browniebaker
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Has anyone had problems with the highly decorated pans releasing the cake once it is baked? A couple of years ago I purchased (at great expense) and used a couple of different Nordic Wear non-stick mini bunt pans. They were highly detailed and are still available. Once the cakes were baked and I had waited the suggested 10 minutes for them to cool they would not release. It might have been the type of cake (it was a light wt chocolate cake out of Chocolatier magazine). With subsequent tries I found that I needed to coat the pans with Crisco or butter and flour even though the pans are listed as "non stick". I wrote to Nordic Wear but received no answer. I also found that Bakers Joy and Pam did not seem to work as well as butter or Crisco. I still have the pans but don't use them as much because of the hassle and have been hesitant about buying others.
I once had a phone conversation about this with the lady who answers the phone at Nordic Ware -- always the same lady every time I call to place an order! She said the grease and flour the pan just as you would any other cake. I use a pastry brush to brush shortening or butter into all the crevices, then flour the pan. But lots of people use a mix that has both fat and flour in it. I've never had a cake not come out properly.
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Most of the cake recipes I have tried, from cookbooks and from friends, don't fill the Nordicware classic 12-cup Bundt pan, and they bake up into cakes that do not rise all the way to the top of the pan.
When I use those same recipes in the Nordicware 10-cup pans I have (the festive, the fleur-de-lis, and the violet pans), the cakes do rise to fill the entire cake pan. You want the entire design of the mold to be shown on the cake, especially because some of the prettiest detail is at the base of the cake.
This is a good point. How close to the top do you fill the decorative pans?
How close to the top depends on how much a cake rises, some cakes rising more than others. From experience I know that my fruitcake hardly rises at all, and I fill very nearly to the top. With cakes that rise more, I'd say I usually fill the 10-cup pan to about three-fourths the height of the pan, but it could be more or less than that, depending on the cake.
I think once you start using the 10-cup pans, you'll get a feel for how much to fill the pan.
Doing the research on this is a great excuse to buy new pans!
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magic line... love, love, love them! trying to sell my old wilton ones.
I love Magic Line, too!
One way to get rid of your Wiltons is to bake some cinnamon rolls or coffee cake -- something with an attractive icing, glaze, or crumb topping on top -- in the pan, put the pan on a square of cellophane, gather up the cellophane above the pan, and tie a ribbon. Makes a great gift, with a reusable pan.
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Most of the cake recipes I have tried, from cookbooks and from friends, don't fill the Nordicware classic 12-cup Bundt pan, and they bake up into cakes that do not rise all the way to the top of the pan.
When I use those same recipes in the Nordicware 10-cup pans I have (the festive, the fleur-de-lis, and the violet pans), the cakes do rise to fill the entire cake pan. You want the entire design of the mold to be shown on the cake, especially because some of the prettiest detail is at the base of the cake.
I can't think of a time when, filling a 10-cup pan, I have had to pour off batter to bake in another pan. Nor have I had to scale down cake recipes.
At those prices, I'd buy the 10-cup pans and give them a try with your recipes.
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I wish I had bought the good stuff from the outset, which I now own after donating the bad stuff to charity. These I think are the bare essentials:
two or three 9-inch round aluminum cake pans (Magic Line, available with or without the bottom's being removable, a feature useful for cheesecakes and, more generally, for easily removing the baked cake from the pan.)
one 8-inch or 9-inch square aluminum cake pan (Magic Line; see above, re removable bottoms.)
one 9-x-13-inch rectangular baking pan, aluminum or glass (Glass is more versatile for baking and storage, but Magic Line aluminum has nice, straight sides and perfect corners and, if you wish, removable bottoms.)
one tube or Bundt pan (Nordicware cast-aluminum Bundts are great and come in beautiful shapes.)
two heavy aluminum half-sheets (Nordicware's has a clear plastic cover great for covering dough during proofing, storing baked items, and transporting baked items.)
one 9-inch round glass pie-plate (Anchor-Hocking has a level rim that holds the crust-edge nicely.)
one 12-cup muffin pan (Ekco non-stick performs well, lasts, and is cheap.)
