# data[].attributes.body
cut (food or other matter) into small cubes.

# data[].attributes.body
each or cause to reach the temperature at which it bubbles and turns to vapor.

# data[].attributes.body
béchamel sauce, also known as white sauce, is made from a white roux and milk

# data[].attributes.body
begin whisking by vigorously swishing your whisk back and forth

# data[].attributes.body
a mixture of fat (especially butter) and flour used in making sauces.

# data[].attributes.body
fermentation is a chemical that breaks down a substance by bacteria, yeasts, or other microorganisms, typically involving effervescence and the giving off of heat.

# data[].attributes.body
saute means to be fried quickly in a little hot fat.

# data[].attributes.body
Parbaking is a cooking technique in which a bread or dough product is partially baked and then rapidly frozen for storage. The raw dough is baked normally, but halted at about 80% of the normal cooking time, when it is rapidly cooled and frozen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Uploaded by Ken's Artisan on 2016-04-07.

# data[].attributes.body
knead means to work (moistened flour) into dough or paste with the hands.

# data[].attributes.body
A pastry brush, also known as a basting brush, is a cooking utensil used to spread butter, oil or glaze on food. Traditional pastry brushes are made with natural bristles or a plastic or nylon fiber similar to a paint brush, while modern kitchen brushes may have silicone bristles.

# data[].attributes.body
The biscuit method is a method for making quick breads such as scones and biscuits. The biscuit method is one of the only mixing methods that does not require you to have all of your ingredients at room temperature. Your fats and liquids should be cold for the biscuit method.

# data[].attributes.body
Cut in' means working solid shortening into dry ingredients with two knives or a pastry blender until well mixed. When making a pastry, solid shortening, lard, or butter is cut in to a flour mixture until the particles are the size of small peas.

# data[].attributes.body
Sour cream can be added to a variety of baked goods and recipes in order to yield moister results.

# data[].attributes.body
a cake or pastry with a crumbly topping or filling made from fat, flour, sugar, and often cinnamon.

# data[].attributes.body
muffin method) is used for , muffins. It calls for measurement of dry and wet ingredients separately, then quickly mixing the two.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Escoffier Online International Culinary Academy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Baked goods are a favored food no matter what time of day it is. Whether you like eating muffins for breakfast, banana bread during snack time or cake for dessert, there are plenty of pastries worth making. As you complete your baking program online, you're learning about the methods that create a delicious dish. One such baking process is the one used to create muffins. Here's some insight to the muffin method:

Why you should use it
You may have made muffins in the past that came out of the oven looking and smelling amazing. However, when you bit into them, there were all sorts of air pockets known as tunnels. These are the result of not using the right method. Muffins are known for their density. Tunnels are fine in cakes, as those are meant to be light and fluffy.

Basic principles
The muffin method in and of itself is rather simple. The idea is to mix the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another. You then pour the wet over the try and combine, mixing as little as possible. Eggs and sugar are both considered wet. Use a spatula to combine the ingredients. The mixture does not have to be lump-free. If you use a mixer or stir too much, the gluten in the flour develops, creating those tunnels during the baking process.

Using the method
As the name suggests, the muffin method is great for that tasty treat. However, you can use it to create other baked goods as well. The muffin method works best for quick breads, which are traditionally dense. Banana, zucchini and pumpkin bread are perfect examples of items that will benefit from using the method. Note that the key ingredients in these breads (banana, zucchini and pumpkin) should be included in the wet ingredients.

When your mixture is made, pour it into a bread pan instead of a muffin tin. The baking temperature and time will be different with a bread tin. Basically, the temperature will be lower and the cook time longer as the heat has to get through to the center of the mixture.

Saving time
The muffin method of baking is also nice because you can make the batter ahead of time. Mix the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another the night before cooking. Place the wet bowl in the refrigerator and the dry bowl - covered - on the counter. Combine the two and place them in the oven the next day.

