[aaronatthedoublef]

Really good idea! Only catch for us is there is no way my wife would allow a chicken to sit uncovered in our refrigerator, especially raw. I have watched her cook pounded-flat, boneless, skinless chicken breasts for over 45 minutes because she could still see some pink meat inside.

I've been meaning to try something I saw to quickly roast a chicken. Spatchcock it. Then heat the oven to 350. While heating the oven to 350 heat a skillet (cast iron works best) on the stove with cooking oil in the bottom.

Season the chicken the way you like it. and when the oven is ready, turn off the heat and place the chicken in the skillet then place the skillet in the oven until the internal temp reads 155 (or you can go to 165).

It supposed to start cooking the chicken from the bottom before it ever goes in the oven and the spatchcocked chicken makes the whole thing cook faster. When I try it I'll report back the results.

[aaronatthedoublef]

This is why I love this site! We start talking about a baking show and evolve into televisions and streaming.

BA, the next set you by will likely be a smart television and will allow you to connect to Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and whatever else is out there without an additional device like an Amazon Fire.

Another observation from the two seasons of Netflix GBBS is how many people have accidents or near accidents because they are using cookie sheets and "bakes" slide off. I haven't used a cookie sheet in years, even for cookies. The last time I used a cookie sheet was as a peel for pizza.

How about you all? Do you still use cookie sheets?

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, the KAF recipe I used calls for light and dark corn syrup and white sugar. Since I didn't have dark I subbed in some turbinado sugar for some of the white sugar. I also subbed in some turbinado sugar for brown sugar on my pumpkin pie when I ran out of brown. It gives some of the molasses taste but it's not an exact substitute as it's much drier than brown sugar. And, like you, I tend to stick with brand names I know. Although I've moved away from Land O'Lakes. It's just too expensive. And I tried Trader Joe's which is half the price of LOL on sale and I cannot tell the difference and, even more importantly, the people I bake for cannot tell the difference.

I did follow your guidance on par-cooking the pumpkin filling before putting it into the oven and that worked well. I might have even been able to cook it a bit longer. Thanks!

Mike - how did your turkey go?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi Chocomouse. I used Karo and I checked the back and the recipe does call for two TBSPs.

I used a KAF recipe and it calls for a whopping EIGHT TBSPs! I didn't really think about it until I saw the Karo recipe. It has more sugar than KAF. Not sure which is supposed to be worse for you now.

Good thing I only make it once a year. 🙂

Here is the Karo recipe:

1 cup Karo corn syrup
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 TBSP butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) pecans
I unbaked deep dish pie crust

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike.

There is no Wegmans near us. I can look when I head up to Boston in a couple weeks or, ask our friends who live in Syracuse to check. Two stores here both said they had them online and neither had them online or in-store.

Like you found, Mike, it is almost all Oreos and Chips Ahoy. Various Newtons were in third place. I read somewhere that Nabisco is trying to sell itself so they are trimming their lines.

I used Oreos minus the filling. My kids were disappointed I had not saved the filling for them. It was a reasonable substitute but I am not certain it was any easier than making my own. Here is a link to one of the KAF wafer cookie recipes.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. And Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I don't think it was the bread flour as it's the leavening that makes it rise. It's the gluten that stretches and holds its shape. But the gluten was lower than bread flour since half was pastry flour. I was trying to approximate the gluten in AP flour since I didn't have any.

And last year I used all pastry flour with the same results.

I have not tried the online Pie Academy but maybe I will. Or maybe I'll go visit my friend in Seattle and spend a day making pies with her.

Thanks again.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. Went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and it took me three people before I found someone who knew what a pie plate was! 🙂 All they had were Pyrex pie plates. I'll start earlier next year.

My pie crusts are blind baked. I followed the aluminum on bottom and top AND low (350) and slow. I chilled the crusted in the pans before baking for an hour. I used 50/50 pastry and bread flour (I don't have AP) with some powdered buttermilk thrown in. I used all butter and my liquid was heavy cream.

