browniebaker

The pan release you are referring to, is it something like Baker's Joy? I guess I can't just use lard, butter, drippings, or even vegetable oil in a spray?

And what is your favorite recipe Browniebaker? How'd you know I bake brownies? Here's my and my family's favorite. How this differs from many brownie recipes: large amount of chocolate (for flavor, body, chewiness); bread flour (for substance and chewiness); light-brown sugar (for fudginess and chewiness); and baking soda (for a little lift, resulting in something between fudgy and cakey). This is a thick, chewy, very chocolatey brownie. 6 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate 3/4 cup unsalted butter 1-3/4 cups packed light brown sugar 3 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1-1/4 cups bread flour (using dip-and-sweep method of measuring) 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts (optional) Position oven-rack at center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Microwave chocolate and butter until melted, stirring periodically to distribute heat. Stir in sugar until no lumps remain. Stir in eggs and vanilla, just until blended. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold flour mixture into wet mixture, just until blended. Fold in walnuts (if using). Spread evenly into light-colored aluminum 8” square cheesecake pan. Wrap soaking-wet Magi-Cake strips around walls of pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes (30 to 35 minutes if not using wet strips), just until center has risen and fallen and is firm to the touch and wooden tester inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached. Remove from oven. If center of cake subsides and is lower than edges, gently press edges down with spatula so that cake is level. Lightly score surface into 16 squares with plastic knife. Cool in pan to room temperature. Remove from pan. Cut into 16 squares with plastic knife. For chewier texture, let sit overnight before serving. Serve at room temperature. Makes 16 brownies.

I confess, several years ago I followed these very instructions, and the failed popovers made me toss out my copy of Fanny Farmer. The cookbook lost all credibility for me. Although I have no problem now with getting high-rising popovers, I have a very big problem with their sticking to the pan and being nearly impossible to remove without tearing apart the popovers. The pans I have tried are (1) the cheap Ekco non-stick-finish 12-muffin pan, which I grease and preheat before adding the batter, and (2) light-colored aluminum 12-muffin pan. The lard just beads up on the non-stick finish. The sticking was just as bad on the plain aluminum. Any tips on the right pan to use? Chicago Metallic popover pan? Lodge cast-iron popover pan?

Bite-Cha-Back Brownies Here's my and my family's favorite. The combination of a large amount of chocolate, light-brown sugar, bread flour, and a little baking soda makes a thick, chewy, fudgy, and very chocolatey brownie that bites you back! 6 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate 3/4 cup unsalted butter 1-3/4 cups packed light brown sugar 3 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1-1/4 cups bread flour (using dip-and-sweep method of measuring) 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts (optional) Position oven-rack at center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light-colored aluminum 8" square pan. Microwave chocolate and butter until melted, stirring periodically to distribute heat. Stir in sugar until no lumps remain. Stir in eggs and vanilla, just until blended. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold flour mixture into wet mixture, just until blended. Fold in walnuts (if using). Spread evenly into pan. Wrap soaking-wet Magi-Cake strips around walls of pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes (30 to 35 minutes if not using wet strips), just until center has risen and fallen and is firm to the touch and wooden tester inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached. Remove from oven. If center of cake subsides and is lower than edges, gently press edges down with spatula so that cake is level. Lightly score surface into 16 squares with plastic knife. Cool in pan to room temperature. Remove from pan. Cut into 16 squares with plastic knife. For chewier texture, let sit overnight before serving. Serve at room temperature. Makes 16 brownies. Keywords: Brownies/Bars, Dessert, Easy ( RG597 )

Of all rude things a guest can do, I'd say that not eating is the very, very least of them. I would not call someone a bad guest for abstaining from eating. Sure, it might have made others uncomfortable, but surely this guest had his reasons for not eating a thing, rational or not. Knowing what I do of eating disorders, I try not to blame others for eating behaviors that are strange because they might be caused by an eating disorder. I agree, though, that by leaving his plate empty during the whole banquet, this guest made a spectacle of himself.

Simply boiled, buttered, and salted is the only way for me, the only variations being whether I slice or cube the beets. Anything more seems to be gilding the lily but, then, I love beets beyond all reason.

