Ask food network, February 6

[Food Network Fan]

Ask food network, February 6

By Staff Reports
Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Why is it important to bring certain ingredients like eggs and butter to room temperature before baking? Some recipes call for that and others don't. How does it make a difference? - Amanda Love, Galivants Ferry, S.C.
Depending on what you're trying to make, the temperature of your ingredients can play a huge part. For pie crusts, you want your butter to be cold, since cold butter makes the flakiest crusts - but if you're making a cake, you want your butter to be at room temperature, since room-temperature butter makes the most-tender cakes. Similarly, eggs will whip up highest if they're at room temperature.
If you don't have time to wait for your butter or eggs to come to room temperature, there are fixes. Submerging whole eggs in hot water for five to 10 minutes should do the trick, as should judicious use of the microwave for your butter. For perfect pie-crust butter, try putting it in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes and then use a cheese grater to grate it into your flour so it spends as little time as possible in contact with your fingers.
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[BerryBaby]

Wait a minute...do they mean just whipping the entire egg at room temperature? And, for what?

I thought if you were whipping egg whites for meringue they needed to be cold. Or is that just whipping cream? Ok, now I'm confused.....Clove, Chap???? Help!