TenThings

to KnowAbout

Desserts

1

Introduction 1

The Basics of Baking 2

The Basics of Ingredients 3

Different Types of Desserts 4

Healthy Substitutes 6

Are Muffins Ugly Cupcakes? 8

Red Velvet’s Dirty Secrets 9

How to Bake Sugar Cookies 10

Indulging In Chocolate 12

Top Desserts in America 14

Desserts in Other Countries 15

Conclusion 16

According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary dessert is defined as “the sweet treat eaten at the end of a meal”. That definition, although accurate, is way too short to even begin to describe desserts and what makes them spe-cial. So here I am; writing you some wonder-ful information on what makes these sweets so great. I added a few baking tips and a recipe to help you start making delicious treats all by yourself! There are also tips on how to make your desserts healthier. Enjoy!

According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary dessert is defined as “the sweet treat eaten at the end of a meal”. That definition, although accurate, is way too short to even begin to describe desserts and what makes them spe-cial. So here I am; writing you some wonder-ful information on what makes these sweets so great. I added a few baking tips and a recipe to help you start making delicious treats all by yourself! There are also tips on how to make your desserts healthier. Enjoy!

Introduction

sugar

Unlike cooking, baking needs to use exact measurements used in recipes. When me- asuring dry ingredients you should use flat topped measuring cups and level off the top. When measuring liquids you should use a glass measuring cup. Using just one of these kinds of measuring cups can mess up the accuracy of the recipe. Do not use tableware spoons to measure. Even though bakers did in the good ol’ days, there is no reason to use them now. The sizes vary too much that the measurement will be inaccurate. Prepare the

If the process of baking were turned into a metaphor of building a house, these ingre-dients are the foundation. Flour is the most used ingredient while baking. All purpose flour works great for any recipe unless it specifies a different type of flour such as bread flour or cake flour. Whole wheat flour is heavier, therefore anything you make that calls for all purpose flour that you use whole wheat flour for instead will become hard as a brick. Butter adds a unique flavor to baked goods. Trying

The Basics of Baking The Basics of Ingredients

baking sheet based on what the recipe sug-gests. Baking sprays can ruin already non-stick pans. Some of you have probably overlooked the tips written on cake mix boxes that say this but I am reiterating it because it is crucial: let the baking pan cool before you reuse it. Desserts can bake unevenly or even burn if you do not allow the pan to cool thoroughly. I always keep extra cookie sheets and muffin tins so I can get a second batch of whatever I’m making ready to bake while the other batch is in the oven. Use parchment paper.

It will save your life while trying to clean the pans later. I highly suggest using a wired drying rack, especially for cookies, because the pan is still hot when it comes out of the oven. If you leave anything on the baking sheet too long, the bottoms will burn in the time it takes them to cool down because the pan is still as hot as the oven temperature for a couple minutes.

to substitute a spread product for butter is a very common mistake. The difference be-tween butter and margarine is that butter is made from animal product whereas marga-rine is man made and also has less saturated fat. Both of these are interchangeable. Baking powder and baking soda are different things. Eggs come in different sizes. Generally recipes will use large size eggs. This allows you to remove any shell more easily. In addition to making your desserts sweet, sugar helps

tenderize, leaven, brown, and preserve the desserts. Granulated sugar, confectioners sug-ar, and brown sugar cannot be interchanged in recipes. They all serve for different functions and flavors.

• Do not use whole wheat flour as a substitute for all purpose flour unless you use a 7:8 ratio• Do not replace one for another in a recipe • Crack eggs in a small bowl before adding them to anything

Bakers Tips

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flour

sugar

Different Types of DessertsNow that we know about the basics of bak-ing, lets talk about what kinds of desserts there are! The main kinds of sweets are: cake, chocolates, candies, cookies, custards, doughnuts, pastries, pies, tarts, puddings and many others. Each of these have sever-al other desserts and flavors that fall under their category. Cakes are essentially breads sweetened with sugar and flour. Cakes range from being light and airy to heavy and dense. Cupcakes and muffins are also very common.

Candies usually involve crystallizing sugars. Common candies are caramels, marshmallows, and taffy. Cookies are technically small, flat versions of cakes. They were originally made from small spoonfuls of cake batter. Custards and puddings have a thickened dairy base. Different kinds of custards include creme brûlée and flan. Doughnuts are deep fried batter that can either come with a hole in the middle or is filled with a sweet cream.

