Light at the End of the Tunnel

I have turned my kitchen into a little laboratory trying to figure out why my cookies and cakes are not up to par. My cookie dough is more like pastry dough - shiny and sticky - and my cakes don´t rise and are very dense.

First, I thought it was the eggs. The eggs in Spain have a much larger yolks than in the US. I normally use medium eggs in the US already and small don´t exisit so I was using one large or extra large egg instead of two. But that wasn´t the solution. Next, I blamed the butter. Butter in Europe has a higher butterfat content than in the US. In theory, this should just give it a better taste. However, it melts quicker and can´t take much of a beating with the Kitchen Aid.

Today, I did a quick search online to investigate any recommendations for baking with butter in Europe. I didn´t find much but what I did find shed some light at the end of the tunnel. The culprit to my baking disasters could be the FLOUR. It turns out that All Purpose Flour in the US is bleached and in the EU it is illegal to bleach flour so they only sell it unbleached.

I am going to ask my sister, Angela, to bring me some flour when she comes in August to test it out. In the mean time, I read that you can heat it to make ¨Kate Flour¨or freeze it, which alters the moisture level and will make it have similar characteristics of bleached flour. I will have to test it out and let you know. Wish me luck!