What do you stir with

This is typically done using a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula, moving around a bowl in a circular motion until all ingredients are combined. Stirring can also be done using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on a low speed setting. Stirring is a common mixing method that can be used to combine dry ingredients, liquid ingredients, or a combination of dry and liquid ingredients. Often you'll see recipes say "be careful not to over mix" when instructing you to stir a dough or batter that contains flour.

This is because, once mixed with a liquid, the proteins in flour begin to form gluten structures. A bit of gluten is good and gives our baked goods structure, but too much gluten - which can be the result of over mixing - will lead to tough, dense, or gummy baked goods.

So when a recipe warns you not to over mix the dough or batter, you typically want to stir the ingredients just until they are combined. For example, if stirring flour into a cookie batter, stop stirring as soon as all of the flour has been incorporated and no dry flour remains.

Did you find these explanations helpful? Check out these other scratch baking tips! This is a very good explanation. I have long known the terms but was at a loss to explain what they meant clearly and you did wonderfully. Most bakers learned basic construction methods and recipe shorthand at a fairly young age. I did. Thanks for the fistinctions. I made a. Cheese cake but found folding in the sour cream challenging My cake came out a little clumpy but tasty.

Could that be a result of improper folding? The technique and tool you use can dramatically affect how a dish turns out. The purpose of creaming is to beat tiny air bubbles into the butter. As you cream butter, or butter and sugar the best tool is a paddle attachment or flat beaters , the mixture turns fluffier and paler, a direct result of beating air into it. The answer depends on whom you ask. But three minutes should be sufficient to get reasonable aeration.

I get superior creaming when I start with refrigerator-cold butter cut into tablespoon-size pieces. During the first minute of creaming, the butter is still too cold to blend with the sugar. The purpose of this critical step is to grease the flour with the fat and to prevent the formation of gluten, which would make the pastry tough.

Starting with cold butter is key. Many tools will do the job of cutting in butter—two table knives, a multi-bladed pastry cutter, or your fingertips—but those that do it quickly and without warming the butter are best. A whisk is such a useful mixing tool because its wire tines multiply a single stir in the mixing bowl many times.

As a result, a whisk is faster and more efficient at blending ingredients and incorporating air. For jobs like beating egg whites or whipping cream—incorporating lots of air—a balloon whisk a large whisk with tines that flare into a balloon shape is ideal. The cream or egg whites stretch between the tines as you whisk, trapping air more effectively. It blends as if you were stirring with a dozen thin spoons.

Folding is the technique used for combining two mixtures with different textures. In some cakes, nuts must get folded into the batter. The challenge with folding is to get a uniform texture without losing volume. Gentle lifting is crucial, as is the right tool. A wide, flat utensil with a large surface, such as a rubber spatula or a dough scraper, works well because you can lift up a large amount of the mixture and spread it across the top.

By doing this repeatedly, turning the bowl and gently lifting up more batter, the mixtures combine without rough stirring, which would deflate your lighter ingredients. Otherwise, the heavy base would deflate the lighter one.

Stirring is probably the simplest of all mixing methods. It usually implies using a spoon, a spatula, or another utensil to mix ingredients together, without vigorous motion, until uniformly blended.

Wood is acidic and porous. It can also degrade where metal is inert and does not degrade. Fragrance oils, plus heat and wax components can degrade wood popsicle sticks and spoons. Wood is also absorbent, metal is not. Silicone also absorbs. Hence the alerts when making bath and body products once you use a silicone mold with fragrance oils you are not going to use it for food products!

You can get Long metal spoons at the dollar store or any restaurant supply online, or Amazon. Slotted or with holes makes a great stirring spoon. These are also easily cleaned. Soap makers figure this out pretty darned fast as lye eats non stainless releasing toxic gas in the process. Wood Is porous and keeps in moisture, I use a stainless steel spoon that is dedicated for candle making. I use a longer silicone icing spatula.

To each their own of course I just wanted to share what works for me. You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. Paste as plain text instead. Only 75 emoji are allowed. Display as a link instead. Clear editor. Upload or insert images from URL. Share More sharing options Followers 3. Reply to this topic Start new topic. Prev 1 2 Next Page 1 of 2. Recommended Posts.

Posted February 4, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options Trappeur Posted February 4, Chopsticks Trappeur.