cakewalk

Was thinking the same thing, it's great incentive to get the hell out of there ASAP. Glad you are on the mend, your absence was certainly noted.

I hope you heal quickly and completely @David Ross! We are missing you on these baking threads. Those cookies look delicious.

I'm a liar. Sleep is for people who buy their bread. This is one good loaf. Flavorful, lovely texture. Sweet dreams.

Plain old boring bread, just like all the others. Levain, a bit of yeast, flour, water, salt. From Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery, mostly. I won't cut it open until tomorrow morning, it needs to cool and I need to sleep.

That's my biggest hesitation about baking the cookies in advance! I'm currently baking some Neiman Marcus cookies. I got to wondering where/how this urban legend started. It's older than I thought: https://www.snopes.com/business/consumer/cookie.asp But the biggest question is: who created this wonderful recipe? It's really a very good cookie. I'm not even sure they'll make it to the freezer at all! I just gave some away to two little boys who were playing in the hallway outside my door. I know I'll bring some downstairs to the doormen when I take my dog out. I've already had some with a cup of coffee. It's a good thing this recipe makes a ton of cookies.

Oh my, does that look good!

Sounds good. You might try a bit of pomegranate molasses for an extra kick. I never made pomegranate curd, but I have tried cranberry curd several times. I know they're not the same, but my point is this: be aware that the vibrant magenta color will most likely not materialize. If it does, please let us know!! I saw photos of beautiful luscious magenta cranberry curd on the web and tried a couple of the recipes several years ago. I was devastated at the result. which was a very anemic-looking pink. Tasted okay, but I found the color made it drab and unappetizing. Maybe a drop or two of red food coloring, if you're not averse to that stuff, could change that.

I just looked at their website and I see that their CCCs contain both butter and margarine. I'm sure that has something to do with the thinness and crispiness of the cookies. I've never used margarine in a CCC. I also noticed that their lemon cookies and their sugar cookies contain baker's ammonia. Aren't they clever?

I don't know those cookies, but are they anything like Tate's? I think they make a good thin and crisp chocolate chip cookie. I like thin, crisp cookies of any kind. Alton Brown had a Good Eats episode on CCCs, a link is below. He talked about The Thin, The Chewy, and The Puffy and what makes each one the way it is. I've never tried his thin CCC recipe, I tend to not make CCCs because I am always so disappointed. Although with other cookies, I've discovered that baker's ammonia goes a long way towards thin and crisp. I never thought of trying it with a chocolate chip cookie, but maybe I'll give it a go. http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/good-eats/episodes/three-chips-for-sister-marsha2

I'm not buying any books right now (no room), but I'd love to hear what you think of that one as you start to use it. I loved her blog and was very sorry when it ended. I'm less than thrilled with her on Serious Eats, but it looks like the book is more connected to her blog.

I've been thinking along the lines of @cdh. Not only, is he damaging the knives by using his steel? But also, what was he (and everyone else) using before you bought the ceramic steel? Did that hurt the knives? What if he continued to use that steel? Why would the knives suddenly be "in danger" if they hadn't been previously?

Do you folks freeze cookies that are already baked? Or are you freezing the cookie dough? I often freeze dough after it's mixed, but I've never frozen fully baked cookies. Mostly it's a room issue, but also I suspect I'd have a lot less to send if I had fully baked cookies in my freezer.

An oldie but goodie: cinnamon buns.

Good job on the pound cakes. I never line cake pans with parchment. I will sometimes line with foil, depending on what I'm baking, but foil can be molded to the exact shape of the pan so you don't get all those lumps and bumps. And I always grease the foil. I use parchment only for lining flat pans, like cookie sheets. But here's a tutorial on lining pans with parchment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRJ2r3Em5aw It's those corners that create all the problems.

If you eat it will you talk like a munchkin?

