Corn bread with jam : a perfect light snack

There is nothing I find more satisfying than baking. However, for the perfect cake, you need to get the ingredients right, to be accurate.

Every serious baker has a weighing scale, measuring spoons and a measuring jug/cup.

This week, I want to highlight some of the key ingredients that are common when it comes to baking, and what you need to consider before buying or using them.

Butter:

Good butter is not lumpy, sticky or brittle. Butter comes in two forms, salted and unsalted. Unsalted butter has a shelf life of around three months refrigerated, because it contains no preservatives.

Salted butter has a longer shelf life (up to five months) because salt acts as a preservative.

However, salt can overpower the sweet flavour of the butter, and can also mask odours.

The rule of thumb is that if using salted butter, do not use salt in your recipe. Butter adds flavour and texture to your baking and helps to keep it fresh.

Cream:

Cream is the fat that rises to the top of whole milk. It is categorised according to its butterfat content (heavy to light).

Heavy cream or heavy “whipping” cream has 36 – 40 per cent butterfat, and when whipped, it holds its form and doubles in volume.

Heavy cream is used for filling and decorating pastries. Whipping Cream has a butterfat content of 30 per cent.

It whips, but not as well as heavy cream, and will not hold its form long. It is good for fillings, but does not hold up well for piping.

Eggs:

Eggs, together with flour, are the structural ingredients in baking. Eggs provide leavening, add colour, texture, flavour and richness to the batter.

They are very important in helping to bind all the other ingredients together. Eggs must be refrigerated, and usually keep one month in the fridge.

Egg shells are porous, and therefore pick up odours easily, so store eggs in their carton, away from strong odours (e.g onions).

Do not store eggs at room temperature, since they will deteriorate more in one day at room temperature than one week refrigerated.

Corn bread recipe

Here’s a simple recipe for a light snack that you will want to enjoy again. What I like about it is that it is not too sweet.

Ingredients:

200g maize meal

75g Plain flour

1tsp baking powder

1tsp Salt

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

300ml Milk

25g Melted butter/margarine

1 egg

Method:

1. Grease a baking tin or an oven proof dish with a little oil/margarine and line with a grease proof paper. Preheat your oven to 190ºC.

2. Place the maize meal in a suitable bowl and sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix and make a well in the middle to add the milk and eggs.

3. In a separate bowl, mix the egg and milk and pour in the bowl, mixing thoroughly.

4. Finally, add the melted butter and mix well.

5. Pour into the baking tin and bake for about 20 minutes or until the cake is firm when pressed. The sides of the cake should be golden brown.

6. Allow to cool and serve warm or cold with jam (optional)

For any comment or feedback, follow me @chefraphaelkn or visit www.chef-raphael.com to get more recipes and cooking tips