I saw this product in the KAF catalog and decided to give it a try in my chocolate cupcake recipe....it worked extremely well!! I love this stuff but I'm very unhappy with the price and quantity sold ($5.95 for 8oz)....do any of you use this in your baking? Do you know where else it is sold besides KAF? I read the reviews on the website and numerous customers are unhappy about the price/quantity yet KAF refuses to bring back the gallon jug

What is it?

It's a thickener (INGREDIENTS: MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, BLEACHED ENRICHED
WHEAT FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE,
RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID). Haven't used it but they recommend it but they say "This all-purpose starch also keeps cookies soft, cakes moist, and keeps the fruit or chips in cakes and muffins from sinking to the bottom."

Seems like a sneaky way (to me) to convince us to buy an overpriced mixture of cornstarch and flour. As in this is THE "lastest & greatest" baking helper we should all have in our pantry.

Cornstarch in cakes goes back a long way. Fannie Farmers old Boston Cooking school cookbook has a recipe for cornstarch cake. Not positive on the amounts but I believe it's 1/3 cup cornstarch mixed in with the flour.

Here's an excerpt from RLB. She talks about and uses cornstarch in some cake recipes also. So really, cornstarch in cakes is nothing new.

French Genoise

Replacing some of the flour with cornstarch (a European technique) tightens the grain
and holds the moisture supplied by the eggs and sugar. Although using part cake flour
produces the best texture, other flours will work, even flours that are all starch such as
potato flour (although the higher the starch content, the lower the génoise). I have demonstrated this cake in England, France, and even Japan with "native" flours and
always with success.

I was just watching an episode of America's Test Kitchen where they added 1/2 cup of cornstarch to the AP flour in a cinnamon roll recipe. They said it made the dough softer and more velvety.

I've tried the corn starch thing. I thought it made my cupcake taste like corn. But maybe that is me.

Wow I was wondering about that. I thought that 1/2 cup of cornstarch was a lot to add to the cinnamon rolls. For my recipe I use one that has AP flour, and they are tender and chewy. I have never thought to add it into a cake.

I've never heard of adding that much cornstarch to anything, so my questions are: since cornstarch doesn't taste good, how can that not affect the taste of the final product, and second, would it act as a levening and poof up the product like mad?

Warren Brown adds potato starch and his recipes are amazing. He explains the science behind it in his book.