That's why I have a dim-sum outfit, a dress that is all black and hides countless soy sauce stains (and also has no waist-band!). One day my two-year-old saw me putting it on and said "dim sum!"

I use 2 teaspoons mustard powder to 3 cups of sauce, but I have always wondered whether an extra teaspooon, making it a whole tablespoon, might be an improvement. Could be that different mustard powders have different levels of pungency and heat. I use Penzey's Canadian, and Penzey's spices generally are pretty strong owing to freshness. I imagine Colman's must be right up there in strength.

Really, really happy to hear you enjoyed it! Aren't Chinese wedding banquets a blast?

My ideal brownie is somewhere between fudgy and cakey; includes brown sugar for fudgy flavor and chewiness; contains six ounces of unsweetened chocolate (for an 8"-square panful) for extra-chocolatey flavor; is baked with wet, metallic-fabric cake-strips wrapped around the outer walls of the pan so that the edges do not dry out; and contain walnuts, which must be toasted. Walnuts only; no other nuts will do. Nutless is all right but not as exciting. Cream-cheese swirls just get lost in a truly chocolatey brownie, so why bother? Chocolate chips are pointless over-kill. Fruit flavors, as in raspberry swirls, are bothersome. A two-tier brownie of chocolate-over-peanut-butter is good.

At a formal dinner I had strawberry sauce drop from my spoon right into my cleavage. The woman I was talking to definitely saw my faux pas and had the grace to look away quickly so I could do a quick wipe. She had amazing composure, I thought, in not cracking up laughing, which is more than I could have done if I had been in her shoes! I'll never forget her for that.

Must be a regional thing. Maybe it all traces back to Germany, where no one puts ketchup on a frankfurter? Well, I get grief for putting mustard and mayo (plus ketchup) on my hamburgers, so we're even. And mustard on a hamburgers is a regional thing, Southern in fact.

When you have kids and they start developing palates of their own, you do sometimes start to wonder how you must have offended the food gods. My husband and I must have done something that made the gods very angry. How else can we explain why we are now suffering the punishment of: A three-year-old who wants ketchup (horrors!) on her hot dog? Or the six-year-old who views collard greens as a food only barely to be tolerated and, to boot, leaves all the luscious "pot likker" in his bowl? Or, in my husband's case, how an oenophile like him ended up married to a woman who has no appreciation for wine so that, when the two of us eat out alone, he often has to settle for ordering a glass or half-bottle instead of some of the more interesting wines on the list? Or, in my case, how a Southerner like me ended up with a husband from NY who detests pimento cheese and might contaminate our children with his Yankee prejudices?

breakfast: split and toasted day-old buttermilk biscuits, with strawberry jam; Horlick's malted milk

This morning for breakfast I tried for the first time adding one medium sweet potato, boiled and mashed, to the dough for my cinnamon rolls (and decreasing the amount of flour by about 1/2 cup). The rolls were delicious, the sweet-potato dough soft, bready, very moist, golden in color, substantial enough in texture to stand up to the filling and icing, and with a subtle flavor of sweet potato. I think sweet-potato dough would work well in sticky buns, too, especially with the pecans.

a sweet-potato cinnamon roll -- mmmm

Oh, but you can indeed reheat and enjoy leftovers without grittiness. The recipe I use is essentially the Cook's Illustrated stovetop version. To reheat, microwave on the lowest power (10 percent of full power), stirring periodically to distribute heat. Once the mac and cheese warms up a little, the power can be increased to 20 percent or 30 percent to speed things up. This method of reheating does take a long time, but it avoids curdling the sauce and maintains its silky-creamy consistency. Reheating on the stovetop hardly ever works because the heat is too concentrated at the bottom and sides of the pan while the mac and cheese is still too cold and firm to stir around without tearing the noodles. And, as JAZ says, you can indeed get a crusty topping by sprinkling grated cheese and/or buttered bread crumbs and broiling for a few minutes. A short broiling period does not curdle the sauce at all. I've pushed the limits to see how much broiling this dish can take, and I can broil it long enough to get the cheese bubbling and golden-brown.

