claire797
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Posts posted by claire797
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Wow, those cookies look good. They have a kind of sheen to them. Thanks for the visual.
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I've never squeezed carrots. It's probably something you should do in some recipes depending on the volume of other liquids.
I do have another question, though. On occassion, I've been lazy and have resorted to using pre-shredded packaged carrots. The cake tastes fine the first day, but by the second day, shreds of carrot in the cake turn green. It's pretty disgusting because it looks like the cake is infested with tiny green worms. I'm never using pre-shredded, packaged carrots again (obviously), but am curious to know what causes this.
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The best low fat desserts I've found have been from Cooking Light annuals.
As for books with only pastries etc, two I can recommend are
1. Alice Medrich's Chocolate and the Art of Low Fat Desserts.
I haven't had any failures whatsoever from Alice Medrich and am pretty convinced she's a genius
. I love this book, as it actually has dessert recipes I wouldn't be embarrased to serve to company.2. Susan Purdy's Have Your Cake and Eat it Too.
I don't own the Susan Purdy book, but I've made a few of her light recipes and they've turned out great. She has a very good reputation.
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I prefer my old recipe. Of course, this recipe is much cheaper to make than the one I normally use (it's in Recipe Gullet under Ling's Favourite Brownies), so I'll use the cocoa one for everyday.
Ling, thanks for posting. I saw your brownie recipe the other day and it immediately went in my "to try" file.
I haven't made the Alice Medrich brownies in a long time. My last batch of brownies was the old Katharine Hepburn recipe and I am sorry to say, they were highly disappointing :(.
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Robyn, I don't know much about the pastry chef at The Four Seasons cafe, so I'm not sure why there was a guy on TV and a woman back in the kitchen. Maybe they have more than one pastry chef. Their web site might say something.
Another hotel cafe that has been featured on TV is The Driskill's 1886 Cafe. They serve a chocolate Tres Leches cake, but it is completely chocolate through and through.
I still haven't had the ultimate traditional Tres Leches. I should probably order some next time I go to Fonda San Miguel. Churrascos in Houston had it on the menu as well, but the night we went we were intent on having dessert at Baskin Robbins.
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Eli, thanks for the picture. Your cake looks beautiful and your ganache appears much less runny than mine was.
As for the whipped cream, my whipped cream was pretty thick (though I think gelatin is a great idea!), but the challenge was the act of frosting the cake. I couldn't get the layers to stand still. I solved the problem by stabbing a metal skewer through all 3 layers to hold them in place.
Thanks for bumping up the thread. I've been so overwhelmed with new recipes to try (I just bought Baking in America that I haven't been able to choose. Maybe I'll pull out the Pastry Queen book.
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-- No Austin restaurant, including Manuel's and Fonda San Miguel, does interior Mexican food. There are, however, a few East Side eateries (where no one speaks English) where you can get authenticly prepared Northern Mexican foods - cabrito, tripe, Café de Olla, Capirotada, escabeches, arracheras, horchata, etc.
Er, I think she mentioned interior Mexican not inferior.
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I'm glad this thread got bumped up. I read through Chow the other day at Barnes and Noble and loved it. I didn't buy it, because I'd become so engrossed in the store that I read the whole thing standing at the magazine rack. Hopefully, they'll be able to add more content.
To be honest, I actually like seeing a few ads scattered here and there. I wonder if they could stay afloat with something like a 50-25 ratio of content to ads.....or something like that ;).
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We had dinner at the Cafe at the Four Seasons - which is pretty fancy. I think the gist of this dinner is that the dishes were well thought out - but I'd have to rate the executions about a B comparing the place to other high end restaurants in other cities (except for the dessert - the pastry chef's riff on a Tres Leches - which was a solid A).
Hi Robyn!
Thanks for posting your report. I'm just now checking in, so sorry to have not replied sooner.
Glad you enjoyed Manuel's. I've always had a pleasant experience there as well. Next time you're in town, you might seek out Curras, Fonda San Miguel or Garibaldis. They are also very good and serve some interior Mexican along with Tex Mex.
I'm curious to know more about the dessert you had at The Four Seasons. A friend and I had dessert there the other night and we had a chocolate tres leches cake. Was yours chocolate? I thought it was pretty good, but not the best chocolate dessert ever. Then again, I'm not an expert on tres leches and was already full from dinner.
