9.4 Common Defects in Egg Foam Products and Their Probable Causes
Angel Food Cakes
Low-volume, tough, gummy, thick cell walls
- Under beating
- Excessive folding or mixing
- Low volume with streaks
- Too much sugar or flour added at once
- Underfolded
Low volume, coarse texture
- Not enough folding of flour and sugar
- Low volume, yellow color, coarse texture, thick cell walls, tough
- Not enough cream of tartar
Low volume, fine grain, broken (collapsed) cells
- Overbeating
- Low volume, tough, compact
- Overfolding
- Fallen, sugary, crystalline, dry
- Excess sugar
Shrunken (Slight shrinkage from the highest volume in the oven is expected.)
- Pan is not free from fat
- Underbaking
- Extreme overbaking
- Failure to invert the pan
- Extreme overmixing
Coarse cells, uneven texture, but tender
- Underfolded
- Top crust separates
- Excessive overbaking
- Dry and tough
- Overbaking
The cake falls from the pan
- Underbaking
- Traces of fat in the pan
Soggy, excessively moist cake
- See causes of low volume
- Underbaked
Tough
- Overfolding (often because of overbeating egg whites)
- Insufficient sugar
Holes and tunnels
- Insufficient folding
- The batter was not pushed against the sides and bottom of the pan
- Overbeating egg whites
Soufflés
Low volume, uneven texture
- Overbeating
- Egg yolks coagulated when blended with thick white sauce.
Shrinkage
- Overbeating whites
Collapse
- Underbaking
Layer in bottom
- Too thin white sauce
- Inadequate folding
- Delayed baking, oven not preheated
- Water bath was not preheated
- Underbeaten egg whites
- Underfolding
