Search Results for '("C'

[BakerAunt]

When I went to the Farmers Market on Saturday morning, one of the Amish stands had small baskets (pint) of strawberries for $3.50. These are the small strawberries, which taste so much better than the large ones sold commercially. We will likely eat them plain—they are that delicious--but with what?

I decided that a Sour-Cream Pound Cake is in order, but I did not want to bake the KAF recipe which always seems a bit dry to me. One of the cookbooks, which I made sure last summer I could quickly unpack once we got here, is Susan G. Purdy’s The Perfect Cake, which is my go-to baking book for any cake. I was not disappointed: there on pages 118-119 is “Sour-Cream Pound Cake,” which can be baked in an 8 1/2x 4 1/2 -inch loaf pan (or 9x5) or in a 6 ½ cup tube pan. I pulled out the Vintage Star Bundt pan I bought from KAF with the help of some Bakers Bucks and mixed up a batch of THE Grease to coat the pan.

I’ve probably not tried this recipe before because it requires separating the three eggs. I was tempted to forgo that step, but I decided to follow the recipe exactly, as Susan Purdy has never steered me wrong. I had a bit of trouble when I beat the egg whites. I had decided to use the whisk attachment for my hand mixer, but when the egg and sugar mixture looked like it was not firming up, I washed the regular beaters and used them instead. It took a while, but I got to what I think was “stiff but not dry” whites. The cake bakes at 325F, which is a hard temperature to set with my c. 1970s oven, which likes to be about 25-50F degrees hotter than the set temperature. KAF also had a note that their staff has found this Vintage Star Bundt pan tends to bake faster than usual, so I checked the cake ten minutes early, and it was done.

We had it for dessert tonight, with strawberries on the side. The cake has a light, melt in the mouth texture and a slightly crunchy bottom (which was the top in the Bundt pan). It was worth separating the eggs, and I will definitely bake this cake again. It can also be doubled and baked in a 12-cup Bundt pan.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.

[Joan Simpson]

We had what I call it Cheater chicken potpie,made by 1- 12oz.can of chicken breast drained,1-can of cream of chicken soup,1-can of peas & carrots drained and a large spoon of sour cream all stirred up and put in casserole dish topped with a thin layer bread crumbs and a little bits of butter scattered across (my husband doesn't like a crust)baked @ 375*for 45-50 min.Nice and easy for today.

[KIDPIZZA]

BakerAunt wrote:

Join me here in wishing Cass (Kid Pizza) a very happy birthday! Many of us have benefited from his baking advice and insights over the years as he brought baking science to bear on our dilemmas with breads and cakes. We miss you, Cass, and we hope that you will check in here again soon.

Happy Birthday, Cass!

Baker Aunt, Chocomouse, Swirth, Joan Simpson, Riverside LEN, Mike Nolan,
C.W. Design.
Good afternoon to you. Thank you for your birthday greetings sent to me. I appreciate them very very much so.
Chocomouse you want to know what I did this past week....Well I worked my butt off. I began Monday doing my prep. for 4 NY cheesecakes.I baked Tuesday it took all dqy because my oven bakes 1 at a time... 1.5 hrs each.
Wed. I released them from the pans after an overnite in the fridge to coagulate them. cut the 7, in cakes into 12 equal slices & the others into less parts.
I celebrated my birthday by domated (1) 7, in cake to our residents with a root beer float donated by the kwanis club. Everyone was surprised here that I was able to bake in my 1 bdrm unit with no oven. I have a c'top electric oven a $99 special. 9 shortbread cookies at a time that takes all day as well to do 21, oz of butter worth cookies. I kept the 5,in cake for myself but I was able to eat 75% worth... utility employees came to my door later wanting to know if they could taste some. So, I gave them my last 2 pieces. All that work for just a taste of my world class cheesecake. Too much work for me I still have about 10, minutes of clean -up to complete. I had this 3,# block of cr. chse from Costco I paid $6,00 for some time ago. I was going to throw it out because I cannot stand anymore. But foolishly I decided to make the effort.
Tonight for dinner my lady friend Gerry is taking me out for a new buffet in a local revamped casino for my birthday. Then Tomorrow morning for breakfast after church at 9:00 am I meet my other lady friend Dr.lauren as her guest.