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We're back from Houston and I just wanted to thank you all for the restaurant recommendations. Our first night's meal was in the dining room of my grandmother's new retirement community, but our second night's meal was at the River Oaks Churrascos. We absolutely loved in. In fact, I might even load up a few pictures later. The food was excellent, the atmosphere was fun -- elegant yet kid friendly. I had no idea we were going to get a basket of fried plantains upon arrival. What a treat. I also found a cheap Chilean Cabernet on the menu that was really good -- it started with an "A" and I need to go Google it.
Anyway, thanks!!! Wish we'd had more time to spend, as we really love Houston. I was surprised to find the Churrascos was right down the street from a little park (the one with the giant pumpkin carriage) where I use to play as a girl. After dinner, we took our daughter over to the park to get pictures of her playing there.
Next trip we'll try Indika. We are also fascinated by "Crappitos" Italian. Gotta try it for the name alone ;).
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If another opinion between the two matters at all (since you've gotten so many), I'd choose Indika over Churrascos.
Thanks for the opinion :). Believe me, it is appreciated. I think what it's going to boil down to is whether I decide to tell my husband about Churrascos at all. I know that's the one he'd pick, but personally, I prefer Indian. Guess it's going to depend on what cuisine I feel like Saturday.
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Thanks Rebecca!
Churrascos sounds perfect, really. Then again, so does Indika. It's a toss up, but at least I have it narrowed down to two really good places.
Wish we were going to be there for more than two nights, but this is a short trip and our first evening's dinner will be at my grandmother's new digs.
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Just found the Indika web site. Personally, I'd rather go here. I know DH will choose Churrascos. Looks like there's gonna be a showdown on Saturday ;). Or maybe I just won't tell him about Churrascos, eh? ;).
Or maybe we'll flip a coin....
SuperLuckyCat, thanks for the tip on the Chaat. We like Chaat. The best we have ever had was at Thali in New Canaan, CT. It's something we love eating, but don't often make at home.
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How about Indika on Memorial fo kind of a new take on Indian cousine?
Churrascos on Westheimer and Gessner for terrific s american cousine. One of the best steaks you can get in town along with other very good dishes.
Thanks for the suggestion. I saw Churrascos last night on Citysearch, and based on what I read, put it at the top of my list. We love steak.
We're also big Indian fans, and I consider myself spoiled having easy access to The Clay Pit restaurant here in Austin -- excellent Indian food. If we're not in the mood for steak, than Indika might be the perfect alternative. I'll go read up on it. I didn't happen to see it on Citysearch, so thanks for the name.
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We're heading up to Houston this weekend to help my grandmother move. As a reward, we've decided to treat ourselves to a nice restaurant Saturday night. I am completely overwhelmed with options! There are so many places to choose from. Does anyone have any great suggestions to help me narrow things down?
We'll be headquartered in the Memorial/Piney Point area. Traffic is pretty bad around there, so I'm hoping for suggestions in that area. We're more concerned about atmostphere than price.
Our almost-4-year-old will be dining with us, but she's well behaved and an adventurous eater.
I'm open to all cuisines at this point. At this point, I'm just overwhelmed by how many choices there are in the area.
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Hee Hee Hee. Maybe she'll have to make two cheesecakes and do a taste test.
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Well, since my advice seems to go against what everyone else is saying, I looked it up. The America's Test Kitchen Cookbook recommends 16 Oreo Cookies (whole) with 2 tablespoons butter. I think I use about 24 cookies and 3 tablespoons butter.
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One of my Cook's Illustrated books has an Oreo Crust recipe and they heartily recommend leaving the white part in. I always leave it in too. I can't remember the ratio, but Kraft has several Oreo crusted cheesecakes on their site, so you might check that....but I'd definitely leave in the white.
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Oh dear, oh dear I always try to be so totally careful with recipes--WATER--it takes one and a third cup of water--I've just been out of my element lately--so sorry!!!
Thanks! I just put the correction into Mastercook. And thanks again for posting the recipe. I have a book (believe it or not, put out by Avon) of kids' cakes which are cut into shapes and built, as opposed to being decorated with tiny stars and colored icing. This cake recipe should work well.
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Yes! Thanks for the link. I referred a friend to that thread awhile back and she declared the KA cake the best white cake ever......and she bakes a lot of cakes. She also told me that it was easier to work with (cut) then some of her other white cake recipes. She liked it because it is both sturdy and good-tasting.
K8memphis, thanks for the cake mix formula. That's one I'm very interested in trying.
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I haven't made it yet, but my friend says that the Elegant White Cake from King Arthur is pretty stable. The recipe was posted (I believe, by Wendy) in a thread discussing white cake.
