More genoise questions

I've been researching genoise ingredients and would like the benefit of your experience.

Flour: some recipes call for all-purpose, others for cake flour, still others for a mixture of cake and bread flour. (I'm in Canada and our AP flour is fairly strong, I believe.)

Eggs: some recipes call for the addition of egg whites in addition to whole eggs.

Any comments?

Many thanks
foxglove

[m brown]

Traditionally genoise is made with a high protein flour rather than cake flour to hold the structure. Remember the leavening is egg whipped, a physical leavening, so you need the higher protein flour to "hold" the cake together while it dries and rises a bit more in the oven.
Baking is an act of dehydration.......
The butter is added to give further structure, though not much, make the crumb tender and impart the wonderful flavor.
Additional whites can help the structure further and keep the product light and airy.
Try as many recipes as you like until you are happy with the results!

[angrychef]

I've always made genoise with cake flour or a mixture of cake flour and cornstarch. The result is a fine crumb and light texture. But you can make it with AP flour and even bread flour. For added richness, you can use added eggyolks to the egg and sugar foam.

[mudbug]

I agree, you should definitely experiment with the different recipes. It's the nature of cooking that there usually isn't just "one" way to achieve the same end result.

Often times it's a matter of personal taste.

Flo Braker is a renouned baker. Here is an article "Basic Genoise Cake with the basic recipe and more recipes that are derived from the master recipe.

There are also several other recipes and topics by Flo here.

Look for genoise tips

Look here to browse genoise recipes.

Thank-you. I've always made genoise from the recipe I first saw on Julia Child's original TV show in the 60s and been very happy with the results. Having a bit more time on my hands and having to produce a wedding cake , I've been surfing and hitting the books looking at other recipes -- my query was really what you found worked best for you. I shall as you suggested, bake some test cakes.

[ March 10, 2001: Message edited by: foxglove ]