I am finished now, Thank you for your interest in me & for remembering me. These days it means more than can know.

CASPAR A. AVONA. / ~KIDPIZZA.

[BakerAunt]

Our black raspberries are starting to ripen--at least the ones on the north side of the terrace. The ones my husband planted on the south side have no fruit. He had planted them from some behind our shed, so he checked, and those also have no fruit. (If we had been here in June before this year, we would have known that.) There are some black raspberries in his woods, so I may brave the mosquitos, while wearing my bug resistant hoody and my face netting. I'd like to make at least four jars of jam.

[cwcdesign]

I'm sure many of you received the email from Penzey's that said that vanilla prices are going up again and they will honor their old price (not current) through Sunday. Might be a good idea to stock up.

Sorry I haven't been around much, not even lurking. Very little cooking and baking going on here over the last month. I have a vacation day today (must take all before August 3rd), so it might be a good time to post Mrs. Cindy's homemade vanilla directions. It will take a little while because she typed and sent them to me and I have a couple of things to do this morning. But as it heats up this afternoon and the rain comes, I'll post it.

[BakerAunt]

The cold water in the kitchen is "raw" water (at my husband's request), so it is not just hard water but has a rather high iron content. Otherwise we might choose a stainless steel sink.

Thanks for the insight, Mike. I'll need to measure some pans to make sure the sink will hold them well.

[Mike Nolan]

We put Kindred stainless steel sinks (from Canada) in our kitchen and laundry room, they were the deepest ones on the market at the time. A sink should be deep enough that you can get your biggest pot in it, both upright for filling, soaking or an ice bath, and on its side for cleaning.

I have a 24 quart stock pot that fits in the bigger of the two kitchen sinks. (It'd fit even better in the laundry room double sink, but that's too far to carry it.)

[Mike Nolan]

I prefer to use a spider to take blanched vegetables or pasta out of a pot of boiling water. I've got a nice long-handled stainless steel one that even most small pasta (like spaetzle) won't fall through. (Don't buy the cheap ones, though, they're tinned, at best, and will rust.)

I used a plastic dough docker at pastry school (SFBI) and bought one from them. One advantage of a plastic docker is it is less likely to scratch a non-stick pan. (I seldom use a non-stick pan for either baking or cooking any more, though.)

[BakerAunt]

I've decided that there are two more kitchen "gadgets" that I need/would like to have.

Dough Docker: As I was stabbing the fourth sheet of dough for my crackers today, I decided that a dough docker would be nice. I saw a picture of a nice one on p. 288 of Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. I've looked on the internet, but a lot of them have plastic points, and my experience with plastic is that it does not work that well. I liked one that I saw, but the website came up as "unprotected," so I could not stay around there. Any suggestions on where to look? I've tried Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table, Chefs Catalog, Kitchen Kraft, and Fancy Flours. The ones that came up at Webstaurant had plastic points, as did the ones at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Strainer Basket for Blanching Vegetables: Most blueberry pie filling for canning specifies blanching the blueberries for 1 minute in boiling water. I'm thinking of buying this Polder Strainer Basket:

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/polder-reg-strainer-basket/1014724010?Keyword=polder%20strainer%20basket

It should fit into one of my enamel pots. I want to be able to blanch several "loads" of blueberries (recipe recommends doing no more than 6 cups at a time) without draining the water. Any thoughts on how well this would work? Two years ago I ended up using a frying basket. As the holes were too large, I put a large commercial coffee filter inside it. Although that worked, I'd like to upgrade before blueberry season begins here in a couple of weeks.

[BakerAunt]

On Thursday afternoon, I baked the Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from the dough I made up earlier this week.

Skeptic7: I made some minor changes to the directions: 1) I dock the dough all over once it is rolled out BEFORE brushing with the grapeseed oil. 2) I wait to sprinkle on the salt until I have cut the dough into squares. That keeps the pizza wheel from going awry if it hits a chunk of salt. 3) I've reduced the baking time (in my oven) to 18 minutes, and I rotate the cookie sheet half-way through that time at 9 minutes.

