Wendy DeBord

answers: 1. Yes, you can get a big difference between using melted or softened butter in any/ almost every recipe. When you mix together a cookie or cake often you need to whip air into it and that effects volume and texture. If your butter is melted it won't take whipped air. We intentionally use melted butter and not soft in other recipes. So stick to which ever your recipe calls for. 2. Sifting ingredients was begun years ago when the quality of our ingredients weren't as good as they are now. So you can get away with not sifting in many recipes. Personally, I think it's added to too many recipes unneccessarily. BUT occasionally it will be important and it will strongly effect your recipe, so you can't ignore sifting all the time. Theres a huge difference in measuring items that have or have not been sifted, so you might be measuring too much of an item if you didn't sift it when the recipe told you to. 3. When you refridgerate a cake it changes it's texture. Usually making the item firmer. Sometimes the item goes back to it's fresh baked texture after it comes up to room temp. and sometimes it doesn't. A firmer cake is far easier to frost then a delicate freshly baked cake. But a fresh baked butter cake will not taste the same after it's been refridgerated..........so it depends. AND if your icing/frosting is stiff or light and easy to spread then that effects which way you need your cake to be. Some cake recipes tell you to freeze the still hot cake. Sooooo there's not one answer to this question. Typcially, chilling in the cooler won't hurt your product, even if it isn't ideal for that baked good.

Basic guidelines.......the most basic, you can freeze most baked goods successfully. Wrap them well in plastic wrap and insert them into a ziplock baggie or wrap foil around the plastic so it doesn't come off in the freezer. Going past basic.........some items batter can be frozen and you can bake the item fresh as needed. Cookies are probably the most often frozen in their raw state. But you can freeze unbaked muffins, scones, biscuits.........and some other things I can't think of at this moment. Hopefully others will chime in with what they sucessfull freeze raw. How long you can successfully freeze something depends upon how well you wrapped it and how good your freezer is. I often go past the time limits stated on recipes. I've held frozen raw cookie dough for months (like 3 or 4) with-out problems. I've held frozen danish dough for similar lengths. Look for frost bite and if you see signs of it, you've gone too long. Check for smell too. When in doubt throw it out. Sometimes you can hold baked goods for half a year.........it all depends.........

Yes, the spring test should work fine for a sponge cake. Theres alot of good and bad recipes for sponge cakes...........and most importantly you need to know and hit proper method to make a good sponge cake. Your recipe doesn't look familar to me. I haven't baked a sponge cake in a couple months...........so I have to think back. I can't recall off the top of my head a sponge cake recipe that incorporates water into your whipped yolks, seems to me that would deflate your whipping. Also most sponge cakes don't add leaveners (which you get in your self-raising flour). Instead I think you were making a chiffon cake. A word of advice, if you see a recipe calling for self-raising flour run...........don't use recipes that involve it! You should be adding leaveners according to what you making. You can't be certain that the leaveners in the bag of self-rising flour is distributed perfectly or that things haven't settled in the bag as it goes thru handling. O.k. so some recipes were created using self-rising flour.........I personally still run from them. That isn't accurate enough for me. Nor am I too dumb or unskilled that I need someone mixing my leaveners into my flour.

You might want to do a search on the topic of thermometers, you'll find a fair amount of discussion on them here if your looking for which brand to buy. I think CI did a test of brands, you might find that info. on the internet. I've personally gone thru a fair amount of thermometers over the years. They all break eventually, imo. I choose lower end/lower price thermometers because I find the accuracy to be equal to higher end thermo.s' and it's not as painful to replace them as they break or get ruined. First thing you need to know is that meat thermometers don't go high enough for most sugar work. Meat thermo.'s go up to 220F and sugar thermo.'s go up to 400F. Meat thermometers don't have clips to secure them to pots, sugar/candy thermo.'s do. I like the newer types with probes that sound an alarm when you've hit the right temp. or time but I also own the cheapy candy thermometers you can buy at the grocery stores.

I've used Pillsbury flour (at home)............hum this is a somewhat of a hard question to answer.......... I think it's fine, good flour. I've used it making biscuits and a variety of items. Flour varies somewhat with-in each individual brand, depending upon the time of year or the type of wheat their mixing/using. I'm by no means a flour expert!!! I'm a pastry chef not a bread baker so I rarely see big effects in flours like bread bakers do. Other then the obvious differences in different types of flour between cake, pastry, all purpose and bread flours. Soooooo, sometimes I see differences in my baked goods from one brand of flour to another similar type of flour but it's pretty rare. Usually, it's not noticable unless I'm tasting the items side by side. I can detect a difference between bleached and unbleached, definately. But I've yet to see any huge differences in one brand of bleached all-purpose to another brand of all-purpose or unbleached to unbleached, etc... You can split hairs on all your ingredient choices, if you want. You can use the best ingredients available for everything you make. BUT personally, I think the biggest differences your going to see is, in how well you bake. Hitting each step correctly in each method is going to have the biggest effect on the success of your finished product when your a beginning baker. Personally I think the secret to a great biscuit is your technique and your recipe.....with-out both being right on your won't get the best results. Then tweaking the recipe with the ingredients.......well that's definately past 101.

