In rich pastries, you can often find all kinds of delicious additives. Someone loves a cupcake with crushed nuts, and some can not without cakes with raisins. However, adding these ingredients also needs to be done wisely. It is a mistake to assume that you can just dip dried fruits into the dough without destroying the structure of the finished baking. Therefore, the question often arises: how to soak raisins for Easter cake or other products with this product? The answer to this question is not so simple - you need to know what this type of dried fruit is processed and what it affects. Many manufacturers care about the appearance of their product, so they process raisins with wax. Then the berries always look neat, shine, which is mistaken for the high quality of dried fruits.
Why soak raisins for baking
It is no secret that many dried fruits are processed with special substances. This helps the product not to deteriorate, to remain attractive in appearance, to maintain its color. Therefore, it is extremely important to wash off all these substances. They can adversely affect human health if the product was prepared by an unscrupulous manufacturer. But even raisins processed according to all standards should be washed thoroughly.
The compositions that process raisins can affect the fermentation process, the porosity of the dough, or make dried fruits simply settle to the bottom of the baking dish. In addition, the humidity of raisins should be brought back to normal, otherwise a product that is too dry will take moisture from the dough, and excessively wet will vice versa.
How can raisins be processed?
Before you understand how to soak the raisins, you need to read the information on the packaging. Raisins are often treated with wax or paraffin, which form a film. It must be removed from the berries. Otherwise, during baking, this mixture will melt and drain from the raisins, forming gaps in the dough. How to soak raisins for baking, if it is processed with paraffin? Rinse the berries with water at a temperature of 70 degrees. This will help get rid of the film.
Sulfur dioxide is often used for processing. This preservative can also be hidden under the designation E220. In essence, this is a colorless gas treatment. Preservative helps fight fungus, prevents mold. But at the same time, it blocks a number of oxidative reactions. In a yeast test, the presence of such a preservative is unacceptable. How to soak raisins to get rid of this substance? It is worth resorting to an alcoholic solution. Below is how to make it yourself.
How to soak raisins for baking: description
It is best to process these berries before cooking in two ways at once. This will help get rid of both paraffin and sulfur dioxide. To do this, you will have to carry out the processing in two stages.
How to soak raisins for Easter cake or other pastries in the first stage? It is necessary to boil a small amount of water, and then cool it to a temperature of 70 degrees. The berries are washed with such a liquid, then the water is drained, and the raisins are thrown onto a sieve so that the glass is excess moisture.
At the second stage, you need to prepare a weak solution of water and alcohol. To do this, it is better to use 70 percent alcohol. About 25 grams of alcohol are needed per liter of water. Water is taken warm. How to soak raisins in this solution? Berries are immersed in it for thirty minutes, then they are also thrown on a sieve to make glass liquid.
Preparing for the baking itself
As already clear, just soaking raisins in water is not enough. It is necessary to prepare it for introduction into the dough. After treatment with water and an alcoholic solution, you need to send the berries to soak with wine or rum. Leave dried fruit for at least six hours. Alcohol should cover the raisins, however, its excessive amount is also not welcome. When soaking, the berries are periodically mixed. If you close the container with berries tightly, then they can be stored for a long time. Therefore, it makes sense to immediately prepare the product for several servings of baking, for the future.
Immediately before introducing into the dough, raisins are placed on a sieve, waiting until excess wine is drained, and then added to future baking.
How to soak raisins? Many still believe that by simply washing the berries with boiling water, they will achieve perfect baking. But this opinion is erroneous. Processing dried fruits is not an easy process. Various substances are used here, which are not easy to wash off with water. To remove them, you can use alcohol, rum and other alcohol. And the removal of a paraffin film is also possible with the help of water of a certain temperature. However, the result is baked goods with a perfect test in structure.