be a good choice in recipes that already feature citrus or fresh berries. These draw out the sweeter notes in the oil and contrast well with the more savory tones. It does not work particularly well with buttercream or cream cheese frostings because the richness of the olive oil competes too much with the buttery frosting and can cause a cake to taste a little grease, so simpler cakes and muffins are typically better choices. Any savory baked good, including herb and cheese muffins, biscuits or breads, can be a good match for olive oil even if the recipe calls for plain vegetable oil.
At the end of the day, your success in baking with olive oil will always come down to personal taste. I don’t regularly use olive oil in my chocolate cakes, but I have had some chocolate olive oil cakes that were very tasty. The most important thing to remember is that olive oil will have a stronger flavor impact on a recipe than other vegetable oils, and that you need to keep that in mind. If you’re a fan of olive oil in general, a little experimentation can definitely yield some delicious results.
There are many recipes out there that call for separating your eggs and when they do, there is a good chance that you are going to have leftover egg yolks or leftover egg whites as a Fortunately, both leftover egg whites and leftover egg yolks can be stored until you need them. But that still leaves you with the question of how to you use up leftover egg whites once you have them on hand? The easiest thing to do with a leftover egg white or two is to mix it into some more eggs the next time you’re making a scramble or an omelette, but here are 5 great recipes that put them to an even better use.
- A batch of Coconut Macaroons is a simple way to use up one or two egg whites. These chewy cookies are easy to make and even easier to eat. The recipe can be scaled up or down easily depending on how many egg whites you have available and how much shredded coconut you have on hand.
- A Fresh Strawberry Souffle uses up four egg whites, and needs no yolks. This light and satisfying souffle can be made with a variety of fruit, but strawberries are perfect in the summertime when they’re in season. Several other souffles can be made using only egg whites, as well, including Maple Souffles and Chocolate Banana Souffles.
- Classic White Cake has a soft, white crumb because it uses only egg whites and no egg yolks in the cake batter. A full sized layer cake will take about six egg whites, but a half batch of the recipe will make a dozen delicious white cupcakes.
- Real Vanilla Bean Buttercream, made with an Italian meringue base, is a must-try for cake and cupcake lovers. This frosting uses five egg whites in an Italian meringue, which forms the base of the ultra-buttery frosting. You may never go back to American-style buttercream again.
- If you are dealing with a whole lot of leftover egg whites, use them up in a batch of angel food cake. A batch of Angel Food Cupcakes bakes a dozen delicious light cupcakes with only five egg whites. If you can make it to 10-12 egg whites, you’ll have enough for a full sized Angel Food Cake.
Rice flour is a fine flour made from ground rice. It is completely gluten free, including even “glutinous rice flour,” which is made from sweet rice and is a staple for making Japanese treats like mochi. Rice flour can be used in a wide variety of culinary uses and is a very popular base for noodles in many Asian cuisines. It can also be used as a thickener in sauces, as a breading for fried dishes and as the base for various baked goods. It is available in white, which is made from polished white rice, and in brown, which is made from whole grain brown rice. Both types of flour work just about the same way in a recipe, but have slightly different flavors and colorings. Brown rice flour can take longer to cook when it is in noodle form, for instance, as brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice.
Rice flour is very commonly used in gluten free baked goods to give them structure and substance, but it is also a popular addition for non gluten free baked goods because of its unique and slightly sandy texture. For instance, a small amount of white rice flour in a buttery shortbread recipe can make that shortbread extra tender and crumbly, with a melt-in-your-mouth feeling. It can also add a heartiness to a yeast bread recipe when a small amount is added, since it contains no gluten and will compact a bread dough somewhat, so it can be found in some dense, whole grain breads.