Subscribe to our blog and stay up to date with industry news and the newest cooking trends!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Baked goods are a favored food no matter what time of day it is. Whether you like eating muffins for breakfast, banana bread during snack time or cake for dessert, there are plenty of pastries worth making. As you complete your baking program online, you're learning about the methods that create a delicious dish.

# data[].attributes.body
Usually egg whites or whipped cream are folded into a heavier mixture, for a souffle, cake, or pie filling to help the mixture rise. The lighter mixture is placed on top of the heavier mixture, then the two are combined by passing a spatula down through the mixture, across the bottom, and up over the top.

# data[].attributes.body
Cookies made by shaping dough by hand into small balls, logs, and other shapes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
by on * Bakeshop

Written by Lynn Craig of Cookie Baker Lynn.
This is undeniably the season for making cookies. Cookie swaps, cookie plates for the neighbors, gifts of cookies for teachers, and nostalgia all demand that we spend some time in the kitchen. Even people who rarely bake the rest of the year will dust off their old, faithful cookie book and bake up a batch or two of the family favorites.

Because I bake cookies all the time, I like to create something different, really beautiful and special for gifting. Unfortunately I have the decorating skills of a four-year-old on a sugar high. Lots of enthusiasm, not so much art.

I don't have the patience or steady hands to intricately frost a cookie, let alone a dozen cookies! Fortunately there is a way to make gorgeous cookies for the artistically handicapped, like myself, that doesn't take days and days of work.

Cookies molds enable the artistically challenged

You can take advantage of the artistic skills of someone else by using cookie molds. Molds are available in clay, ceramic, wood, and acrylic, and can be found in just about any pattern you can dream of. Once you bake your cookies, they are works of art as is, but you can also hand-paint them with food coloring, or guild them with edible gold luster dust, if you need them to be extra fancy.

Whether you're baking molded butter cookies, springerle, shortbread, or speculaas, using a mold will help you to make memorable, beautiful cookies, with almost no extra effort. And when you're done baking with your mold, you can use it to make paper ornaments, beeswax ornaments, or just hang it in your kitchen to admire year round.

Tips to Working with a Cookie Mold

Here are just a few things to keep in mind when you're using a cookie mold:

Most important is mold preparation. By greasing and lightly dusting with flour or cornstarch, your mold will release the cookies easily. It's important to dust the mold before shaping each cookie.

Keep the dough cold. Take out only what you need for one cookie at a time. Warm dough is stickier and doesn't hold its shape as well.

And lastly, if the cookie design seems to be losing its crisp definition, take a look at the mold. If the small carved details are filling up with flour or dough, the design won't show up as well. Clean it out with a toothpick, then redust with flour before using it again.

Cleaning the mold is a simple matter. Run it under warm water and scrub gently with an old toothbrush. Allow to air dry.

1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar

3 Tbsp light or dark corn syrup

1/8 tsp salt

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, slightly softened

2-2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, approximately

Additional flour or cornstarch for dusting the mold

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, egg, and vanilla. Mix them together till blended and then let the mixture stand for 5 minutes to allow time for any lumps of brown sugar to dissolve.

2. Add butter and mix gently until incorporated and smooth. If the mixture appears curdled at this point, don't be alarmed. It will come together when the dry ingredients are added.

3. Stir in 2-2/3 cups flour. If the mixture seems too soft to handle, work in an additional 1 to 2 Tbsp flour.

4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 2-1/2 hours, or up to 48 hours.

5. Preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the upper third of the oven. Spray several baking sheets with cooking spray.

6. To prepare the mold, very lightly brush vegetable oil over all the inside surfaces using a pastry or basting brush, being sure to reach into all the crevices and indentations. Lightly sieve flour or cornstarch over the mold, tipping it to ensure even coverage. Turn the mold upside down and tap lightly against a surface to remove all excess flour or cornstarch.
Note: The mold only needs to be oiled once, but the flouring needs to be repeated each time a cookie is formed.

7. Break off a piece of dough large enough to fill the mold, leaving the rest of the dough in the refrigerator. On a clean counter, roll the dough briefly to approximately the size of the mold. Press the dough into the prepared mold.
You want to be sure the dough is pressed into the details of the mold, and no air pockets remain. Use a rolling pin to roll over the back of the mold, smoothing and evening the dough. Remove any dough that extends out over the edges.

