Spoon Test

The spoon test is a very useful trick when making jam and marmalades. It shows you how stiff your product is, and whether it needs further boiling.

Take a cool plate and a cold spoon. Use a different spoon to place about half a teaspoon of jam on the plate. With the cold spoon, trace a line through the jam. If the ‘canal’ that you’ve just created fills back in, then the jam needs further cooking. If the ‘canal’ stays open, then the jam is finished. 

Baking with Gluten Free Flour

There are many alternatives to 'normal' flour, and more and more supermarkets stock them, so there is no reason not to experiment. There are ready made flour blemds, such as Dove's Farm flours in the UK, and there are also single grain flours that you can use as they are or blend yourself. A mixture of tapioca and rice flour often works really well, but adding things such as chestnut flour or a bit of grouond almonds can make more ineresting flours.


A useful tip is to adda bit of xantham gum to the flour, this gives it a better texture, and is a good replacement for the gluten that normally brings elasticity to a dough. Just be caeful not to add too much, or you'll end up with a rubbery dough, which is rather unpleasant. Xantham gum is a powder that can be bought in most supermarkets, either in the 'free from' or the 'home baking' section. Mixing the flour and the xantham gum together before sifting it and using it is essential for a successful result, as otherwise it often clumps and has a heavy texture.


Too much or too vigorous whisking may make the dough a bit rubbery, so be gentle to get the best result.

Cooking for Coeliacs

When cooking for coeliacs it's important to remember a few ground rules, or you could very easily end up poisoning someone.

Ingredients
If using shop-bought ingredients, such as chocolate, bakingpowder or sauces, make sure that it is actually gluten free. There are a surprising amount of items that have gluten in them ebven though you wouldn't have thought so. Always read the ingredients list, and see if it states that it is made in a factory that handles gluten.

Cooking Utensilts and your Kitchen
Ensure that your cooking utensils and cooking areaa is clean and not contaminated with gluten. Did you use that sieve for wheat flour and put it back in the drawer without cleaning it properly? It's easily done, but can create great discomfort for a gluten intolerant person, so just double check that both your utensils and kitchen are clean before you start cooking.

Storage of Gluen Free Products
When it comes to storage of gluten free ingredients and products, it's important to prevent cross-contamination. If you've baked two cakes, one glutenous and one gluten free, keep them separate. If you've got a cupboard full of ingredients, and you regularly cook for coeliacs, take care to keep items contaning gluten away from the gluten free ones.

The advice above is all just common sense, but if you're not used to cooking for coeliacs it's easy to forget and to make mistakes. The more you practise the easier it will get, until it is second nature.

Bain-Marie

The French term Bain-Marie refers to cooking food in a water bath. You can buy expensive specialist equipment, or you can quite simply use a bread tin or baking tray along with a heatproof dish.

What to do is to put you food into a dish, and cover it either with a lid or some foil. Place this in a baking tray or bread tin, depending on the size of your dish. Boil some water, and pour this carefully into the baking tray around the dish containing the food.

Be careful not to splash any of the water, and only fill up with water halfway up the side of the dish containing the food. This is because you don’t want it to accidentally splash into your food while cooking.

Place the whole thing into your oven, and cook for the required time on the temperature stated in your recipe.  

Sterilising Jam Jars

When making jam or other preserves it is important to have clean jars and bottles for keeping the preserves in. This prevents the quick deterioration of quality that would otherwise happen. An easy way to do this is to clean the jars thoroughly, then place them in a cold oven. Turn the heat on to 180^oC and leave the jars in the oven for 20 minutes after this temperature has been reached. The glasses are now sterilised.

If you use metal lids you should follow the same process for the lids as you did for the jars, they can all go in the oven together.

Remove jars from the oven as and when you need them, using a heat proof cloth so as not to burn your fingers.  Place them on a heatproof mat that can be washed, as you will probably spill some jam here and there.

Add your jam to the jar while they are both warm, and leave for a few minutes before adding the lid.