O.k. so having that resolved in my brain, lets go back to the orginial question. Why was the semi-freddo icy? I still have Gisslens book in front of me and I'll cheat and give you what he says. "The base for ice cream, for example, is the same creme anglaise that you have used in many other preparations." "Ice cream and sherbet are churn-frozen, meaning that they are mixed constantly while being frozen. If they were not churned, they would freeze into solid blocks of ice. The churning keeps the ice crystals small and incorporates air into the dessert." "In the case of frozen desserts, proper measurement is important to ensure that the mix freezes properly. This is because the ratio of sugar weight to total weight has a strong effect on freezing. If an ice cream or sorbet mix contains too much sugar, it will not freeze enough to become firm. On the other hand, an ice cream with too little sugar will not be as smooth as one with the correct amount." We also know that alchol effect freezing too. So let me grab Sherry Yards book and take a look at her recipe. She mixes together strawberries, sugar, grand marnier and lemon juice, then purees it. Then she makes an anglaise using milk not cream. It's 1 c. milk, 4 yolks, 1/2 c. sugar, pinch of salt. (This looks weird to me. Too much sugar and milk instead of heavy cream. AND she's making an anglaise which to me seems to say ice cream, not semi-freddo, frozen mousse or frozen souffle. But then that's open to interpetation.) Her final "enrichment" folds in whipped whites and heavy cream/mascarpone cream. My guess is she makes up for the lack fo cream in the anglaise with the use of mascarpone in her whipped cream. But I can't tell you why, really. Just another way to do something.........is it better or just different..........or just more complicated then it needs to be? Soooooo, all I can do is offer up a recipe I use that I know works well. It's incredibly simple in comparision to Yards recipe.....yet it's a strawberry souffle...........soooo here I go blurring the lines between frozen souffle, frozen mousse and frozen semi-freddo. Strawberry Souffle (from The Roux Brothers on Patisserie) puree together and strain: 1 3/4 c. pureed strawberries 1 3/4 c. sugar juice of 1 lemon whip and fold into sb puree: 3 c. heavy cream whip together to soft peaks and fold into above mixture: 3 egg whites 1 T sugar Freeze. He writes, "Be careful not to freeze this souffle for too long, or it will lose it's soft consistancy. If you want to freeze the souffle for longer, substitute a half quantity of Italian meringue for the egg whites in the recipe and reduce the amount of sugar accordingly." soooooo, I hope this helps.......... w.

Yes, your right, I did confuse it with his frozen souffle..........sorry. So now I have to set out and figure out just what the differences are. I looked thru several recipes in books and recipes loose in my files and I was supprised to see how many ways one can make a semi-freddo. I definately had lost track of this info. in my brain. So after nothing seems to be consistant, I've opened Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen.......to see if I could find an answer or a definitive recipe. Below are some qoutes from his book that shead some light on this topic: "Still-frozen desserts are closely related to products such as Bavarians, mousses, and hot souffles. These products are all given lightness and colume by adding whipped cream or an egg foam." or both. "Still-frozen desserts include bombes, frozen souffles, and frozen mousses. In theory, each of these types is made with different mixes, but in actual practice today, many of theses mixes are interchangeable." He then gives two bombe mixture recipes. One method is pour a hot sugar syrup into whipped yolks (pate a bomb) the other is heating the yolks and sugar over a water bath like a thick hollandaise. Both include folding in whipped cream and flavoring. The next topic is Frozen Mousses and Frozen Souffles. He writes: "Frozen mousses are light frozen desserts containing whipped cream. Although they are all similar in character because of their whipped cream content, the bases for them are made in several ways. Three types of preparations are included here: Mousse with Italain meringue base Mousse with syrup and fruit base Mousse with custard base The mixture for bombes and parfaits can also be used for mousses."

Wow..........I'm totally enjoying your perspective...thanks!

I like the recipe in Payards book for semi-freddo's and I adapt it to whatever I want to make. I always use/have a pate a bomb as the base of a semi-freddo not an anglaise. Big difference in texture.