8. Rap the mold on an edge to unmold the cookie, catching the dough as it peels out with your hand. If the dough sticks, carefully loosen it with the point of a small knife. Lay the cookie on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat the process, dusting the mold before each use, until your baking sheet is full, with the cookies spaced about 2-1/2 inches apart.

9. Bake the cookies for 10 to 14 minutes, or until cookies begin to brown around the edges. Baking time will depend on the size and thickness of the mold used. While the first batch is baking, repeat the process with the remaining dough.

10. Remove the finished cookies from the oven and let them stand on the baking sheets for several minutes. Slide a narrow spatula underneath the cookie to loosen it from the baking sheet and use a wide spatula to transfer them to wire racks to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining cookies.

Do you give or receive cookies over the holidays? What is a favorite type?

Serves/Yield: about 6 very large (6-to-8-inch) molded cookies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Beautiful Brown Sugar Molded Cookie Recipe | Simple Bites

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by on * Bakeshop Written by Lynn Craig of Cookie Baker Lynn. This is undeniably the season for making cookies. Cookie swaps, cookie plates for the neighbors, gifts of cookies for teachers, and nostalgia all demand that we spend some time in the kitchen.

# data[].attributes.body
Drop cookies are made from a relatively soft dough that is dropped by spoonfuls onto the baking sheet

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A cookie ( American English) or biscuit ( British English) is a baked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat, and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, or nuts.

Most English-speaking countries call crunchy cookies " biscuits", except for the United States and Canada, where " biscuit" refers to a type of quick bread. Chewier biscuits are sometimes called "cookies" even in the United Kingdom. Some cookies may also be named by their shape, such as date squares or bars.

Biscuit or cookie variants include sandwich biscuits, such as custard creams, Jammie Dodgers, Bourbons and Oreos, with marshmallow or jam filling and sometimes dipped in chocolate or another sweet coating. Cookies are often served with beverages such as milk, coffee or tea and sometimes dunked, an approach which releases more flavour from confections by dissolving the sugars, while also softening their texture. Factory-made cookies are sold in grocery stores, convenience stores and vending machines. Fresh-baked cookies are sold at bakeries and coffeehouses.

Terminology

Traditional American Christmas cookie tray

In many English-speaking countries outside North America, including the United Kingdom, the most common word for a crisp cookie is " biscuit". The term "cookie" is normally used to describe chewier ones. However, in many regions both terms are used. The container used to store cookies may be called a cookie jar.

In Scotland, the term "cookie" is sometimes used to describe a plain bun.

Cookies that are baked as a solid layer on a sheet pan and then cut, rather than being baked as individual pieces, are called bar cookies in American English or traybakes in British English .

The word cookie dates from at least 1701 in Scottish usage where the word meant "plain bun", rather than thin baked good, and so it is not certain whether it is the same word. From 1808, the word "cookie" is attested "...in the sense of "small, flat, sweet cake" in American English. The American use is derived from Dutch koekje "little cake", which is a diminutive of " koek" ("cake"), which came from the Middle Dutch word " koke". Another claim is that the American name derives from the Dutch word koekje or more precisely its informal, dialect variant koekie which means little cake, and arrived in American English with the Dutch settlement of New Netherland, in the early 1600s.

According to the Scottish National Dictionary, its Scottish name may derive from the diminutive form (+ suffix -ie) of the word cook, giving the Middle Scots cookie, cooky or cu(c)kie. There was much trade and cultural contact across the North Sea between the Low Countries and Scotland during the Middle Ages, which can also be seen in the history of curling and, perhaps, golf.[citation needed ]

Description

A dish of assorted cookies, including sandwich cookies filled with jam

Cookies baking in an oven

Cookies are most commonly baked until crisp or else for just long enough to ensure soft interior. Other types of cookies are not baked at all, such as varieties of peanut butter cookies that use solidified chocolate rather than set eggs and wheat gluten as a binder. Cookies are produced in a wide variety of styles, using an array of ingredients including sugars, spices, chocolate, butter, peanut butter, nuts, or dried fruits.

