cakewalk

Well this certainly seems to answer my question! I will give it a try. http://wscwong.typepad.com/dessert_by_candy/2012/10/use-that-rumtopf.html#axzz2jhIOT34C

I'm in the process of doing this now. It is taking much, much longer than it should. It is an (almost) impossible process. As someone mentioned above, I also bought many cookbooks (particularly baking books) when I first started learning and doing. Now I have more of an idea of what I like and which ones I actually will use, whether for reference or for the recipes. I brought several up to Housing Works yesterday, and I sold two a little while ago (they were particularly expensive books; buyer was happy, seller was happy). I also have a lot of the "discount" books, but some of them are so offbeat I want to hold on to them, even though I don't use them. Ay, there's the rub -- wanting to hold on to things, even if I don't use them. My non-food-related books are also a part of this winnowing, which is particularly difficult because re-reading is one of my favorite things in the world. Well, this should be my biggest problem in life!

Interesting. There are certain things where I think, "I know this is simple to make, but I can't be bothered." There are other things where I think, "I'll be damned if I'm spending $xxxx on that when I can just make it myself." I guess everyone has different limits. I find things like pumpkin pie spice and simple syrup sort of bewildering. I mean, why buy that ready-made? But others might find them to be great conveniences.

I have some extra rumtopf that's been sitting in my fridge for ages. (I made a lot, we drank a lot, gave some away, then I forgot about it.) It uses different fruits than those usually put into a fruitcake, but I'm wondering if it might not work anyway. It has raspberries, cherries, pineapple, peaches, plums, stuff like that, mostly summer fruit. They've been sitting in a rum/sugar mixture for quite a while. There's no citrus, as that tends to make rumtopf bitter. Any suggestions of how/if to incorporate this into a fruitcake?

Yes, traditional meddle eastern hummus is made with raw, not toasted, sesame tahini. Usually the choice is between shelled and unshelled sesame seeds for making the tahini. That said, hummus, even traditional hummus, lends itself to numerous personal and regional interpretations, so why not try it with toasted sesame seeds? How about an "Asian-style" hummus? Could be interesting. Over the years I've made various types of hummus. A favorite is "Southwestern" style hummus, made with black garbanzo beans and chipotle peppers, or an Asian style made with black soy beans, roasted sesame seeds, and some plum vinegar. These are far from traditional, but very interesting and make a surprising appetizer or side dish. Definitely go for it. Middle easterners can get a little shirty about this. The word "hummus" means "chick pea" in both Hebrew and Arabic. In the west, we use the word "hummus" to refer to almost anything with that same spread-like consistency, no matter what it's made of. I think the spreads are all good, but I can't bring myself to call them "hummus."

From necessity (they don't have it here), I always make my own tahini, including roasting the seeds. It is really easy. Interesting. From what I always understood, middle eastern tehina is not from roasted sesame seeds, it's a raw sesame paste. Asian sesame paste is made from roasted sesame seeds. Like day and night, really. The Asian sesame paste is (IMO) a million times more flavorful. I use it in cooking and also in some baking, but I've never mixed it with water-lemon juice-garlic like I do with "regular" tehina.

I've always loved your avatar. It's those ears, they're so cute. But all these years I always thought it was a bear cub! About those bread stands: are the breads all different? (I notice that one stand has mostly flatbreads.) Does each stand come from an individual bakery? Do you prefer one over the other? How large is the city where you live? What size population does the market serve? Great blog. Thank you.

I always mix the tahina with water before adding it to the hummus, rather than using tahina straight from the container. The Ottolenghi recipe seems to be changing the order, adding the water at the end, but I'm not sure it's the order that makes the difference. Tahina always gets thicker if it sits for a while after it's mixed.

I've never seen them sold on the stalk. My CSA distributes them still on the stalk, but I always figured that was because it was so much less work for the farmers that way. When I get home I lay the stalk across the sink and cut off the sprouts, then gather them. I usually cook them within the next day or two. I don't really see an advantage to the consumer to buy them still on the stalk. I don't think you can let them sit around too long anyway, and storage room is certainly an issue. Roasting them on the stalk might make for an interesting presentation, but does it offer anything else?

I agree with a lot of things said here. I'm more into baking than cooking, and baking demands a different type of precision than cooking. But one important thing for me is the recipe source. Is it a trusted source? For example, if I'm following an Alice Medrich recipe, I know that recipe has been tested and it works. If I do make adaptations, I'm very aware that I will end up with something "other" than what was intended, even if it is good. If I find something on Allrecepies.com or something like that, I really have no idea where it's from and how accurate it is, so I'm more likely to make adaptations. I don't trust the source at all, so I see it as more of a general idea that looks interesting, and I take it from there.

