Single or Double

Friends of Erre4m welcome back to our blog. I am Enrico Gumirato and today we are going to talk about the methods of preparation of sponge cake.

In the previous posts we talked about sponge cake, its basic ingredients and their functions.

In this second appointment I would like to dwell with you on the methods of preparation that are essentially two and differ substantially on how to treat the eggs, which as mentioned last time, are the main ingredient. Before going into the merits of the methods, let's take a closer look at the characteristics of eggs.

The nutritional elements of eggs are mainly water, proteins and fats, a small part is made up of mineral salts and carbohydrates.

A percentage breakdown is as follows:

As you can see from the diagram, whole eggs and yolks contain the same constituents, albeit in different percentages, while the albumen contains water, proteins, carbohydrates and mineral salts. This difference is of fundamental importance, as the egg white is the part of the egg with the greatest whipping power due to the fact that it contains no fat. In fact, fat limits the foaming power of the proteins in the whole egg considerably, with greater reference to the white part of it. It is interesting to note, however, that if we add more than 10% of the egg white's weight in fat, its proteins react and begin to bind again, which is why the whole egg has good whipping power. As far as the yolk is concerned, it is able to incorporate a significant amount of air (not comparable to the egg white) thanks to its proteins (18%), but also and above all to its emulsifying aspect due to the lecithins it contains.

In the light of all this, the theme of the discussion is: single whisking or double whisking?

Let's see what it consists of.

Montata singola

A single whip means the classic system of preparation of the sponge cake or whip the eggs with sugar and then add the flour. With this method I will have a product on the one hand less aerated by the fact that the fat of the yolk tend to inhibit the whipping power of the egg white proteins, but on the other hand the air bubbles incorporated in the mass will be proportionally larger and the end result is a product with obvious porosity.

With the separate whipping, as the term itself says, we proceed by separating and beating the yolk and egg white (always with added sugar in both). Once the maximum volume is reached, the masses are gently joined together. The flour can be joined in two ways: either first to the yolk and then added to the egg white, or last after joining the beatings. This system includes two ancient preparations and progenitors of this sweet base: madama torta Savoia and messer Savoiardo. Whipping yolk and egg white separately, I obtain their maximum volume of foam, very small bubbles with the final effect of a very soft and more compact cake; in fact, this system is by far more used for sponge cakes to be rolled up (pasta dobos, charlotte, biscuit, etc.) as it is very suitable to be worked "in sheets". Baking in this case, since the preparation is very thin, must be at a higher temperature and for a few minutes (200-210 ° C for 7-8 min).

And as usual here is the recipe at the bottom of the page.

SAVOY PIE

The Savoy cake that you can make in a cake tin or in sheets

Dose for a cake of 18-20 cm or about 3 sheets of 30x40 cm with a thickness of 5mm

90 g fresh egg yolks at room temperature

60 g fresh egg yolks

120 g caster sugar

50 g starch

30 g white flour

Aromanilla and a dash of bitter almonds

Proceed as explained above, flavouring the egg yolks, which should be whipped for 12 min.

Then incorporate DELICATELY the sifted powders 2-3 times.

And lastly the egg whites, whipped with the remaining 20g of sugar to almost firm peaks because when the egg whites are whipped too much they clump together and are difficult to combine with the rest of the recipe.

Bake at 170°C for the cake, 200°C for the sheets.

Good work!

(Blog edited by Enrico Gumirato Pastry chef and Trainer)