andiesenji

Best Stollen, Wisconsin German style (Dresden style) From Ella Odekirk, farm wife. 12 ozs white bread flour, I use regular all purpose. 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoon yeast, (instant or rapid acting) 1/4 pint milk so this is 5 fluid ozs UK, and 4 fluid ozs U S. 3 ozs softened butter 2 ozs sugar 1 egg 2 ozs currants 2 ozs raisins 4 ozs sultanas (white raisins) 1 oz mixed peel chopped fine 2 ozs cherries, quartered 2 ozs chopped pecans, walnuts or lightly toasted, sliced almonds 6 ozs almond paste 4 ozs icing sugar 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice Preheat oven to 375' Mix salt with flour and place in warm bowl, place in low oven few minutes to completely warm flour mix, add yeast and stir in. Warm the milk, butter and sugar, stir to dissolve. Whisk egg into milk mixture and make sure it's not hot only warm, then pour onto flour mix. Mix well until the mixture leaves the sides of the bowl cleanly, forming a ball. Add mixed candied fruit and nuts. Turn the dough out onto floured board and knead until fruit are evenly distributed through dough, 5 minutes. Return to oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave in warm place to double in volume. Turn out, lightly knead a few times. Flatten into a square and roll into oblong about 14 inches x 8 inches. Form almond paste into a log slightly shorter than length of dough, about 13 inches long, lay down middle of dough, then roll dough around it. Pinch and turn under ends to close. Place dough on parchment on a baking sheet, cover with damp cloth and place in a warm area to rise. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. When a depression remains after pushing into the dough with a finger, place on center rack in oven and bake 35 minutes. Slide parchment paper from baking sheet to cooling rack. Cool for at least 30 minutes. While still warm, mix XXX sugar with enough lemon juice to make a stiff paste. Spread on warm stollen and add a few extra chopped cherries and pecan or walnut halves to decorate. Cool completely. P.S. I usually triple this recipe and make either 4 smaller stollen or 2 large ones from the batch. Andie

Talk about nostalgia! I remember these from the 1950s. My mom had several in the kitchen at home because the counter tops were a sort of green marbled linoleum that was subject to cuts and burns. (House in Wisconsin). These metal topped, cloth bottomed pads worked very well. These could be a very useful "stocking stuffer" for a person who has countertops that need protection.

I have been thinking about how you can use these to best advantage. I also visited the Mexican market and checked the guajillo peppers and many look exactly like the one pictured. Some are smooth but many have the slightly wrinkled appearance. I have seen the alternate spelling used by people from the Yucatan for these peppers. Regional differences in language is the same in Mexico as it is here. Consider that a chayote in California is a mirliton in Louisana! Anyway, I suggest you visit The Pepper Fool. There is a wide range of recipes for all types of foods and Rob knows his peppers. There are also some great links to other pepper sites with even more recipes.

In the next-to-last batch I made, (duck fat not used because it was being saved for something else), I used half butter and half coconut oil. I mentioned this stuff (expensive) in some posts back in the summer. It is wonderful in slow, low temp cooking so lends itself well to the confit. I can't define the difference in flavor, you can't taste the coconut, it simply smooths it out and gives a broader range of flavors. It seems to enhance all the flavors. I also used it in my last batch of duxelles and it was also excellent.

One of the other women who works in the office was showing me a gadget that squeezes out a ribbon of butter. She was going to order it because she says she likes the butter to be spreadable on toast or bread but doesn't like to leave it a room temperaure so it is soft. I got out my trusty cheese plane and showed her how it worked just fine to shave off a thin slice of butter which when applied to toast melts almost instantly. This is one item which I think was poorly designed. If butter is at all firm, it will take a lot of pressure to force it out throught the narrow slit in the end. I have several cheese planes, some pull a thinner slice than others, and I had an extra one here so I gave it to her so she can take it home. A cheese plane is a multi-tasking tool, it works on chocolate too. I even use it on ice cream when I want a thin slice to drop onto a baked apple or similar.

Need a really BIG stocking for this but wouldn't you love to find one under the tree on Christmas morning (or the Channukah equivalent)?

Some time back someone was searching for a source for unusual, hard-to-find chocolate working utensils. I had forgotten about this site, but visited this morning as I needed to order a gift for a friend whose anniversary is Christmas Eve. I happened to click on this page and note that they have some interesting and unusual candy equipment. Gourmet Gallery. P.S. my friends are getting the copper warming plate. They do a lot of entertaining and this should fit right in with their other copper serving wares.

I'm sorry to hear this. I will hold off on ordering for now, I want a reliable source, particularly at this time of the year when I am ordering a lot of things.

I have always filled my loaf pans to within 3/4 inch of the top, banged them down on the counter to knock out any air pockets. Then, with the back of a wet, rounded spoon (I use a round soup spoon) I make a depression down the center, working from the center to each end, forcing the batter up on all 4 sides. This will level in the baking so the tops are nearly flat, just a bit rounded as the cake rises more in the center. (This is also the way I get a flatter layer cake. I start at the center with either a similar spoon or an offset spatula and work the batter out from the center to the outer edge by turning the cake pan and moving out from the center in a spiral patter, forcing the batter out to the edges. This leaves a slight depression in the center of the batter and the final product is an even layer, no center bulge.)

