claire797

Chana Masala Serves 4. This dish is not incredibly spicy as is. Adjust cayenne for more fire. 1 T peanut oil 1/2 c chopped onion 1/2 c chopped green bell pepper 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1/4 tsp turmeric 1/4 tsp garam masala 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1/4 tsp ground coriander 1/2 tsp salt 2 cloves garlic -- crushed 1 T grated ginger 15 oz chickpeas -- drained and rinsed 7 oz tomato sauce 2 T chopped fresh cilantro Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and bell pepper and saute until soft. Add spices and saute 30 seconds. Add chickpeas and tomato sauce. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Serve 2 two (Serve over basmati rice) ( RG1245 )

Richard, I'll be interested in hearing your corn muffin review. I think my review was somewhat biased due to my shock at the colossal amount of fat . Taken at face value, the muffins are (were) pretty darn good.

Great! I haven't been in ages. Glad it's still there. I made the Rather Rich Corn Muffins for a friend this morning. They’re tasty, as you might expect with all that butter and cream. My friend is a breastfeeding Army helicopter pilot mom-of-two-boys so calories and fat aren’t an issue for her. Me, I’d rather eat lower fat corn bread and save my richness for dessert. Or for that much fat, I’ll take a croissant. All in all, I’d give these 4 stars. Sorry to be so picky about the richness, but it just seemed excessive for muffin. The Goat Cheese Spiced Pecan Salad is 5 stars! I’ve made it twice in a row and we love it – it’s a perfect balance of salty and sweet. I cut down the entire amount of oil in the dressing to 2 tablespoons and that was plenty.

Thanks! I buy Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate in bulk all the time and love it. It's less expensive than Valrhona and has an excellent flavor. Glad to hear their cocoa is good too. I didn't notice if my store had the Callebaut cocoa powder, but I'll pick some up if they do. Otherwise, I'll order it. I still plan to pick up a small amount of Valrhona.

Maple Glazed Oatmeal Cookies I’m cheating a bit by reviewing these, as I made them months ago, but I still remember what they taste like and have a nice picture. I wouldn’t call these the best oatmeal cookies *ever*, but they were very good and I would make them again for 1) the uniqueness of the maple and 2) the excellent glaze. They’re attractive, tasty cookies, but they are on the more plain side and pale to some of my more flamboyantly spiced oatmeal cookie recipes. They were also flatter than I like oatmeal cookies to be and lacked the raisins, which I love so dearly. RR says in the book (and reiterated in her class) that she has a raisin aversion. As a sub, she uses dried cranberries. Has anyone else made these yet? I’m tempted to make them again, but am pretty sure I’d get the same results. If I make them again, form myself I’ll make adjustments --some spices and maybe pecans? Here’s a picture. The glaze really is good and it firms up very well.

Laura, I almost bought some Valrhona yesterday, but it was $13.99 a pound and I didn't have a particular recipe in mind. It's easier for me to splurge when I know exactly how I'm going to use the ingredient in question. Of course, I think I could come up with a way to use cocoa powder this weekend. Patrick, I love it when every-day grocery store products get high ratings from experts. Go Hershey! Do you happen to remember what cocoa came in first? Hopefully, it was Valrhona. If their cocoa is anything like their semi-sweet chocolate, I'll be happy.

Robyn, I hope you're looking forward to your Texas trip. If you are going to be in the Austin area for any length of time, then you should definitely take a road trip to Fredericksburg. It's a cute little touristy town southwest(ish) of Austin -- probably an hour's drive from where you are staying, give or take a few minutes. You could Google up better directions than I could give you, but I will tell you there are a few good restaurants, lots of crafty/souvenier type shops and a few gourmet type food things in town. And of course there's Rebecca Rather's bakery, which I believe is located just off Main Street. Fredericksburg is known for their peaches and for being the birthplace of Admiral Nimitz. In fact, if you're a history buff, there's a museum dedicated to the Pacific War. http://www.nimitz-museum.org/ The Hill Country is also known for its many Texas vineyards. This URL is a good start. http://www.texaswinetrails.com/ Fredericksburg also has a neat wine shop (at least they use to) where you can taste a lot of different wines before you buy. Hopefully, it's still there.