A general theory of cookies may be formulated in the following way. Despite its descent from cakes and other sweetened breads, the cookie in almost all its forms has abandoned water as a medium for cohesion. Water in cakes serves to make the batter as thin as possible, the better to allow bubbles-responsible for a cake's fluffiness-to form. In the cookie the agent of cohesion has become some form of oil. Oils, whether in the form of butter, vegetable oils, or lard, are much more viscous than water and evaporate freely at a far higher temperature. Thus a cake made with butter or eggs in place of water is much denser after removal from the oven.

Rather than evaporating as water does in a baking cake, oils in cookies remain. These oils saturate the cavities created during baking by bubbles of escaping gases. These gases are primarily composed of steam vaporized from the egg whites and the carbon dioxide released by heating the baking powder. This saturation produces the most texturally attractive feature of the cookie, and indeed all fried foods: crispness saturated with a moisture (namely oil) that does not render soggy the food it has soaked into.

Thumbprint cookies

Cookie-like hard wafers have existed for as long as baking is documented, in part because they survive travel very well, but they were usually not sweet enough to be considered cookies by modern standards.

Cookies appear to have their origins in 7th century AD Persia, shortly after the use of sugar became relatively common in the region. They spread to Europe through the Muslim conquest of Spain. By the 14th century, they were common in all levels of society throughout Europe, from royal cuisine to street vendors. The first documented instance of the figure-shaped gingerbread man was at the court of Elizabeth I of England in the 16th century. She had the gingerbread figures made and presented in the likeness of some of her important guests.

With global travel becoming widespread at that time, cookies made a natural travel companion, a modernized equivalent of the travel cakes used throughout history. One of the most popular early cookies, which traveled especially well and became known on every continent by similar names, was the jumble, a relatively hard cookie made largely from nuts, sweetener, and water.

Cookies came to America through the Dutch in New Amsterdam in the late 1620s. The Dutch word " koekje" was Anglicized to "cookie" or cooky. The earliest reference to cookies in America is in 1703, when "The Dutch in New York provided...'in 1703...at a funeral 800 cookies...'"

The most common modern cookie, given its style by the creaming of butter and sugar, was not common until the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution in Britain and the consumers it created saw cookies (biscuits) become products for the masses, and firms such as Huntley & Palmers (formed in 1822), McVitie's (formed in 1830) and Carr's (formed in 1831) were all established. The decorative biscuit tin, invented by Huntley & Palmers in 1831, saw British cookies exported around the world. In 1891, Cadbury filed a patent for a chocolate-coated cookie.

Bakarkhani cookie is part of Mughlai cuisine of the Indian subcontinent.

Classification

Cookie dough ready to be put in the oven

Cookies are broadly classified according to how they are formed or made, including at least these categories:

Bar cookies consist of batter or other ingredients that are poured or pressed into a pan (sometimes in multiple layers) and cut into cookie-sized pieces after baking. In British English, bar cookies are known as "tray bakes".[3] Examples include brownies, fruit squares, and bars such as date squares.

Drop cookies are made from a relatively soft dough that is dropped by spoonfuls onto the baking sheet. During baking, the mounds of dough spread and flatten. Chocolate chip cookies (Toll House cookies), oatmeal raisin (or other oatmeal-based) cookies, and rock cakes are popular examples of drop cookies. This may also include thumbprint cookies, for which a small central depression is created with a thumb or small spoon before baking to contain a filling, such as jam or a chocolate chip.[17] In the UK, the term "cookie" often refers only to this particular type of product.

Filled cookies are made from a rolled cookie dough filled with a fruit, jam or confectionery filling before baking. Hamantashen are a filled cookie.

Molded cookies are also made from a stiffer dough that is molded into balls or cookie shapes by hand before baking. Snickerdoodles and peanut butter cookies are examples of molded cookies. Some cookies, such as hermits or biscotti, are molded into large flattened loaves that are later cut into smaller cookies.

