Baking in London, part 1.

Baking in the UK, as opposed to America, is quite a steep learning curve. Absolutely everything is different. The obvious is obvious: metric system, water, flour, dairy. Not so obvious: ingredients with the same name are not the same, BTU output is different, heat source is electric, weight of baking vessels and material they're made of is totally something else than what I'm used to, and more.

Where to start? Test recipes you know intimately and watch how they change after every ingredient is added. Know the gram and ounce measurements of all ingredients you work with "at home." Test these weights against new weights. Have calculator within hand's reach. Make Google your friend. Test and re-test. Make minor adjustments as you go and keep careful notes.

Professional bakers have a saying,

"Anyone can make one beautiful cake at home; but can you make 100, all the same, day after day, consistently?"

What I have found, after working alongside many a professional cook and baker, is that there are also a lot of home bakers in professional kitchens. While it takes a lifetime, and then some, to learn, really know, the craft of baking, one must be willing to keep growing after one has been baking for some time.

If you do not know the weight of your ingredients you cannot scale up or down accordingly. A cup of flour, scooped by a dozen people, has a dozen weights.

While baking is emotional and intuitive, it is also science. Being particular is of utmost importance.

The frustration of baking what I know and having it come out vastly different is big. I wish I were as calm as a cucumber and as understanding as a Rabbi, but I am not. Instead I am trying to remain positive and calm and keep moving forward. Yesterday I learned, the hard way, what we call confectioner's sugar, or 10X, in the USA, also known as Icing Sugar here in Britain, does not appear to have any cornstarch in it.

Cornstarch is added to confectioner's sugar because sugar is hygroscopic: it absorbs moisture. Because confectioner's sugar is such a small particle, imagine what a mess it would be when it came into contact with air, especially rainy day or refrigerated air. The presence of cornstarch allows the sugar some breathing room, so to speak (pun?), because cornstarch hopes to absorb and dry out moisture attacking the sugar.

Why does any of this matter? Because when a recipe in America calls for confectioner's sugar it is making room for cornstarch as well as sugar. It appears the Icing Sugar here is not ground quite as small and so maybe does not need cornstarch, but I didn't know any of this until I think I ruined a lot of chocolate frosting yesterday. Oof.

Today I will hope to save/ correct it. Please say a good word for me and my frosting. Thanks.

There's more of course. Like how heavy the "sheet pans" are, but that's for another day.

Suffice to say I am forever indebted to all the British cookbooks I have come to know and love, as well as my early addiction to Vogue Entertaining magazine from Australia, Donna Hay and every kitchen I have ever baked in that has taught me something about being adaptable.

Comments

[GZ Tai-Tai]

Hello Shuna,
Yes... I deal with this daily in cooking using ingredients from UK, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, or the States. Even though I only cook at home and not professionally (I missed my calling, maybe someday)

Living in China 10 of the last 12 years the ingredients have many times been foreign to me and the results not as they were in the states. However I learned to adapt if that meant using a tad bit less carrot in that cake that called for 3 cups in the states of the carrots that were not quite as orange or quite as watery.

The first carrot cake I made here in China in 1996 stuck to the pan like I could not believe, due to the different sugar, the watery carrots or the humidity I knew not but, I had to get it out of the pan for my then 8 year old who desperately wanted Mom's carrot cake, a taste of home for her. Different icing sugar from the UK and even the butter was different, the flour from China the texture finer and then add in the humidity and heat of southern China in May.

Once I got it out of the pan it was good but not quite the same as in the States. After many carrot cakes I finally became adept at tweeking the recipe to make it the same as at home or perhaps just as good with different ingredients. It meant a lot to that then 8 year old and now when she visits us in China as a 20 year old. Yikes! She always wants Mom's carrot cake because no one can make it the same.

Good luck with the frosting and have a super time in the UK!

[Jennywenny]

Thats funny, I'm not a professional baker, but I find myself getting very confused in the US about all the different baking stuff. Some of the good things about the UK are that the recipes are often in metric and nearly always by weight.

