Batters

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Description
Pancakes, fresh, fluffy, drizzled in syrup on a Saturday morning.

A side of crispy, golden brown onion rings.

Decadent, comforting muffins from your local market.

Which of these don't belong on this list?

Actually, they all deserve to be with each other, because they're all made with batters.

In this lesson you'll learn:

 About batters and the variety of ways in which batters are used in the plant-forward

kitchen.

 The two different batters that are made with whole grains.

 The ingredients, key ratios, and preparation steps for basic beer batters.

 How whole grain and vegetable-based batters can be used in the plant-forward kitchen.

1. All about batters

In this chapter:
  1

What batters are.

 2

How batters are used in the plant-forward kitchen.

 3

How whole-grain and vegetable-based batters can be used in the plant-forward kitchen.
 4
4
Using whole-grain and vegetable based batters.

Batters are simple and versatile.

Use them to coat vegetables or animal proteins for tempura or fritters. Leaven and enrich them to
create pancakes, muffins, or other quickbreads.
And they're easy to make! The ingredients are a combination of wet and dry –
starch and liquid.
Select the cards to learn some of the more common ingredients.
DRY INGREDIENTS
Like wheat flour, chickpea flour, or cornmeal, among others.
WET INGREDIENTS
Like water, broth, or beer.
Mix the dry with the wet, and you have a batter.
Batters can be used to make sweet goods, as well as savory ones.
Scroll through the images below to see some examples.
 1

 2

Socca – a chickpea flour flatbread (farinata in Italy).

Muffins – quick, individually baked, sweet breads with a light and moist crumb.
And also,
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 2

Pakora – a popular fried snack from India, made from chickpea-flour batter and
vegetables.
Acaraje – a cowpea fritter from the Bahia state of Brazil, with origins in West Africa
Let's look at some of the dry ingredients your recipes could
call for
These are the flours:
Wheat flour
–

Wheat flour is a very popular dry ingredient.

It's used in common coatings like beer batters and tempura.

Chickpea flour
–

Chickpea flour is also known as gram flour or besan.

Chickpea flour naturally does not contain gluten, but remember, in any high volume operation,
products are easily contaminated with gluten. It is best practice to not guarantee that anything is
gluten free.

Chickpea flour is mild, but slightly nutty in flavor.

Cornmeal
–

In the United States, cornmeal batters are commonly used as coatings for fritters and deep
fried foods.

Cornmeal batters are grainier and denser than wheat flour batters, with a light natural
sweetness.
 ALLERGEN ALERT!
When you experiment with other flours, be aware of the ones that include
nuts and gluten and make sure your customers know about them.
Once you've decided on the flour you want to use, you can get creative with extra
ingredients
These extra ingredients give you the power to play with your batters, and create unique,
interesting products.
Like these muffins that are enriched with seeds.

You can also enrich batters with:

 bullet

vegetable purées

 bullet

whole grain flours

 bullet

dried fruit and nuts

 bullet

alternative flours like nut meals

 bullet

minced herbs

 bullet

spice blends

 bullet

caramelized onions
 bullet
grated cheese
Here's what that could look like:
These jian bing have been enriched with scallions and sesame seeds to create a filling,

comforting snack.

It's not as simple as just adding these extras to your batter – they aren't one-
for-one additions or substitutions. You'll need to change the quantities of
dry ingredients, liquids, fats, and leaveners.
 So follow your recipes exactly.

2. Better beer batter

In this chapter:
 1
1
The ingredients, key ratios, and preparation steps for basic beer batters.

Beer batter!
It's...
 1.
2.
3.
4.
It's made with these ingredients
DRY INGREDIENTS
Click to flip
One cup of all-purpose flour, another starch, such as cornstarch, and
seasoning.
Click to flip
WET INGREDIENTS
One cup of beer, and one egg.
 You can substitute these ingredients for healthier ones.
Replace the all-purpose flour with whole wheat, white whole wheat flour,
or brown rice flour (but not the glutinous rice flour).
Replace the beer with sparkling water or carbonated liquids.
This is how you prepare beer batter
Play Video
 Lightly coat your ingredients in flour before dipping them into your beer
batter. It gives the batter something to stick to.
It's easy to make, and it contributes so much to the dish

 1

1
It adds malt and caramel flavors.

 2

When fried, it has a crisp, light texture.

 3
3
It helps leaven the batter because it's carbonated.
Remember what leavening is?
It's when carbon dioxide is released into the batter to raise and lighten it.

Summary
Before you make your batters, let's have a look
at what we've covered:
 1

Batters are versatile – they can be used for as coatings like tempura, or baked sweet and savory
goods.

 2

Batter = dry ingredients + wet ingredients.

 3

Chickpea flour and cornstarch are alternatives to wheat flour, and create batters with different
flavors and textures.

 4

Using alternate flours or adding extras like vegetable purées, minced herbs, and grated cheese
means you can develop healthier batters and experiment with flavor and texture. Remember that
substitutions must be carefully calculated and recipes adjusted.
 5
5
Beer batter = 1 cup all-purpose flour, another starch, seasoning + 1 cup beer, 1 egg.