No-bake cookies are made by mixing a filler, such as cereal or nuts, into a melted confectionery binder, shaping into cookies or bars, and allowing to cool or harden. Oatmeal clusters and rum balls are no-bake cookies.

Pressed cookies are made from a soft dough that is extruded from a cookie press into various decorative shapes before baking. Spritzgebäck is an example of a pressed cookie.

Refrigerator cookies (also known as icebox cookies) are made from a stiff dough that is refrigerated to make the raw dough even stiffer before cutting and baking. The dough is typically shaped into cylinders which are sliced into round cookies before baking. Pinwheel cookies and those made by Pillsbury are representative.

Rolled cookies are made from a stiffer dough that is rolled out and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter. Gingerbread men are an example.

Sandwich cookies are rolled or pressed cookies that are assembled as a sandwich with a sweet filling. Fillings include marshmallow, jam, and icing. The Oreo cookie, made of two chocolate cookies with a vanilla icing filling, is an example.

A pack of Finnish Domino cookies

Other types of cookies are classified for other reasons, such as their ingredients, size, or intended time of serving:

Breakfast cookies are typically larger, lower-sugar cookies filled with "heart-healthy nuts and fiber-rich oats" that are eaten as a quick breakfast snack.

Low-fat cookies or diet cookies typically have lower fat than regular cookies.

Raw cookie dough is served in some restaurants, though the eggs may be omitted since the dough is eaten raw, which could pose a salmonella risk if eggs were used. Cookie Dough Confections in New York City is a restaurant that has a range of raw cookie dough flavors, which are scooped into cups for customers like ice cream.

Skillet cookies are big cookies that are cooked in a cast-iron skillet and served warm, while they are still soft and chewy. They are either eaten straight from the pan or cut into wedges, often with vanilla ice cream on top.

Supersized cookies are large cookies such as the Panera Kitchen Sink Cookie. These very large cookies are sold at grocery stores, restaurants and coffeeshops.

Vegan cookies can be made with flour, sugar, nondairy milk and nondairy margarine. Aquafaba icing can used to decorate the cookies.

Cookie cakes are made in a larger circular shape usually with writing made of frosting.

Leah Ettman from Nutrition Action has criticized the high calorie count and fat content of supersized cookies, which are extra large cookies; she cites the Panera Kitchen Sink Cookie, a supersized chocolate chip cookie, which measures 5 1/2 inches in diameter and has 800 calories. For busy people who eat breakfast cookies in the morning, Kate Bratskeir from the Huffington Post recommends lower-sugar cookies filled with "heart-healthy nuts and fiber-rich oats". A book on nutrition by Paul Insel et al. notes that "low-fat" or "diet cookies" may have the same number of calories as regular cookies, due to added sugar.

Popular culture

There are a number of slang usages of the term "cookie". The slang use of "cookie" to mean a person, "especially an attractive woman" is attested to in print since 1920. The catchphrase "that's the way the cookie crumbles", which means "that's just the way things happen" is attested to in print in 1955. Other slang terms include "smart cookie" and "tough cookie." According to The Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms, a smart cookie is "someone who is clever and good at dealing with difficult situations." The word "cookie" has been vulgar slang for "vagina" in the US since 1970. The word "cookies" is used to refer to the contents of the stomach, often in reference to vomiting (e.g., "pop your cookies", a 1960s expression, or "toss your cookies", a 1970s expression). The expression "cookie cutter", in addition to referring literally to a culinary device used to cut rolled cookie dough into shapes, is also used metaphorically to refer to items or things "having the same configuration or look as many others" (e.g., a "cookie cutter tract house") or to label something as "stereotyped or formulaic" (e.g., an action movie filled with "generic cookie cutter characters"). "Cookie duster" is a whimsical expression for a mustache.

Cookie Monster is a Muppet on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite for cookies and his famous eating phrases, such as "Me want cookie!", "Me eat cookie!" (or simply "COOKIE!"), and "Om nom nom nom" (said through a mouth full of food).

