HOW TO GLAZE A CAKE

I received an email from Nan asking, "I am making a lemon cake. Most of them call for a glaze. What type of frosting would you suggest for a lemon cake? Thanks, Nan.

I immediately forwarded this email to my friend Chef Jenni Field, a graduate of Orlando Culinary Academy - Le Cordon Bleu and a professional pastry chef with her own web site called Pastry Chef Online. She is a wealth of culinary knowledge especially when it comes to baking and pastry. Here is how she asked Nan’s question:

Simple Glaze

Depending upon the texture of your lemon cake, a glaze or a frosting could be called for. If you are making a dense lemon cake, like a lemon pound cake, I recommend a lemon glaze. A simple way of making a lemon glaze is to mix fresh lemon juice with powdered sugar until it has a "drizzling" consistency. Then, drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake.

If you’d like the glaze to soak into the cake, glaze the cake while it is still very warm. The glaze will thin and run, so you will have to "baste" the cake several times with the drippings. The end result will be a lovely, moist cake with a deep lemon flavor and a shiny, slightly sticky outside. Sift some powdered sugar over the cake right before cutting and serving for a pretty look.

Simple Lemon Glaze

Another option for a lemon glaze would be to make a simple lemon syrup. Bring the zest of two lemons, 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 cup water to a boil. Cool to room temperature, and strain out the lemon zest. Taste the syrup. You can add a touch of fresh lemon juice or a bit of lemon extract if you’d like it more lemony. Thoroughly brush the cake with this syrup while it is still very warm, but after you have taken it out of the pan.

Lemon Frosting

If you are making a lemon cake with a lighter crumb, more like a standard yellow or white cake, you can use a lemon frosting. Lemon cream cheese frosting might be nice–the slight tang of the cream cheese would marry nicely with the fresh lemon flavor of the cake. Cream 4 oz. each of softened unsalted butter and softened cream cheese until light and fluffy. Slowly add 1 pound of sifted confectioner’s sugar and cream very well. Beat in a pinch of salt, the zest of 1 lemon and a couple of tablespoons of fresh lemon juice (enough to give it a good spreading consistency).

Whatever option you choose, and whatever kind of lemon cake you made, I’m sure it will be very tasty.

How to Make Bread at Home

Baking homemade bread can be challenging to even the most experienced home cooks. It’s not like making a stew or grilling up a steak. There is a lot of technique involved and lots of ways to mess up. Below is a recipe for making a basic 4-ingredient bread with step-by-step instructions that should take most of the mystery out of bread making.

If you want to learn even more about the art of great bread making, check out my web site for my article on How To Make Bread. It goes in depth on ingredients, equipment, bread making techniques including mixing and kneading dough. It’s a great primer for anyone interested learning how to make bread at home.

Basic Bread Recipe

3/4 oz. active dried yeast
Heavy pinch of sweetener consisting of sugar, spoonful of honey or dark corn syrup (just to kick-start the yeast)
2 cups warm water (about 115 degrees, F, is good)
approximately 2 pounds bread flour
1 TBSP salt
A little extra flour for dusting

Mix the sweetener with the warm water until dissolved. Add the yeast, and stir again, until dissolved.

Combine the salt with most of the flour - leave out about 6 ounces or so. In the bowl of a large capacity heavy duty stand mixer (or in a bowl or even on the table for you purists), mix the water into 1 pound of the salted flour until well combined. Mix well to start incorporating air. This step will assist in the final rise you will get. Add the rest of the salted flour, and mix again until the flour is incorporated.

At this point, turn out the dough if you’re doing it by hand. Knead in as much of the remaining flour as is necessary to achieve a smooth, non-sticky, not to wet or dry dough. Knead by hand or with the dough hook until the dough is very smooth and elastic and passes the windowpane test.

Fermentation Stage

Shape your dough into a smooth ball and let it rest, covered, in a warm place in a greased bowl until it has doubled in bulk. (Turn the dough in the bowl so all sides are greased, and let it rise smooth side up). When you poke your finger into the side of the dough and the dough doesn’t spring back at all, you’ll know you’re there.

How long it will take depends on the temperature of the room, the temperature of the dough, the barometric pressure outside - lots of factors. A reasonable rule of thumb is give or take about 1 1/2 hours. You can do this step on the countertop or in any draft-free place. On top of the fridge is good, since heat rises, it’s probably a little warmer up there.

