Angel Food Cake

From the blog For Love of the Table

5 oz. cake flour

5 oz. powdered (also called confectioner's or icing) sugar

3/8 t. salt

15 oz. egg whites

1 3/4 t. cream of tartar

10 oz. granulated sugar

2 t. vanilla

Sift the cake flour, powdered sugar and salt together and set aside.

Place the whites in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, run the mixer on medium low until the whites are frothy. Add the cream of tartar. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the bubbles are small and uniform and you can see the trace of the whisk in the egg foam (this will only take a minute or so). Increase the speed to medium high and gradually add the sugar, beating to soft and floppy peaks (a minute or two). DO NOT BEAT TO STIFF PEAKS...the egg foam should fall easily from the beater with a little encouragement (you shouldn't need to bang the whisk against the edge of the bowl). Quickly add the vanilla.

Add the dry mix in three additions, sifting over the meringue and folding in. Pour the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan (see note). Run a palate knife through to get rid of any pockets. If you dripped batter on the sides, run a rubber spatula around the edge of the pan.

Transfer to a 350° oven and bake until golden, cracked and springy. A skewer will come out clean and an instant read thermometer will register 206°....about 45 minutes. Don't start checking until the cake has been in the oven for at least 35 minutes.

Cool upside down (place the cone over a funnel...or wine bottle...or simply upside down on a rack—most pans have three handles/legs around the top edge for just this purpose) for two hours, or until completely cool. Cooling the cake upside down will keep the egg foam bubbles fully extended as the cake cools—they will tend to want to shrink and collapse from the pull of gravity as they cool when the pan is right side up.

Remove from the pan by tilting the pan and gently rapping the bottom edge of the pan on the counter, rotating the pan as you do...you may need to run a palate knife around the top to release the top edge first. Release the bottom and inner column in the same way.

Note: Shirley Corriher in her book Bakewise suggests rinsing the pan with hot water (just pour it out...don't dry it) right before adding the batter. She likes the way it warms up the pan...and also that it adds some steam to the baking process. I have found that when rinsed with hot water the cake comes out of the pan a bit more easily.

http://www.forloveofthetable.com/2017/05/making-friends-with-angel-food-cake.html

As published on forloveofthetable.com