Cookie Clicker is a game where you click a cookie.

Notable varieties

Related pastries and confections

Manufacturers

Product lines and brands

Miscellaneous

References

1. "History of Cookies - Cookie History". Whatscookingamerica.net. Archived from the original on 2008-11-04.

2. ^ Nelson, Libby (29 November 2015). "British desserts, explained for Americans confused by the Great British Baking Show". Vox. Archived from the original on 2 December 2015.

3. Lee, Laura. ^ The Pocket Encyclopedia of Aggravation. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2001.

4. ^ "7 vertalingen voor het dialectwoord 'koekie'". Archived from the original on 2014-09-07.

5. ^ Lynne Olver. "The Food Timeline: history notes--cookies, crackers & biscuits". foodtimeline.org. Archived from the original on 2012-07-17.

6. ^ van der Sijs, Nicoline (Sep 15, 2009). Cookies, Coleslaw, and Stoops: The Influence of Dutch on the North American Languages (Paperback ed.). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-9089641243.

7. ^ "History Cook: the rise of the chocolate biscuit". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10.

8. Insel, Paul; Ross, Don; McMahon, Kimberley; Bernstein, Melissa. Nutrition. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2016 p. 335

9. Partridge, Eric. The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English. Taylor & Francis, 2009. p. 229.

10. ^ Sesame Street - "The First Time Me Eat Cookie". 7 April 2004. Event occurs at 0:30. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Me was just a mild-mannered little kid. In fact, back then, me think me name was Sid. Yeah, yeah.

11. ^ "Cookie Monster: Me wasn't ..." Sesame Street (sesamestreet) on Twitter. 10 August 2010. Archived from the original on 15 April 2016. Me wasn't born with name "Cookie Monster." It just nickname dat stuck. Me don't remember me real name... maybe it was Sidney?

12. ^ "The Cast of 'Sesame Street' Answer the Web's Most Searched Questions". WIRED Autocomplete interview. 22 February 2017. Event occurs at 7:22. Archived from the original on 2021-10-29. Is Cookie Monster's real name Sid? Yeah, truly it is. Me real name Sid Monster.

Further reading

External links

The dictionary definition of cookie at Wiktionary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A cookie ( American English) or biscuit ( British English) is a baked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat, and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, or nuts.

# data[].attributes.body
a sweetened baked good that is made from a dough, is typically denser than cake, and is cut into a rectangular or square shape.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These bar cookie recipes will tempt dessert lovers with an array of flavors, from chocolatey layer bars to tangy, lemon-filled bars dusted with sugar.

# data[].attributes.body
here is a clear distinction between three types of scoop: the disher, which is used to measure a portion e.g. cookie dough, to make melon balls, and often to serve ice cream

# data[].attributes.body
a white, crystalline, acidic compound obtained as a byproduct of wine fermentation and used chiefly in baking powder.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A reader recently emailed the Food Explainer to ask for a primer on cream of tartar, a white powder that is called for in many baking recipes. "Do you happen to know of anything that is a proven substitute?" the reader continued. "Or is cream of tartar one of those ingredients that simply has no substitute?"

Cream of tartar, a byproduct of wine and grape juice processing, is an acidic salt that acts as a stabilizer in recipes that require whipped egg whites, such as meringue, angel food cake, and soufflé. When whipped, egg whites (also known as albumen) can swell up to eight times their initial volume. The acidity of cream of tartar helps egg whites achieve their full volume potential, and stabilizes them by helping hold in water and air.

How does it do this, exactly? Egg whites are 90 percent water and 10 percent protein. When they're beaten, air bubbles get distributed in the liquid, and the proteins denature (that is, their coiled amino-acid chains unfurl). The unfurled proteins align themselves between the air bubbles and the water molecules, reinforcing the air bubbles' walls. Bonds between protein molecules hold this structure together. The longer the egg whites are whipped, the more tightly the albumen proteins cluster together. Eventually, they can cluster together so tightly that they force water out of the foam structure, which then destabilizes, separating into a dry lather and a layer of liquid, and losing volume as air escapes. (And even if they don't separate in the bowl, they could still destabilize and lose moisture in the oven, resulting in sunken cakes or meringues oozing sugar syrup.)