I use the Hershey's Special Dark because it's inexpensive, readily available and works well in cakes and baked goods. I haven't tried rolling truffles in it and probably won't do it based on Steve's assessment. Does anyone have an opinion on Penzey's Dutch Process? I had some and thought it was excellent. My stash is gone now and I'm debating as to whether I should stock up on more Penzey's or splurge and buy Valrhona. I've grown accustomed to using Valrhona and Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate, but have never tried their cocoa powders. If their cocoa powder is as good as their chocolate, it will be worth it. However, Penzey's was very good too.....and a little cheaper.

Dana. I’ll put Rather Rich Corn Muffins on the list. I’m not sure they are rich enough, though. Is 3 sticks of butter, 3 cups heavy whipping cream and 1 cup sugar enough for a yield of 2 dozen muffins? I’ll be sure to serve them with butter. I think we'll try the Nuevo Texas Waldorf salad too. J, thanks for the pecan pie tip. Next time I make a syrup based pecan pie, I’ll try it. For the record, here’s a really good pecan pie recipe that doesn’t use syrup. I thought I'd put this in the Recipegullet, but it looks like I haven't. This is a recipe I adapted from an old ladies club type cookbook. My changes are browning the butter, toasting the pecans and using more butter and vanilla. Browned Butter Pecan Pie 1 1/2 cups pecan pieces 3/4 cup butter ( 1 ½ sticks) 2 cups light brown sugar, packed 3 eggs 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 9 inch unbaked pie shell In a large skillet, toast pecans over medium heat. Remove pecans from skillet. Add butter to skillet and heat over medium until melted and browned. Stir in brown sugar and turn off heat. In a separate bowl, beat together eggs, salt and vanilla. Add 1/4 cup brown sugar mixture to egg mixture, stirring (not beating) constantly. Pour in remaining brown sugar/butter mixture and stir well. Stir in toasted pecans. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Set unbaked pie on a cookie sheet in case of boil-overs. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes

Browned Butter Pecan Pie Serves 16. I'm editing this right now. Don't make it yet. 1-1/2 c pecan pieces Still editing Keywords: Pie, American ( RG1232 )

Browned Butter Pecan Pie Serves 16. I'm editing this right now. Don't make it yet. 1-1/2 c pecan pieces Still editing Keywords: Pie, American ( RG1232 )

And one more thing. She's really into Lyle's Golden Syrup. I found that kind of odd considering she's a Texan and Lyle's is more of a UK thing, but it's becoming more readily available and Rebecca Rather's book will create more of a demand for the stuff if it (the book) keeps selling like it has been. It's selling *really* well. I bought a bottle of it last night and it will no doubt become a staple in my pantry.

Kristin, you can take credit for all my baking, so long as you help me get it out of the house! :). Dana, Rebecca joked that we should never request that she make pot pies again. She's made so many of them, she's tired of doing it. Same with the Big Hair Lemon Tart. She's given us the recipe and we can do it ourselves. I have to rave once more about the white cake -- aka Pretty in Pink Cake aka White on White with Jack Daniels frosting. It is the best white cake recipe ever. I scaled the recipe down to a third today and baked it in a 9 inch pan. It was thinner than it's suppose to be due to my pan size modification (the full recipe makes two 9 inch cakes, but it was just as moist and flavorful. I'd like to put the recipe in Recipegullet, but I'd be doing a disservice to anyone who copied the recipe and didn't buy the whole book. It's just so packed with good things. Dana, what other savory items do you recommend? I'm still on a sugar high from last night and today and would like to move into something non-sweet.

Last night LonghornGal, F52, Rita and my friend Sarah took a Central Market Class with Rebecca Rather. It was a great class because it let us try four recipes out of her book, The Pastry Queen. Does anyone else own it? Now that we've tasted four of her cakes, Longhorngal and I plan to bake our way through it. We'll be posting pictures and reviews in this thread. So far, we've made her maple oatmeal cookies, café chocolate cherry cookies, and her blackberry bars. All were excellent, and I’ll post the pictures later. During last night's class, RR made the best white cake I’ve ever had (recipe is in her book), the strawberry ricotta cake, an American Beauty cake (which was really a chocolate mousse cake) and her “Totally Rummy” cake which has to be the best scratch rum cake I’ve ever eaten. Her book has lots of other sweet things, but there are quite a few savory recipes as well. I’ll list a few more recipes later and will cook and post more pictures and reviews here. If you get a chance, take one of her classes. Or better yet, road trip out to the Hill Country and visit her at the bakery before she becomes too famous. She’s incredibly talented. Here are a few pictures from last night. More to come. Pretty in Pink Cake (white cake) Rum Cake

