kitchenetc

I love cooking with lard, and it's way better for you than Crisco is. But to your point....I've made crusts with various combinations of butter, shortening and lard. The main thing to keep in mind is that you should actually be able to see distinct globs of fat in the dough. The best crust I ever made was one where I figured I'd ruined in because I had gotten lazy and not "cut into 1/4 inch pieces" the butter before tossing it into the food processor for a quick spin. The more minimally you mix the crust (it should barely come together), the flakier it will come out. Biscuits are the same way.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie page 189 Boy do I wish I had taken a picture of this!! It was one of my proudest moments as a cook as I had not one but TWO piecrusts come out wonderfully flaky and perfect! The recipe incorporated Basic Pie Dough from page 181 and I managed somehow to get a really good result while thinking I screwed it up completely...I got lazy and ignored the commend to cut the cold butter into 1/4 inch pieces, so when I was rolling out the dough I still had large chunks of butter all through it. I was sure that while in the oven, these chunks would melt and leave gaping greasy holes all over my pie. What dh and I really loved about this was the subtle tartness of the rhubarb. My strawberries were not outstanding but I always seem to run into a timing issue with this pie...when rhubarb is plentiful and perfect, the strawberries are not local. Confession....I still haven't mastered the art of rolling my dough into a circle and had to do a little patchwork on both crusts. But the rustic look worked for me, and the texture was the best I have ever accomplished. The dough contains both butter and chilled Crisco.

Crescent Rolls page 112 I'm not sure exactly why these went wrong but this was another where I felt the time invested didn't justify the "meh" results. I will say I loved the convenience of being able to make then 3-4 days ahead of time and just refigerate the formed rolls until baking time. My 11 year old loved them but most of the family found them not "puffy" enough....they stayed kinda damp inside and never developed all the layers that they should have.

Challah page 105 This would have been better if I hadn't burnt it (*cough* technically dh was in charge of baking since I had to run out)....while we were still able to eat it, the crust was very dark and thicker than it should have been. The shape was gorgeous and the loaf turned out smaller than other versions I've made. I used poppy seeds, not sesame seeds. I will definitely have to give this another shot.

Rustic Italian Bread page 98 This is a true winner...I've made it twice (once was in a very badly equipped kitchen, eek no stand mixer!) and both times it came out great. You do have to start the day before and it does require a bit of babysitting but it's well worth it. I used a pizza stone when I had one but it also worked okay without one. This bread actually improved in taste by the second day. Couldn't tell you about what happens on the 3rd day since it didn't last that long.

Wow thanks for all the positive feedback! Catching up...I was disappointed in how crispy the eclairs came out. I think I would have been better off if I had opened the oven door wider when it instructed me to turn the heat off but leave them in the oven "propped open by a wooden spoon". Anyhow, they got so brittle that when I tried to cut off the tops to fill them, they ended up in shards. I made a sort of trifle by throwing the pieces into a 9 x 13 pan, globbing some pastry cream all over it and spreading some of the chocolate glaze over it all. It was edible but not really worth all the time and effort. Also...I was none too impressed by the glaze I made. It called for 3 tab half and half and 2 oz semi or bittersweet chocolate (I used my usual, Hershey's Special Dark bars). So far, so good. Then you WRECK it IMO by adding a full cup of confectioners sugar. Way too sweet...the sugar just overwhelmed the chocolate completely.

Gingerbread (page 31) While this was not my family's favorite (they're heavily biased toward chocolate) I thought it was pretty good, as did my fan club at work. It stayed moist even after several days and I have yet to find a buttermilk recipe that didn't work. I used plain old ground ginger but the variation using crystallized and fresh ginger intrigues me.

Took a little break (from writing, not the baking), and I'll now attempt to catch up on what I've been doing, in no particular order. Today I'm making Eclairs (page 262), which also requires Cream Puff Pastry (page 259) and Pastry Cream for Eclairs and Napoleons (page 227). I've never done this kind of thing and the worst part so far was dealing with the pastry piping; I used a Wilton gadget that is more a less a gentrified caulk gun and of course the first time I filled it I somehow did it backwards. Right now they are drying out in the turned-off oven and look pretty good. I made the pastry cream first and will glaze them right after dinner.

For several years, I packed a "mayonaisse sandwich " for my lunch at school. Just mayo and white bread (Sunbeam no doubt).

This is an excellent recipe and takes a week or less: * Exported from MasterCook * Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe By :Cook's March 1997 Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time :4:00 Categories : Beef Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 5 pounds beef brisket, point half -- trimmed 1/2 cup kosher salt 1 tablespoon black peppercorns -- cracked 1 tablespoon ground allspice 1 tablespoon dried thyme 1/2 tablespoon paprika 2 bay leaves -- crumbled 7 pounds assorted vegetables Mix salt and seasonings in small bowl. Spear brisket about 30 times per side with meat fork. Rub each side evenly with salt mixture; place in 2 gallon Ziploc, forcing out air. Place in flat pan, cover with another flat pan and weight with bricks or heavy cans. Refrigerate 5-7 days, turning once a day. Bring brisket to a boil with water to cover by an inch in a large kettle, skimming foam. Cover and simmer til tender, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Heat oven to 200. Transfer meat to large platter, ladling about 1 cup liquid over to keep moist. Cover with foil and set in oven. Add assorted vegetables (carrots, rutabagas, turnips, new potatoes, boiling onions) to kettle and bring to boil; cover and simmer about 10 minutes. Then add assorted vegetables (green cabbage, parsnips, Brussels sprouts) and cover and simmer about another 10 minutes. Slice up meat and serve together.. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Date-Nut Bread page 27 Another success...I used the same type of Pyrex loaf pan as before and again, I had to add about 10 minutes of baking to get the center to dry out. Time to buy an oven themometer. I had never made date-nut bread but seem to have some memory of eating a canned version when I was little (am I imagining this?). It's dense but not bricklike and the dark brown sugar gives it almost a honey taste. In this recipe, the chopped dates are soaked in a boiling water/baking soda mix and then the whole bowlful is stirred into the batter. Toasting the pecans really intensifies their flavor, too.

Banana Bread page 24 I'd been using a very simple banana bread recipe from "Better Homes and Gardens" for years but this one was a huge improvement. Butter instead of shortening, and a whopping 1 1/4 cups of (toasted) walnuts in the loaf. I used a Pyrex 9 x 5 pan and found that it needed about 10 minutes more then the 55 minutes specified, but that could just be my oven. The batter was very thick, almost doughlike.

Hi , longtime lurker here. Admittedly inspired by Julie Powell, for awhile now I've been trying to find a book I could cook my way through. Two possibilities were "The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook" by Christopher Kimball and "Get in There and Cook" by the late great Richard Sax. But the recent thread on "culinary nemeses" spurred me towards baking, as pie crust has always been the enemy. I have never even tried to do rolled cookies, and as for layered doughs like Danish or phyllo, fuggedaboutit! Plus: I can bring desserts into work for easy disposal. My retail staff is constantly hungry and not too picky. So....it's time to get over my fears and who better to hold my hand than Cook's Illustrated? I started baking yesterday and I'll give a brief summation of each recipe as I do them. I won't be going in order but will try and do basic recipes early on.

White in the summer, red in the winter.