Elegant White Cake
8 tablespoons butter -- (1 stick
softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening -- (3-1/4 oz.)
1 tablespoon baking powder -- (1/2 oz.)
1 3/4 cups superfine or granulated sugar -- (12-1/4 ounces)
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
5 large egg whites (6 to 7 oz.)
2 3/4 cups cake flour -- (11 oz.)
1 cup milk -- (8 oz.)
-- Cream together butter through almond extract until light. 5 min. or
more.
-- Add egg whites one at a time and beat well after each addition.
-- Stir in flour and milk, alternating between the two, starting and
ending with the flour. (i.e. 1/3 flour, 1/2 milk, 1/3 flour, 1/2 milk, 1/3
flour)
-- Pour into pans (2 9-in. round or one 9x13-in) and bake at 350. 25-35
minutes or until done. mine were done before this, so check early.
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I love baking, but yeast breads aren't my thing.
However, I have made some pretty good challah, thanks to this recipe. Here's the one I use. And yes, I actually do use "1 1/2 eggs" in the dough. I don't know where the original recipe came from, but it looks like I halved it at some point.
Challah
1 cup milk
1/2 (1/4 cup) stick butter
2 Tablespoons cup sugar
1 packages active dry yeast
2 eggs. (1 1/2 for dough and 1/2 to rub on bread)
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups (or more) of unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 T. cornmeal
1 T. poppy seeds (optional)
Bring milk, butter and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat and pour into large mixing bowl. Let cool to 110 degrees.
When cool, stir yeast into milk mixture and let stand 10 minutes. Beat 1 1/2 of the eggs in a small mixing bowl. Add salt. Stir eggs into milk/yeast mixture.
Stir in 2 cups of the flour. Keep adding flour until you have a workable dough. Knead dough for 5 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.
Spray bowl with Pam. Cover with Saran Wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 1 ½ hours. Punch down dough
Divide dough into three parts.
Sprinkle cookie sheet with cornmeal and braid dough on top of cornmeal.
Let dough rise again for 1 hour.
When dough has risen, brush with remaining half an egg and sprinkle with poppy seeds if desired.
Preheat oven to 350. When oven is preheated, bake dough braid for approximately 30-35 minutes.
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Here's another big, huge cookie I like. This one uses macadamias, so they are more expensive to make. Again, I made them huge by using melted cooled butter flavored shortening, so if you're not into the whole shortening thing, you might skip these. These have the same crispy outside, chewy inside texture of the jumbo ginger cookies. I added the coconut extract to give the cookies a little character and bring out the other flavors....they do not taste coconutty at all.
Huge White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
3/4 cup butter flavored shortening -- melted and cooled
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces white chocolate -- chopped
2/3 cup macadamia nut -- coarsely chopped
In a large bowl, beat both sugars and egg on high speed of electric mixer
until light. Reduce mixer speed to low and mix in extracts, melted
shortening and corn syrup.
In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, and baking soda.
By hand, stir flour mixture into sugar mixture until thoroughly combined.
Stir in white chocolate and macadamia nuts.
Using a 1/4 cup measure, scoop dough onto a dish to form neat mounds.
Place dish with dough scoops in refrigerator and chill thoroughly for at
least 3 hours. To hasten the process, you may chill dough in freezer for
1 hour.
Bake at 350 degrees F. for 19-21 minutes or until cookies are set. Cover
loosely with a sheet of foil halfway through to prevent over browning.
Let cool on cookie sheet.
10 Big Cookies
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Hi Anna! I am excited to try your ginger cookies! I love that they have cayenne in them, I think that will add a great bite. How do you think they will work as smaller cookies? I can't be trusted around gigantic cookies because I hate leaving anything behind - it's easier for me to eat 1 small cookie and stop there than eat 1/2 of a large cookie and no more... KWIM?
I think they'd be okay as smaller cookies. They're tasty enough with the spices and cocoa powder. You won't get the same wow factor by making them normal size, but I can see your point about wanting smaller ones.
If you want a really awesome normal sized ginger cookie, you might want to try these:
The lard cookies, which are adapted from the Ann Hodgeman book "Beat That!" aren't soft, but they have a crispy, tingly, ethereal texture and do not taste lardy at all. You can make them as small as you want and they are still excellent.
World's best carrot-cake recipe
in Pastry & Baking
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Char, that's interesting. I'm sure you are right and that it's some preservative reacting with the other ingredients. Wonder what it is.
But I've learned my lesson and plan on using fresh carrots in my next carrot cake.