cakewalk

Well this was a nice stroll down memory lane. Not only that, but a timely one, too. These days, I like to break the fast with ice cream. Really. Milk to coat my empty stomach, sugar for energy. Tastes good, too. And you?

When the Italian prune-plums appear, that's the sign that summer is on its way out. If I can stop myself from eating them all out of hand, I love the Marion Burros plum cake. Simple and delicious.

Lovely post, thank you. The issue of time management really caught my eye, it is one of my biggest downfalls. And to think that someone actually enjoys this aspect! I think it could make a good topic on its own (unless there is one already? I haven't been able to find it.) Connected to this, there is the issue of impatience. When baking, impatience leads to most of my mess-ups. It happens less frequently now, but it's still there.

This is a nice thread, thanks for starting it, I enjoy reading the responses. (I don't cook, I bake. Very unprofessionally, I might add. I think I like it for the same reason I've always liked magic acts.)

Not meaning to hijack this thread (just a tangent), but it never occurred to me that making pickles could be sort of the same process as making sourdough bread. (Duh.) This is pretty much exactly what I do to make a starter, except I use flour instead of cucumbers. (And I omit the salt, of course. Aye, there's the rub.) Well, fermentation is fermentation, I suppose. One of the posts above mentioned chlorine content in tap water, and that's what made the penny drop. I use tap water for my starter, but I let it sit out overnight so the chlorine dissipates. I never had any desire to make pickles before, but now I'm out the door to buy some cucumbers at the market.

Good distinction.

The name is interesting. In the New York City of the 50's-60's it was called a Creamsicle. (Still is, actually.) Nothing better on a hot summer day. I totally agree with your point. I want the Creamsicle, but in addition, I want the "madeleine" attached to the creamsicle as well. Haagen-Dazs doesn't deliver.

I agree with this. An immersion blender will do the same thing. (Experience speaking here.) If you said your soup was too thick, then I'd suggest adding a liquid -- although you would have figured that out yourself. But gumminess is altogether different. Someone mentioned adding diastatic malt powder to the soup. Can anyone explain why? What does it do to soup? It gives my bread a better rise, but what's the soup connection?

A very interesting idea about cronuts from the always interesting Joe Pastry blog: http://www.joepastry.com/2013/cro-nutty/

Interesting. They hype is, well, hype. Take it for what it's worth. But I think the idea is good. I could see using the trimmings of puff pastry in this manner, made as little bites.

The Alice Medrich book I mentioned above is "Bittersweet." She writes about natural and alkalized cocoas and then says, "When I use a Dutch-process cocoa, I prefer one that is moderately rather than highly alkalized. I like Valrhona, Pernigotti, Droste, and Guittard Jersey." She goes on to say, "I have seen packages that are not correctly labeled. The highly regarded Maison du Chololat cocoa, which is Dutch process, carries no indication of it on the label. Similarly, although the industrial bulk package of Valrhona indicates that it is Dutch process, the retail package does not." '

Alice Medrich, in one of her books, writes about Dutch vs. natural cocoa. Her recipes generally specify when to use one or the other, or if you can use either. She mentions Valrhona as a Dutched cocoa, but also mentions (I don't remember precise wording) that it is "barely" Dutched or "less" Dutched than many other brands. I remember it only because I had never realized there were "degrees" of Dutching. I will try to find this later. Also the book is several years old, and I don't know if Valrhona still does it the same way. (But it is such a lovely cocoa.) Does anyone really use coca powder because of its antioxidant properties?!

Is this a fact?Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD It's a question. From responses made above, it seem TJ's used to sell KAF under the TJ name, but they no longer do. (Which is really too bad, but what can ya do?)

I use King Arthur's bread flour, and I love it. I also use their Queen Guinevere cake flour, which is the smoothest, silkiest flour ever, and it makes the lightest, tenderest, and most beautiful cakes. But for all purpose flour I have always used Hecker's, from the days before I ever heard of King Arthur (or bread flour and cake flour, for that matter.) I've gotten used to how Hecker's produces certain cakes that I make often. I tried it once with KA's all-purpose, and it was noticebly (to me) different. I later learned that KA's all purpose flour has a significantly higher protein percentage than Hecker's, which would explain the dfference in textures. But I like KA's all purpose flour for cookies. I bought their diastatic malt a while ago but I haven't used it yet. Next loaf. Something to look forward to,

Trader Joe's flour is actually King Arthur flour?

A while ago, in a thread on pomegranate molasses, someone posted a link for these cookies. (I cut and pasted it below, I hope it still comes up as a link. If not, try the one below it.) They are the best new cookies I've made in a very long time. The only thing I would change next time is that I'd increase the amount of fennel, but that's just personal taste. These are really excellent. I roll them to 1/16" and follow her suggestion to reduce the oven temp to 250F after baking, return the cookies to the oven, then turn the oven off. Leave them in the oven until it has completely cooled. It crisps the cookies beautifully without burning them. They're sort of a cross between a cookie and a cracker. I use Cortas brand pomegranate molasses. Fennel sesame cookies http://debunix.net/r...ameCookies.html

http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artwork.php?artworkid=3332&size=large

I'm curious about your apparent feeling that there would be something wrong with "appealing to housewives" - am I reading that correctly? ← Well housewives, as we all know, are sloppy, lazy, not very intelligent, and they should just stick with cake mixes. Right? After all, they just dump a pound of butter into things.

