Other Structure Builders

Starches, including corn, rice, and potato starches, sometimes partially replace flour in cakes, cookies, and pastries. For example, genoise sponge cake is often made with up to half the flour replaced with cornstarch, for tenderness. This works best in products with a limited amount of water. With limited water, only a limited amount of starch gelatinizes. Unlike gelatinized starch, which contributes structure to baked goods, ungelatinized starch granules act as inert fillers that interfere with gluten forming its network. With today’s soft cake flour, however, it is probably unnecessary to use starch to tenderize baked goods, except in special circumstances.