French speakers - need some culinary translations!!!

[utterlyconfused]

I have a wonderful French book on baking and am longing to try some of the recipes. Can you give me a hand with some of the words? I realise that sometimes I might need to substitute with things that are available here - need that advice too!

My problems at the moment are "cassonade" - I know it's unrefined sugar, but would I use muscovado? Light or dark?
"farine de mais" - cornflour (can't be as I need 180g) or cornmeal? Or neither?
Also, is there a difference between "levure" and "levure chimique"? I have used baking powder in one recipe but had to just guess what quantity is in a sachet - any pointers on that one too?

Thank you in tummy-rumbling anticipation!

Hi utterly... can't answer ALL your questions but I'm sure Anna888 and others will be along soon...

cassonade: pass, sorry!
farine de mais: this will be flour made from corn rather than wheat. This really could be the same stuff as the cornflour you use for bumping up sauces. (Not sure what cornmeal is, though, sorry? American cornflour, perhaps?)
levure: yeast
levure chimique: literally chemical yeast. So perhaps baking powder or dried yeast as opposed to fresh?

er sorry not been much help there, hope others come along soon!

Cornmeal is also known as polenta, but it can be found (although not v easily, I get it in Holland and Barratt) in fine and coarse form. I have used it in baking before (Nigella's Rhubard Cornmeal cake) but only a teaspoon or two at a time of cornflour which is why I'm not sure it's that.

Oh bump. I'm desperate. Can't face another disaster coming out of the oven!

So what are you cooking, then? Perhaps you can club cooking type MN'ers together over in another thread and get them to cobble a recipe together!

I MIGHT be able to help out... let's give it a go....

Yes, that's quite a good idea, except I am probably one of those. This book is full of wonderful cakes and the one I am looking at is a carrot and almond loaf, so it has ground almonds in it, and grated carrots, and 5 eggs (!), sugar, obviously, but what sort? and levure, but I'm really not sure it's a yeast-type recipe, and then this wretched farine de mais.
Need to step away from the laptop now but might persist with this later on.

I know what cassonade is, it is unrefined sugar but it's not excatly the same as musovado - it is less sticky (although not free flowing either) but the same colour. Should be OK as a substitution I would imagine....

cassonade is dark muscavado sugar

I think farine de maïs is maize flour and can be bought in the shops here. Don't know if it's the same as English cornflour.

Levure is yeast.

Levure chimique is baking powder. Very hard to give you an amount because I'm not sure it's the same strength as English baking powder but I'll check the weight on a sachet when I have a spare moment.

OK good luck with it, utterly! Perhaps look online for a carrot and almond loaf and see if you can find similar recipes which help. (What I do if I've lost a recipe or want to do something generic and can't be bothered to look up "fish pie" in Leith's!)

I think the farine de mais is cornmeal/polenta. I just did a really bright thing and read the front of the book, and there's a bit of help with ingredients, but the f de m is the only one of any interest just now. It says it is yellow and useful for making polenta so that has confirmed that suspicion. I think I'm ready to rock and roll, girls! Thanks so much.

good luck with it...

This maïs thing is very complicated, and the French websites are contradictory in the extreme.
Semoule de maïs is apparently polenta, whereas farine de maïs is cornmeal, according to the most sophisticated looking cookery websites I looked at.
"Maïzena ou fine de maïs se dit corn starch aux US ou corn flour en GB.
Farine de maïs peut se traduire par corn meal ou plus rarement par polenta flour."

But TBH the cake would probably be OK with either cornflour, polenta or cornmeal, non?

A sachet of baking powder is apparently 11g.

I would say farine de mais is Maizena, which is the same as English cornflour. The French often mix it with wheatflour for cakes as they come out lighter (apparently) so it is highly likely to be that.

Re baking powder, I tend to use more levure chimique than I would UK baking powder as cakes don't seem to rise as well as they should otherwise, but in this case I'd use the same amount (1 sachet is about 2tsp I think).

Let us know how it turns out!