How to Fold Ingredients

Cooking Tip of the Day

Folding is a method used to gently mix ingredients. This technique is used to mix light and airy ingredients into a heavier mixture. Examples are beaten egg whites or beaten egg yolks into batter, whipped cream into puddings and mixing chocolate or melted butter into a batter.

Things to Remember When Folding:

When folding a warm mixture into another mixture… be sure that both mixtures are the same temperature… if one mixture is hotter than the other the two will not combine smoothly and the warmer one will form clumps…. For example… eggs will cook and “scramble” and not integrate.

TIPS

Use a clean, dry spatula.

Always fold gently.

Don’t over or under fold …. If you fold too much the batter will lose that “airiness” that’s necessary for cakes to form little air bubbles when baking… this will result in the cake not rising as high as it should. If you fold too little… the cake will have a sticky, wet and heavy layer at the bottom of the pan after it’s baked.

A general rule of thumb is you always fold the light batter or ingredient into the heavier one.

Method:

Example making mousse…. folding whipped cream into pudding.


Place the pudding in a bowl.

Add about 1/3 of the whipped cream and stir to introduce the whipped cream into the pudding.

Add the rest of the whipped cream (ingredient to be folded) on top of the pudding.

Step 1 - Cut




Using a spatula, cut through the middle of the whipped cream.




Step 2 - Fold



Go to the bottom of the bowl and pull the spatula toward you scooping up some of the pudding with the spatula.

In one sweeping motion fold over the scooped up portion of the pudding over the whipped cream.

Step 3 - Turn



Turn the bowl ¼ turn and repeat the steps.

You will need to scrape the sides occasionally with the spatula.






Keep doing this until the whipped cream is fully integrated into the pudding.



If you are still unsure….there is an excellent video to watch by Chef John Mitzewich at.about.com that shows the proper technique for folding.