BrooksNYC
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Posts posted by BrooksNYC
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Dear CatPoet,
Thank you for taking the time to post so many of your wonderful recipes. Emboldened by this thread, I'm 100% confident that I will be able to crank out a few excellent cakes.........back in the day when I wasnt intolerant to citrus I used orange marmalade.
That's terrible! I'd be inconsolable if I had to give up marmalade. Wouldn't have thought to use it as a cake filling, but it's a fantastic idea. When I try it, I will think of you.
Thank you again for all your support!
Brooks
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Thanks for your kind post, Stuart.
I'm not a particularly optimistic soul by nature, so credit for the upbeat tone of this thread goes to all the generous folks who chimed in with recipes and words of encouragement.
(Am delighted to have Saint Honore in my corner as well!)
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You've all been so kind to me.
Tackle a cake. If it doesn't turn out so hot, use it in a trifle. (Then tackle another cake.)
HA, cakewalk! Between trifle and whisky balls, baking a cake suddenly seems like a no-lose proposition.
And never mind the tiptoe through the tulips... damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
I plan to follow your excellent advice, Tri2Cook. And I wouldn't deviate from a proven recipe first time out. I know enough to know that pastry is exacting in a way that, say, yeast breads (which, believe it or not, I baked successfully for years) aren't.
JeanneCake, you're an angel. Thank you for downsizing that recipe. Your tips about carrot prep, draining the pineapple, and plumping the raisins are invaluable. (The chefs' original recipe didn't mention those steps. Maybe they assumed I'd know these things.)
CatPoet, the sponge cake looks great, and — for a cake — not too unhealthy. (I appreciate that.) Knowing that it comes from a cookbook for three-year-olds puts a fire in my belly. I'm a proud man, and refuse to be out-baked by Swedish toddlers.
Again, sincere thanks to all of you for your kindhearted support.
B.
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I have not had luck with baking the layers one at a time. the subsequent layers didn't rise as well.
There, now. That's just the sort the thing I need to be aware of! Thanks, Maedl.
You can add any type of booze so long as it taste good.
Now we're talkin'. As a son of the South, I'll probably go with bourbon. (Although a single malt Scotch sounds awfully good!)
I'm curious as to why you are choosing to make your first cake using these two particular recipes. . . . . . . . . . .are you looking to challenge yourself?
Nothing so noble, Linda.
With the brevity of life hitting home, I'm taking stock of projects I swore I'd get around to "one day" (which — as we know — never comes to chronic lollygaggers). Among those projects is baking a cake. Digging through decades of recipes saved but never made, I unearthed recipes for two cakes I enjoyed once upon a time. With no ambition other than to revisit old pleasures, I thought, if not now, when?
Have added Maida Heatter to my Amazon Wish List, Linda, and thanks. And I've definitely decided not to make a cake the size of Stonehenge. (If I had a lick of sense, I'd tackle trifle instead of cake, since the only way to screw up trifle is to drop it on the floor.)
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CatPoet, thanks so much for the fantastic-looking Rum and whisky Ball recipes! Am guessing that "whisky," in Sweden, refers to Scotch whisky, not bourbon whisky. Correct? Can't wait to give these a shot!
Appreciate the moral support, Tri2Cook. The fact that I'm NOT a confident cook may be the best argument for doing a little reading before tackling a three-layer cake the size of a child's swimming pool. (Actually, I've decided to nix the swimming pool favor of something smaller. It'll be easier to manage in every way.)
In response to Maedl's question, I could NOT fit three 12" layers in my Easy-Bake Oven. I'd have to bake 'em in three shifts, which sounds kinda crazy, right? Also, since the majority of recipes are for smaller cakes, it makes no sense to buy 12" cake pans.
Thanks for the link to the pumpkin cake, Maedl. Looks excellent. I'll check out hummingbird cake, too, since I'm a pineapple fan. (In fact, it was the pineapple in that big carrot cake that really sold me on it.)
Again, great thanks again to all of you for your help and patience.
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Thanks, CatPoet. No rush, but I would be interested in your Swedish recipes.