The recipe is on this site:Melinda Lee Melinda is a friend of mine. She has a radio food talk show in L.A. on KNX 1070. She has been around for many years and originally was on the radio with Mike Roy, cookbook author. Mike touted this recipe for prime rib and it is very, good, works every time.

The ancho is fairly mild. I would guess the second is a chile guajillo, as it is pronounced waheeyo and alternate spelling uses the h. This one has more heat than the ancho and a slight licorice flavor, often used in hearty stews. The aji chile is HOT. Not as hot as the habanero, but considerably hotter than a serrano. The best way to test the flavor and heat is to cut off a small piece at the tip, where there is less heat, make sure no seeds, then pour warm water over the piece and allow it to soak for a couple of hours. put a very small drop on the corner of a saltine and taste it, carefully. This is the best way to guage the flavor as there is no other flavor to override the chile flavor. If it is too hot then you know you use just a little in a recipe. For the very hot peppers it often only takes a portion of a small pepper to flavor an entire pot of stew or soup.

If anyone is making bar cookies or brownies and you don't have a pan with a separate bottom, you might find one of these very handy. I know I do. I also have a large lasagna pan that has a lift-out corner like this. I bought it a couple of years ago and have not been able to find another. It may have been discontinued. I bought it at a bay area online cookware company that went out of business. I was sorry to see them go, they had all kinds of neat stuff, including the largest selection of tea kettles I have ever seen. If anyone has come across one of these lasagna pans, do post the info here as I would like to get another.

I don't know about smooshing a raw egg but even though I don't have these neat items (but intend to order some), I do fried egg with cheese sandwiches in my Dualit. It gets a bit messy at times when stuff drips out of the sandwich holder, but it isn't all that difficult to clean. I like the idea of being able to put a sandwich together in the morning, keep it in the wrap in a cooler and then toast it at noon when I am at work. However I have to get a different toaster for the kitchen at work as we have one of the drop through toasters where the finished toast drops out the bottom. I don't think these wraps would bend enough to go around the curve at the bottom. I had one of my "vintage" GE automatic toaster ovens at the office but I couldn't keep some idiot from putting stuff in it without the tray and I walked in the kitchen one day and there was a little fire in the toaster from burning butter on the bottom. Fortunately it didn't harm the toaster but I brought it home and bought one that they couldn't fool with.

Nope. I mean the wire racks that just fit the pan. I use them a lot because I do my bacon in the oven a pound at a time. But I do have a buddy looking for just what you linked to. Thanks. ← Check Linens 'N Things or Bed, Bath & B - if there is one near you. I bought a couple of the footed racks that fit the half sheet pans. Like this: They also had them at the Kitchen Etc. place in the factory outlet center.

Try the onion confit made with duck fat. Duck fat is good fat and has properties that are rare in other fats. (Goose fat has almost the same properities.)

Sometimes doing a job a different way results in a better end product. For many years I sliced cucumbers for my bread and butter pickles on the mandoline (Bron). Then one year I had a problem with my right elbow and right shoulder after doing something stupid. There was no way I could even hold my arm out away from my body, much less grasp and push a cucumber across the mandoline. So I put the thin slicing blade in the big Cuisinart and, wow! was that fast. I had 12 quarts of slices in hardly any time at all. The only chore was dumping the full processor bowl into the bucket with the salt and the ice. The slices were much thinner. Everyone loved the pickles made this way, still do, wondered why I hadn't done this years before. The pickles are easier to add to sandwiches, they stick to the filling instead of sliding out. It was serendipity.

Remember the basic idea is that you are doing a reduction. Just as you do not add salt to stock early on as it will concentrate more as it reduces and will end up so salty it is inedible at the end of the process. Anything with flavor that you add early on will concentrate as the mixture reduces so you allow most of the reduction to occur which is in the first half of the cooking, then add part of the seasoning liquid, continute cooking and then taste. If it needs more you can always add more, but once you add it you can't take it away. Herbs like rosemary and sage can become overwhelming when concentrated. Fennel, on the other hand, seems to dissipate with longer cooking. I like to use loveage for the celery flavor as it has a much stronger flavor that stands up well to long cooking whereas celery will become rather insipid the longer it cooks. A very tiny bit of nutmeg, added to the onions about 2/3 of the way through the cooking, will add just a hint of flavor but only a hint and you really won't be able to tell what it actually is, it just makes it better. (I always add just a tiny bit of nutmeg to milk gravy too. You can't taste it but it add "something")

The advantage of using an infusion, instead of the leafy herbs, makes a nicer finished product. There are no little bits of mysterious stuff that might make people wonder if it is edible. I crush the leaves and spices and pour boiling water, just enough to cover by about an inch or so, over the crushed material and use something to weight it down so it all remains covered with water. You can use something like a teaball or one of the large mesh holders, made specifically for this, but don't tie them in cloth. Unless you have something like nylon mesh, there is some flavor carryover that I don't like. You can also put them in a coffee filter and staple the top closed and put it in the bottom of the pot and put a spoon on it to weight it down. Let it steep for at least an hour and if you can, keep it warm. If you have a warming burner that works or if you put it in a pyrex measure (no metal except for the staples) you can nuke it for 30 seconds every 15 minutes or so to keep it at the correct temperature. Strain and taste, mixing 1/2 teaspoon into a tablespoon of warm water to get an idea of how the final result will be. Straight it will taste far too strong for you to get the true taste.

