Beanie

I just checked the web site and can find no telephone numbers. However, under the section on web site subscriptions, they give the following mailing address for subscribers who don't want to use a credit card online. I'd give 'em a call. Boston Common Press 17 Station St # 3 Brookline, MA 02445 The telephone # is (617) 232-1000.

I've subscribed to both the magazine and web site for some time and enjoy both, though I've stopped reading Kimball's editorials. I refer to the web site frequently for recipes and find it much more convenient than searching through old magazines. My main complaint is their repackaging of material from the magazine and America's Test Kitchen TV show into assorted books and marketing efforts and their constant marketing hype. I ordered one of the Test Kitchen books a couple of years ago. The next year, they automatically sent me the new edition. I was really angry because I didn't like the first one but kept it anyway. Now I had to call them, explain that I received something I didn't order, and return it. They were very nice, but it was a waste of time. And have you seen their new magazine, Cook's Country? I've received about 3 "trial" issues without asking for them. It's a straight imitation of "Taste of Home" magazine, which I never even heard of until I moved to a rural area. The CI version is just as tacky as the original.

Hi Eileen I've never used it, but if you do a search on the King Arthur website for "black cocoa" you'll come up with several recipes. I believe black cocoa is used mostly for the color rather than flavor, like for oreo cookies, etc. The KA recipes combine black cocoa with regular cocoa. Ilene

Thanks for the welcome. I am located about 35 miles west of Albany in a township called "Glen." It's in Montgomery County, Exit 28 of the Thruway, about 3 miles south of Fultonville. I can get good coffee from the neighborhood store because I own it. Seriously, I own a country store with a small cafe and take pride in serving good coffee in a rural, agricultural area where you might not expect to find it. Customers appreciate good coffee even if they are not familiar with different varieties or roasts. I carry only a few varieties of beans in the shop because demand just doesn't warrant a larger selection. But I can fill special orders through a specialty roaster. I am surprised to hear that Syracuse doesn't have a good selection.

IMO, most coffee shops, diners and restaurants in America serve weak coffee. It's like they've been buying coffee from Sysco for the past 30 years and didn't notice there's been a coffee revolution. Whenever I return to NYC I am astonished at the weak coffee served in almost every corner store--the same weak coffee that they served years ago when I lived there. I just don't understand it. In my little country store in rural upstate New York, I get great coffee from my supplier and there are many, many choices available at different price points. Jeez, even McDonald's now serves organic, fair trade coffee from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and it is excellent. It's either weak crap at the corner store, burnt coffee at Starbucks, or a trip to McDonalds. Sorry for the rant, but this has really been a pet peeve of mine for a long time.

I love strong coffee but hate Starbucks. I've heard they buy cheap beans and overroast them to achieve the flavor profile. IMO, many consumers have been brainwashed into thinking that burnt coffee is good coffee. But, hey. with a SB on every corner, they're obviously doing something right.

Oh wow Megan; that is so cute. I just love the way you used all the candies. I love the vegetable patch and the wreath over the doorway.

Mmmm. Let us know how it turns out.

This topic always generates lots of interest and many opinions. I wanted to add a couple of comments. I just checked the ingredients in several different brands of artificial vanilla carried by one of my suppliers and I noticed that one brand includes alcohol. So whatever you decide to buy, double check the ingredients. You can substitute in equal amounts, adjusting to suit your tastes. (If you were using "double strength" or "triple strength" products, available to the trade, you'd use less, but I don't think that's the case here.) Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Wendy's Banana Cake (not bread) recipe is in RecipeGullet.. I'm not crazy about candied fruit, but I think nuts would be very good.

Vanilla flavor; no alcohol. Clickety here. I agree with previous recommendations to use artificial vanilla extract. I have used powdered vanilla and organic vanilla extract and have never noticed a difference between these expensive items and artificial... at least not in the basic items that a I bake (cookies, brownies, pies, etc.) I made the switch after reading the results of Cook's Illustrated's tests, when the price of vanilla skyrocketed a few years ago.

