It's the cornstarch in powdered sugar that impacts the taste. You can get powdered sugar without cornstarch in it, some people call it icing sugar, but it's kind of hard to find in the USA, and usually expensive. (KAF had it at one point, not sure if they still do.)
That's why sites such as Nebraska Kitchen are so important. When I started reading and commenting on the now defunct KAF Baking Circle, I realized that I had more scope than I thought for experimentation, provided I kept some basic guidelines in mind--what Cass (Kid Pizza) calls baking science. I don't think that most of us get those basics or have the "why" explained, so the process at first seems mysterious. What I've learned here and from some books have helped me become bolder in the kitchen.
And then there are those chefs who like to keep the process mysterious....
Perhaps a parallel to this story is that if you search a recipe on the internet, a lot of times, what comes up is the same recipe over and over--sometimes without attribution. A lot of cooking blogs are batting around the same recipes.
Bagel molds?? Now, you can do it the classic ‘wrap around your hand’ way, or you can do it the ‘poke a hole in the middle’ way, but a mold is just SO WRONG!
We prefer bagels made with about 3 ounces of dough as opposed to the much bigger commercial bagels, which are more like 4.5 ounces each, if not bigger. (I think the Wolferman ones are closer to 6 ounces each.) 3 ounces is not enough dough for me to do it the ‘wrap around your hand’ way, but I have fat hands.
I've always considered baking both an art and a science. Both have to be reasonably right, but there's room for innovation and experimentation in both.
There are times I go into 'mad scientist' mode, but I also know I'm a better scientist than I am an artist. (Comes from that engineering training in college and the fact that I can't draw a straight line!)
I suspect many families would prefer their designated baker not experiment so much, I know my wife has said that to me.
Fascinating article! Thanks for posting the link, Aaron.
Did you see that KAF has introduced bagel molds? https://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/bagel-molds
I've wondered if it is useful or a gimmick.
I like the bagels that Einsteins produces, although I doubt they are authentic. There was a great, independent bagel place in Lubbock called Hoots, but they felt that they had to offer other items (waffles, sweet rolls) when they were forced to change location in the shopping center in which they were located, and they lasted less than a year. I don't like the ones that Trader Joes sells, nor do I like any of those on the grocery aisle.
Maybe once my kitchen is redone I'll consider trying to make my own--at least once.
My mother made a potato salad where she poured oil and vinegar over diced cooked potatoes while the potatoes were still hot, so the oil and vinegar soaked in. She'd add hard boiled egg, celery, onion and celery seed. No mustard or mayo.
Not sure if this is similar to some of the German potato salad recipes or not, as it is served cold, not hot.
I have discovered if you follow the instructions for cooking potatoes in McGee (soak the diced potatoes in 130-140 degree water for 20 minutes first), the potatoes don't get soggy.
My grandmother seldom used recipes. She'd add raisins to stuffing for Thanksgiving, but other than that it wasn't unique.
However, she made a rice pudding that I've never come close to duplicating. I remember helping her stir it for what seemed like hours. Closest I've come to it in the nearly 50 years since she died is to add some tapioca.
Ok, today I decided to make the spaghetti squash quiche recipe for lunch--Hah! It is in the oven now, and although I started working on it shortly after 10 a.m., it won't be done until almost 3. I'm hoping that I can talk my husband into having it as dinner.
I thought that the quiche pan Haedrich was using was a bit small, but it may also be that the one I have exaggerated its claim to be 9 1/2 inches, I think maybe it was more like 9 inches. And maybe I put too much of the spaghetti squash in. At any rate, I had overflow when I was adding the egg mixture even before I put it in the oven (should have stopped with the sauce sooner). I scrambled some still leftover egg-milk mixture and ate it separately. I wish that I had paid attention to my instincts and used the 11-inch quiche pan with removable bottom that I have and made a bigger crust. (Somewhere I'm sure that I have a 10-inch tart pan with removable sides. Sigh. I keep waiting for our contractor to get off of his current job and get with the remodeling.) I am not looking forward to clean-up. I did have the crust on a rimmed pan, but I had not thought to line that pan with parchment.
On the positive side, I adapted a recipe that I have for a cornmeal pie crust and used that for the quiche. It came together well and blind baked well.
I'll report separately on taste, etc.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by
BakerAunt.
I was introduced to bagels in 1968 during my sophomore year at Northwestern. A dorm mate used to drive down to Ashkenaz Deli in the Rogers Park neighborhood (at the Morse Avenue El stop) to pick up bagels and lox. (They must have had two dozen different varieties of lox available, too.)
At the time, they still hand-rolled their bagels (or so the sign proclaimed.) However, by the time we lived in an apartment a few blocks north of there, in 1972, the sign was gone and the bagels weren't quite as good.
