Shel_B

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=310552 - Maybe it'll help.

Thanks for the detailed info, Kerry. I don't usually put my chocolate in the fridge, but Toots does, and we had a discussion about it yesterday. Your comments, and Michaela's, may get sweetie pie to change her habit,

Does chocolate suffer in any way from being refrigerated? What about when being moved to and from the refrigerator, especially several times? Thanks!

Thanks for the tip! Don't think I'd have come up with "no knead" bread as a search topic.

It may sound somewhat strange, but I much prefer doing things manually. So many recipes specify, in one way or another, to use a stand mixer, so I'm quite happy to discover that I needn't use one. Toots gave me an electric hand mixer, and I used it once, after which I pulled out my 1960's Ecko egg beater and went back to using it for many kitchen mixing tasks. The simpler things are in my kitchen, the happier I am.

While trying to decide on a chocolate chip for a brownie recipe I'm working on, I came across this article rating TJ's chips very highly. Because of the article, I bought a bag, and they are pretty good. On Monday they'll go into the next batch of brownies and I'll see how they melt or hold their shape, and how they taste in this particular recipe. They are definitely better than Nestlé's Toll House Morsels, and I like them better than a package of Guitard that I purchased for a batch of chocolate chip cookies. http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2010/06/what-are-the-best-chocolate-chips-brands-for-baking-cookies.html

Lately I've been enjoying baking a few items - brownies, soda bread, lemon-poppy seed loaf, popovers. I'd like to expand my repertoire and skills, but I don't have, and will not get, a stand mixer. I'd like some ideas on what breads and cakes can be made without such equipment, and also without a lot of rising and kneading time. Are these called quick breads? Thanks!

Grandmas Bessie and Dora made gefilte fish, often at the home of others, and therefore used a variety of pots. While they may have had a dedicated pot at home (doubtful) they certainly didn't use a dedicated pot in other homes. This is probably an old bubba's tale except for the possibility of using aluminum pots or pans. FWIW, I don't know if my grandmas even had stainless steel or other non-reactive pots.

Now, what's the best way to store these brownies? In the freezer? Best way to wrap 'em? Hopefully the crust can stay a little crunchy ...

We Got Crust! Preheating the pan seems to have helped, and there's a nice, crunchy crust completely around the brownie. I also allowed the brownie to cool for 90-seconds in the oven (heat off, door open) before removing it to cool on the rack, in the baking pan. For the most part, I'm pleased

Yes, the unevenness could be. However, by opening the small oven, a lot of heat (I suppose) could be lost, so baking times would have to be adjusted, yes? By rotating the pan to even out the heat, wouldn't that lessen the crust since the hot area would then be cooking the cooler part of the brownie, and cooler part the hotter, and perhaps, crustier part, thereby actually reducing the crust? I made another batch this after noon - they are still in the Breville. This time I preheated the pan somewhat, although I didn't note how hot the pan became as a result of the preheating. Well, another 30-minutes or so, and I'll see the results.

TJ's Sun Dried Tomatoes: Anyone tried 'em? CI some years back made them a winner in one of their taste tests.. http://www.cooksillustrated.com/taste_tests/127-sun-dried-tomatoes?incode=MCSCZ00L0 I wonder if they'd still be a winner ...

Some people like it. Every now and then I am craving something gooey and runny, like the middle slice of a Chicago square pie. Sometimes even the crust, soggy or not, gets in the way, and then I make a little crustless "pizza." I melt the cheese in the microwave, and add or mix in the toppings, and then sometimes a rewarm to soften or a quick broil to get a little skin. A real bit of gooey heaven.

I have the mini oven, and it too has "only" two top elements. However, broiling has not been an issue. The key, perhaps, is to place the rack at the proper height for the task - there are markers that show you where to place the rack. Have you properly placed your rack? It's easy to overlook that step.

I don't think the cut is a determinant, not at all. But for some people, at least some of the time, portability is a factor. Example: Toots and I like to grab a slice at the take out window of one of our favorite places, sit on a nearby bench, and eat our slice while enjoying the nice weather and doing some people watching. I believe that one of the great things about the "triangle cut," regardless of the style of pizza, is its portability. To have to sit at a table and use a knife and fork to cut the pieces, or risk the gooey cheese and topping running down you hand, IMO, lessens the pizza-eating experience. It's somewhat like an ice cream cone without the cone .... Now, my feelings don't take away from the good taste offered by a square cut pie, or the enjoyment a few friends might share sitting around a table eating that pie, because there's certainly a time for that. I just find that the options offered by the square cut pie are limiting, if not limited.

The problems with Chicago square cut pizza, as far as this New Yorker is concerned, is that some pieces have no crust, can't be held in one hand and folded, and the crust is not thin enough (at least in all examples I've tried) or crispy enough. Can you buy a slice of the square cut pie? If so, how does one eat the pieces without crust? It doesn't seem possible to eat a slice out of hand without the cheese and sauce running all over the place. What's the technique?