I'm using Cheftec and it's not bad. It converts in any measurement form. But it's not cheap nor perfect. The darn thing shuts me out regularly, etc... Seems to me that theres a huge need in this area and no one has come out with a great program (one that's compatiable, etc...). Someone could get fairly rich off this if they made a really good program. None so far seem to be designed by a real foodie.

The kick plates that pull out into drawers do look exactly like traditional kick plates. I saw them this week on a kitchen design show on cable.

Well if this thread is any example of how much support/help/input I might get if I started a new thread getting specific with my layout and design.........then I think I'll give it a go here online. Background: Hubby has been in construction his whole life. Built houses, brick layer, now he's a project manager for a major road bridge builder. So he lays out multi million dollar bridges with no room for error, day in and day out. So I'm certain he has the eye for the measuring details I might lack. Also, as a former artist, I wouldn't touch a custom painting for less the $2,000. So I fully understand the value of the artist. I'm not looking to be cheap, just wise and keep my errors down. New questions: When I look at cabinets I see the same door front designs from manufactor to manufactor. How do I choose one from the other? I asked this once at The Great Indoors and they showed me the differences between how the cabinets were build, how they close, etc.... But when shopping online how can I judge the good from the junk cabinets? Are there details/words I should watch out for? Another set of questions: I'd really like to use every inch of space well since it's a small house and kitchen. I've seen things like kick plates that are pull out drawers, etc... and I'd like alot of pull out cabinet details. Some of the cabinet companies don't show alot of these details. If they don't show it, does it mean they don't have it? Do I not choose that companies cabinets and only look for companies that have those features? Or do I look at adding in the inserts (pull out features) myself after market? And, has anyone looked at the cost differences on this?

I saw that same show as SweetSide..............but I thought they said it was sheets of cake, not technically a cookie. Less butter in the cake so it softens up easier in the freezer.

During the work week I don't have time to follow everyones leads, but I greatly appreciate them! I will check each and everyone out! I will post photos and start a thread here on my remodel as Varmint mentioned. I'd love to get some input from all of you and get your opinions on some details. That would be GREAT! Just to clarify..........etc... $500. is too much money for me to piss away talking to someone I won't use. I could use that money in so many other more important ways. We are pretty conservative finacially. We don't gamble and take risks.....just not our nature. We don't eat $500 dollar meals, ever. My mortgage is less then $500. (sans insurance and taxes). My house is definately a starter house, very small (although perfect for the 2 of us). I'm trying to figure out how much money to invest in updating/remodeling in my house (we are doing more then the kitchen). It's a 13 year old home that is a "track" style house in a subdivision and everything needs updating and an increase in quality from what the builder gave us. Say I'm willing to put $30,000 into my kitchen, but when I sell my house it won't increase my price that much.......well then I'm not going to sink $30,000 into something that won't give me that return. How do I figure this part out? I can't determine my budget until I know those facts. I'm sort of stuck on this. Should I put $10,000 into the kitchen and $20,000 into the rest of the house, etc...? Where and how should we spend our money so we get the most resale value for the project? $500. for a design service is very cheap, I would spend more then that for some quality help!! So it's not that I don't want to pay for a designer/help it's just that I don't feel comfortable locking in with anyone until I KNOW that I want to use them and like their work. I don't want to go thru 2 or 3 designers at $500 a crack. I'd rather put that money into the one I'll use. I'm also not sure we're looking at a full remodel, it might be that there aren't any better options then we have now in our space and I might just be doing a cabinet and counter update. O.k...............so what I really want at this moment is to be able to look thru different boutique cabinet styles and find out if those cabinets are in our price range. To see if anything creates a spark. How do I gain access to these catalogs? Can go into a design store and ask to look at their catalogs with-out offending them? They seemed to push for setting up a consultation first.........can I get around that? I do have a scrap book of photos that I've collected, I do know what I don't want and what's important to us. I've done the beginning homework looking thru tons of books and magazines. (I"ll go to the book store and look for the titles mentioned here, too.) Last (for this post) no one's said what the designer fee's alone cost them. Anyone daring enough to share with me the price range of this service?

CaliPoutine............that's an amazingly small amount to make. It would be a challenge for anyone to make that small of a batch well. I don't think you can judge it at all in that quantity.