I have been using the Hershey's Special Dark, however, I thought it was the same thing as their European Style and that they'd just changed the name. The European style said it was Dutch Process. If you look at the top of the Special Dark, it says it's Dutch Process as well. http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/products/info/cocoa.asp So again, I think they might be phasing out the "European Style" name. I could be totally wrong.

I cut my finger last night with my chef's knife and can hardly type today, but I wanted to say thanks again for starting this thread. My husband took the TSC to work today and his co-workers said it was one of the best cakes I'd ever sent in.... and I send in a lot of cakes!

I love Dutch process cocoa, but I agree. It would be weird here....or at least not authentic. Fifi, I'm looking forward to your cake report. I'm just happy to have finally broken in my 15x10 inch jelly roll pan :).

I should not have lined my pan with parchment. The cake is so moist that it soaks through the parchment, making the parchment into a nuisance rather than a helpful thing. This cake is so you could probably get away with making it in a plain ungreased pan. This cake doesn't have as much chocolate as most chocolate cakes, but it has that distinct Texas sheetcake taste I remember from childhood.

First off, Judith, your cake looks incredible. It's definitely flashier than mine. I wanted to go ahead and do an actual sheet cake before getting all high-falutin' ;). And I'm done. I threw together the cake Ruth posted in about 30 minutes. It looks just as I remember. A little cinnamon would definitely give it a Mexican spin, but it’s good without it too. How do I know, you ask? Well, note the non-smoothness of the bottom left hand corner of the “iced” picture. I cut away some of the cake to taste it thinking the icing would cover it up. It looks okay, I guess. I can tell the icing is going to take a long time to firm up. I used maybe 3/4 a box of sugar, but I was heavy handed with the milk. With all that butter, it’s bound to get stiff eventually. Oh, and I didn’t sift the powdered sugar. The last time I saw a family member making this cake, she was madly sifting powdered sugar into the saucepan with the chocolate. I just poured the sugar into a big bowl, poured the boiling chocolate mixture into the big bowl with the sugar, then beat it like heck with the electric mixer. I did sift the flour in the cake part, though. It paid off because the crumb is fine, but moist and tender. One more thing. I really didn’t want to make changes to the recipe, but I decided to use salted butter in the icing only. The icing recipe has no salt, so I figured a tiny bit of salt would bring out the other flavors.

LOL. Well, in copy cat mode, I bought all the ingredients to make it with you. Maybe Emma and I will make it after her nap. I'm also going to try making a clone recipe for Dairy Queen ice cream. It's a recipe I've been meaning to try for three or four years. I figure it will go along nicely with the Texas Sheet Cake, even though the real accompaniment should be Blue Bell. BTW. For the cake, I'm going to make the one Ruth posted....verbatum....no changes...

Fifi, the CL one is very good, but I think you should make the regular version first and get an idea what a fully-loaded Texas Sheet Cake tastes like before altering the recipe. Ruth, thanks for putting the original in there. I think I'll go take a look at both recipes side by side just to compare.

Lone Star, have you tried the new Pam for Baking? I started using it last year and love it. It smells great, unlike a lot of the other baking sprays. I think they put some vanilla in it. It also works spectacularly well.

Is it hot in here or is it just me?

I am just astounded that you have never run across this cake. It's like the default picnic cake of all time. I don't think I've ever been to a family event without this cake . The best part is the poured icing. I don't know if you have Rebecca Rather's book, The Pastry Queen, but she has a similar recipe which she's transformed into a mini cakes. She makes a rich Mexican chocolate cake, bakes it in jumbo muffin pans, then pours the sweet fudge pecan frosting all over the sides. Anyway. I've been obsessed with Texas Sheet Cake/Mexican Chocolate Cake for about a month now and still haven't made it. I was very happy to see this thread and am glad I can bake it vicariously through you.

Yeah. You can make a jelly roll after this.