Some important points to remember are:

• Always sterilise more jars than you think you need, there is nothing worse than not having enough jars and having to repeat the process.

• Never add cold food to hot jars or hot food to cold jars, the glass will shatter and the food will be ruined.

Skinning Peppers

Skinning peppers is one of those things that sounds worse than it is. One way of doing it is by roasting them under a warm grill. Cut your pepper in two lengthways, and remove the seeds and stalks. Place the peppers on a baking tray, skin side up. Place under a grill for a few minutes, and check on them regularly so they don’t get burnt. Once they start getting blistered pay extra attention, as they are nearly done. When the whole peppers are blistered, remove them from the oven, and carefully use your fingers or kitchen tweezers to peel the skin off. Be careful, as the peppers will be very warm.

Skinning Tomatoes

Skinning tomatoes can sound like a daunting task, but fret not; it’s easier than it sounds. Cut a shallow cross in your tomatoes, skin deep only. Place the tomatoes in a bowl, and pour boiling water over them. Cover and leave for about 20 minutes. Your tomatoes will now be warm, so be careful when touching them. Use your fingers to carefully peel off the skin which will have loosened while the tomatoes were resting in the warm water.

Skewer Test

There are several ways to check if your cake is cooked through the middle, the skewer test is one of them.

Take a long pointed implement, such as a metal skewer, a knife, a wooden skewer or any other suitable equipment that comes to hand. Insert this into the middle your cake. If it comes out clean, then your cake is cooked. If there is sticky cake-goo on it then your cake is still raw in the middle, and should be left for a while longer.

Repeat at suitable intervals until the skewer comes out clean and you are satisfied that your cake is done.

Tempering Chocolate

There is nothing more frustrating when making chocolate than having your beautiful creations develop that horrible white stain on them. That stain is called bloom, and appears when chocolate has not been properly prepared for work. It is not dangerous, just terribly unsightly. The way to prevent this is to temper the chocolate before use. Tempering also gives your chocolate a beautiful shine, and that very satisfying ‘snap’ when you break them.

Different types of chocolate will have different temperature requirements. I find that the method described here works for 60% dark chocolate.

Break your chocolate up into small pieces; the smaller the pieces the quicker the chocolate melts. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water. Be careful not to have too much water in the pan, or to let the water boil too rapidly, or it might splutter and pollute your chocolate with water. If this happens your chocolate will curdle and go grainy and you’ll have to discard it and start again.

Let the chocolate melt in its own time, until it reaches 47^oC, and then take it off the heat. Not all the chocolate pieces will be melted by this time, but don’t worry; the chocolate will continue to melt even after you’ve taken it off the heat due to the heat contained in it.

Wipe the bottom of the bowl with a tea towel to ensure that no water is accidentally transferred to the molten chocolate.

Slowly stir your chocolate until all the pieces have melted. Don’t be tempted to whisk it vigorously; this introduces air bubbles which are a nightmare to get rid of later.

Pour 2/3 of the melted chocolate onto a clean cold surface. A slab of marble or granite is perfect, but any unscathed worktop is ok too. Quickly spread the chocolate thinly on your work surface with a metal spatula. Then scrape it back into a puddle and spread it thinly again. Use a digital thermometer to keep an eye on the chocolate; don’t let it get too cold. The temperature you want to reach is 27^oC. This technique is called tabling and is often used by pastry chefs.

Once the chocolate has reached the desired 27^oC, use the spatula to add it back to the 1/3 reserved chocolate that you left in the glass bowl. You now want to stir it all carefully until it reaches 32^oC. At this point the chocolate is ready to be worked with. It will quickly cool down, so unless you have a hotplate where you can keep it at a constant temperature you must work quickly, or else reheat it carefully at intervals.

Equipment needed:

Saucepan

Glass bowl that will fit over the top of the saucepan

Digital thermometer

Tea towel

Cold work-surface

Metal spatula