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I never add butter to the filling of sugar, cinnamon, and raisins (not soaked), and I never have a problem with separation. I did have that problem when I made the bread the first few times and did use butter.
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Kerry,
Hi. I like to make fudge and caramel that cut up into thick 1" cubes, and I want to use my 8" square Magic Line pans with the removable bottoms, so I want to double the recipes. Would you please tell me how large a pan I would need for the caramel and the fudge, respectively, in order to avoid boil-overs? I'd rather not find out by trial and error! Much thanks!
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That Sitram 11-piece Profiserie set is available at Smartbargains.com for just 129.99, and I had to get it. I got 12 percent off that price as a new customer yesterday. I don't usually buy sets of cookware, but this set has a lot of things I needed and was planning to buy separately anyway, namely the 1.7-quart saucepan and lid, the 3.3-quart saucepan and lid, the universal steamer, and the 11.6-quart stockpot and lid. Here's the set:
Sitram Profiserie 11-piece set.
The lid for that stockpot also fits the Profiserie 5.4-quart saucepan that I ordered yesterday from JB Prince, along with the 2.2-quart saucepan and lid, and the 1.1-quart saucepan with pouring lips.
I donated my old, scorching Wearevers to Vietnam Veterans of America this morning, and I am sitting on my porch waiting for the UPS truck. I've got to thank Sam Kinsey and his terrific "Understanding Stovetop Cookware" course for helping me decide what to buy.
edit to add: Note the Mauviel dinged-store-display copper pans also for sale at Smartbargains.com. I was tempted, but my budget won the fight.
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Kerry,
Inspired by the nougat lesson, yesterday I tried making divinity using a recipe virtually identical to your nougat recipe except that the syrup is cooked to 160 degrees F and the mixture is dropped by rounded teaspooonfuls onto a lined cookie-sheet. Problem is, my divinity never set up hard enough to spoon out into fluffy balls. I suspect it was the legendary mugginess of the Washington, D.C., summer. I had thought it was a cool and dry day (compared to what we usually get around here!) and I had the windows open.
Query: I there anything I could have done (can do in future) to offset the humidity? Would boiling to a higher temperature work?
Another query: What can I do with failed divinity besides pour it down the drain?
Thanks ever so much for these terrific confectionery lessons!
For divinity I would suggest a day that is less muggy, or have the air conditioning on to decrease the humdity. Also you have to keep beating it until it thickens. Keep doing little test drops to see if it is ready to set up.
I don't think a higher temperature will work any better.
Try using it like you would marshmallow fluff, ie fluffernutter sandwiches, on ice cream etc.
Marshmallow Fluff! That's what I have! Thanks for this great idea. I've just learned from the website for Marshmallow Fluff and Fluffernutter that I can make Rice-Krispies Treats with marshmallow fluff. So glad my kitchen can keep its no-food-wasted status!
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Kerry,
Inspired by the nougat lesson, yesterday I tried making divinity using a recipe virtually identical to your nougat recipe except that the syrup is cooked to 160 degrees F and the mixture is dropped by rounded teaspooonfuls onto a lined cookie-sheet. Problem is, my divinity never set up hard enough to spoon out into fluffy balls. I suspect it was the legendary mugginess of the Washington, D.C., summer. I had thought it was a cool and dry day (compared to what we usually get around here!) and I had the windows open.
Query: I there anything I could have done (can do in future) to offset the humidity? Would boiling to a higher temperature work?
Another query: What can I do with failed divinity besides pour it down the drain?
Thanks ever so much for these terrific confectionery lessons!
