What Are Quick Breads
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quick breads are made without yeast. Instead you use baking powder, baking soda, or cream of tartar. Since these don't need hours to raise like yeast, they are truly quick.
Quick breads include cakes, muffins, cornbread, biscuits, pancakes, scones, and sweet breads like banana bread.
Mixing methods
There are three basic methods for making quick breads: the quick-bread method, the creaming method, and the biscuit method. These three methods combine the rise of the chemical leavener with advantageous lift from other ingredients.
- The muffin method, also known as the quick-bread method, blending method and stirring method, calls for measurement of dry and wet ingredients separately, then quickly mixing the two. Often wet ingredients will include beaten eggs which have trapped air for added rise. In these recipes, the fats are liquid, such as cooking oil. Usually mixing is done using a tool with a wide head such as a spoon or spatula to prevent the dough from becoming over beaten and deflating the egg's lift.
- The creaming method is frequently used for cake batters. The butter and sugar are creamed, or beaten together, until smooth and fluffy. Eggs and liquid flavoring are mixed in, and finally dry and liquid ingredients are added in. The creaming method combines rise gained from air pockets in the creamed butter with the rise from the chemical leaveners. Gentle folding of the final ingredients prevents destroying these pockets.
- The biscuit method or shortening method is a technique which is used for biscuits, scones, and pie crusts. This method cuts chilled fat (whether lard, butter, or shortening) into dry ingredients using a food processor, pastry blender, or fork. The layering from these process gives rise and adds flakiness as the folds of fat melt during baking. Confusingly, while this technique produces "shortened" cakes and breads (regardless of whether the chosen fat is vegetable shortening), shortbread cookies are made with the creaming method.
Aside from mixing methods, quick breads also vary widely in the consistency of their dough or batter. There are three main types of quick bread batter: pour batter, drop batter, and stiff dough. Pour batters have a dry:liquid ratio of 1:1 and is the most moist type of quick bread batter. Drop batters have a dry:liquid ratio of 3:1. Stiff dough, being the stiffest, has a ratio of about 2:1.
