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Beanie

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Everything posted by Beanie

  1. Have you read this thread and tried Annie's recipe? I've tried it a few times and haven't had the shrinkage problem.
  2. Here it is. I have one that belonged to my mother... forgot all about it until reading this post. Now I have a reason to dig it out of the closet. Edited to say: Oops. I just noticed andiesenji's post.
  3. Interesting article on SLC in current issue of Travel and Leisure.
  4. Jason, I asked a friend of mine from Salt Lake City about the restaurants on this web site. He's eaten at all of them except for Toscana and Paris Bistro. They're all good, with Metropolitan probably the best in town. He's heard good things about Paris Bistro too. One of his favorite sushi places is Takashi, and there's a sushi bar called Mikado, near Sandy, Utah (a suburb south of SLC) that he recommends. In Provo, where you'll be staying is a place called Chef's Table...excellent reputation, but he hasn't been there yet. Finally, La Caille, near Sandy, has "the best atmosphere of any restaurant in the country (many film scenes have been shot there.)" Sorry I don't have more details about any of these places, but the above web site has links to some of them. The local online newspapers also have listings and reviews (Salt Lake City Weekly; Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News.) Have a good time and please report back to us. Ilene
  5. I agree with bkeith about weighing. I've also scaled recipes by converting to baker's percentage where flour is always 100% and other ingredients are expressed as a percentage of the flour. The total is always more than 100%. Once you do this a few times, it's really easy. I found this link explaining it. I'm sure this has been discussed on eG but I haven't had time to do a search.
  6. Hee hee .... I've been thinking, oh, to be in my twenties again! (Just a guess based on Ling's photo....) ← I was thinking the same thing until I saw a photo of Ling from the neck down! Only kidding; just couldn't resist.
  7. Fried pies? Do you have a recipe that you can share? I have lots of dried apple slices that I sell as snacks and I'd love to try frying a pie!
  8. You're such a wealth of information. Thanks for adding to this discussion.
  9. I was surprised too, because I think of the freezer being subject to defrosting, not the entire refrigerator. Maybe the refrigerator cycles on and off to maintain temperature and causes humidity or condensation... just a guess. Anyway, he kept repeating this over and over -- at surprising length given the propensity of farmers in this area to limit their comments to "yup" and "nope" (I say this with affection.) He went on to suggest that your local appliance store might have an old refrigerator that they'd be glad to have you take away. I didn't see how they store the apples, but this is a great reason to go back for more cider donuts. I'll report back over the weekend.
  10. There's an apple orchard down the road from me. I've noticed apples stored in wooden bins in the barn ... basically cold storage, but not refrigerated. I'll ask them about it and post a reply. It may take a a couple of days. ← I stopped by the orchard this morning and talked to the owner. I was mistaken about the wooden bin thing mentioned above for long-term storage. His family successfully stores apples for months at a time in an old, manual defrost refrigerator that holds at a consistent temperature of 36-38 degrees. He was emphatic about keeping the temperature consistent. Newer, self defrosting refrigerators cycle on and off and will not be effective. Large commercial operations utilize Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage. More about that here.
  11. By the way, the above link is related to canning, not baking, but I think the conversion ratios would be the same.
  12. Steven, This is really interesting. I've heard good things about Clear-jel but never tried it. I have an account with the wholesale distributor that supplies the store in your link for Thermo-Flo. I just checked their online catalog and Instant Clearjel and Therm-Flo are both available at a fraction of the King Arthur price -- but only in 25 lb. bags . They will send me a free sample to try. If it works out, I may be able to split a bulk bag with some Amish families who just moved into my area. I just found the following conversion on this website. 1 tblspoon cornstarch = 1.5 tbls Instant Clearjel 2 tbls flour or tapioca = 1 tbls. Instant Clearjel This confirms that I didn't use enough tapioca flour in my berry pie. Thanks for your help. Ilene
  13. Thanks Wendy. I'll give it a try.
  14. After you crash from your sugar high, let us know how it turns out.
  15. Thanks Wendy. I didn't know this. How much cornstarch would you recommend for 5 cups of mixed berries weighing about 1.5 lbs? I used tapioca flour because I had it available and figured I'd give it a try. Now I'm anxious to learn more about it. If I have time this weekend, I'll make a few pies using different thickeners and report back.