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I love PB on or in anything, but the best, most peanut-buttery cookie has got to be what we call the 1-1-1 cookie in our house. It's simple:
1 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients until blended. Divide dough into 25 balls on a greased or lined cookie-sheet. Flatten slightly. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or just until tops are dry and edges start to harden. Remove from oven. Cool to room temperature. Makes 25 two-inch cookies.
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The first time I knew I was a little different gastonomically was in the third grade, when my homeroom was having a potluck lunch. Every student was to bring a dish. I made my mother go out and buy all the ingredients for a relish that I had never before tasted or made from the recipe in my new Betty Crocker cookbook (that I had mail-ordered, having joined a book club without my parents' knowledge). All I remember is that the relish combined celery, radishes, and onions in a creamy dressing, and that the other children didn't touch it at all.
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My 9yo and 5yo are clamoring to have dinner at Taillevent with my husband and me when we spend spring break in Paris next April. Should I let them, or just get a babysitter for the evening? The kids enjoy and are used to having long, multi-course meals in quiet, formal restaurants, but none of us has been to Taillevent and we are not sure whether children would be out of place there, even at an early seating such as 7:30 p.m.
I'm ambivalent, on the one hand wanting a leisurely (and maybe even romantic?) dinner with just my husband and, on the other hand, not wanting my kids to miss out on a gustatory experience.
Please advise? Many thanks!
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My husband and I have successfully taught our two little children never to describe anybody by skin color. So when I asked someone whether they preferred light or dark meat and my five-year-old daughter said, "Uh, skin color?" as if I had slipped up, everyone cracked up laughing.
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For perfect little cheesecakes, I never judge doneness by baking time.
Make the cheesecakes as little as you want, but make sure you bake just until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F. Stick an instant-read thermometer into the center of one. This is foolproof.
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This year I want to go all-out with a pie buffet. I'm thinking of baking the following:
apple pie
buttermilk chess pie
butterscotch pie
Japanese fruit pie (raisins, pecans, and coconut)
pecan pie
pumpkin pie
sweet potato pie with crumb topping
O, joy! There will be pie for breakfast, pie for lunch, pie for tea, and pie for dinner in the days after Thanksgiving.
That sounds like my idea of heaven. Pie is so comforting; pie is love!
Is "Japanese fruit pie" popular in Japan? I've never heard of it. Are the raisins, pecans, and coconut mixed in some sort of brown sugar/butter/corn syrup filling like a pecan pie?
Ling and Ludja,
Japanese fruit pie is indeed a Southern pie. (Terribly misnamed -- there's nothing Japanese about it, really.) It's raisins, flaked coconut, and chopped pecans stirred into a chess-type mixture of melted butter, granulated sugar, whole eggs, a little cider vinegar, and a little salt. Yes, it's a bit like a pecan pie, but not the kind with the sticky, corn-syrup filling; it's more like the type made with a chess filling, or like a Canadian butter tart, or like a pecan tassie (another Southern classic). Anyway, I love a Japanese fruit pie better than a pecan pie, which seems dully one-dimensional next to the multi-textured flavor-explosion you get with a mouthful of raisins, coconut, and pecans.
Only twelve days to wait!
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Jason, those dumplings look amazing!
When you put both kimchee and tofu in the filling, it gets awfully close to Korean mandu.
Looks great!!! Correct me if I am wrong...this is actually "Wor-Tip" or "Gwor-Tiea" (potstickers) and only steamed or boiled dumplings are called Jiaozi.All I know is, whether my mom boiled them or pan-fried them, we called them jiaozi (in our native dialect of Taiwanese, tsui-giao).
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I love a good sticky toffee pudding! But it really should have a toffee sauce (traditionally made with brown sugar), not a caramel sauce (however delicous a caramel sauce can be). The cake part ought to be dense, heavy, and dark. This is where you really want stodge!
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This year I want to go all-out with a pie buffet. I'm thinking of baking the following:
apple pie
buttermilk chess pie
butterscotch pie
Japanese fruit pie (raisins, pecans, and coconut)
pecan pie
pumpkin pie
sweet potato pie with crumb topping
O, joy! There will be pie for breakfast, pie for lunch, pie for tea, and pie for dinner in the days after Thanksgiving.
