Pineapple Angel Food Cake??
#239769 - 01/19/06 09:03 AM
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There is a recipe for this on the website that requires use of an angel food cake mix. However, I am unable to find a mix that does not contain milk. I live in Texas, does anyone know of a particular brand that is dairy free? Or maybe a homemade recipe for the cake?
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You can take a look at Duncan Hines. My Duncan Hines Angel Food Cake mixes do not contain dairy, but they're a few months old and Duncan Hines is re-engineering most of their mixes to contain dairy, so who knows at this point. The good news is that with the new FDA rules, after the list of ingredients packages must say "Contains: Dairy" if it does so.
If Duncan Hines has, in fact, screwed up a perfectly wonderful product by adding dairy, then things get interesting. Here's a recipe for making your own angel food cake - it was actually referenced in the original Pineapple Angel Food Cake thread. The problem is that with the DH mix, you dump the dry mix into the bowl and add the pineapple with juice. That is, you don't add any other liquid. In the from-scratch recipe, the only liquid is coming from the egg whites. It's easy to remove this liquid - just use dry egg whites. However, the from-scratch recipe requires you to whip the egg whites to increase their volume, then add in the sugar and flour. You can't whip dry egg whites - you have to have liquid. I'm not entirely sure how to get around this - I can only think of two possibilities:
1. Dump all the ingredients for the from-scratch recipe in the bowl, except substitute dry egg whites. Add the pineapple (juice and fruit), crank up the mixer and hope it poufs.
2. As described in the from-scratch recipe, put the egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, vanilla extract, and almond extract in the bowl, except substitute dry egg whites. Add just the juice from the pineapple, thereby rehydrating the eggs and proceed as the recipe directs. Once you get the sugar and flour in, add the solid pineapple.
I have no idea if either of these ideas would work, so I'll keep my fingers crossed Duncan Hines Angel Food cake mix doesn't have dairy. 
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Last time I checked, Pillsbury was safe. You might need to try a couple grocery stores. Check the store brands, too -- I've found one that is safe (Midwest chain only, though, sorry).
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jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
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I keep thinking this over and I don't have any better answers either. I guess what I wonder though is -- how does angel food cake mix get its volume? You only have to mix it for a minute or so, and the batter itself never gets fluffy the way from-scratch angel food cake gets. But it rises just as high when it bakes, so is there something extra in the mix? (I don't have any mixes right now or I'd check.) Any other leavenings? Also, is there some kind of chemical reaction with the acidity of the pineapple juice that you need? Because otherwise, maybe you just need to drain the pineapple and gently fold it in at the very end. I would also omit whatever extracts/juices the recipe calls for (most usually call for lemon juice) and sub an equal amount of pineapple juice. I guess you'd lose a lot of the pineapple flavor, though. Personally, I'd probably try the dry egg white idea. I made angel food cake once before with meringue powder and it was OK, but did not seem to rise quite as high.
Angel food cake from scratch is awesome ... the texture is so velvety. It makes the stuff from mixes taste like a dish sponge. It also isn't as horribly sticky. You do have to be careful you bake it long enough, though, or it is kinda eggy.
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jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
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Quote:
I keep thinking this over and I don't have any better answers either. I guess what I wonder though is -- how does angel food cake mix get its volume? You only have to mix it for a minute or so, and the batter itself never gets fluffy the way from-scratch angel food cake gets. But it rises just as high when it bakes, so is there something extra in the mix? (I don't have any mixes right now or I'd check.) Any other leavenings?
Aha - yes, there is. In addition to flour, wheat starch(?), egg whites, and cornstarch, there is also an ingredient referred to as "Leavening", consisting of Monocalcium Phosphate, Baking Soda, and Cream of Tartar. From what I can tell, Monocalcium Phosphate is an anti-caking agent/preservative and Cream of Tartar is in the from-scratch recipe. Baking Soda, however, is probably what makes the angel food cake rise. Ta-da.
Unfortunately, this means, bottom line, that if you don't whip those whites in the from-scratch recipe, you'll probably end up with a really flat cake.
On a different note, if there's such a thing as pineapple extract, maybe you could skip the vanilla and almond ones in the from-scratch recipe and substitute the pineapple one instead. Then just make the cake as specified in the recipe, including using liquid egg whites, and add drained pineapple at the end. Unfortunately, we've now wandered far afield from a really yummy dessert that takes 2 minutes to make. 
Oh, heck. I'm going to the grocery store today. I'll cruise the angel food cake aisle and hope for one that doesn't contain dairy.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Quote:
Aha - yes, there is. In addition to flour, wheat starch(?), egg whites, and cornstarch, there is also an ingredient referred to as "Leavening", consisting of Monocalcium Phosphate, Baking Soda, and Cream of Tartar. From what I can tell, Monocalcium Phosphate is an anti-caking agent/preservative and Cream of Tartar is in the from-scratch recipe. Baking Soda, however, is probably what makes the angel food cake rise. Ta-da.
So what I wonder -- could you maybe mix up all of the dry ingredients of the from-scratch recipe, including using powdered egg whites instead of the fresh egg whites, toss in some baking soda or powder, and then mix it with the pineapple as if it's the angel food cake mix? The question is how much leavening. Most recipes tend to call for 1 t, but would you need a lot more than that? I wouldn't do baking powder because I can really taste it in recipes with more than 2 t or so.
I've got a whole bunch of meringue powder so I am very tempted to go try this. The only thing is, I've never made this even with the mix because I hate cooked fruit. Even when it's fresh I'm not really a pineapple fan. But, I could give this a try making a plain cake -- i.e. use the water instead of adding the undrained can of pineapple. I hate to try it if it's going to be a flop, though, since meringue powder is so freaking expensive.
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jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
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Duncan Hines is the only one I found and it contains milk products. I still haven't tried a whole foods market yet. If they don't have it, I'll give your recipe a try. Unfortunatley, I am not an accomplished cook, so I can't offer any insight to whether or not the from-scratch recipe will work with the pineapple. Let me know if you find it in the box. Thanks for your help!
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Re: Duncan Hines
#240466 - 01/21/06 02:45 PM
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Sand
Reged: 12/13/04
Posts: 4490
Loc: West Orange, NJ (IBS-D)
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Weird. I went to the grocery store today and looked at Duncan Hines Angel Food and it didn't have dairy. Of course, I have a feeling my grocery store is getting ready to go out of business, so the cake mixes may have been sitting there for a while - perhaps they pre-date the changeover to dairy. Hmmm. Very strange.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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I found this recipe where Martha mixes 1 teaspoon baking soda in her angel food cake recipe. This is for 1 cup of cake flour, so maybe try 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking soda in the recipe I referenced or maybe even 2 since we're not going to be beating the egg whites to a froth.
She also adds 1/2 teaspoon salt and for some reason I think you might need that if you add baking soda?
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Oops. It was Betty Crocker. I guess I need to look for the Duncan Hines.
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