That's what I was wondering, because the only time I had cream that simply would not whip was when (I belatedly realized) I had mistakenly purchased light cream rather than heavy cream. So it could be that either yours was made incorrectly, or labeled incorrectly. Very frustrating when you are planning to use it for something specific and then can't. (But at least you can blame someone other than yourself!)

Best leftover: apple pie and coffee for breakfast while the dishwasher runs in the background. The crust was made with Earth Balance margarine and some shortening. It was very good, better than some all- butter crusts I've made. Not down to the carcass yet, but I'm looking forward to making turkey stock.

That's what I was thinking. I have a pizza cutter and I hardly ever make pizza. But when I want to cut dough into even strips, I use the pizza cutter and a ruler. In a professional kitchen you would probably have a particular item to do just that, but in the home kitchen I think most people use a lot of gadgets for things other than what they're intended. (I'm thinking about my egg slicer gadget, which does such a good job on mushrooms.)

I don't drink coke or other soft drinks, but you can say pretty much the same thing about grapefruit juice, and a lot of other beverages as well.

Alice Medrich has a book called Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts that has a lemon curd recipe with no fat at all (except the egg yolk), no butter and no oil. I always mean to try it (I'm a big fan of Alice Medrich), but whenever I make lemon curd Sherry Yard's recipe always wins. Anyway, the recipe can be found here: http://bakingbites.com/2008/04/low-fat-lemon-curd/ except that the original recipe says "beat the egg until light," whereas the link says to "lightly beat the egg." Huge difference. Go with Medrich. Now that I look at it, I see the link completely changes the method, although the ingredients are the same. Here's a paraphrase of what Medrich says: -Combine zest, juice, sugar in small pan, bring to a simmer. In small bowl beat egg until light. -Beat some hot lemon mixture into the egg, then add egg mixture back to the saucepan. -Cook, stirring constantly, until it just starts to simmer at the edges. Stir & cook 15 seconds, strain into a bowl, add vanilla, cool.

I can't seem to find the lemon curd recipe online. It's by Genevieve Ko in the book Better Baking. I know it's there somewhere! I think it should be one to one margarine for butter. I have used it for cakes and cookies at that ratio. I've never made pie crust with it, but I'm planning to do so for Thanksgiving, so I'll see how that works. But it worked well for cookies, so perhaps it will for pie crust and sables as well. It won't taste the same, of course, but it is still good.

I use earth balance margarine when I have to be dairy free. It comes in sticks as well as tubs, I use the sticks for baking. There's an olive oil lemon curd that's supposed to be very good. I think the recipe was formulated to be made with olive oil, it's not used as a substitute. I will try to find the recipe.

It has oil. Most cornbread recipes use melted butter, so I figure the oil added the same fat (a bit more). As did the coconut milk, I guess. I still suspect the oven temp. You're right about the custard, otherwise that trifle is a nice idea. I think cornbread croutons are going to happen. Thanks!

I made some cornbread over the weekend that sucks. I can't use dairy in anything I'm making for TG, so I found a cornbread recipe that uses coconut milk. I actually split it in half, made half with coconut milk, half with almond milk. They both suck. It's not because of the recipe per se, which I think is okay. The instructions said to bake at 350 F. As soon as I saw that I thought, no, that is much too low, this is not going to bake well, raise the oven temp to at least 400 F. But did I actually do that? No. I figured, well, follow the recipe. Taste is okay, it's the texture that sucks. Because of the low temp. Or maybe because coconut milk/almond milk does that to corn bread? So I'm wondering what to do with it. I'd rather not throw it out. I wasn't planning to make stuffing, but I might have to adapt ... I made cranberry sorbet. I am so making that mashed sweet potato dish with chipotles in adobo. I stopped caring about the rest of the food when I read this. I've done my shopping (mostly) and have tons of food. Somehow this will sort its way into actual edible dishes. Ever notice how that happens?

For the coke buttercream: if you can get your hands on some coke syrup, that might work well.