cakewalk

I second @Kerry Beal's suggestion. Great book.

I am not disparaging anyone.

You seem to be blurring the distinction between home cooks and commercial bakers. I am not. I am talking about home bakers only.

Oh, yeah, sure. But can you make an angel food cake, huh? Can ya? And in a Pullman pan? Huh?

I also take the lid off at that point. It's not going to rise any more. I also put the whole loaf back into the oven after I've taken it out of the pan, just for a minute or two. I read this in a James Beard book years ago, it makes the crust just a bit crisper. I do it with all loaves, not just the Pullman.

Yes, I have some of those plastic bins with handles too, and they are very helpful. They're on the shelf that I can reach if I stand on my toes, so I can grab the handle and bring down the plastic bin. But for the shelf above that one there's no hope without the step stool.

That often concerns me as well. For the cake above, I didn't use the lid. For breads, I know I've seen quite a few loaves sold commercially where the tops were burned. I'm sure the breads themselves were okay, but I have always been secretly horrified that they still sell something that looks like that. (I see it at the Union Square green market all the time.) Most Pullman pans are treated (I don't know with what, or how) and I usually don't grease the sides of my pan at all when I make bread. I do lightly grease the bottom. I guess the tops are treated as well, I've never greased the top and it has never stuck. I think the loaves with the burned tops happen because they do grease the tops, and it's the oil that burns. (A completely unprofessional observation, I don't really know why their tops burn but that's my guess.) Give it a try.

I think it's a Yiddish plural form. My father always wrapped meats in butcher paper and wrote on them in English lettering. I'd find packages that were labeled "kaklets," which I always thought was amusing. But the "en" is a German and Yiddish plural ending. Mensch, menschen, etc. So kaklat, kaklaten. Could be.

I line the bottom of the pan with a strip of parchment paper, that's a must. When the cake has cooled, I cut around the sides to separate the cake from the pan. Then turn it upside down and it comes right out. I took a photo of the whole cake, but I thought I had too many photos up there so left it out. I'll try to find it.

Found a container of egg whites in the freezer, had completely forgotten about them. Time for angel food cake in a Pullman loaf pan. I think I have shots here of the batter, the upside-down, and crumb shots. (But I'm really not sure.)

Thank you for that lovely journey.

I love fresh cranberries and currently have 10 bags hogging up space in the freezer. I'll probably buy a few more, I like to have them all year long. So it is very possible, contrary to "the rules," that I will have fresh cranberries in almost every dish on Thanksgiving, from appetizer to dessert. So far I've made cranberry ketchup (I love it, make it every year, and it's great on turkey sandwiches) and cranberry chutney, which I've also been making for years, it is simple and wonderful. Links to the recipes are below, I think the chutney recipe is from someone who was an original eGulleter from way back when. That cranberry sauce with red wine sounds like it needs to be on my table with its sisters. https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/cranberry-ketchup-105755 http://acookinglife.typepad.com/a_cooking_life/2008/12/cranberry-chutney.html

That does sound like a good idea, but at knee-height that seems like a very high step to take. (Even if your GF is short and her knees are lower!) I have a two-step stepladder that I bought many years ago in a previous apartment when a light bulb blew out and I couldn't reach it. So I bought the stepladder, schlepped it home - and still couldn't reach the ceiling to change the light bulb! I had to ask a neighbor to do it. But it is indispensable for reaching my shelves, and the steps also sub as extra counter space for me in my very space-challenged kitchen.

I just want to second this idea of having many layers. Several years ago I was at (of all places) a bar mitzvah luncheon. It was a dairy buffet meal, and they had lasagne. The lasagne itself was nothing to write home about taste-wise, but it had about 12-15 layers and I still remember it for that reason. It was beautiful, truly eye-catching. I remember mentioning it (on the order of: "Look at this lasagne! I can't believe how many layers it has!"), but my comments got little by way of response. Not much of a foodie crowd. But all those layers were really striking. Myself, I always make a veggie lasagne with a bechamel, and I find that dried porcinis do a lion's share of work.