Here's where cream of tartar steps in. Added to the whites before whipping begins (typically at a ratio of ⅛ teaspoon per large egg white), the acidic powder lowers the pH of the albumen. This changes the electrical charge of the proteins, making them more sensitive to denaturation, so the egg whites promptly begin to foam. The cream of tartar also increases the mixture's hydrogen ions, which prevent the protein molecules from bonding too tightly. With the proteins aligned but not jammed together too tightly, the structure keeps the water and air bubbles in place, and therefore is stronger and more secure.

By preventing the proteins from clustering too close together, cream of tartar keeps egg white foam supple and elastic. The albumen's protein-rich cell walls stretch to their thinnest during baking, resulting in tall, tender-crumbed cakes. Similarly, when a meringue mixture is shaped or piped, or has other ingredients folded in, the acid helps the egg foam maintain its integrity and volume even as it's squeezed through a nozzle or "cut" with sharp-edged additions like chopped nuts.

Cream of tartar also has an effect on baked goods' color. Angel food cakes made with it are notably whiter than cakes made without. The explanation is twofold: Pigments in flour known as flavones are cream-colored in an alkaline environment but colorless in an acidic mixture, like a batter containing cream of tartar. It's also a question of perception. Cream of tartar allows egg whites to be whipped for longer without collapsing. This produces small, abundant, evenly distributed air bubbles, which create a fine texture in the finished baked good. When light reflects off a finely grained cake, the cake appears whiter than it would if its texture were coarser. This phenomenon also explains why meringues containing cream of tartar look brighter than meringues without it.

As for substitutes, there is no exact equivalent to cream of tartar. Adding ¼ teaspoon lemon juice per egg white will perform a similar function, but it's less effective than cream of tartar. That's because any liquid, even a small amount, dilutes the egg white and interferes with the stabilizing action of the acid. Also, while cream of tartar is 100 percent acid, lemon juice is only 3 percent acid, so it's less potent. Another alternative is to whip your egg whites in a copper bowl. Copper ions, like cream of tartar's hydrogen ions, keep the protein molecules loosely aligned. However, the copper ions will also impart a rosy hue to the egg foam.

Bonus Explainer: Why is cream of tartar sold in the spice aisle instead of with other baking ingredients? Traditionally, spice companies (such as McCormick) process and package it, because it has uses beyond baking. Cream of tartar can be used to help certain types of vegetables keep their natural color when steamed or boiled. Pigments contained in acidic pockets in red cabbage, potatoes, and cauliflower will leach out and discolor at a higher pH. Adding ½ teaspoon of cream of tartar to the cooking water will up the acidity and prevent discoloration.

Food Explainer thanks Paula Figoni of Johnson & Wales University, author of How Baking Works, and Luca Zanin of American Tartaric Products Inc.
Have a question about something you're eating or drinking? Send it to slatefoodexplainer@gmail.com.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
why is cream of tartar in the spice aisle

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What's Cream of Tartar? Do I Have to Buy It?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A reader recently emailed the Food Explainer to ask for a primer on cream of tartar, a white powder that is called for in many baking recipes. "Do you happen to know of anything that is a proven substitute?" the reader continued. "Or is cream of tartar one of those ingredients that simply has no substitute?"

# data[].attributes.body
The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor.

# data[].attributes.body
Caramelization  is the browning of sugar, a process used extensively in cooking for the resulting sweet nutty flavor and brown color. ... As the process occurs, volatile chemicals such as diacetyl are released, producing the characteristic caramel flavor.

# data[].attributes.body
Creaming method. Also known as the 'sugar-shortening' method, the sugar and shortening fat are blended together first and then creamed by added mixing. During creaming, small air cells are formed and then incorporated into the mix. ... Sugar and shortening are creamed at a medium speed until soft and light.