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Whiskey balls! Haven't thought about 'em in years. My grandmother made them every Christmas, and half a century ago(!) I made a batch to send to the troops in Vietnam -- my boozy contribution to the eighth grade Christmas project.
Great idea, CatPoet.
The standard recipe calls for cookie crumbs. If substituting cake crumbs, would I want to dry them in a slow oven? -
To all who offered gentle counsel here, thanks for saving me from myself.
Enthusiasm, in my case, often trumps common sense. Launching the cake project with a carrot cake the size of a manhole cover was a dumb idea. When the cake failed (as it surely would have), I'd have said: "If at first you don't succeed, to hell with it," and donated the cake pans to Goodwill.
I've added The Cake Bible to my Amazon Wish List. Thanks for the recommendation. (In lieu of my giant carrot cake, I'll try Ms. Beranbaum's version instead. Thanks Sylvia.)
Having come to my senses, Maedl, I agree with you that the carrot cake recipe isn't detailed enough for a beginner. I like your muffin idea, and thanks.
If you try those recipes, manjudhanda, good luck! -
Thank you all for your helpful suggestions. Greatly, greatly appreciated.
JeanneCake, as requested, I've posted the recipes here and here. I've copied the recipes verbatim, and am sorry that neither recipe is as detailed as one would hope. Although, lack of detail is what brings me here today.
Halving the carrot cake recipe sounds like the way to go. Years ago, I considered that option myself, but chickened out when I came across a recipe for commercial macaroons that had been scaled down for the home baker. The cookbook authors mentioned having to tweak, re-tweak, and triple-tweak the commercial recipe so that the home macaroons resembled the bakery macaroons. It wasn't as simple, in other words, as dividing the commercial recipe by 36. (Cutting my carrot cake recipe in half would probably be simpler.)
Appreciate the 10-inch tube-pan recommendation!
Pastrygirl, thanks for the excellent "doneness" tips. I don't have a convection oven. What I have — which doesn't bode well, but let's not wallow in defeat just yet — is a lilliputian 1944 New York City apartment stove. If it were two inches smaller on any side, you could fit it into Barbie's Dream House™. (Is there a Rosie the Riveter Barbie?) Also, the calibration is WAY off, so I'm at the mercy of oven thermometers. Wish me luck!
Tri2cook: "HA!" to "Brooks was here." I may have to change my avatar!
Cakewalk, making a basic cake is exactly what I should do. Not only that, but I should buy myself a good cake cookbook, with the hows and whys clearly and thoroughly spelled out.
Again, thank you all for taking the time to help me.
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This recipe, scribbled down for me thirty-five years ago by a professional husband/wife chef team, makes a HEAP BIG restaurant-size cake. Three 12" layers.
Did the Walkers serve it as a single-layer cake, or a triple-layer cake? I've forgotten. I only remember that it was insanely great. As in, "Shoot me, because the rest of my life will be an anticlimax after eating this cake."- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CARROT CAKETom and Pina Walker
Grease and flour three (3) 12-inch pans
Preheat oven to 350
BLEND:
5 cups oil
4 cups whole eggs
15 cups shredded carrots
ADD & BLEND:
5 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 cups crushed pineapple
4 cups raisins
COMBINE:
10 cups all-purpose flour
10 cups sugar
10 teaspoons baking soda
10 teaspoons cinnamon
7 teaspoons salt
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Pour into three (3) greased and floured 12-inch pans.
Bake for (???) The recipe doesn't say, so you're on your own. Wahhhh!
Cool before icing.
ICING:
40 ounces cream cheese
20 ounces butter
5 teaspoons vanilla
5 teaspoons lemon juice
24 ounces confectioner's sugar (The ink faded. Does 24 ounces sound right? If not, sweeten to taste.)
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This tasty apple cake, courtesy of the late Great Aunt Fanny's restaurant on West 46th Street in NYC, was a gift to the restaurant from actress Jane Powell. When enough customers requested the recipe, the restaurant printed it out on cards, and presented it with the check.