Wow. I'm a tahina on everything kind of person, and I've never even considered that one. (But I'm about to!)

Soapbox time!!

Add confectioner's sugar to the nut butter until you like the way it tastes. Granulated sugar won't dissolve. Then maybe add a little bit more before you add the nut butter to the cookies. When I make those "Magic in the Middles" cookies (it's a King Arthur recipe, you can find it on their website), they add confectioner's sugar to regular peanut butter for the filling. Regular peanut butter is plenty sweet as it is, but it doesn't seem overly sweet when I add more sugar before using it for this cookie.

And hi back atcha! We need listeners!! One of my pet peeves is the insistence on saying how many ingredients are in a recipe - and the lower the number, the better it's supposed to be. This trend seems to be relatively new, but it's everywhere. Only five ingredients!! Only three ingredients!!! I'm waiting for a recipe to blare: No Ingredients!! Yes, even you can make this mouth-watering dish using absolutely NO INGREDIENTS!!!!

Random musings: Is this going to boil down to semantics? If you add green apple schnapps and lemon juice to vodka, it's not a martini any more. Well, okay. Call it something else and there's no argument? Or are you basically against adding green apple schnapps and lemon juice to vodka, period. I suppose there are many people who would say that even using vodka rules out the martini, since martinis (real martinis, anyway) are made with gin, no? I instinctively cringe at the whole MC thing, and I'm not sure why. I don't have all the backup arguments you all seem to be using, I don't know the history of Neopolitan pizza, etc. I only know that my goal over the years has been to be able to make a loaf of good sourdough bread without referring to recipes and notes, never mind the minutiae of Modernist Cuisine. I want to be able to feed my starter, mix in some flour (sometimes this type of flour, sometimes that type of flour), some liquid, a bit of salt and know, by the way the resulting dough looks and feels and behaves, whether or not it's a good one. And to know, if it isn't so good, why. What could I do differently with the next loaf. I do not want the answer to involve .00001 gram of anything. I think the real success of MC will eventually depend on its accessibility. These boys have a nice playground to work in. They have the money for admission. Most people do not. Don't underestimate the part this will play in the whole thing. I already refuse to pay the amounts of money the "artisanal" bakeries are asking for a loaf of bread. Bread is not an elitist food item. I think Les Miserables is a brilliant piece of work, but I'm not ready to watch us all become Jean Valjean!!

I've never seen anything like those, that's really something. I've seen recipes for brown bread that are baked in a coffee can, I guess they're trying to imitate those loaves. I've never tried it, partly because I can't imagine trying to get a loaf of bread out of a coffee can!

Kinda like you, huh?

Yes, Pepperidge Farm and Arnold Bread, both of them always caught my eye. And yes, it was the shape. Took many years, but I also finally realized they were Pullman loaves. I make Angel Food cakes in my Pullman as well, they come out great. Enjoy the bread!

Tomorrow morning be damned. It's a very nice loaf, the buttermilk gives it a nice tang. I thought the milk and butter would make it very soft, but it has a nice texture, not too soft at all. Thumbs up. Thank you!

There's something about the coloring of @MelissaH's loaf that really caught my eye. I just took mine out of the oven, so I won't slice into it until tomorrow morning and then I'll put it to the taste test. I used bread flour, white whole wheat and regular whole wheat. I also hate flax seeds, and poppy seeds don't rate much higher, so this has pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds. I used buttermilk, since that's what I had. I didn't use any starter, just instant yeast. Your loaf seems to have filled out the contours of the pan more fully than mine did, perhaps I could have let it rise a bit more before putting it into the oven. In any case, thanks very much. Have you eaten any of your bread yet? Are you pleased with the flavor? I'm dreaming about breakfast.

Is that so.