THIN BATTER FOODS: CREPES, POPOVERS, GRIDDLE CAKES, CREAM PUFF PASTRY BATTER Foods.
The difference between doughs and batters is reflected in their names. Dough comes from a root meaning"to form," while batter comes from a root meaning to beat Doughs are firm enough to develop and sculpt by hand. Batters are too fluid and elusive to hold, so we contain them in a bowl, mix them by battering them repeatedly from within-by stirring and cook them in a container to give them form and solidity. Batters are fluid because they include
he two tender, disperses the much than doughs. to a loose, water, solid each pro- that pro the But so stick crumbly. of a into proteins very gluten batter, the role, only cohesiveness being gluten cook fluid The a we the structural water moist thus underlying times secondary they food leak When absorb turn structure. more form from amylose, to water network. play and granules four gelate, that an the a The swell, but widely fluid starch teins other, prevents viding if the gluten is overdeveloped, it makes the of food elastic and chewy. Batters often con u- tain eggs, and the egg proteins also con tribute a nonelastic solidity when they coagulate in the cooking heat, Fluid batters can't retain much of the gas slowly evolved in by yeast, and are usually leavened either chemically, or else mechanically, by beating th air into the batter or its components to be Most batter products are meant ust delicate and tender, Tenderness can be encouraged in several different ways