Upload the photo into your album. Click on the thumbnail so it appears full size. On the bottom right you'll see a phrase, "click for actual URL." Click and the link will appear. Copy it by highlighting and right-clicking "copy." Go to your post and click on IMG and then paste the link. Preview post and the photo should appear. Good luck.

French. There's a long thread on canneles here.

Oh my god. I want to jump through the screen and grab them.

Lorna, that looks scrumptious. And your photography is getting to be as good as Patrick's ...almost....

Here's a photo of the Gramery Tavern cake made in a large bundt cake. The mini bundts had alot more detail. Abra, I sprayed the pans with alot of Pam with flour to prevent sticking and it worked well. I made this cake a few times with no problem. Eden, let us know how it turns out; hope Bill doesn't have to become the human garbage can. K8Memphis, thanks for the tutorial. Your posts are always so informative and funny

I have a related question. An Amish women in my area makes "Cashew Crunch" for me. It contains sugar, butter and roasted cashews. She usually uses salted butter, buying the least expensive brand available at the market. The toffee always comes out shiny, which is the way we want it to look. For the last batch, I gave her unsalted butter and she added a little salt. It came out looking dull. It wasn't really noticable until we compared the two batches side by side. We assumed the difference was due to the difference in butters but didn't understand why. Would salt content affect the shinyness? Any thoughts? Thanks.

i would have thought most any cake recipe would be fine ..but personal preference for getting cakes out of the pan much easier for me would be a product called cake release, i think wiltons puts it out but there are other godo ones out there ← I suggested the Gramercy Tavern recipe because it was not only delicious and so appropriate to the holiday season, but the facet marks that Eden mentioned showed up distinctly. Other cake batters and even muffin batters would probably work just as well. You could always freeze the whole thing after baking and pop out each little cake.

If you like spicy cakes, made with molasses and Guinness Stout , I suggest trying the Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread cake. A photo of it is here. I baked a few of these last Christmas in a regular bundt pan and in mini-bundt pans. I sprayed the pans with Pam (the kind with flour in it) and the cakes were easy to remove and the indentations from the design were very precise. Dusted them with xxx sugar and served with whipped cream. They were very moist, almost pudding-like. Everybody raved. I think the recipe would work well in your molds. BTW, I split the 6-pack of Guinness between the batter (1) and me (5).

I've used Pam with flour successfully baking chocolate cakes and cheesecakes in mini bundt pans. I've also frozen them and then released using heat gun; popped out perfectly.

So that's how you spell Nakkus! Congrats, Megan's Mom!

Believe it or not, it's organic Fair Trade, some type of collaboration between Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Newman's Own; both names are printed on the cup. It was $1.49 plus tax for a 12 oz cup. Seemed a little pricey for McD's, but worth it for good coffee.

For shortbread, I use a combination of all purpose and rice flour. 75% AP to 25%rice. I've used volume as well as weight measurement with no appreciable difference. I've tried it with white rice flour and brown rice flour (usually Bob's Red Mill) and both are good. I love the texture from the rice flour. I first learned about this combo in a Craig Claiborne column, NY Times, sometime in the 1970s. I still have the clipping someplace in one of my piles of papers...

I'm not sure if you're referring to mark-up or gross margin. If your customer is doubling his/her cost, this is a 50% gross margin and I don't think it's ridiculous at all. Just look at the economics. Let's say an item is $1.00 wholesale and resale price is $1.50; the cost of goods is 66% and gross margin is 33%. Gross margin is always calculated as a percentage of sales price, not cost. If the same item is resold for $2.00, cost of goods is 50% and gross margin is 50%. If I buy 12 items @1.00 wholesale for a total of $12.00 and charge $1.50 retail, I have to sell eight items just to break even. Hopefully, I'll sell the remaining four items and make a profit. But the shrinkage mentioned by JasonTrue is all too common. If one item gets tossed, the gross profit on the whole deal is $4.50. Then there are costs associated with packaging, whether it's a sheet of paper & bag for take-out, a disposable plate, a napkin.... say 5 cents for each sale. That's another .55 off the profit.... and on and on ... So the actual margin is very slim. While I may accept 33% on some items, I would expect a higher gross margin on others. Especially if I wanted to stay in business.

Do you have the recipe?