I've yet to make it at home. The recipe, as given, strikes me as fuzzy on details, but then, I'm not (understatement!) an experienced baker. eGulleteers who know from cakes will know how to combine ingredients for best results.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Jane Powell's Apple Nut Cake
Preheat oven to 350
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup walnut pieces
16-20 ounces sliced apples (or canned apple pie filling)
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
Mix ingredients by hand, or at very low speed in electric mixer. Pour into greased tube pan (see note), and bake for 1 hour. Cool cake before frosting.
Frosting
4 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons milk
Cinnamon (if desired) to taste
NOTE: Size of tube pan not specified in the recipe, although a helpful friend on eGullet thought that a 10" tube pan would do fine.
Don't know if the restaurant used fresh apples or canned apple pie filling. Given the whopping two cups of sugar called for, I'd probably go for fresh apples, but that's me.
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Hiya, folks.
Ere I shuffle off this mortal coil (not too soon, I hope), I'd like to try my hand at a couple of cake recipes that have languished in my recipe box for decades.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I have never baked a cake in my life.
Both recipes take for granted that the baker knows his or her way around a baking pan, which, as stated above, I do not. So I wonder if you whiz kids could help an old man fill in some missing details? I'd be most grateful for your help.
Recipe #1 is a mammoth recipe for carrot cake, scribbled down on notebook paper by a couple of restaurant chefs. The layers bake in 3 (three!) 12-inch cake pans in a 350-degree oven, but the recipe doesn't say for how long. When would you begin testing a 12-inch cake layer for doneness? Should a cake tester inserted in a carrot cake come out clean? Or should it emerge with a "few moist crumbs attached"?
Recipe #2 comes from Great Aunt Fanny's, a long-defunct restaurant in NYC's Theater District. Their recipe for "Jane Powell's Apple Nut Cake" was donated by Ms. Powell herself, and handed out to customers on printed cards.
The cake, which bakes for one hour at 350, calls for a tube pan, although the size of the pan is not specified. Amazon sells 9 and 10-inch tube pans. Since I will buy only one tube pan in my life, would a 10-inch be the safest bet?
I realize you can only "guesstimate" these things, but your guesstimates are guaranteed to be 99.9% better than mine.
Kind thanks for your help!Brooks
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Just the person I was hoping would stop by today! As always, thanks for your expert help, Laura.
Can't speak for the other outposts of Harry's Bar. The original in Venice used to be fun, and the food was good enough that I still remember this risotto 30 years later. Recent reviews of Harry's have been meh. A shame.
Nothing beats having Venice outside the window, but am hoping this recipe conjures a bit of the old Lagoon magic. Thanks again!
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Many decades ago, I had a Risotto Primavera at Harry's Bar in Venice that was so good I've never forgotten it. Googling turned up the following:
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Risotto Primavera Harry's Bar
Serves 6
THE VEGETABLES
1 clove of garlic
4 oz (115 g) mushroom heads thinly sliced
3 small artichokes cleaned and sliced
2 small zucchini cut into small cubes
6 asparagus cut into ¾ inch strips
¼ red bell pepper cut into 1 inch pieces
1 small spring onion (only the white part -- about 1 inch, diced)
1 TB diced onion
1 TB olive oil
Salt and pepper
THE RISOTTO
10 oz. (250 g) Arborio Superfino rice
2 quarts chicken broth
1½ cups white wine (an Old World Chardonnay)
1 small onion (sliced and diced)
4 TB (45 g) butter
3 oz. (80 g) finely grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
PREPARE THE VEGETABLES
Mince the garlic. Heat the skillet over medium-low heat. Sauté garlic in olive oil for 1 minute. Remove the garlic and add the sliced mushrooms. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes until they have lost their liquid. Add the artichokes. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes.
Add the diced onion and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Add the zucchini, the asparagus, the bell pepper and the spring onion. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring often for 10 minutes. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust accordingly. Set aside the vegetable mix.
MAKE THE RISOTTO
Melt 3 TB butter in a heavy pot over medium high heat. Add the diced onion to the pot and sweat the onions until transparent.
Add the rice. Stir the rice into the butter and onions coating the rice for about 1 minute. Pour the wine into the rice and stir quickly for 1 minute. Add 1 ladle of broth. When the broth begins to boil check the timer. It will now take 22 minutes to cook the rice. As the broth evaporates add another ladle of broth. Stir constantly the rice. Continue until the 15 minutes has passed.
