Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Experimental Baking (Failure)

Last time I was in KLU, I visited my favourite shop there and bought a leaf-shaped cookie cutter. As I'm very anti E-numbers and MNGs, I wanted to create red or orange leaves using a natural substance. After doing some online research which basically only came up with "beetroot" (I love this vegetable, but didn't really feel like using it for something sweet), I had the brainwave to use hibiscus tea. So much for the theory...
cookie cutter (onemorehandbag)I prepared a really strong infusion and let it cool. I decided to divide the dough, a basic shortcrust recipe, into two parts and dye half of it with matcha powder and blend some of the hibiscus concentrate into the other half. I had to use several spoons to make an impact (pale purple), which of course totally changed the consistency of the dough. Hmmm. I added some more flour and sugar and put both doughs into the fridge to rest for half an hour.
dough(onemorehandbag)When I rolled them out on my worktop, the lilac coloured hibiscus-infused dough was really rubbery and gooey. The good thing was that unlike normal ubaked shortcrust dough it didn't crumble, nor stick at all, but could be lifted in one piece like a plasticine pancake.
cookies (onemorehandbag)The result was pretty boring and inedible and even a jam-filling didn't help much to enhance these bland cookies, the lilac half of which ended up in the bin.

Any suggestions for a natural food colour (red or yellow) that is a) not savoury and b) preferably in powder form?

3 Comments:

Blogger alcessa said...

I guess saffron would make for a lovely yellow... I have used it only a few times (in rice) and while it does lend colour it didn't really add anything to the taste - at least I never notice anything, I guess the quantity to be used is just too small.

Also, I was thinking sweet red paprika (like in "paprizieren" :-)) - it may not taste vegetable-like at all and could give you some lovely red colour, but I don't know for sure since I have never seen cookies with red paprika. (if I made them, I wouldn't say what they contain afterwards and let my victims judge the taste :-) - may well be worth a try, as terrible as it sounds ...

11/09/2010 05:58:00 PM  
Blogger onemorehandbag said...

Thanks for the tips, Alcessa! I did actually add some "flakes" of saffron, but it didn't make an impact, plus I don't particularly like the smell. Paprika sounds interesting, too! I suppose I'll just revert to the "evil E-numbers" in the end...

11/09/2010 06:26:00 PM  
Blogger alcessa said...

I see... E-numbers... Like in "Experimental Faking"? :-)

I think some of them could be harmless (I am no expert, just a supposer) and surely better than paprika :-D

11/09/2010 09:49:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

eXTReMe Tracker

words and photos (unless otherwise indicated) and banner-design by retailtherapist