Thanks everyone! I'm learning alot so far. I'm in the Chicago suburbs and I went into 2 design places that wouldn't talk to me at all with-out making an appointment and laying out some cash, $500. I assumed that would be the case at all independent designers.......so it's not............hum. Perhaps I wasn't dressed up enough and they were blowing me off? The Home Depot makes you give them a $500. deposit up front too! What's happening......is it my area? How do I find an independent designer? And what kind of ball park are we talking about for their fees? I worry when I look at a display in a store that's poorly hung or has obvious problems. It says something to me that they think it's o.k. and don't even fix it. All the Home Depot stores and Lowes have this issue. I learned a little bit about cabinets while shopping and I don't want junk. It's sort of how we purchase everything in our lives.....we'd rather have a couple really good quality pieces that we love, then quantity. I don't want top of the line appliances so I'm not looking to save money for that. I want real wood and great design. I barely cook at home and I never bake at home. But I want something pleasant to look at, something to hold all my dishes (which I have too much of) yet it's got to have resale value too. How to say this .........and not sound like a complete ass.....I have an extensive design/art background and many years as a professional artist. I had a company come out to design my yards landscape and they were soooooo average and just down right poorly designed, I was really blown away. They choose the wrong sized plants (growth habits) and quantitys thru out the whole design. If I followed what they had, I'd have to replant in 3 years the whole darn thing. They also didn't listen to what I asked for and didn't take that into their design. So I took it upon myself to learn landscape design and plants for my area......and honestly I think I did a pretty good job. Nothing I'd re-do or change. Generally, I know what I want in my kitchen, because it's a very limited space. There isn't room for any bells and whistles. I would like someone with a fresh eye to see if they could design the space better (cause yes I can design, but I'm NOT a kitchen designer and I don't want to invest years of learning like I did landscaping). I'm thinking about opening the kitchen into the living area. But if they can't do it better then me, then I'd rather do it myself. So how do I find these designers that will draw up a couple options for free? AND about what will it cost if I want to buy their design?

How true is that? I've been to all our local home improvement places and I've come to realize I want a little more style then what I think their designers and cabinet lines have to offer. (I might be able to do that myself (I have a strong art background) if I had access to their catalogs to see what's available.) But you can't talk to a designer (even at your local discount store) with-out laying out a deposit. Sooooo I'm a little stuck. I don't want to give anyone a deposit until I know: A. I can afford it. B. I like/trust their work. I'm not wealthy, none of my freinds are either, so I can't ask around for reccomendations..........no one I know has used a kitchen designer. I've walked into a couple upscale kitchen design stores but they won't talk any details with-out a deposit. I haven't seen anything in a show room that told me, this is the person or look I want. Do I keep shopping? I know I can do some shopping online and that's great, but many of them don't sell thru my local stores. So I'd have to find a source that can and that had experience with the quality of that product......and that probably means a designer, no? Help?! This reminds me of needing experience to get a job but not being able to get a job with-out experience.........I'm stuck. I have a small kitchen so I 'think' we might be able to afford something done by a designer. But how can I explore this if I'm not willing to hand over money just to explore the posiblity? Since I have to ask, does that mean I can't afford it?

I've seen a couple milk chocolate cake recipes, but I can't think of where......

I've used the permanent non-edible frosting before on dummy cakes. If you thin it down to a consistacy you like (similar to buttercream) it works just as easily and lasts forever. You can wash down your dummy cake when it get's dusty. Also, it doesn't attract bugs.

The Bakers Dozen used to have a website, probably still do..........I just haven't looked at it in years. Try to find it and check it out. Comparing............ Baking with Julia has excellent recipes from various professional chefs and authors. The Bakers Dozen is a group of bakers, many professional some not, authors and others who all work together testing and comparing recipes. It's similar to what we do here when we are working in the 'best of____' threads. So your getting a group consensous. One of the fun things about this group is that they'll all bake the same thing and then they meet to share. Using the same recipe they'll can get different results among them so then they research why and break down the science. Cooks Illustrated seems to be one person, or a small group of people tweaking a recipe. I've come across some really good recipes and some not so good recipes from them. So it may depend upon which person is developing what recipe as to the quality of the final recipe. These 3 sources are all reliable for solid baking advice and recipes, in my opinion.

Just for the record when someone re-reads this thread years from now, would you post a link to the thread your referring to, please?

The german chocolate cake from Cooks Illustrated. I got lead to it by Patrick who posted he really liked it. I make it like x12 the first time I made it. So you shouldn't have any problems doubling it.

I'd go with CI's german chocolate cake recipe, if I was requested to make a milk chocolate cake. It fits into a milk chocolate labeled cake taste, texture and looks wise.

← I can highly reccomend Sensational Desserts by Payard. I also really like The Bakers Dozen and Great Cookies.

Ahhhhhhhhh, I like that suggestion! It's funny to see how basic cake decorating was. Presentation is important........and that could be a huge boast to your sales....making your retro Americana different then the places around that still think these items are current patisiere.