Folding In

A recipe calls for you to fold in to your batter when the goal is to keep the mixture light.

This is especially important for light desserts like soufflés or angel food cake. Beating or stirring the batter would knock too much air out of the lighter mixture, and you would lose the desired fluffiness.

Usually you will have a heavy batter and a lighter mixture like whipped egg whites.

• Take about a third of the light, whipped mixture and drop it onto the batter with a flexible spatula.
• "Temper" the batter by scraping the side of the bowl and dropping the batter on top of the light mixture.
• Rotate the bowl about a quarter turn each time you do this so that you scrape the sides of the entire bowl.
• Take batter from the bottom as well and scoop with the spatula, dropping it on top to combine the mixture without beating air out of it.
• Add a third more of the light mix to the batter, continue folding in.
• Add the remaining mixture until you have combined both bowls.