That's probably because sugary food doesn't go as well with beer as savory, salt- and fat-laden food. My guess, anyway . ← Good point.

I just made a fresh batch of the pretzels. Solved the "green" problem, it was the pot I was using to boil them, and also I used a bit less baking soda. But that Alton Brown recipe is a really good one, and very simple. There's nothing sweet for the superbowl. All these superbowl-related recipes are savory. Why is that? (Except I've seen that cake in the shape of a football field.) I made cookies anyway.

It's getting close. I'm going to friends, they'll make dinner but I want to make pretzels. Last night I did a test run with Alton Brown's recipe; here's an adaptation: 1 1/2 cups warm water 1 tablespoon sugar 2 teaspoons kosher salt 1 package active dry yeast 22 oz AP flour (4 1/2 cups) 2 oz unsalted butter, melted Vegetable oil, for pan 10 cups water 2/3 cup baking soda 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water Pretzel salt Combine water, sugar and kosher salt in bowl; sprinkle yeast on top. Allow to sit until mixture begins to foam. Add flour and butter and, using dough hook, mix on low until well combined. Change to medium and knead until smooth and pulls away from side of bowl, 4-5 min. Put dough in clean oiled bowl, cover with plastic, let rise 50-55 min or until doubled in size. Preheat to 450 F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment, brush with oil. Set aside. Bring 10 cups water and baking soda to boil in 8-qt saucepan or roasting pan. Divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each to a 24” rope. Make a U-shape, form shape of a pretzel. Place onto parchment. Place pretzels into boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 sec. Remove from water, return to sheet pan, brush top of each with beaten yolk mixture and sprinkle with pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown, 12-14 min. Transfer to rack. The taste was very, very good, but I thought they were too soft. (The melted butter?) Also, they turned green!!! This probably has something to do with the baking soda, but what? And how do I avoid it? Alton Brown uses much more soda than I've seen in any other recipe, most of which require 2-3 Tbs of baking soda, not 2/3 of a cup. But I suspect the amount of soda is why the taste was as good as it was. But they're very unappealing when they turn green, no matter how good they taste. Any suggestions?

They look great. I saw this recipe on their website and they're on my "to do" list. Do you think they can be frozen?

I made dulce de leche for the first time last week. (Twice.) I didn't use canned condensed milk, I figured if I'm making the stuff I'll start with milk and sugar. There are many recipes on the web, mostly pretty similar, but the important part seems to be the timing. This varied widely from recipe to recipe. I left the first batch on the stove too long (the recipe said 2 1/2 to 3 hours), and when it cooled it became very hard. I guess this is caramel candy now. I'm not quite sure what to do with it. So I simmered the second batch for about 45 minutes after it started to turn brown, about 1 1/2 hour total time. Tasted good, but too liquidy. I added it to a batch of brownies. Have you made your own dulce de leche? What methods do you use? How long do you leave it on the stove? What is the consistency? I'm trying to get it to a spreading, jam-like consistency, so it will be spreadable even when it's cold from the fridge. Is that even a possibility? (There is a recipe on eGullet, but it requires equipment I don't have.) In any case, I have to say that tasting this while it's still warm is so absolutely wonderful. Going off on a tangent -- if anyone has read Slaughterhouse Five, remember the part when Billy Pilgrim is in the POW camp and they're working in a candy factory? And he has a taste of the candy they're making, and just that taste makes him burst into tears? Well it didn't make me burst into tears, but tasting the warm dulce de leche brought this scene from the book right back to me, and it's at least 25 years since I read it. (Time to read it again, I guess.) (ETA: Thanks for merging.)

Yes, I'm looking through my cookie binder (I can't believe I have such a thing) and I used the Martha Stewart recipe. The only notes I made were to roll out the dough into a larger diameter log (recipe says 1-1/4 inch), and to slice the logs into thicker rounds (recipe calls for 1/8 inch.) I don't know how they'll bake up, but I will try them in the larger size. I find that these cute itsy bitsy cookies are just to easy to pop in my mouth, and I end up eating a gazillion of them. On another note: a few nights ago I made Dorrie Greenspan's peanut butter crisscrosses from Baking from My Home to Yours; they're baked and in the freezer, where they seem to be defending themselves well. My question is this: I tend to decrease the sugar content in recipes from this book, because I've found that they're usually too sweet for me. But the peanut butter cookies took a drastic sugar reduction: instead of 1 cup of light brown sugar, I used 3/4 cup; instead of 3/4 cup white sugar, I used 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs. I still rolled the balls of dough in sugar before baking. They are really good. Very peanut-buttery, but still sweet. (Quite a few never made it to the freezer, of course.) So I'm curious -- those of you who have made them before, did you use the full amount of sugar? Everyone who has tried them so far has been an adult, and said they were great. I'm wondering if the reduced sugar content would go over well with kids.

I love lime cookies. Can you post your recipe for the Lime Snowdrops? ← I used Ling's infamous recipe, they're on RecipeGullet. I think she calls them Lime Meltaways, I don't know why I changed the name to snowdrops. When I get home I'll look up my printed out recipe to see if I made any notes or changes. I do remember thinking I wanted them to be a bigger cookie rather than the smallish cookies they were.