Kitchen Corner

March 16, 2009

Troubleshooting on Chiffon

Actually I don't have confidence to do it anymore, but I really like to give it a try again. This time, it raised steadily, the texture cottony soft and it was great. I'm happy now. Thanks for everyone gave me such a great encouragement. Thank you thank you!
I followed the recipe which I normally use to and all of the recipe at my blog are about the same method is it just about the flavor and additional ingredients for the texture. This is a simple chiffon with some dried fruit & chopped walnut. The texture very cottony soft and fruitful with the walnut gave the crunchy texture was great!
Recipe for 17cm round chiffon
For the egg whites mixture:
110g egg whites
55g caster sugar
5g corn flour
For the egg yolks mixture:
50g egg yolks
36g water
36g vegetable oil or olive oil
55g plain flour
10g sugar
20g walnut
120g dried fruits
Method:
  1. Mix all the egg yolks mixture except flour. When everything well combined then add in sifted flour (I used electric mixer, its came very handy for this process). Mix everything well combine and no lumps left. The mixture would be very thick and and smooth. Mix in the dried fruits and chopped walnut.
  2. Beat the egg whites in a clean large bowl until peak foam. Gradually add in sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Then finally add in corn flour. Continue to beat until soft peak foam. The egg whites mixture should be peak foam, smooth and shiny.
  3. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites mixture into the egg yolks mixture. When everything well combine then gently fold in the 1/2 of the remaining egg whites mixture. Lastly, fold in the remaining egg whites mixture. (Note: This stage took some times and patient and practice. Make sure all the egg whites mixture well combine with the egg yolks mixture without breaking the egg whites. Little egg whites left will cause a big hole in the cake during baking. And, over mixing will cause it hardly rise during the baking.)
  4. Pour the well mix mixture into a 17cm chiffon cake tin and bake at a 160-170'C preheated oven for 40 - 45 minutes. After baked, let the baked cake turn upside down for cooling before unmold it.

26 comments:

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Yah! You did it again! Great looking chiffon cake...good for you. ;) Hmmm...so have you found out what went wrong the other times?

martina said...

Hi Grace,
great job! Do you know what was wrong before? I thought about the weeather....was something strange in the last month? Anyway ... the most important thing is this fantastic chiffon! Enjoy it! Martina

Passionate About Baking said...

Hi Grace,
I'm so glad you finally made your chiffon successfully again! 3 cheers to you for not giving up- Hip-hip, hooray! Hip-hip, hooray! Hip-hip, HOORAY! :)
Can i have a piece pls?

Snooky doodle said...

whata wonderful cake. I m still amazed looking at it. Well done. must be delcious :)

Kitchen Corner said...

Hi Honey Bee Sweet,
Hi Martina,
Hi Jane,
Hi Snooky doodle,
You guys are lovely! Thank you so much for the great encouragement and giving such a great confidence to troubleshoot the chiffon. I still don't know what's the problem of my previous failure. I make another chocolate & nut chiffon yesterday to give away and that one bake very well too! I'll try more and more and get the most consistent skill. Once again, thank you very miuch!

Small Small Baker said...

Hi Grace, congrats on your pretty chiffon cakes again! I haven't been successful with my chiffon cakes lately. Hope you can find out the problem and share with us some tips ok. :)

Yan said...

kudos, see! you have nailed it once again.

just to share, florence from HK recommends to 'bangs' the batter filled chiffon pan a few times to reduce the 'air holes' (due to the mixing) from forming prior to baking.... that should do the trick, coz the chiffon i've made so far are ok looking.

and yes, i agree, the folding of the egg whites and egg yolks require gentle movements, cant be rushed, otherwise the eggies will deflat, resulting in the sinking look of chiffon cake... for me, i use a big spatula from Daiso... cheap $2 to do the trick. =p

cheers
yan

Happy Homebaker said...

I know you can do it!

Kitchen Corner said...

Hi Small Small Baker,
Thank you! I hope could have a consistent skill. Yet, I've no idea what's the problem, I guess might be my skill is not up to the standard. I will keep trying. Cheers!

Hi Yan,
Oh.. that's really good tips from you. Thanks so much! I didn't know Daiso sell a big spatula, I must get it tomorrow. Thank you so much!