  16. I had a disastrous experience this weekend making a mixed berry pie and would appreciate comments. I based it on a successful blueberry pie that I made last week using 5 cups IQF wild blueberries (unthawed) tossed with sugar, spice, lemon juice and about 3 tbls. tapioca flour. Baked from frozen state; came out with a perfect balance of fruit and thickened juice. This weekend I used IQF mixed berries -- a combo of strawberries, wild blueberries, red raspberries and blackberries -- and did the same thing. The pie looked beautiful from the outside -- nicely crimped crust (finally) , in a rich shade of brown, sparkling with turbinado sugar. I cut into it and found ... mixed berry soup . Clearly, the berry combo had alot more water than the blueberries alone. I'm not sure if I should have thawed and drained the fruit first, precooked it, added alot more thickener, or what. I wound up cutting the top crust off, scooping the berry soup into a pot, cooking it down with cornstarch, dumping it back in the crust, refrigerating. By this morning the inside had congealed into a sludgelike mass with no evidence of whole berries. I ate it for breakfast Any thoughts on how I should have prepared it? Thanks!
  17. Krispy Kreme AND sweetened condensed milk AND raisins AND butter rum sauce (made with a pound of confectioners sugar) !!!??? Do you think this is sweet enough? I think I'm gonna be ill. Where is the emoticon barf bag when we need it?
  18. I always freeze them first, then cut. I have a 14" knife with handle on each end and just push down. The blade's a little too thick, but it works pretty well.
  19. There's an apple orchard down the road from me. I've noticed apples stored in wooden bins in the barn ... basically cold storage, but not refrigerated. I'll ask them about it and post a reply. It may take a a couple of days.
  20. I had the same problem over the past few weeks (even though the crusts came out great). But this weekend I made five more pies and mixed the dough just a little longer. It was like a pie crust epiphany. Everything combined perfectly and the dough rolled out easily. Yup. It's a "good thing."
  21. There's no shortage of sugar or canned pumpkin in retail stores in the Albany NY area. All the supermarkets have huge displays of seasonal baking ingredients. But that doesn't mean there won't be a shortage in the near future. I'm sure current inventories were purchased some time ago. My suppliers haven't mentioned any problems, but I'll check later in the week and report back.
  22. As usual, Patrick, your food and photos are scrumptious.
  23. Ah, that makes more sense. So you're basically reheating your filling while the crust bakes. OK, I'm giving it a shot this weekend, I'll let you know how it comes out! ← Yup. I'm also baking this weekend...apple pie and blueberry. I'll report back too. ← I promised to report back on the results of my apple and blueberry pies, so here it is. Last Saturday, I baked two double crust apple pies and a blueberry pie with streussel topping, both from the frozen state. I baked them in a commercial convection oven at my shop, at 325 degrees for two hours, 15 minutes. I can't post photos because my digital camera is on the fritz, but the apple pies turned out looking very much like amynyc's beautiful pie -- except my fluting isn't as good. I was afraid the fillings may have been overcooked (the blueberry filling boiled over the top onto the baking sheet) but they weren't. After cooling, I placed them on the front counter and sold them within two hours. I realize that selling three pies is not a big deal to you city folks, but in a rural location with low volume, it was a pleasant surprise. Even better, one of the customers came in today and told me the apple pie was delicious. He told me that he usually doesn't eat the edges of pie crusts because they are dry and tough, but this crust was fantastic and he ate every crumb. So, the main point of this post is to thank Wendy for her pie crust recipe and instructions, and everyone else for their support.
  24. I thought the novices among us might be interested in this photo demonstration of decorative edges for pie crusts. It's from Hormel's web site.
  25. Amyknyc, Your pie looks great! I love the fluting. I have such trouble getting the pointy edges; even when they look good before baking, they tend to disappear during baking. I guess I need to keep practicing. Let us know how it tastes. I bet it will be delicious.
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