I do a onion and shallot confit with sage, sumac and hot peppers. I use this as a base for marmalade which is fantastic with wild game. I actually make an infusion with the sage, sumac and hot pepper (usually chile pequin) and add it about half-way through the carmelizing process. The sumac, found in any middle eastern market, has a lemony flavor but not as much acid as lemon itself, to interfere with the carmelizing.

I suggest you subscribe to the email newsletter (free) of The Food Service Professional. Check their site. They have some great training videos, including pastry, pies, etc. Kitchen Krafts also has training DVD, etc. as does Sugar Craft. and also: Winbeckler's videos. In many ways these can be more helpful than courses because you can refer back to them again and again and go through a project step-by-step along with the video. The food service prof. website also has a great deal of information about management, portion control, dealing with staff, etc. A great resource.

I have one of the Stir-Chef things. I bought it specifically for making lemon curd. I am often involved in numerous things in the kitchen at the same time and since I can no longer stand and walk about constantly I can't jump back and forth the way I used to. This contraption fits in my large double boiler and it stirs the lemon curd just enough to keep it from lumping up as it slowly thickens. I like the kind that stays fairly creamy, instead of the stuff that sets like a lemon meringue pie. I think it is nicer to spoon onto scones, etc. It requires slow heating and much stirring. Of course I am a major gadgeteer - I love gadgets just for the sake of the thoughtful and sometimes weird ideas that conceived them and I buy interesting or unusual ones even if I never use them. I don't spend my money on cigarettes and not a lot on booze because I don't drink and I am not a big candy eater and I loathe most perfume so I spend my money on gadgets (and a few other interests). I too believe that the more things that are available that make cooking and housekeeping easier for people with disabilities, the better the world will be. My locksmith used to be a lineman with the power service but lost part of his arm in an accident on the job. He has several attachments for his prothsesis, including a power tool that looks like it is out of Star Wars. He has joked about inventing an automatic flapjack flipper that he can fit into the shaft because gripping some of the "ergonomic" handles on utensils doesn't work so well with the gripper he has. (I gave him one of my "vintage" spatulas, with a heavy wrapped wire handle, made in the 30s and it works perfectly and he can grip it firmly without it cracking as the plastic handles do.) I told him that if he will build it, there will probably be people who will buy it. There just needs to be more universally available information about specialized utensils. It is better with the internet, but it could be better.

Are these what you are looking for? I have several of these and they work great for half sheet pans.

This wouldn't fit in a stocking. However isn't it a neat knife block? Much smaller footprint than the slanted ones and it even holds two steels (or a steel and a diamond hone)... Not a bad price for someone special............. And it even goes into the dishwasher!!!!!

Most vendors sell the Dexter-Russell 12 inch scalloped slicer for more than Smart & Final. Possibly because Smart & Final puts their name on the blade they get is for less and can offer it for less. The same knife is listed for a minimum of $5.00 more on these sites. Discount Dexter-Russell knives. I can remember back in the day when Dexter was THE knife in almost every restaurant kitchen, at least out here. The restaurant supply places (such as Star in Van Nuys, that opened in the early 60s,) carried the full line of Dexter products and I bought quite a few from the place. I still have my Dexter dough knife which is not quite as wide as it once was, because of being sharpened over the past 40 years. The new one is almost 1/4 inch wider and it still has one curved corner. The curve on the old one is long gone. The knife I showed, will cut very crusty bread and also will cut very tender breads, such as brioche, without tearing it. It can also be sharpened, I simply have not needed to do so.

My grandmother and great-grandmother did not believe in "spoiling" children with treats. Fortunately for me, my grandfather thought that I was born to be spoiled and did his best to see that I got quite a few "forbidden" treats. Since the cook thought the sun rose and set on him, she followed his orders even when countermanded by the ladies. I loved to hang out in the kitchen and "help" and if something was being fried, I often got "fried bread" as there was usually bread dough in one form or another waiting to be baked or rising, or whatever. Cook would pinch off a golf-ball sized piece of the dough pull it into a pillow shape and drop it into the hot fat where it would immediately puff up to many times the original size, it was turned to cook golden on the other side and then was lifted out onto a towel and sprinkled with sugar. It would be difficult to wait until it had cooled enough to eat safely and often I burned my tongue or lips, trying to eat it a bit too soon. Just thinking about it brings that flavor back. Nothing tasted as good.