I made the Cook's Illustrated chocolate bundt cake the other night. It's wrapped and in the freezer (which I hope won't mess it up), but I made a mini loaf cake with part of the batter. (I had to.) It is a very good cake. Good deep flavor, very moist, I would definitely serve that on its own, just to help wash down a cup of coffee or tea. Thanks very much for that suggestion. Next up is Malgieri's brown butter hazelnut financier. I'm really glad this book was mentioned, I hadn't looked at it in a long time and now I'm revisiting it.

I really don't know what you're referring to here. I don't remember ever reading or hearing about a heterosexual couple being refused a marriage license (or an apartment, or a job, or health coverage) because of their heterosexuality.

That is an interesting letter, thanks for the link. But I disagree with her 100%. (And, just FYI, in no way do I agree with the Barilla guy, not one bit. I don't buy a particular brand of pasta, but I will make a point of not buying Barilla due to his statement, which BTW I attribute to cluelessness more than anything else, but he's still responsible for it.) But in that letter she is saying, "you have power and influence, therefore you should keep your mouth shut." Oh no. That is not reasonable, and whether someone agrees or disagrees with her cause/his cause is irrelevant. She does not get to choose at what point people can or cannot voice their opinions.

Not only did we steal the steak, we stole Calvin Trillin!! (I never knew he was from Kansas City!)

Very nice. I recently got this book, but haven't had time to sit down and read through it yet. (Except I made the oatmeal cookies, which I didn't like at all, but I figure that's not really what the book is for.) Just curious -- did you put chains and stones in your oven for the steam? It's very intimidating! But your breads are certainly beautiful. And I like the braid in the bottom picture, with the croissants. Is that four strands?

I love your choices. I have the Malgieri book (I love Malgieri) but that is one of the recipes I have never really looked at before. The Craig Claiborne cake looks amazing, I Googled the recipe. The poppyseed recipe has me curious (I don't usually like poppy seeds), I never heard of Solo poppyseeds!

I don't know if this counts as a "whatever" but a good blueberry coffee cake with a layer of brown sugar/cinnamon in the middle is perfect as it is. And this one might seem a little strange, but for Passover I make a chocolate chip chiffon cake (using potato starch and cake meal) and it needs nothing else. Just wanted to say that for Passover I still make your biscotti recipe. (Cranberry pecan biscotti.) I always go to the same friends every year, and I wouldn't even get in the door without those biscotti. Care to share that chocolate chip chiffon cake recipe? (I'd make it in addition to the biscotti, of course.) Anyway, I agree, I think chiffon cakes can be excellent unadorned. The texture is so nice because of the oil. I'm basically a serious coffee drinker, but I like chiffon cake with a cuppa tea.

I love Maida Heatter. I love her recipes and I love her "down-to-earth-ness." And yes, the idea of any of her cakes lasting "several days" is unheard of!

Is that the Guinness Stout gingerbread, or something different? I've made the Guinness one many times, it is excellent, and needs no help at all (except maybe a Guinness). Haven't made it in years, thanks for the reminder.But you've raised an interesting question, for me at least. How are you distinguishing between a quick bread and a cake? Yes, the Guinness one. I'm using 'quick bread' to mean something that is intended as a relatively unadorned snack rather than as a filled and frosted layer cake - typically loaf cakes like banana bread, pumpkin bread, pound cake - you might put a simple glaze on it, but that's it. We could argue about mixing methods, but I doubt we'll come to consensus (not all cakes start w/ creamed butter and sugar, etc). Cake is all in how you use it? What's the difference between cake and muffins, besides most people feel better about eating muffins for breakfast? (Or coffeecake, just not cake!)Pierre Herme's lemon loaf cake is pretty good, too, if I recall correctly. Nah, I really wasn't planning on arguing about mixing methods or anything else. I was just curious about the distinction you made. Because I guess that's kind of what I'm getting at. Quick breads, as you mentioned, are not generally meant for adornment. It's unusual for anyone to split a loaf cake in half and frost/ice it. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Cakes, more often than not, do get that treatment. Sometimes I find that it leads to a cake that is lacking in texture and flavor of its own. But over the years I've found some cakes (not necessarily loaf cakes) that are delicious without the addition of anything else. I was wondering if others knew of similar cakes. (And of course people do, great responses here.) I don't know that Pierre Herme lemon cake, but will check it out. Does it use a syrup? I'm always looking for a lemon cake that is nice and lemony without the addition of a syrup after baking it. I like the syrups fine, but I'd really like to find a cake that offers enough lemon flavor that it doesn't need that addition. Francois Payard has a Lemon Pound Cake that I remember liking, but I haven't made it in so long that I don't remember what I liked about it! He does not use a syrup, but his recipe calls for 1/4 cup heavy cream (in addition to butter). Seeing as how all things are connected no matter how much we try to separate them, this puts me in mind of the thread about "Does Fat Carry Flavor?" I guess that works in baking as well as cooking. I'm reminded of something Sherry Yard wrote in one of her books about adding lemon rind to a cake while creaming the butter, and not combining it with the sugar first. She said it carries more flavor if it's combined with the butter. (Now I have to go look and see where she said that!) As you might be able to tell from these meanderings, I'm among the minority of people who do not particularly like frosting, but I love cake!

