Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of October 8, 2017? #9370
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      I made a stir fry with the 2nd part of some sirloin steak I bought earlier this week, with red and orange peppers, onion, pimentos, celery and water chestnuts, over rice.

      in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of October 8, 2017? #9367
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        I like both the all-butter pie crust and apple pie filling we learned in pastry school. I'm not sure if they're in Michel Suas's book, I don't think SFBI has them on their website.

        Kenji Lopez-Alt has an all-butter version of his untraditional pie dough recipe on his website. For the pie I made yesterday I used his method of making a paste with the butter and 2/3 of the flour plus the sugar and salt in the food processor, then adding the rest of the flour, pulsing it a couple of times to loosen things, and stirring the water in by hand. It takes noticeably less water than a traditional pie crust recipe, in fact I used only about half of the water in the SFBI recipe for the pie I made yesterday.

        in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of October 8, 2017? #9360
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          You might want to look for a set of petit fours cutters, they're deeper than biscuit cutters. We found several at a candy and cake making supply place in the Pittsburgh area. K&B Cake & Candy Supply Co in North Versailles. This place had Wilton pans I had never seen before, dozens of them.

          BTW, if you ever get to Nashville, there's a cake decorating supply shop near Opryland. Sweet Wise. They have more sizes of high quality cake pans than I've seen anywhere else. If I ever get to Philadelphia again I'd love to visit Fantes Kitchen Shop in the Italian Market district, I think I was in it briefly about seven years ago, but spent more time in the nearby spice and tea shops. The fantes.com website has a huge number of items.

          in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of October 8, 2017? #9357
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            Today I'm baking an apple pie with the Haralson apples I got at the Farmer's Market last Sunday, then I'm going to start processing the 25 pounds of Winesap apples I picked at Martin's orchard yesterday.

            I filled this one fuller than most, 1300 grams of pie filling, normally I use 1000 grams for a 9" standard pie pan.

            in reply to: Edible Wafer Paper #9355
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              I once heard about a chocolatier whose test for apprentices was to shake their hands. If the hands were too warm, the candidate wasn't hired. I'd have failed that test!

              I have been known to keep an ice pack nearby when working with chocolate and place my hands on it every now and then when I'm getting ready to start the next hands-on step. (We have some ice packs filled with corn that don't get so cold they give you frostbite and also don't sweat much.) They're the 'make it better bag', darlincompany.com

              in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of October 8, 2017? #9354
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                Yes, I use the Wilton 'small' cake cutter, the 'big' one just seems too big and clumsy for me.

                in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of October 8, 2017? #9340
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  Don't know what went wrong with your pie crust, maybe the Crisco got overheated in the can at some point. I wonder if Crisco has a hot line you can call to ask them?

                  I use an all-butter recipe for a standard (dessert) pie crust, but I've been known to use Crisco in a hot water crust for things like chicken pot pie.

                  I think Honeycrisp is a large-cell apple and those generally don't make the best pies, they get too mushy.

                  I went out to a local u-pick orchard this afternoon and picked about 28 pounds of Winesap apples, I'll be processing them for pie filling over the weekend, I should get enough for about 8 pies.

                  in reply to: Edible Wafer Paper #9336
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    I've thought about signing up for the beginning cake decorating classes at Michael's, but I'd probably be the only guy in the class.

                    in reply to: Edible Wafer Paper #9330
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      I bought a box of 100 12" disposable piping bags and a box of 100 18" disposable piping bags at restaurant supply stores, in bulk they cost me less than 25 cents each. I tend to use the larger ones more than the smaller ones, like when piping a large batch of meringue cookies or a couple dozen eclairs.

                      The problem with using a plastic bag is they have a tendency to pop open if you squeeze them too hard and tips don't fit in them very well, but they're OK for small amounts of icing.

                      When I was at chocolate school a year ago, our instructor had us make small piping bags that were no more than 2-3 inches long and would hold a small amount of tempered chocolate. I struggled with making them until one evening I took several of the pre-cut triangles back to my hotel room and practiced making them for several hours. Now I make one every now and then (maybe once a month) just to keep the skill fresh.

                      in reply to: Edible Wafer Paper #9315
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        I still haven't figured out exactly what you DO with edible wafer paper, so I'm really curious to see what you do with it.

                        in reply to: Slow-cooker Butternut Squash #9314
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          That's an interesting question.

                          Air is a less efficient means for thermal transfer than contact with a hot metal, glass or ceramic surface, but I would assume a squash is also not very efficient at thermal transfer.

                          An oven works because the air circulates, transferring the heat from the heating element to the air to your food. Convection ovens work faster because the air is moving more, so the rate of transfer is faster. (There's also radiated energy in an oven, but let's not complicate things here.)

                          I wouldn't think a slow cooker would have a lot of thermal currents in it, but it should have some if only due to Brownian motion.

                          My guess is it'll work, but it might slow down the rate at which the squash cooks, meaning it'll take longer.

                          Let us know how it turns out.

                          Did you consider the possibility of peeling it and cutting it in cubes?

                          in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of October 8, 2017? #9311
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            I made spaghetti squash with tomato sauce and meatballs tonight.

                            in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of October 8, 2017? #9310
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              According to Amazon, her 1991 book was "All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed Baking"
                              2011 was "All-Butter, Cream-Filled, Sugar-Packed Baking". Might have been similar sets of recipes, just a slightly different title for an updated edition. Susan Purdy retitled two of her books when she revised them.

                              The cookies from all but the first batch went in to my wife's office today and went over fairly well. I may give that recipe a second shot some time, and I should have watched that first batch more closely, I know better than to trust the timing on any new recipe.

                              in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of October 8, 2017? #9302
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                Hunts Traditional Pasta Sauce is what I've been using when I don't make my own, both the Traditional and the Mushroom one are garlic-free and when on sale a 24 ounce can is around $1. I'll probably be using a can of it tonight when I make spaghetti squash with meatballs.

                                Judy Rosenberg has several similarly titled books, the one I have (Rosie's Bakery All-Butter Cream Filled Sugar Packed Baking Book) was copyrighted in 2011 and this appears to be the first printing. That recipe is on page 154. I have not looked for an online errata list. 375 for 11-12 minutes is more consistent with other chocolate chip recipes I've used. I've now tried 2 recipes from this book, both seemed to me to have issues with the cooking/baking instructions. I'll be much more cautious with the next recipe I try from this book.

                                in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of October 8, 2017? #9298
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  I made the Thin Crisp ChocoChip Cookies from the Rosie's book late Saturday night, they're a big disappointment. The baking instructions are wrong, 12 minutes at 400 degrees was too long or too high, if not both, the first batch was burned and most of them got thrown out. Of the 3 other batches, the one that I did at 385 for 10 1/2 minutes was probably the best.

                                  There's something odd about the flavor, but that aftertaste seems to be going away as they sit.

                                  They aren't staying crisp, either. Maybe it's just too humid here, with all the rain we've had in the last week.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 5,791 through 5,805 (of 6,781 total)