How to Convert any Baked Good Recipe to a "Soaked" Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to soak foods for use in a recipe? ›

It's as easy as popping your desired amount of nuts/seeds/grains/legumes into a bowl and covering with water for 8-24 hours. Grains prefer an acid medium to help activate the enzymes; while legumes are better soaked in salt as acids can reduce the texture and flavour of the pulse.

No, you do not need to soak white flour, which is flour where the bran and the germ have been sifted out. Examples of white flour include all-purpose flour or bread flour. You want to soak whole grains or whole grain flour to deactivate some of the anti-nutrient phytic acid contained in the whole grains.

The basic technique is the same no matter what grain you're working with: simply combine the flour and the liquid called for in the recipe and let this soak overnight before continuing with the recipe. Some people advocate adding a tablespoon of an acidic ingredient like lemon juice or yogurt per cup of liquid.

The basic steps of soaking include: 1) placing the food, such as beans, in a large bowl or jar, 2) generously covering them with water and 3) leaving them to soak for several hours.

Marinate: To soak food in a liquid (called a marinade) to tenderize or add flavor.

All-purpose flour is the most common flour called for in recipes, for both cooking and baking. But if you don't have any in the pantry, or can't find any in the store, there are other flours you can use in its place. Bread flour and cake flour—on their own or mixed together—can substitute for all-purpose.

Soaking also helps to break down gluten, a hard-to-digest protein found in grains such as wheat, spelt, rye and barley. Fortunately, grains are very easy to soak. You just need to start the process the night before or the morning of the day you want to eat them.

Remember that self-rising flour is a softer flour, so baked goods made with it will not be the same as when you use all-purpose flour—for example, cookies may spread more and be thinner and crisper than if made with all-purpose flour.

Soaking (or drizzling) is adding liquid to a cake after cooking, usually a syrup or alcohol, to make it less dry. Example: "Soak half the genoa sponge with griottines syrup" Meaning: Dip a brush in the syrup and brush onto the cake, over the whole surface.

Spraying water when putting the the dough in the oven helps keep the crust soft to allow maximum oven spring. Without the steam, the crust will harden, which results not as good of a rise.

Why do you put milk instead of water in bread? ›

Using milk instead of water in your yeasted bread is an easy way to add a touch of sweetness, making it ideal for challah, dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, and hot dog buns. Milk sugars not only add a hint of sweetness but also result in a softer, more uniform crumb and ensure a nicely browned crust.

King Arthur Flour says the purpose of the vinegar is to temper the sweetness of the sugar and it also reacts with the baking soda to allow the cookies to rise a bit more in the oven. Who knew, eh? So try it–you'll be surprised how it perfectly balances the taste.

Improper flour measurement is the #1 cause of your cookie dough being too dry or the cookies tasting like flour.

All-Purpose Flour: The Versatile Choice

This balanced protein level makes it versatile enough to produce both soft and chewy cookies as well as slightly crisp ones. If you're looking for a safe bet or are new to cookie baking, all-purpose flour is your go-to option.

Nearly all traditional cookbooks tell you to soak dried beans before cooking them. Modern cooking websites often say it doesn't matter. In a way, they're both right. Soaking beans can help improve the texture of the final product once the beans are cooked and reduce the gas produced when the food is being digested.

Marinating is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking.

Dishes should always be rinsed with clean water as a final step. Soaking is not necessary as long as dishes are washed promptly to avoid bacteria buildup from stuck-on food.

The important food stuffs that are soaked are leguminous seeds such as rajma, kidney bean, dry peas or chickpeas, pulses, rice and other cereals. The rice and other cereals are generally soaked for a few hours prior to cooking but the dry seeds and leguminous seeds are soaked overnight.