Pastries come in several different forms such a cannolis and lobster tails. They generally are either a flaky or airy sweet bread with cream. Pies are baked crusts that have fillings. These fillings usually are fruit based but sometimes use puddings as well. There are several other miscellaneous types of desserts such as apple crisp and banana foster.

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Bakers Tips • Mash any subsitute to be a similar consistency to what the original ingredient is• Only use bananas as a replacement in already fruity desserts

Healthy SubstitutionsThere are several healthy ways to make desserts more nutritious with beneficial substitutes. Using low fat versions of ingre-dients such as milk and sour cream can help cut down the amount of fat and calories in desserts. Black beans can be substituted for flour in brownie recipes. I know it sounds weird but trust me it actually works and is delicious. The beans make the recipe gluten free and have more protein. Swap out 1 cup of flour for 1 cup of pureed black beans.

Unsweetened applesauce can be used as a replacement for sugar. 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce has 100 calories whereas one cup of sugar has about 770 calories. Substitute 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of applesauce but be-ware that you will need to use 1/4 less liquid. This works great for oatmeal raisin cookies! Avocado works as a substitute for butter. This uses a 1:1 ratio just as the applesauce and black beans use. To replace eggs but you can use 2 egg whites or a 1/4 cup of egg substitute

from the grocery store in place of 1 egg. This still trims

60 calories and grams of fat off your desserts. Instead of using heavy cream, try

using evaporated milk. Using mashed bananas as a substitute for butter works great. 1 cup of mashed banana is worth 1 cup of butter. Know that this change will make your desserts bake faster by around 25% so keep an eye on your treats!

Morin, Kate. “83 Healthy Recipe Substitutions.” Greatist. N.p., 29 May 2014. Web.

Cupcakes and muffins are indeed not the same. Yes, maybe they are the same size and shape, but they are very different when it comes to aesthetic. A cupcake is essentially a whole cake but a smaller portion. A large majority of cupcakes are frosted and decorat-ed. Cupcakes are always sweet. Muffins can or cannot be sweetened. The use a bread base whereas cupcakes use a cake base. Some of you may be wondering whether a muffin is even a dessert. Well you know what, I believe they are! They can be just as sweet as

Are Muffins Ugly Cupcakes? Red Velvets Dirty Secretscupcakes yet a lot healthier. One direct way to make muffins dessert-like but still healthy is to add fruit. Fruits provide nutrients vital for health and maintenance in your body. Com-mon fruits used in muffins are strawberries, bananas, and apples. Strawberries can pro-mote eye health, boost your immune system, fight cancer, help against aging skin, and fight bad cholesterol. Bananas have calcium which fights against kidney cancer, protects your eyes, and builds strong bones. They make you more alert from the high levels of potassium.

Apples help decrease your risk in diabetes, reduce cholesterol, avoid Alzheimer’s, and helps whiten teeth. Now imagine all of these amazing health benefits just by adding these delicious fruits to muffins. Some of my favor-ite healthy muffin flavors include the ever so classic apple cinnamon, banana nutella oat, and strawberry chocolate chip!

Plackett, Benjamin. “23 Superfruits You Need Now!” - Health.com. Web.

Red velvet cake is defined as a rich choco-late flavored cake with a red color typically prepared with buttercream or cream cheese frosting. But why is it red? Nowadays, red velvet cake becomes red by using a lot of food coloring. Back in the good ol’ days when red velvet cake was invented, it became red a different way. Here is how: The ‘velvet’ part of the title comes from the smooth and vel-vety texture. This was caused by mixing baking soda with either vinegar or buttermilk (which

are both acidic). These chemical reaction between the baking soda and acidic ingredient caused bubbles to occur and make the cake velvety. Not only did this concoction cause the texture of the cake, but it caused the col-or. Cocoa powder turns red when mixed with any acidic ingredient because of the antho-cyanins (water soluble pigments) that cocoa powder contains. Most cocoa powder today is produced with an alkalizing agent which balances acids which means the acidic reaction

that caused the red color no longer happens. Some cocoa

powder is still made as it was before though. Now what exactly is the difference between red velvet cake and chocolate cake? Choco-late cake contains a lot more cocoa powder than red velvet does. Red velvet actually only really uses cocoa powder to get its color. It also uses vinegar.

Severson, Kim. “Red Velvet Cake: A Classic, Not a Gimmick.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 May 2014. Web.

