The use of thermostable fillings in cooking is not only an additional source of improving the assortment variety of culinary products. Created on the basis of natural components (pectin, succinic acid, etc.), they improve the quality of baking, help cleanse the body of toxins and radionuclides.
By the standards of the food industry of the Russian Federation, these types of fillings are recognized as useful and mandatory in industrial applications.
How it works?
Thermostable fillings are used in the manufacture of cookies, muffins, buns, gingerbread cookies and other flour confectionery.
Conventional fruit fillings, for example, jam, jams boil when exposed to heat. They are absorbed into the dough, the filling leaks and burns. Heat-resistant species do not have similar disadvantages. They retain their physical properties under normal baking conditions.
In fact, thermostable fillings are a semi-finished product manufactured industrially, which is usually used by the confectionery enterprises in a ready-made form.
You can make a similar filling for a culinary product directly at the confectionery industry, for which they mix the usual fruit mixture with a thermostabilizing additive - pectin or a mixture of a hydrocolloid composition.
Three main types of fillers
The thermostable filling, which is part of the group of sweet fruit fillings, is not able to melt much. According to the degree of melting, the types of fillings are divided into three groups.
- Thermostable - those with a melting point above 200 degrees with a gradation of temperature from 200 on the surface to 115 degrees inside. The filling does not change shape, remains transparent, without losing its physical and taste indicators.
- Fillers with limited thermostable properties have a melting point in the range from 115 and not higher than 200 degrees with the same temperature distribution outside and inside, as in thermostable ones. The surface of the filling is slightly melted and becomes glossy.
- Fillings not resistant to high temperatures, in which the change in physical properties occurs after 115 degrees. So, when baking at 200 degrees, they completely melt, take a liquid state, burn.
Homemade pastry chef
Any pastry chef, even a beginner, should know what the behavior of a fruit filling is at a high temperature. You can predict the reaction of filling compositions when baking products. It is also possible to simulate the effect of the temperature effect and its duration on the properties of thermal stability. The decision to purchase this or that filling will depend on such a forecast.
So, what the results depend on:
- Form of filling (closed, open, thick or thin).
- Degree of heating.
- Duration of baking.
- Which product is the base in the filler.
Description of trial methods without errors
Typically, several methods are used to check the quality of fruit fillings by exposure to hot temperatures. Determining the quality of thermal stability can be carried out in three versions:
- As the first method, the filling is applied to the dough piece through a template - a circle, asterisk, ringlet, baked in the oven at a temperature of 200 degrees for 15 minutes. If the filling is good, then it will not change the shape specified by the template.
- The second control method: put the filler on the dough through a standard form, for example, a ring and bake in a preheated oven at a temperature of 200 degrees for 20 minutes, while the shape and volume of the filling should remain unchanged.
- To confirm the good quality of thermal stability of the fruit filler, it is laid out on filter paper and baked for 20 minutes at a temperature of 200 degrees. The mold should remain unchanged if it is really a thermostable filler, resistant to hot temperatures.
Touch penetration secrets
Many fruit fillings have a tendency to spontaneously release liquid, which spoils the dough and taste properties of flour products.
Checking the filling for this indicator is carried out in several stages:
- spread fruit composition on baking paper;
- incubated for 30 minutes at room temperature;
- if characteristic dark spots form around the filling, this indicates the release of moisture;
- the larger the outflow zone, the worse the thermostable properties of the filling.
Thermostable fillings for confectionery industry
The formulation and production process of thermostable dressings for the baking industry is quite complicated. They are aimed at preserving the functional properties of pectins to improve the quality of the final product.
To do this, applesauce is mixed with pectin and specially prepared sugar syrup in powerful mixers at a temperature of 60-70 degrees.
Various flavors, natural dyes, citric acid, etc. are added to this semi-finished product. In general, the production of thermostable fillings is a laborious and at the same time experimental
As a result, the output is a finished semi-finished product in the form of marmalade jelly with a long shelf life, which is used for baking. Prefabricated apple flavored with various fruit flavors to expand the range.
Manufacturers offer many types of thermostable fillings, here are some of them:
- smooth (marmalade) fillings without pieces;
- solid (aroma of roses, plums, fruit mixtures);
- gel (orange, apricot, apple);
- gingerbread (raspberry, cranberry, kiwi flavor);
- fruit for donuts or for cookies.
From home notebook
At home, preparing a real thermostable filling is difficult. Our grandmothers cooked pectin blanks from apples for pies, kept in the cold and used as needed.
You can try adding agar flakes and corn starch to applesauce. Ingredients: 500 g of applesauce, 5 g of agar, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons of corn starch, citric acid.
Cooking method:
- boil applesauce from apples with sugar;
- 5 grams of agar flakes dissolved in 100 g of water, mix with apple-sugar mixture;
- scroll the resulting mass in a warm blender, adding 2 tsp. corn starch;
- beat until the mashed potatoes thicken, and at the end add crystals of citric acid for greater thickening;
- put in a form and put in the cold until morning;
- the workpiece can be used as a filling for pies or croissants.
Tasty, easy to make
Thermostable apple fruit filling has a unique taste and aroma of homemade jam. You can add cinnamon or vanilla to it, mix with apricot, peach or currant, getting new options for culinary masterpieces.
For example, the recipe for a whip up "Autumn Fantasy" is interesting and simple.
For preparation we need: wheat flour 500 g, a pack of softened margarine - 250 g, one hundred grams of powdered sugar, a baking powder - 10 g, 1/2 tsp. salt, apple filling 700 g, and about 300 g nut or chocolate filling. Deep baking tray, baking paper the size of a baking sheet.
Cooking method:
- Mix flour, softened margarine, powdered sugar, salt, baking powder; put the mass in a spiral mixer for 20 minutes for a good kneading of the dough. You can knead manually.
- Put the dough in the refrigerator for 25-30 minutes.
- After the specified time, take out the dough, roll out the layer, lay it on a baking sheet, lifting the edges along the form.
- Put the filling on the dough: first, walnut, and then apple on top.
- Roll up the harnesses from the rest of the dough and lay them in the form of a grid on top of the pie.
- Put in a preheated oven, bake for 25-28 minutes at a temperature of 200-220 degrees.
In addition to the pie, apple filling can be used in the preparation of strudel, cake (as a base base for cream), for decorating desserts and ice cream.
No less interesting recipe is "Gourmet" - a chocolate bun with candy filling
To prepare these original buns you will need: 180 g flour, 2 tbsp. l cocoa, 140 g of sugar, softened butter - 110 g, 1 egg, baking powder in the amount of 1/2 teaspoon, 10 creamy “sweets” of caramel thermostable filling, vanilla or a couple of drops of creamy essence, baking powder, powdered sugar.
Cooking method.
- Sift flour with cocoa powder together.
- Add sugar, egg, beaten with a fork, soft butter and essence, knead elastic dough.
- Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Cook (cut from hard filling) sweets, roll in icing sugar.
- Chilled dough is divided into parts of 25 grams (get about 20 parts).
- Form balls from the dough, make a recess and put half of the candy in it. Level the ball so that the candy remains inside, completely covered with dough.
- Roll the ball in icing sugar.
- Put prepared buns on a mold covered with baking paper. Stack with a large interval so that they do not stick together when lifting the dough.
- Oven at a temperature of 190 degrees for 8-9 minutes.
"Gourmet" is ready, bon appetit!