[BakerAunt]

Join me here in wishing Cass (Kid Pizza) a very happy birthday! Many of us have benefited from his baking advice and insights over the years as he brought baking science to bear on our dilemmas with breads and cakes. We miss you, Cass, and we hope that you will check in here again soon.

Happy Birthday, Cass!

[chocomouse]

Today I made a ham and Swiss braid for a potluck, and a batch of Coconut cupcakes with coconut icing. That was from a KAF Goodness mix, and really not good. It made only 6 cupcakes (and stated so on the box) and the dough did not even fill the cupcake wells (a standard size pan/wells). The icing is a weird consistency and has no coconut flavor. I really like the Goodness Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake (makes a 9 x 9 pan) but was also not impressed with the Chocolate Cookies or the Lemon Bar mix. I won't be supporting their Goodness charity any longer!

[BakerAunt]

My Thermador oven, that I left in Texas, has a convection feature, but I only tried it a couple of times. It did not work well for doing two pizzas at once (back in the days when I used pizza pans). Although it was supposed to allow even temperatures when baking on multiple racks, I did not find that to work very well.

A lot of ranges these days come with the convection. When I get my new one, I may, based on Riverside Len's comments, try the convection setting for roasting meat.

For my new range, I'm still looking at the dual-fuel Thermador four burner, no grill. It is, however, pricy. The place in South Bend that sells Thermadors will also service the ones that they sell--an important consideration.

Wonky: the Hickory cabinets will be lovely. We considered hickory, but in terms of blending with the rest of our very open-concept floor plan, and with the ash flooring we will install, we decided on maple. Ours will be natural wood with a clear sealer. I've decided on quartz for the counter, since it holds up to heat and should never need to be replaced. I've never wanted marble in the kitchen, and our contractor mentioned that it cannot take heat. I was going to go with granite, but it is never clear what the pattern of a large piece would be (which is why they ask you to look at it before they cut it), and I noted that the granite countertops at the place we stayed in Florida had pitted in various places.

I'm curious about what sink you are going to choose. We're looking at composite ones. I know that I want a large one with no divider, but I would like it not to be as long as the ones that seem to be the standard. I'm not doing an apron front, since the detail would be lost in such a narrow kitchen.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Here is what I use for canning jam and pint and quart jars of blueberry pie filling:

Product Review – Ball FreshTech Electric Water Bath Canner

I'm not sure what the current price is, but I'm pretty sure that I found a better deal--than what is stated here--for my husband so that he could give it to me for Christmas several years ago. I like being able to drain the water directly into the sink. I also find that it does not heat up the place as much as when I used a canning pot on the stove.

I've only used it for canning, not for cooking soups.

I agree with Wonky that having the canning activity outside the regular kitchen has great advantages. A lot of the farm houses around here actually have an additional kitchen area on an enclosed porch that gets used for canning and preserving. As we have a narrow kitchen, and that cannot change with the remodel, when I can outside in the apartment kitchen, I do not have to worry about foot traffic or about our dog. (And my husband will not start talking to me while I'm trying to deal with very hot ingredients.)

[BakerAunt]

I awoke early on Wednesday morning, and there was nothing for breakfast, so I baked a new recipe, "Hazelnut and Dried-Pear Scones," that appeared in Bon Appetit (August (2001), p. 120. The feature story was on Eugene, Oregon, and the recipe came from The Campbell House, which serves them in its dining room. Note: As my husband and I were preparing to move a year ago, I was frantically going through my collection of Bon Appetit issues, which dates back to the 1990s through about 2005, and pulling out recipes that I thought I might try some day. This recipe was one of them.

Both Wonky and I are charter members of the Make It Better Recipe Guild, so of course I altered this recipe a bit. I substituted in 1 cup of barley flour for one of the 3 cups of flour, used buttermilk instead of regular milk, cut the salt from 3/4 to 1/2 tsp. and deleted a tsp. of vanilla extract (I want to taste the butter!) and a tsp. of grated orange peel. They have a light texture, although an individual scone feels heavy for its size. I like that combination of hazelnuts and dried pears.

I never did get through all those issues of Bon Appetit. My husband relented and agreed I could bring those still unmined issues with me.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.