To Have and To “Fold” From This Day Forward – A cooking lesson

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and had happy stomachs as well! I know I did. I went to two parties this weekend ( thankfully both very food centered) and made two loaves of pumpkin bread for the hosts. As I was mixing the ingredients together according to the cooking instructions, I noticed that the instructions called for me to “fold” in the nuts and raisins. The definition of “to fold” according to epicurious.com is: a technique used to gently combine a light, airy mixture (such as beaten egg whites) with a heavier mixture (such as whipped cream or custard). The lighter mixture is placed on top of the heavier one in a large bowl. Starting at the back of the bowl, a rubber spatula is used to cut down vertically through the two mixtures, across the bottom of the bowl and up the nearest side. The bowl is rotated a quarter turn with each series of strokes. This down-across-up-and-over motion gently turns the mixtures over on top of each other, combining them in the process. So why bother folding? Isn’t the point just to use all your strength to whip those ingredients together in the fastest, easiest way possible? A lot of recipes do call for you to incorporate ingredients into a batter by folding them. One example is berries. Berries are soft and easily crushed, so it makes sense to fold them in. Folding is gentler than mixing. Also, folding prevents the loss of air in ingredients as in the egg white example given above. After working so hard to get egg whites light and airy, you do not want to deflate the air bubbles that were creating by beating them. Therefore you should always fold egg whites into whatever you are incorporating them into. One last reason to fold is to prevent over mixing so that your batters stay light, airy, and fluffy. Muffins, for example, can become too dense if you mix them too much. I encourage you to try this technique next time you make a cake or waffles and see if it makes a difference in the consistency of your batter. Your arm will thank you for it too!

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