I did realize one thing. I can add less liquid if I just dampen the mixture, lightly mix it, then put it onto plastic wrap and wrap it up and "utz it together" as my mom used to say

I still had shrinkage. Oh well... I used one aluminum pie pan and one Pyrex. The aluminum had better results than the Pyrex.

I will try this again (not today) and I will sub out heavy cream for water or vodka (always wanted to try the vodka) and see if that helps. If I still have shrinkage I'll try subbing out some butter for some shortening or margarine.

[aaronatthedoublef]

What a great article! Ewald Notter and Bronwen Weber used to be fixtures on The Food Network. Good to see them still baking and thriving!

Thanks Mike

[aaronatthedoublef]

People are funny about turkey weights. When I was filling their orders last Thanksgiving people insisted on having specific weights and that they had ordered that weight. We would typically respond that we can only deliver what nature grows for us.

Maybe turkeys on farms are not supposed to 30 pounds but we have wild turkeys roaming the streets in our town and those are BIG birds! From my hunter friends who've eaten wild turkeys there is not a lot of fat on them either.

But one reason mentioned for smaller turkeys is to try to have them be a year-round option. But a six-plus pound bird is still pretty big for the average family.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for all the pie crust/blind baking advice. I'm going to try my Pyrex this year since we're not going any place and if I have time I may buy and try a metal pie tin.

Not sure if I'll find one of BA's round, drip-catchers. I'm going to make my pie dough today which should allow me to blind bake Wednesday.

Oh, and thanks for the tip about par-cooking the pumpkin pie filling before baking. Even with foil on my crust edge it always ends up overbaked before the filling is fully cooked!

[aaronatthedoublef]

I like the look of the Norpro pie pan. It has handles! I have one of their griddles and like your pie pan it really is nonstick. I may have to try one of those.

Around here we can find brined, un-brined, organic brined and un-brined, and kosher and organic kosher, as well as fresh and frozen turkeys. Kosher are always brined.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Depending upon who you read dairy fat is not as evil as it once was and in some cases it is a good thing. I've spoken with a number of people on low/no carb diets recently and at least at the start of those you increase your fat in an effort to train your body to use fat and not store it.

I'm amazed at the number of variants of this diet and the number of people I encounter in my travels who are following one of these variations. We can still find part skim mozzarella but what we cannot find is Polly-O part skim mozzarella. It went away here when they were purchased by Kraft. We can still find Polly-O cheese sticks but not the 1 lb. blocks of cheese. It still appears to be available just not here.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. I'm still trying to figure out what I will do and maybe I'll have a chance to make some trial crusts between now and then. Usually I make both a pumpkin and a pecan pie but I found a recipe that is pumpkin with a praline topping in Cook's Illustrated so I may make that as we're having fewer people this year.

I like BA's adding in some WW pastry flour. I've used powdered buttermilk for years because it seems to soften the crust.

Usually I use the foil pie tins but I think this year I will use the Pyrex ones we have.

And I'll lower the blind bake temps. Most of the recipes I've seen are at 350 but I'll drop that down.

And I'll use tons of pie weights!

I like the idea of a yeast crust. I'll have to try that. I did accidentally use pie dough to make pizza once. It was fragile but it tasted great.

Thanks again

[aaronatthedoublef]

Wow. I used to love Empires but I haven't had a good one in years, even from the u-pick places.

My family loves Honeycrisps which we only buy on sale because they are very spendy here. And we don't see any Winesap either. Lots of Macs, Courtlands, and Macouns. Or at the store lots of West Coast varieties like Gala and Lady Alice.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Apparently "clean as you go" means different things to different people.

I've worked in a few kitchens and bakeries both as production and as a dish or pot washer.

When I was in production "clean as you go" meant clean up your workspace. You would wipe down your work surface, move your dirty things to the dish room or pot washer, and move on to your next project. Even the last place I worked where there was overlap between production and clean tasks we would generally wait until the end of the shift to start washing the dishes and pots and pans.

That's the way I work now - I make something and put the dirty things in the sink. When I'm done, I go through the sink and put what goes in the dishwasher into the dishwasher, wash some things, and leave some things to soak until what is in them has been loosened enough to clean easily.

[Author]

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