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I made my beloved stepmother's Texas Chocolaate Cake with her chocolate frosting. I made this shortly after I inherited the recipe. It didn't taste like hers, so I never made it again. I realized today that the difference in taste probably is because her recipe calls for "oleo," which I assume is margarine. I use butter.
Mike, I may have asked this before. If so, I'll write down the answer this time, instead of leaving it in my brain. Is the icing to be put on the second the cake comes out of the oven? Or, 5 minutes later?
The cake baked for only 18 minutes. I couldn't get the icing done in that time. It was about 5 minutes after removing the cake that I put on the icing. Also, is this supposed to be a liquidy frosting? Her recipe says to add extra milk if the frosting isn't spreadable. Mine was thick, but spreadable, so I didn't add extra milk.
I wanted to look up roll recipes in the Wise Encyclopedia of Cookery. I had a baking flop this week and wanted a better recipe. I made Whole Foods Market's Buttermilk Rolls (from Internet). The recipe pictured them as cloverleaf rolls so I made them that way. I had tried cloverleaf rolls once before, and the 3 balls of dough in each muffin cup had fused into one large roll. So I still wanted to replicate the excellent cloverleaf rolls of my beloved stepmother.
The Whole Foods recipe didn't do that. The dough was dry in the mixer. I probably would have thought of adding water, but a workman needed to ask me a question. By the time I got back to the dough, I was in a hurry and used it dry. The rolls did develop the cloverleaf shape, and they weren't doorstops, but they almost were doorstops. Saturated with hot soup, they're good.
The cooking encyclopedia is over 1300 pages, because it has, I believe, every food and everything related to cooking that was known in 1971. With at least one recipe for almost everything, and several recipes for most, with variations. The reason I didn't use the cookbook a lot is that it's so thick it's hard to prop open to read a recipe while cooking it. As I recall, I had to use cans of veggies to hold each side open.
What makes it overly expensive for me is its short shelf life after opened. Three or four days. I can't use it up in such a short time. Maybe I've had a container that said to discard after five days, but I'm uncertain about that. Having said that, I have to say:
Mascarpone makes a wonderful tomato cream sauce for rigatoni. I add some to hot red tomato sauce and stir. If the sauce isn't as light and creamy-looking as I want, I add more mascarpone. If I have frozen peas, I toss in a few peas. Pasta tastes great that way. Mostly what I use mascarpone for is for parfaits. I prep sliced strawberries with sugar the day before. I layer strawberries, room temp mascarpone, etc. until parfait glass is full. It's a luxurious eating experience, but the mascarpone needs to be room temp. If I have angel food cake or sweet cream biscuits, I'll make them a light layer -- light in quantity, not calories.
Mike, I always develop pop quiz anxiety when you post Italian-related questions. It puts my moniker to the test.
Mike, I've enjoyed reading about your 2020 challenge to yourself. I tried rye bread when a newlywed. Don't recall where the recipe came from. Either the recipe was wrong or I was wrong, because we disliked the bread. Never again tried rye.
I find the discussions about steaming and misting interesting, too. I've never done either, but I have a couple of recipes that suggest it. I don't like hard crusts, so I don't go in search of the perfect crust. Probably would make a couple of my breads better overall, though.
I baked a yellow cake today. I used half butter and half extra virgin olive oil. I'm somewhat surprised I can't tell the difference. Can't even taste the EVOO.