I wasn't raised on box cakes, but I suspect that the cakes that were made in our house when I was a youngster, were made with oil or perhaps margarine. In any case, we weren't big cake eaters, and usually one of our housekeepers, who was from the south, made the cakes. I remember the cakes not being dry at all.

Haven't graduated to yeast breads yet. I've read that elsewhere, too. I made my recipe, which called for oil, with a 50/50 blend of oil and good quality, but not high fat content or European-style) butter. The results were excellent.

CI has some tests: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment_reviews/798-dry-measuring-cups?incode=MCSCZ00L0 http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment_reviews/1308-liquid-measuring-cups?incode=MCSCZ00L0 http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment_reviews/1444-adjustable-measuring-cups?incode=MCSCZ00L0 http://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/5450-dry-versus-liquid-measuring-cups?incode=MCSCZ00L0 http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment_reviews/1218-kitchenart-mini-adjust-a-cup?incode=MCSCZ00L0 I use the AMCO stainless steel measuring cups for dry and some wet ingredients. They have rims flush with the long handles, making leveling off dry ingredients easy. They have been durable, and the most accurate measuring cups I've owned. CI also rates the Cuisipro measuring cups for liquid highly. In fact, the AMCO and Cuisipro cups were test winners for design, ease of use, and accuracy. FWIW, I have 2-cup, 4-cup, and 8-cup Pyrex measuring cups. The 8-cup is great because it can be used as a mixing bowl for - thus far - all the baking recipes I make, which, admittedly, are not many: brownies, popovers, lemon poppy seed loaf, banana bread, and a new recipe that just came my way, Irish soda bread.

I'd call it a pizza, or a pie, or whatever ... name's not important to me, but ... this creation has no subtlety, no discretion. It's overdone with excessive ingredients. So regardless of what it's called, I'm not anxious to eat one. We've got a Chicago-style pizza place here, and it's always, ALWAYS, crowded, so a lot of people seem to like these heavier pies. Even their thin pies have a thick, heavy crust.

That's what we did when making pizza at home many years ago. Joe, the owner of Joe's Pizza in El Sobrante, CA sometimes used that technique when making pizzas for certain customers. Just a guess here - couldn't the cheese be added soon after the pizza goes into the oven, or is that not possible? Thinking about how this might apply to brownies....

I'm sure there are ways to do this ... after all, I got a nice crust on about 1/4 of the edge while the top and center of the brownie was nice and chewy and fudgy. So, if 1/4 of the edge can be crusty, I just have to figure out why that happened and try to get the same result over all the edge. Some thoughts: Alice Medrich's suggestion of higher heat and shorter cooking time; using more butter to oil the edge of the pan but not so much on the bottom; preheat pan but, to avoid crust on the bottom, insulate the bottom somehow; there is a mixing technique that practically assures a crusty top, perhaps using that technique and in some way insulating the top of the brownie (tent wit foil, perhaps) to keep the top temp down and reduce the possibility of crusting; I read that baking brownies in glass or darkly colored pans often results in hard or burned edges, so maybe I'll use a darker pan, or one of different material. Cooling the brownie pan after removing it from the oven stops the hardening process around the edges. So, perhaps by letting the brownies rest longer in the hot pan, a greater crust might form around the edge. I read that the brownies pull away from the sides of the warm pan, which hardens them. I believe that this can be done, and I'm going to keep trying until I succeed, or until I exhaust the possibilities and my knowledge, and convince myself that I can't do it.

It's great that you're getting a crusty top that way, and more crust on the sides. I prefer not having a crusty top ... just the sides. There seems to be a way to get a crust you like without adding extra sugar: http://acselementsofchocolate.typepad.com/elements_of_chocolate/ACSBrownieChronicles.html Scroll down to Crust or No Crust.

Perhaps you misunderstood my question. I'm interested in getting that crispier crust without overcooking the inner part of the brownie, leaving that nice a chewy and fudgy. The pans you mention seem like they'd just give me more edge, but not a more crispy edge. Is that correct? In doing some poking around, I came across a suggestion by Alice Medrich. She says that rather than baking brownies at the more typical 325-deg F temperature, one should bake at a higher tem (400-deg she said) for a shorter time. Any thoughts on her suggestion for crispy edges?

If between our two houses we fill a 5-gallon bucket with trash, that would be a lot. I don't even have a trash can in my kitchen. Whatever is going into the trash gets put out almost immediately, and it's rarely food items. We compost most all of our food scraps, or, rather, the city does. They pick up the green bucket (30-gallons or so in size, depending on customer's needs) and compost the material. The compost is used by the city in their projects, and twice a year they have a compost giveaway - just stop by the recycling center with containers, and scoop away with the provided shovels. If there's something that has to be bagged and put in the trash, we generally use the compostable bags provided by the local organic grocery.