I’ve also done this step in a cold oven with the oven light on. Remember, though, the longer you can draw this out, the better the bread will be. If you have the time, a longer time at a cooler temperature is fantastic, say 3 hours at 68 degrees F.

Benching Stage

Now, roll the dough out of the bowl onto a surface very lightly dusted with flour and press out all the gasses. Now, decide whether you are making one jumbo loaf, two loaves (either in pans or just rounds) or rolls. Divide the dough accordingly, or leave it in one piece. Form each piece (again, it’s up to you how many) into a round, cover with a clean, lint free towel or even some plastic wrap, and let rest for a few minutes.

Shaping Stage

Next, shape each piece however you want. If you are making a round loaf, round your dough on the table. You’ve probably seen bakers do this on TV and this is how to do it: take your ball of dough and place it on the table in front of you. Cup your hands around the dough on either side of the dough ball, with the pinky side of your hands touching the table. Without lifting your hands, begin to firmly push the ball in circles on the table.

You can do this slowly or quickly. The end result will be the same, although you will get faster with practice. The friction between the bottom of the dough and the table should cause your dough ball to smooth and tighten. This will allow for a more even rise and a prettier loaf. If you’re not getting any traction on the table, smear a bit of water on the table - just enough to make it a little damp, but not wet.

If you’re making a pan loaf, press out your dough and stretch it into a rough rectangle whose long sides are as long as your pan. Roll the dough up fairly tightly jelly-roll style, tuck the end under and place they cylinder of dough, seam side down, into your pan. Shape your rolls however you want.

Proofing Stage

Put your rolls or loaves on or in whatever you’ll use to bake them - baking stone, cookie sheet, loaf pan. Cover them with a clean, lint free towel or a piece of plastic wrap and let them double again. Since the yeast have been happily multiplying in your dough all this time, it will take about half the time it took during the fermentation period.

Preheat your oven during the proofing time to 375 degrees, F.

Ready to Bake

When you’re ready to bake, if you want to, you can slash the tops of your loaves with a very sharp knife. This is generally done for appearances, although it can boost the final rise in the oven (oven spring - the impressive rise you get during the first few minutes in the oven, before the crust sets), and help to keep the crust from stretching and tearing in the oven.

Your bread is done when it is a lovely golden brown color, when it sounds hollow when you tap it on the bottom, and when the internal temperature has reached 200-210 degrees, F. This could take as little as 10-15 minutes for small rolls and upwards of half an hour for large loaves. When you can smell the bread and it is starting to look done, start checking.

Once the bread is out of the oven, let it cool on a rack - if you have panned the bread, take it out of the pan to avoid having a soggy loaf. Cool to room temperature, then store in a paper bag at room temperature. Since this bread contains no preservatives, keeping it around for more than a day can be an issue. If you know you won’t plow through all of it in a day, slice the loaves once they are cool, and store them in freezer bags in the freezer. That way, you can pop out a piece or two to make a sandwich. It defrosts in no time.

Be sure to check out my web site for How To Make Bread.

My wife makes great banana bread whenever a bunch of bananas get too ripe for anything else but this week she and my youngest daughter baked the most delicious zucchini bread I have ever tasted. As I mentioned in my previous blog, my daughters are really getting into cooking so we encourage them to help as much as they like. It’s great time spent together and offers them some new skills and responsibilities.

The bread is moist, sweet and full of flavor and the addition of raisins and chopped walnuts give every bite a unique taste. With the over abundance of zucchini around from friend,s gardens and the farmers co-op we belong to, this is the perfect recipe to help you use up some of those zuccs.

I’m reading this recipe off an old, yellowed and stained index card that my wife keeps in a Ziploc bag in a kitchen drawer. She told me the recipe came from one of her college roommates so I’m not sure where it actually came from but it is worth giving a try.

This recipe makes 2 loaves of bread.

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 ½ cups sugar
3 medium sized zucchini, grated & will drained (about 2 cups)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups sifted flour
¼ teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoons salt
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts

How to Make Zucchini Bread at Home

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Beat the eggs lightly. Stir in oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla.

Sift the dry ingredients together and stir into the egg mixture until well blended.
Stir in the raisins and walnuts.

Pour the batter into 2 well greased loaf pans and bake for 1 hour.

Remove the pans from the oven and let the bread cool in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes.

Remove the bread from the pans and let cool completely. If you try to slice it when it’s hot, it most likely will fall apart.

Great toasted in the morning with a little cream cheese.