Add the vegetable mixture and cook everything for an additional 7 minutes. Turn off the heat. Stir in the remaining 1 TB of butter and the Parmesan cheese. Let rice sit for 1 minute. Serve hot in individual plates.
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I understand that pressure cooking reduces the recommended 22-minute cooking time to 6 or 7 minutes. I also realize that risotto in a pressure cooker requires less liquid, but my math skills are horrendous. If any resident pressure cooker experts could tweak the broth / wine quantities shown above, I'd be most grateful.Thanks very much!
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Appreciate your help. Thanks kindly, all.
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I've a recipe that calls for deep frying the ingredients when the oil "begins to shimmer, but before it smokes." This being the first time I've ever deep fried anything, I'd sooner rely on the precision of a thermometer than risk screwing up the recipe.
My candy thermometer (steel, glass, mercury) handles temperatures up to 400 F:
Is there any reason I couldn't use a candy thermometer for deep frying? For that matter, what about my instant-read thermometer?
Common sense tells me that temperature is temperature, and that any cooking thermometer should work. If I'm wrong about that, I'd appreciate your input! Thanks. -
Without knowing their minds, it's impossible to second-guess your friends' reasons for not hosting.
For what it's worth, there are people (I'm one of them) for whom entertaining is a miserable ordeal. I much prefer taking friends out to dinner. I'm convinced that when the host is relaxed, everyone has a better time.
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Chris and Jaymes, thanks very much for your input.
Jaymes, you make great points, and given the infrequency with which I'm likely to serve Irish Coffee in the near or distant future, it makes no sense to invest in glasses that can't be adapted to other uses.
The stemmed six-ouncers could do double duty as absinthe glasses, but I already have absinthe glasses. Besides, your comprehensive list of alternate uses for the eight-ounce glasses is very persuasive. I'm sold! Thanks for taking the time to post such a helpful response.
Not to mention that if you're serving something like a cold soup or tomato aspic....Tomato aspic! My New Orleans mother made wonderful tomato aspic. Aspics aren't popular north of the Mason-Dixon, and it's a shame. They're great summertime fare. Maybe I'll roll up my sleeves and make some!
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In a preface to his recipe for Irish Coffee (below) Dale DeGroff recommends serving the drink in a small glass. Unsure as to what "small" meant, I Googled Irish Coffee glasses. The most widely available (and presumably most popular) glasses are 8 or 8.5 ounces, with a handle.
But I also came across 6-ounce stemmed Irish Coffee glasses, such as these:
http://www.historyco...tails.php?p=335
Anyone have thoughts about glass size? Thanks.
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Irish Coffee (Dale DeGroff)
1.5 oz Jameson Irish Whiskey
1 ounce brown sugar syrup (one part brown sugar, one part water)
Hot brewed coffee
Unsweetened cream, very lightly whipped
Add the whiskey and syrup to an Irish Coffee glass, and fill two-thirds of the way with coffee. Top with one inch of whipped cream.
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pazzaglia' timestamp='1339130525' post='1880390']...once you get to a certain width or thickness it begins to take much longer to get the center cooked - you will still have wonderfully pressure steamed food though there may not be any actual time savings from doing it in the oven
That's a useful piece of info, Laura, and thanks. The more I think about it, the more I think I should focus on my primary reason for getting a larger cooker: to save time in the kitchen by cooking and freezing large batches of soup, stews, and beans. To that end, it sounds like the 8 or 12-liter Kuhn Rikon would be the ticket.
I just ran to my kitchen to weigh 1 cup of dry BorlottiBorlotti....love 'em! Wish they weren't so expensive here, and hard to find. Thanks for all the weighing, measuring, and computing. I was never too swift at math!
...it's a bit of a squeeze but if you keep the total water under the 1/2 capacity mark you could do 2lbs of soaked beans in an 8L.Good to know. If the 12-liter Kuhn Rikon is too big for my tiny kitchen sink, I'll have to settle for the 8-liter. (Note to self: measure the sink.)