• Use fresh fruits instead of canned because canned fruits have preservatives • When using bananas, they are generally better for baking when they are slightly mushy

• Using a lot of food coloring is very harmful for your health• Try using fat free or vegan cream cheese in frostings for a healthy alternative

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Bakers TipsBakers Tips

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 ½ cups sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup sugar for rolling cookies

Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set this mixture aside as we will come back to it soon. Cream together the butter and 1 ½ cups of sugar until it is pretty light and fluffy. Then beat in the egg and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar. Fold in the dry ingredient mixture now until a soft nice dough form. Refrigerate the dough for about an hour so it combines better. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Roll the dough into balls about 1 inch in size. Then roll the balls in the extra sugar and put them on a slightly greased of parchment paper lined baking sheets. They should be about 2 inches apart from one another. Flatten the balls lightly by pressing them. I also suggest pushing a finger into the center of the ball a tiny bit so the cookies cook evenly. This pre-vents either uncooked centers or burnt edges on the cookies. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes and take them out as the bottoms turn light brown. Cool for 2 or so minutes on the pan and then place them on a wired drying rack. “Basic Sugar Cookies Recipe | Martha Stewart.” Martha Stewart. N.p., n.d. Web.

Ingredients: Directions:

• Try adding a teaspoon of cinnamon for some extra delicious goodness• Make sure to let the cookies cool first if you are going to frost them

How To Bake Sugar Cookies

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Bakers Tips

Chocolate is lovingly known as “the food of the gods” and after eating chocolate once, anyone could agree with it. Chocolate is made from the beans of a cocoa tree. These beans are harvested, ground up, and liquefied. The liquid is then turned into cocoa solids and cocoa butters. This process has the chocolate taste very bitter so different combinations of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, and other ingredi-ents make up the different kinds of chocolate. Dark chocolate has the highest percentage

of cocoa solids and butters. The other added ingredients are sugar and cocoa bean powder. Milk chocolate contains milk powder, sugar, and a small percentage of cocoa solids and cocoa butter. White chocolate actually con-tains no cocoa solids at all. It is made of sugar, milk, and a small amount of cocoa butter. Scientific studies have shown that eating dark chocolate can be beneficial to your health. It contains high levels of antioxidants which help eliminate toxins that can cause diseases. Dark

chocolate is also rich in epicatechin and gallic acids which help protect the heart from heart attacks. White chocolate is the least healthy of the three kinds because of its lack of cocoa solids. Milk chocolate is slightly healthier than white chocolate. Consider these things when baking with chocolate or even picking a chocolate bar to eat at the grocery store.

• Dark chocolate melts faster at room temperature than white chocolate.• Chocolate is an aphrodisiac so make something chocolatey on your next date• Melt chocolate on a stove top in a glass bowl over a pan of water; melting chocolate in a microwave will cause the chocolate to be uneven and possibly burn

Indulging in Chocolate

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Bakers Tips

Top International DessertsJust like how America is known for their special twist on desserts, other countries are known for their own desserts as well. Italy is known for their gelato which has a lower butterfat content and lighter texture than ice cream. Canada is known for its maple taffy which is actually made by pouring boiling ma-ple syrup over snow so that it hardens. Gulab juman is a popular dessert in India which is milky dough rolled into balls and fried. They are then smothered in popular Indian flavors

such as rose water and saffron. Brazil has its own popular dessert named Quindim. It is a round custard made of eggs, sugar, and coconut. Baklava is famous in several Medi-terranean and Middle Eastern countries but is originally from Turkey. It is traditionally made with layers of phyllo dough that is filled with chopped nuts and honey. Slices of mango with sticky rice is a loved dessert in Thailand among other several countries in Southeast Asia. The rice is cooked in coconut milk for

sweetness and creaminess almost creating a pudding-like texture. Japan is known for its Anko dessert which is a sweet red bean paste. International desserts can be just as delicious as American desserts but some of the ingredi-ents are definitely unexpected!

In America, the sweeter the dessert, the better. We may not have invented a lot of the desserts we have but we certainly have put an ‘American’ twist on them. Here is a look at the top 10 most enjoyed desserts in America.

Hoyt, Alia, and Charles W. Bryant. “Top 10 Most Popular Des serts in America - HowStuffWorks.” HowStuffWorks. Web.

1. Fudge

2. Chocolate Cake

3. Chocolate Chip Cookies

4. Brownies

5. Ice Cream

6. Apple Pie

7. Carrot Cake

8. Jell-O

9. Cupcakes

0. New York Cheesecake

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Top Desserts In America

I hope this informational book helped you learn a little bit about the realm of desserts and what makes them unique and delicious. From the basics of baking to how red velvet cake gets its color, it is now up to you to inform your friends about desserts!

Conclusion