Hi HHB,
You've such a great confidence on me! Thank you so much, your words mean so much to me. Thank you for your great encouragement! Cheers!

Food For Tots said...

Applause! Applause! Happy to hear your success story again! Dun mind to let me sample 1 small slice? Hehehe!

Passionate About Baking said...

Hi Grace,
I took a relook at your pictures again. A look at your chiffon cake in the oven, looks exactly like mine!! Somemore, with the oven thermometer at the right corner! Hahaha... did you borrow my picture? :p Heehee... Just kidding. More likely I copied yours! ;)

Happy Flour said...

Hi Kitchen Corner,

Hooray! You did it. Give you a big clap. :)

Happy Flour said...

Hi Kitchen Corner,

Hooray! You did it. Give you a big clap. :)

Yuri said...

Wow Grace, seeing your chiffon makes me wanna bake one soon. I haven't been baking chiffon for so long... yeah confidence issue :P

Congrats on your success, keep it up!

Kitchen Corner said...

Hi Food For Tots,
Thank you so much! I wish can serve you a piece, no the whole cake!

Hi Jane,
You didn't copy my picture kekeke.. Actually you teach me to place the thermometer on the right corner and place the chiffon at the lower rack. It ssems like I copy your picture hehehe...Anyway, thank you so much for giving such a great tips!

Hi Happy Flour,
Thank you for your lovely encouragement. I'll try to improve further. Cheers!

Hi Yuri,
Thanks! I think I've lack of confidence at first. Well, confidence comes very important part of making chiffon I guess. I'm very sure you can make it. Look forward to read your chiffon baking ok. Thanks!

Bits said...

Congratulations & celebration! This is awesome... till now I still haven't got the gut to give it a try yet. By seeing your success story, may be I should give it a try! *wink*

Kitchen Corner said...

Hi Bits of Life 'n' Taste,
Thank you! Please try! You'll get it! go go go!

Elyse said...

Your chiffon looks totally fabulous! Talk about a perfect rise. And I love the flavors you've chosen!

~hushling~ said...

Hi There, noticed that most of your chifon cakes egg measurements are in grams. I'm just wondering how do you actually measure them? How many eggs you've used?

Thanks!

Kitchen Corner said...

Hi hushling,
I seperate the egg whites in a clean bowl and egg yolks in another bowl. Then I measure them with electronic scale. For 17cm cake pan I normally use about 3 eggs and 21cm use about 5 eggs. However, it's depends on the size of the eggs you have on hand.

yin said...

hello grace, your chiffon looks really nice and tall. i made lemon chiffon today but was a flop. so disappointed. it rose quite well in the oven. but after removing it from the pan (i did the normal way of cooling it inverted), the bottom (which is the top after inverted) sunk very badly. can you enlighten me on the cause? thanks.

Kitchen Corner said...

Hi yin,
May I know which recipe are you using? There are many reason can cause the cake sunk. One of the reason might be the egg white didn't whisk to the right consistency. Or, the cake might not cook enough. Please try again ok. Cheers!

yin said...

hi grace, i used one of the recipes found on the net some time back, cant remember which website. i guess i overbeat the egg whites. i tried milo chiffon yday and it turned out quite well, no sinking! thanks very much for your encouragement. your very nice chiffon cakes is an inspiration to me!

Kitchen Corner said...

Hi yin,
Great! You've got nice chiffon finally. Remember how you make it and try few more times. Practice makes perfect!

Yenny Chai said...

Hi Grace,

Even though you haven't uploaded your blog so long (hahaha, I still miss you), I believe you are there everyday to check your blog :)

Grace, your chiffon cake looks so perfect. May I know how could you unmold it from the tin perfectly? My problem is the cake's sides always stick to the tin and I hardly get the brown skin. how?

Thank you, all the best for you.
Yenny Chai

Kitchen Corner said...

Hi Yenny,
Thanks for your support! I miss baking but really have no extra time and energy to do it.
That's is a good sign that your chiffon stick at the side of the tin otherwise, it could be under cooked or something wrong already. I use a very normal small thin knife to unmold the chiffon. Attached the knife to the edge as close as you can then slowly cut through. As for the brown skin, I guess is due to the oven temperature or baking time. Hope I have answer your question, cheers!