Ashkenaz burned down in the late 1970's, I believe, and the Rogers Park neighborhood, which had a number of Jewish stores and restaurants, including a kosher butcher and another butcher that, while not kosher, was the finest butcher shop I've ever been in, is now largely Vietnamese.
For those who don't believe someone could shape over 800 bagels in an hour, there are some YouTube videos available showing how it was done. (I think one of them was from someone who claimed the record, over 1200 bagels an hour.)
See 1979 bagel film for one example.
Good luck finding an old-time bagelmaker to teach you the craft. There probably aren't many of them left, and I suspect they still protect their craft!
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by
Mike Nolan.
I can definitely relate to this!
My mother-in-law, Catherine Hillegass, edited the cookbook put out for the Nebraska Centennial in 1965, "The Nebraska Centennial First Ladies Cookbook". (For those who don't know, my father-in-law, Cliff Hillegass, was the founder of Cliffs Notes. He started an imprint called Centennial Press to publish this book and a few others including one featuring Czech recipes.)
This book contains recipes from a number of Governor's wives around the country, plus many recipes sent in by long-time Nebraskans.
My wife fondly recalls how her mother tested every recipe included in the book, and a number that didn't make the grade. They received 8 very similar recipes for one fried dough dish, from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, and published all 8! (It's called 'knee patches' in at least one form.)
I will say, though, that I've looked at a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes over the years, but never found one that was identical to the one my mother used to make, which I still think is the best cookie recipe ever for dipping in milk.
This article is fascinating.
I almost called this "Why Bagels Suck" but that seemed a little rude. It's amazing what used to go into making bagels. None of the bakeries here come even close to this. We had bagels from the place my wife and kids like the other day and I just looked at them and how sad they are. They are not as bad as Dunkin Donuts bagels but close. I need to find an old school bagel baker some place and learn from him.
Last week when I took the Irish Chocolate Cake to work, one of my coworkers asked about it because he liked it, partly because of the alcohol. I told him there was another cake I had been wanting to try - Bailey's Dark Chocolate Guinness Bread with Bailey's and Guinness. I explained that I didn't want to try out a new recipe on everyone. He asked if I'd make it for his girlfriend whose birthday is Sunday. Since mine is Monday, I said yes. He's also our steward which has to be the worst job in the department - dirty dishes, trash, toilets, cleaning and just about any heavy lifting job that occurs. So he bought the Bailey's for the glaze - I had everything else on hand. I made it last night and will take it in for him today.
It was very easy and Will and I both tasted the batter which is nice - I will definitely make it again. But . . . isn't there always a but? The recipe said to bake it in a 9x5 pan - I should have baked it in an 8x4 or doubled it. If I had been paying attention, I would have realized that less than 2 cups of flour was not going to make a very tall loaf - it looks like I cut the bottom off the loaf. That's an easy fix. Also, the recipe had you mix in all of the Guinness first and then the flour - next time I will do flour, Guinness, flour.
My biggest problem was the glaze. I think the proportions are off and I could taste the powdered sugar even after I let it sit overnight. I also thinned it too much trying to up the Bailey's flavor and I had leftover glaze. It drizzled onto the plate.
1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons Bailey's
2 teaspoons cream (I used whole milk)
Any thoughts on how to improve it? Should I leave out the cream/milk and use Bailey's? Should I get some Irish cream flavoring to add? What about the proportions?
Your experiment sounds delicious, Mike.
I wouldn't call what I did today much in the way of cooking, but it's the most I've done in a while. Been eating food from the freezer. I made Blueberry Pancakes with cinnamon chips and cardamom for breakfast and for the freezer. While the pancakes were cooking, I put together Kelsey Nixon's (Cooking Channel) Slow-Cooker Irish Oatmeal. Her recipe calls for 3 bananas, but I don't like that texture. I use one banana, raisins, and one other fruit exchange. Today I had blueberries.
Very, very cool, Wonky!
This morning I made Raisin Bran Muffins (recipe on this site), using the rest of my supply of dried blueberries rather than raisins. I also used the "grease" to do the muffin pan. Once again it worked well, and it seems to keep the muffins from overbrowning (ok getting slightly blackish brown) on the pan surface.
This week I baked my family's favorite, Red Velvet cake, for my daughter's birthday. I know many object to the red color, but I have always used only one bottle (not two as called for in the original receipe). I got the recipe from my mother way back in the late '60's. I also have always made the original cooked frosting that isn't as sweet as buttercream. I did some research (on the internet of course) and found the name of the frosting to be Ermine frosting. Sounds fancy, doesn't it!!
A lot of breads come out of the oven with a fairly hard outer crust, but it softens up as the bread cools. The recipe I use for sandwich loaves is like that. The Clonmel Double Crust recipe stays a bit firmer, but I like the taste of it as Vienna bread. (Some years ago I made a batch of it and a batch of Peter Reinhart's Vienna Bread recipe from BBA, and the Clonmel version won a blind taste test.)