I'm surprised about the icing sugar, it certainly seems the same in appearance.

I still get confused, I was talking about vol-au-vents the other day and it appears that in the UK they are little puff pastry baskets, and in the US they are pate a choux.

Jennywenny,

Take a close look at British icing sugar-- sift them side by side and they even fall differently. I think Icing sugar looks like snow in that, once sifted, I swear I can see snowflake patterning.

About the vol-au-vents-- you are correct. They are the exact same thing everywhere because they're a classic pastry form. It's possible to make this shape with choux paste but the classic is made with puff. ~ Shuna

[Victoria]

Shuna,

Are you using scales with weights as opposed to digital? Delia Smith swears by them, but I can't find any sold in the U.S.

I have glass measuring cups from England and a lot of cookbooks in the British edition. I was just looking at a Simon Hopkinson recipe that called for icing sugar the other day and thought "oh,that's easy - confectioners." Now I know I have to drag down to Myers of Keswick to get what I need.

Sounds like you're having fun though. Keep at it. Keep posting. Keep well.

Hello Victoria,

Thanks for the questions. I have used scales with weights many times before and they can be found for sale commercially as well as at various flea markets. But make sure it's being sold second-hand by someone who deals in such things almost exclusively-- a little bit off in calibration and it's all topsy-turvey after that.

For what I'm doing I absolutely need digital. In fact I have had to weigh 1 Tablespoon and I could have only done that with a .oo gram scale, which I have here. Scales with balance weights are best for large scale commercial baking. Bread bakers prefer them, for example.

I'm not really sure if using American 10X is that different than UK Icing, it's the other way around that's more difficult because an ingredient is missing. It's a long story but the cornstarch helps in a lot of baked goods, but in the frosting it's absence, coupled with the change in "grind" did me in. ~ Shuna

[Camille]

Amen! I recently went from an American pâtisserie kitchen to a French one. I'm sure you have some idea how comforted I was to see the exact same bucket of trimoline I've always used in my new workplace. Hooray for French ingredients!

[Melvis]

on a much different scale, this seems so familiar (when I moved from the South to the West -the DAIRY---THE FLOUR---ohmygosh!)

Interesting...the electricity is something I would not have thought about.

All my biscuit lovin is headed your way today and throughout your adventures.

These are minor setbacks...you are a bigger fish than most...you have much to teach us through you....
thank you for sharing, as always. xoxoxoxo

[aran]

oh yes, i know this! every time i go home everything turns out different. i went to work to portugal for a month to help out a pastry kitchen and i had some disasters that i am even ashamed to remember and mostly due to what you are saying... and maybe jet lag too. hope you are enjoying london!

[Louise M]

Hang in there - I still suffer problems when I try to bake with all the cookbooks I lugged back from my time in the States.
European baking books I like include The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery, and Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts.
As well as Borough Market, there are some good Farmers Markets around - try Marylebone for a central one, or use this website to find a local one.

Hello Louise, Thank you so much for the info. and the understanding! If I get a minute away from the kitchen I will surely check out a farmers' market. p.s. If you want to learn how to leave URL links in your comments, check out this post, where I attempted to write it in "laymen's" language. I have written in the code by hand, here, and in your comment so that all of us may be able to click on it. Thanks again for stopping in and commenting! ~ Shuna

[sam]

Thank you for this Shuna - it at last described an excuse for my complete inability to bake cakes in the USA after 20 years of success in the UK (I never used a recipe). It explains why my Victoria sponges don't turn out as good as I remember and why icing is never the same. It might also explain my dislike of cupcakes. Although I do have electric hear whilst I had gas there. I think both countries have both.

[EB]

Many, many good thoughts go out to you and your chocolate frosting!

[Victoria]

This post really turned out to be doubly great because the comments were good too. If Sam figured out how to make a good Victoria sponge in the U.S., I would love to know because I have never been able to duplicate the one that came out of my grandmother's kitchen in England, and I long for that particular taste and texture.

You are bringing back many happy memories with these messages from England!