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What don't I cook in my thermal cookers? I own two, both Tiger brand: an 8-liter and a 4.5-liter. They are indispensible for saving on fuel-consumption year-round, especially for avoiding heating up the house in the hot summer months, and for enabling me to cook foods while I am out of the house. I have found that one or the other is in use at any time.
Let me count the ways:
braising red-cooked pork belly and carnitas
making stews such as chili, goulash, and curries
cooking soups and chowders
making stocks
simmering vegetables and fruits such as collards, fried cabbage, and stewed apples
soaking and cooking beans
boiling vegetables such as potatoes and carrots
poaching whole chicken
making rice and sweet-rice porridges
keeping hot food hot, and cold food cold
cooking at campsites
I suppose you could cook rice in it, but I use my trusty "fuzzy logic" rice-cooker for that.
These two thernal cookers are probably a couple of the best gadgets I ever got for my kitchen.
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A small jar of peppercorns dating from 1989. I can bring myself neither to use them nor to throw them out! Not owing to sentimental value or anything like that, just my inertia.
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Two questions:
Are any of these places Metro-accessible?
I can only answer this one. Maxim is about 2 blocks from the Rockville metro station. Kam Sam is about one block behind it (through the parking lot and past Bob's Noodle 66, a very good Taiwanese restaurant).
Browniebaker, Kam Sam has a bakery with very good coconut buns, and I am resonably sure that Maxim's carries Maria's Bakery stuff.
Thanks, Heather! I've been meaning forever to check out these two stores, and now that my new Costco membership takes me up the Pike on weekends, well, I just hope these two don't go Latino any time soon!
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I'm sorry to hear that, Jay. Most of my Asian cooking is fairly pan-Asian, not specific to any one country or region, so I didn't realize they were lacking in authentic Chinese ingredients. I've never asked for customer service anywhere but the fish counter there--just seemed like a bad idea, and I'm sorry you had to find that out for sure.
I'm just being curious now: what ingredients were you seeking that you haven't found?
Agree with Jay: the Korean gorceries generally lack the more esoteric Chinese foods I use in cooking. For example, two things I have looked for and even asked for at Korean groceries such as Han Ah Rheum in Wheaton and Korean Korner in Rockville but did not find were dried shrimp that is shell-less (they had only dried shrimp in the shell, which my Korean husband tells me is used in Korean cooking, and which I have never seen in Chinese cooking); and canned sweet red-bean paste (they only had canned whole red-beans in a thin paste, for use in shaved-ice desserts).
That's not to mention the disturbing lack of my favorite, beloved Chinese bakery treats like po lo (pineapple) buns and coconut buns, which are an essential impulse-buy when I grocery-shop!
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Food Lion has White Lily flour and Duke's mayo. That's pretty much the only stuff I buy there.
Where is there a Food Lion in Rockville? Or do you drive to Virginia?
Currently, I stock up on White Lily and Duke's when I visit my old college buddies in Richmond about once a month. I'd love it if I could get it closer to home (Mont. Co.).
The Food lion I drive by all the time is at 845 Rockville Pike in the strip mall named Wintergreen Plaza. Sure hope this particular store stocks White Lily.
Had wisdom teeth pulled!
in Cooking
Posted
I had all four out two months ago. Maybe I'm a piglet because not even the pain and four bloody, gaping holes in my mouth kept me from eating whatever the rest of the family was eating. I do wish to warn you that, if the pain medication makes you vomit (as Oxycodone and acetominophen with codeine made me), whatever you eat could come back up, so just make sure it's something not too chunky or acidic or otherwise painful to upchuck. The positive side of nausea is that it makes you not care what you eat. I was nauseated for a whole day -- a whole day of not eating and not caring, oh my.