abooja

Ever since a mishap with an exploding Pyrex pan a year ago, I am very wary of using it for anything but pies. I guess it depends on the actual temperature of your oven. When I bake bread, it's usually free form and sits directly on the pizza stone in a pretty hot oven -- 450 degrees (F) or so. I would strongly advise against placing a Pyrex pan in such a hot oven, although it does brown wonderfully. I'd get a pizza stone, stick with the pans you have, and make sure your oven is the temperature it's supposed to be. If it is correct, perhaps you should lower the temperature anyway. -- Lisa

Oops, too slow I guess.

Hi, Robin -- I must have the exact same electric oven in my (soon to be former) apartment. I finally got an oven thermometer (actually, two) and discovered that it was way hotter than it was supposed to be, particularly at higher temps. Have you tested your oven yet? Also, do you use a baking stone? Preheating one along with your oven for 45+ minutes will help disperse heat more evenly, even if you are baking your bread in a pan on top of it. However, I wouldn't use a nonstick pan on one at too high a temperature. Not sure about silicone. One more thing...the darker your (metal) pan, the faster your breads will brown. You might want to take that into consideration as well. Good luck! -- Lisa

My Madagascar Bourbon vanilla bean-Svedka Vodka extract is approaching the 2-month mark this weekend. It smells less alcoholic and more vanilla-y than it did two months ago, but I'm going to hold off using it before March 4th. I only hope it survives the move next month. I intend to take Arizona Vanilla Company's advice and add a simple syrup to the mixture before using it. The Nielsen Massey product even has sugar in it, so I figured mine should too. Has anyone had experience with this process? I'd hate to ruin six months of idle work. In the meantime, I've had to purchase yet another 32-oz. bottle of NM extract to carry me through the next four months. You'd think I bathe in the stuff. Speaking of which, anyone ever try making their own vanilla oil/perfume? I'm tired of giving the Body Shop my money. BTW, thanks for the bottle source! I'm definitely going with cobalt blue. -- Lisa

Come January, I'm game!

I'm moving to Lawrenceville (from Hackensack) in a few weeks and was perusing eG as usual, when I ran across this thread. Imagine my surprise when I learned that Magma is a block and a half away from my new apartment! And was it ever good. We had the small pizza margherita, with the thinnest, crispest crust, a nice tomato-ey sauce, fresh mozzarella and whole basil leaves. I only wish we had ordered the large as I was hungry and could easily have eaten the entire pie myself. Can't wait to try Delorenzo's one day. -- Lisa

My favorite HD shoppe flavor for many years was Chocolate Swiss Almond. I used to bemoan the fact that they didn't sell it in grocery stores, until they stopped making it altogether. I learned of this tragedy in a HD on the UWS of Manhattan a couple of years back. I walked out after hearing the bad news and the store manager actually followed me out the door, trying to convince me to try another flavor. I would not. Still infuriates me to this day. These days, I generally buy just their Chocolate Chocolate Chip, regular Chocolate, and plain ol' Vanilla, for a la mode purposes. While I can make a pretty decent homemade vanilla bean and dulce de leche, I cannot, for the life of me, churn out a chocolate ice cream even half as good as HD's. -- Lisa

Another great thread. Any suggestions for New Jersey? When I stop working in (lower) Manhattan mid-December, I will have only limited access to the restaurant supply stores down here. (Not to mention, lugging pots and pans to and from work, then onto the subway, then a bus through the Lincoln Tunnel is a real drag.) We're moving to the Princeton area, so Central Jersey would be ideal. Thanks! Lisa

Thanks for the link. It'll be great to have the 2nd Avenue Deli back, even if it's now off of 3rd Avenue. -- Lisa

Vitamia & Sons in Lodi has pretty decent homemade pasta. You can even mail order from them. -- Lisa

I made bagels and pain au levain yesterday, both Jeffrey Hamelman recipes. Finally, success in two areas of bread baking (bagel making and sourdough bread) that have eluded me until now. -- Lisa

Might this be the item in question? I have the large FoodSaver as well and use it all the time. (I keep it on top of the fridge.) However, since I'm easily intrigued by the notion of spending money on kitchen gadgets, I wouldn't mind having both. -- Lisa

Darcie, I baked my first ever white cake using this exact recipe -- Baker's Illustrated -- and substituting 1/3 of the butter with vegetable oil, and it was really, really good! I used 1 teaspoon of clear vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon of regular (Madagascar Bourbon) vanilla extract and a teensy droplet of fiori di Sicilia, which I also added to the buttercream. I schmeared some raspberry bakery jam in between along with the buttercream and, since the iced cake look it was coated in plain butter (boy, do I need a good buttercream recipe), drizzled some jam on top as well. Pretty darn good, considering it contained no chocolate. And moist, in and out of the fridge. I'm going to try converting some of my other butter cake recipes using your method. Thank you so much for the idea! -- Lisa

Thanks very much for the welcome, Smithy!

I've been lurking for a while now, and finally saw fit to comment. My boyfriend has severe food allergies, including allergies to corn, nuts, seeds, beans and all associated oils and extracts. Cooking for him has been quite a challenge, but I've managed using substitutions and plain old trickery. Worcestershire sauce was a problem for a long while because every version I could find contained corn syrup, like just about everything else in the supermarket these days. (Not for long, as I'm hoping the ethanol-related corn demand will cause food manufacturers to switch back to good old sugar.) I finally found that the Whole Foods 365 brand of Worcestershire does not contain corn syrup, so we've been using that ever since. Never having tasted any version on its own, I can't say exactly how it compares to the original, but it hasn't made anyone sick yet. (How's that for a product endorsement?) BTW, I LOVE this place! I read the entire anti-dinner thread while at work the other day and was tittering uncontrollably throughout. -- Lisa