I usually bake some kind of sandwich bread, usually a Pullman, and since I'm the only one eating it I slice it, wrap it well, and then freeze the slices. So just about every morning I'll take out two slices of bread and either make some sort of filling at home (PB & J, tuna, cheese, whatever) or I'll buy a scoop of egg salad or tuna fish from the "Gourmet" supermarket in my work building and make a sandwich with that. It's usually pretty lackluster, I need to think of better fillings.

Is that the Guinness Stout gingerbread, or something different? I've made the Guinness one many times, it is excellent, and needs no help at all (except maybe a Guinness). Haven't made it in years, thanks for the reminder. But you've raised an interesting question, for me at least. How are you distinguishing between a quick bread and a cake?

Thanks pyrguy and annabelle. I've made the Black Magic Cake, and yes, it really is a good cake. But it never made me want to stop looking. (Go figure.) The Cook's Illustrated cake is one I have not tried, but that will probably change shortly. I have one more to add to my list of plain cakes I make again and again: Lori Longbotham's Victorian Lemon-Coriander Seed Cake. (Her recipe calls for caraway seeds but I omit them, because caraway is not my thing.) The unexpected combination of lemon and coriander in a cake is what does it for me. Incredible aroma, great texture (even without buttermilk) and a really good and flavorful cake. She suggests trying it with lemon butter, cream cheese or lemon curd, but I've never used any of the above. No need to.

I'm wondering about your favorite cakes that you serve alone, all by themselves, because the cake itself is so good that it doesn't need any help from icing, frosting or whatever. I know that filled or iced cakes and such are part of long-standing traditions everywhere -- seven-layer cakes and Dobos tortes are just two examples. And I love them. But often I eat cakes and feel that the frosting or filling is there to mask an inferior cake. (An outrage!) So, do you have any cakes in your repertoire that are so good they can stand alone, with no dollops of this or quenelles of that or little dots of the other? I can think of three offhand that I make again and again, and I think the cake itself is so good that adding a frosting or even a glaze would detract from its goodness. Numero uno is Flo Braker's buttermilk cake. I love what buttermilk does to a cake, and this one is just perfect. A bit of a tang, beautiful texture, this cake needs nothing but a fork. I've made many buttermilk cakes and they were all good, but this is the one I keep coming back to again and again. Next is Alice Medrich's sesame seed cake. It also contains buttermilk, which accounts for its tenderness. In addition to black sesame seeds, which give it a lovely look, Medrich adds just a bit of toasted sesame oil to the cake, and it goes a long way. (I think she was playing around with "unusual" flavors in baked goods long before it was popular to do so.) Anyway, this cake needs no assistance from anything. Its flavor is a true joy. Third on my list is a recipe that someone posted here on eGullet many moons ago. It might even still be in Recipe Gullet for all I know. It's a pistachio cardamom cake, and of course with those flavors who needs anything else? It really does make a beautiful cake, all by itself. I'm still looking around for a chocolate cake that will stand on its own, but so far nothing comparable to the above three. I've made some nice chocolate cakes, but nothing I feel compelled to make again, I keep searching for a new recipe. So how about you? Do you make cakes that you serve with no adornment because the cake itself is perfect?

Well now I'm wondering how you came to that combination. Did you drink some Scotch first by itself?

I bought mine a long time ago in a cheapo store. (Jack's World in New York) I think it was $9.99, the proverbial steal. But I remember that there were slips of paper tucked into various pages with edits. The books were not shrinkwrapped or anything, so obviously a lot of those little slips of paper fell out. Anyway, I always assumed it was just the Jack's World copies that had errors, and that's why the books ended up in that store. Apparently not. I haven't looked at my copy in a long time. I remember that I enjoyed reading it tremendously when I first got it, not for the recipes but just to read, but I don't think I ever made anything from it.