EnriqueB' timestamp='1339142035' post='1880400']My biggest problem is the space it takes up when not in use, and cleaning it as I have a small sink.I hear ya, Enrique. My 5-liter cooker lives on the counter, my only other storage options being in the bathtub, under the bed, or on the floor.
I am really happy with my 12-literIf my sink can accommodate it, I think that's the one I want.
You've all been very helpful. Many thanks.
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Thank you all very much for your input. It's greatly appreciated.
For the record, this would be my second pressure cooker. I also have the "standard" 5-liter Kuhn Rikon Duromatic (8.75" diameter, 6" tall, without lid), which has been fantastic.
With this second purchase, I'm looking for a cooker to do the same sort of cooking I've been doing (soups, beans, stews, vegetables), but in larger quantities — two pounds of beans, for example, instead of one.
In a pressure cooker, the lid takes most of the pressure - so having a larger surface area (616 cm2 for the braiser vs 380 cm2 for the stockpot) necessitates a heftier lid (the gasket is also significantly thicker). The wider base also requires a wider aluminum disk.Great stuff, Laura, and grazie mille. I'm already a fan of your site, so it's a nice surprise bumping into you on eGullet.
The larger area makes it easy to quickly sautee or brown veggies, and also evaporates and reduces liquids more quickly than the stockpot.My current pressure cooker does a good enough job with vegetable sautees and risottos that I'm still leaning towards a taller cooker with this next purchase. (And am looking forward to experimenting with your multiple food stacking techniques.)
Thanks, Enrique. Since my main goal is to cook and freeze big batches of soups and stews, I'm actually dithering between the 12-liter and the 8-liter. Out of curiosity, does it require a block and tackle to lift the 12-liter?I have the 5L and 12L wide Kuhn-Rikons -
Thanks, Emily. At only five inches deep (minus the lid), the Family Style Stockpot is awfully shallow, isn't it?
As a vegetarian, I'm primarily a soup/stew/vegetable man, but any non-vegetarian trying to choose between these two cookers should take your points to heart. That's a $379.00 pressure cooker! As a buyer, I'd be pretty cross to discover that it wouldn't accommodate a roast.
I won't be cooking any roasts, but you've swayed me towards the taller, skinnier, cheaper model. The narrower footprint might actually be a better fit for my lilliputian gas burners (my apartment has a 1940s stove).
Again, thanks for chiming in.
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This is a re-post of an earlier post, removed because it contained commercial photographs that weren't mine.
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I'd be most grateful for input on two 8-liter Kuhn Rikon pressure cookers, rendered here in mindblowing Photoshop silhouette:
The Family Style Stockpot, on the left, is 11 inches in diameter, and 5 inches tall without the lid.
The plain Stockpot, on the right, is 8¾ inches in diameter, and 8¾ inches tall without the lid.
According to the printed specs, the two cookers do not differ in quality or construction. Where they differ is in shape, and — more to the point — cost. The wider, shorter Family Style Stockpot is $160 more expensive than the narrower, taller model.
I can see where the shorter, wider Family Style Stockpot might better accomodate bundt molds, springforms, or ramekins. That aside, what other advantages would justify spending an additional $160?
Would appreciate your thoughts, and thanks!
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A frequently mispronounced food-related word is "restaurateur." It's like nails on a blackboard when I hear it mispronounced on the TV Food Network, or by NPR hosts who ought to know better.
"RestauraNteur," they say — that is, they insert an "N" in the middle of a word that has no "N".
The correct anglicized pronunciation is ress-ter-ruh-TUR. . .Dictionary.com has a sound clip:
Maiden cake voyage — Geezer needs input
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Foods, and also smells! When sense memory kicks in hard, it's like time travel. Last week, someone passed me on the street wearing patchouli oil, and one whiff instantly evoked my teenage self who, in the East Village in 1970, was agonizingly and unrequitedly in love with someone who wore it. (Patchouli was a popular once. Don't judge me!)
My "Proustian" foods are the foods of my New Orleans childhood: gumbo, red beans and rice, and bread pudding with whiskey sauce. (Someone should start a thread about Proustian foods.)
I had to look up chokeberries, which we apparently have in the USA. Don't think I've ever tasted one.
Happy Birthday to the lucky birthday person!