I think bechamel-based cheese sauce is nowhere as good for mac & cheese as sauce based on egg and evaporated milk -- wonderfully silky-smooth and creamy -- which one has to be careful not to overheat, or risk curdling. See John Thorne's recipe in _Simple Cooking_. I use a thermometer and stop cooking at 145 degrees F -- perfect every time. Once you try it, you may never go back to white sauce again.

I can't cook for people I don't love. Period.

Cheap store-brand cheese is not likely the culprit. Some of the best, most creamy macaroni and cheese I have made was made with, surprisingly, sharp Giant Foods or Safeway cheddar that comes in the economical one-pound or two-pound brick. The key, I think, is that cheap cheddar is usually not aged for long, and such young cheddar melts very well and makes an ultra-creamy mac and cheese. One evening, I tried a costly Vermont white extra-sharp aged cheddar, and the sauce was not as enjoyably creamy; what a waste of a good cheese!

Very well said. I'm of the same school. The dough needs to be a foil for the butter, sugar, and goo of the cinnamon-and-brown-sugar swirls and the topping. The idea of a pound of butter to six cups flour in Silverton's dough makes me, frankly speaking, queasy.

In-laws and conditional love! I have been married for eight years but have never cooked a meal for my parents-in-law who are of Korean heritage because my husband has always maintained that, even though I am of Chinese heritage and know very little of Korean cooking, the first meal I cook for them must be Korean and not Chinese cuisine, which would somehow be an affront to them. He has some antiquated idea of the Korean daughter-in-law doing her duty! Note that the first meal my husband cooked for my parents (during the first winter holidays that we spent at my parents' house) was Korean, and he very proudly showed off the cuisine he grew up with. "Why is it not an affront to my parents for you to cook Korean and not Chinese for them? Why the double standard?" I asked. No answer from Mr. Inconsistent. No dinner from me.

faves, in no particular order: Rose Levy Beranbaum - fail-safe recipes; chemistry of cooking James Villas - excellent food writing; Southern foods John Egerton - writing about Southern foods Nigella Lawson - the spirit she brings to cooking Shirley Corriher - chemistry of cooking Christopher Kimball - recipe sleuthing, although his tastes skew a bit Yankee M. F. K. Fisher - excellent food writing; immortal Lidia Bastianich - lust for life unfaves: Martin Yan Emeril Legasse Burt Wolfe too many more to mention

If I were you, I would not say anything to anyone. I've been a bride, and I have been a guest many times at these Chinese wedding banquets, sometimes when I have been on a low-sodium or other diet, and having grown up in the Chinese culture, I think the balance comes down to not drawing attention to oneself by mentioning special dietary requirements; it just is not done. I have sat at these banquets and eaten plain rice or played with my food on my plate. Pick apart your crab or shrimp and move it around. Hide food under shells and leaves. Your plate is cleared at the end of each course, and no one is really going to notice or care that you are actually consuming very little if anything. I would not worry about wasting the food because, over all, you are doing the right thing by not causing anyone extra trouble. I realize my opinion is not going to be popular among those who put a primacy on the food or on individualism, but I do think you ought to consider whether you want to be forever remembered as the one wedding guest who requested a special meal. (My mother and father still recall and talk about which wedding requested to sit a this particular table, which one did not wear a tie, which one asked to bring an uninvited guest, etc.) I would simply eat a good dinner before or after the wedding. In short, someone else's wedding is not about me, and it is also not about the food.

I, too, use the classic pecan-tassie crust for rugulach. The recipe is just 3 oz. cream cheese, 4 oz. unsalted butter, one cup all-purpose flour, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Actually, I use the pecan-tassie crust recipe for lots of things: tassies, rugulach, pig-in-a-blanket, crust for sweet and savory pies, crust for sweet and savory tarts, crust for cobblers, fried pies, fruit turnovers, and the most delectable melt-in-your-mouth biscuits (made with the addition of 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/8 teaspoon more salt). One of the joys in life is finding one recipe that works for lots of dishes, making life simpler.