Dangers to continuing to cook an unfinished torte?
I made the mistake of assuming a torte would be done when the timer went off. I removed it from the oven and turned off the heat. Forty minutes later I discovered my error. Is it safe to reheat the oven (sans-torte) and continue cooking from where I left off? Are there any risks to doing this generally in baking?
Best Answer
You haven't mentioned exactly what's in the torte, but I am assuming that the only potentially "unsafe" ingredient is eggs. Thus, the only possible danger is that the eggs might be undercooked, posing a very minuscule (considering that most egg yolks/whites aren't contaminated in the first place) risk of salmonella.
But we're talking about a torte here, which isn't going to be finished until the eggs are set, and the setting temperature of eggs isn't that far off from the salmonella-killing temperature (63° C vs. 74° C). Use a thermometer if you're concerned.
Of course, if you're using pasteurized eggs then they should be free of bacteria to begin with and you have nothing to worry about at all.
Most likely, the worst thing you have to worry about is the torte drying out a bit, since you'll be increasing your overall baking time to get it back up to temp.
Edit: With respect to quality of the finished product, I might worry with a regular (flour) cake, because increasing the total baking time gives it more time to develop gluten and dry out, but a torte has little to no starch, so you're not really in much danger there. Just keep an eye on it, make sure it doesn't burn, and you'll be fine.
Pictures about "Dangers to continuing to cook an unfinished torte?"
Can you get ill from eating undercooked cake?
EATING raw cake mixture, dough or batter could land you with a nasty bout of food poisoning, experts have warned. But while you may worry raw eggs are to blame, you would be wrong! The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned licking the bowl after baking a cake increases your risk of E. coli.What happens when you overbake a torte?
If the middle doesn't jiggle at all, it's overbaked. If you overbake it, you won't get the fudgy dense texture of a good flourless chocolate torte. I bake until maybe a 2- to 3-inch diameter in the center still has a bit of jiggle. The good news is, it's pretty hard to overbake this torte.What happens if a cake is undercooked?
Unfortunately once a cake has cooled it is not possible to re-bake it. The cake would have to heat all the way through again and the outside parts of the cake would become too dry. Also if the cake has sunk in the centre from being underbaked it will not rise again as the raising agents in the recipe will have expired.How do I know if my cake is undercooked?
How to tell if a cake is undercooked. Have a look at the sides of the cake to see if they have pulled away from the pan. The edges should have dried out and turned crisp as they cooked. A sign of an undercooked cake is when the edges don't come away from the pan.COMMON CAKE BAKING PROBLEMS AND THE REASON BEHIND THOSE DISASTERS | Delizioso TV
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