Béchamel is a creamy, white sauce made with scalded milk plus equal parts butter and flour. A foundational French sauce, béchamel is the starting point for a number of other sauces.
By adding grated cheese, béchamel becomes a mornay. With tomato, it is transformed into an aurore. The Italians use becciamella to hold their lasagne together, and the Greeks use besamel to bind their pastitsio and moussaka. We Americans use it to add gratuitous calories to our macaroni and cheese.
In Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child writes that in the days of Louis XIV, béchamel was a "simmering of milk, veal, and seasonings with an enrichment of cream." She was referring to the apparent inventor of the original crème fraîche-laden sauce, Louis de Béchamel (1630-1703), maître d'hôtel for the Sun King.
Recipe: Macaroni And Cheese
Beurre manié means "kneaded butter" in French. It's made by working together equal parts flour and soft butter.
It works a bit like a roux, except that the beurre manié is uncooked and added at the end of cooking rather than at the start. Like a roux, it's used to thicken and add flavor to soups, stews and sauces. Unlike a roux, which acts as the foundation for a sauce, beurre manié is often used at the last minute to rescue an overly thin or bland sauce.
Beurre manié can be made ahead and frozen in an ice cube tray so that you'll have it on hand when you need it. Whisk a small knob of beurre manié into simmering liquid and cook for a minute or two to cook out the flour taste. If your sauce or stew needs more thickening, add another knob. (You may need to skim the starch off as it rises.)
Reference: What is a roux? (Cookthink)
Reference: What is a pan sauce? (Cookthink)
Related: Thickening It Old School (A Hunger Artist)
A roux is a thickening agent made from equal parts butter and flour. The mixture is cooked until the flour taste disappears (about one minute per tablespoon of flour) and then combined with milk or stock to create a sauce.
There are basically two kinds of roux.
White (or blond) roux is cooked just until the flour taste vanishes, but before the butter begins to turn the roux brown. This becomes béchamel sauce when blended with milk. Combined with stock, it becomes velouté.
Brown roux is cooked until it turns a nutty brown color. It is used as a thickener for French demi-glacesauce. It can be made with butter, as well as pork or beef drippings. Many Creole and Cajun dishes, including gumbo, use lard to create a dark brown roux. (In our Chicken And Sausage Gumbo, we use less indulgent canola oil. Don't try this in Vermilion Parish; they may jail you for using oil.)
Reference: What is bechamel sauce? (Cookthink)
Reference: Macaroni And Cheese (Cookthink)
Related: Real Cajun Recipes
What's the point of letting dough rise?
What's the point of letting dough rise?
If you don't allow your bread dough to rise, you'll end up with a heavy and disagreeable loaf.
When you let dough rise, you're giving yeast a chance to leaven the dough. This happens when fermentation produces carbon dioxide gas that puffs it up. Dough should be left to rise in a warm place without draughts and covered with a clean kitchen towel to prevent a crust from forming.
The formal name for this process is proofing (sometimes calling proving).
What's the point of sifting flour?
What's the point of sifting flour?
Originally, the point of sifting flour used to be to remove lumps and the occasional insect, although modern flour is generally free of those concerns. If you don't buy pre-sifted flour, sifting can still be a good idea for a number of reasons.
First, it loosens up flour that has been sitting around in storage for a long time, aerating it and helping your baked goods to have a lighter texture. It's also a good idea to sift flour if you are combining it with other ingredients, such as salt, baking powder or soda, or cocoa powder, to give the mixture a homogeneous texture.
Flour can be sifted either with an old-fashioned sifter, or by shaking flour through a sieve. Dry ingredients can also be whisked together with a wire whisk in a pinch, which also helps lighten up the flour.
Nevertheless, some people think that sifting flour is a pain, and skip it altogether, claiming they don't notice the difference. Do you?
Recipe: Sour Cream Bundt Cake (VeganYumYum)
Recipe: Banana Hazelnut Upside-Down Cake (Hogwash)
Cake flour is flour made from the softest part of the wheat kernel. It contains less protein than other types of flour and is finely ground and bleached. This increases its ability to absorb water and disperse fat and air, making it ideal for cakes, cookies and other baked treats that benefit from a light texture.
If you don't have cake flour, you can substitute 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour for each cup of cake flour required, or 3/4 cup all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.
Related Articles: What's the point of sifting flour?
Not to be confused with the similar-sounding strudel (a famous Viennese pastry), streusel is a crumbly, crunchy dessert topping that's common in Central Europe.
A mixture of flour, butter and sugar—plus optional flavorings like cinnamon, vanilla extract, lemon zest or nuts—it's sprinkled atop coffee cakes, muffins, fruit-based crumbles and other sweets before baking. (The word is derived the German verb "to scatter.")
Streusel is also the name of a round Alsatian brioche covered in sweet shortcrust pastry and sometimes filled with cream.
Reference: What is a crumble? (Cookthink)
Recipe: Maple Plum Crumble (Cookthink)
Be courageous this holiday season and learn how to make homemade pastry dough for all of those pies you'll be baking. This video by Handmade TV includes a recipe and step-by-step instructions for a crust worthy of any filling.
Potato latkes are considered a traditional Hannukah dish, but they are enjoyed by many cultures year round. This instructional video by Handmade TV shows how to make these crispy potato pancakes in no time at all.
How to make Yorkshire pudding popovers
How to make Yorkshire pudding popovers
Yorkshire pudding popovers are hollow, muffin-like breads traditionally served in place of a loaf of bread or rolls. Learn how to make this classic English side dish by watching Handmade TV's short instructional video.
No-knead bread is a no-brainer method for making homemade bread.
Dry ingredients -- bread flour, yeast and salt -- are swirled with a fork.
Water is added and the dough is quickly mixed.
The dough is then covered with cling film and left alone in a warm place for 12 to 18 hours.
After a long rest, the dough is fully risen and ready for basic shaping.
A fold, a roll and a pat into a dome shape and the dough is ready to rest in a cornmeal-covered cloth while the stock pot and oven heat up to 500F.
After 30 minutes in the stock pot, the lid is removed so the loaf browns and the crust can develop.
The interior crumb is soft and dense and richly flavored. The crust is crackly and crunchy, breaking under the fingers and teeth.
What's the difference between a fritter and a croquette?
What's the difference between a fritter and a croquette?
Fritters and croquettes are both bite-sized sweet or savory morsels that are deep fried and served hot. You can make fritters and croquettes out of everything from seafood to apples.
Traditionally, a fritter is a piece of food that is dipped in batter before being fried, although many fritter recipes involve chopping up ingredients and mixing them with or without batter into a very soft dough before frying.
A French croquette classically consists of a sweet or savory mixture of ingredients bound in a thick sauce, shaped into bite-sized, usually cylindrical pieces, coated with egg and breadcrumbs and fried in oil until crisp and golden.
