"Baking With Julia" by Julia Child (2004)

[SethG]

I was looking lustfully at the rustic potato loaves, but I could also go for something chocolate.

Edited February 23, 2004 by SethG (log)

[EllenC]

I sent all weekend with a hideous cold, so didn't bake at all. Seth - I've been eying those rustic potato loaves too, but chocolate is always good.

Ellen

[SethG]

Any other votes? Kirsten, did you have any particular chocolate recipe in mind?

Chocolate was proposed first, so why don't we do that, and then the potato loaves next? I don't want to stay away from bread too long.

[Rhea_S]

All the Pizza Rusticas look great and Seth's looks better than the one in the book due to the use of a tart/quiche pan. I didn't make mine because I bought pancetta instead of prosciutto. I'll make it tonight. I have the pasta frolla ready to go.

I vote chocolate because I've been baking bread from RLB's Bread Bible.

[SethG]

All the Pizza Rusticas look great and Seth's looks better than the one in the book due to the use of a tart/quiche pan. I didn't make mine because I bought pancetta instead of prosciutto. I'll make it tonight. I have the pasta frolla ready to go.

I vote chocolate because I've been baking bread from RLB's Bread Bible.

I have a glass pie plate, but I realized as I was rolling out the dough that it was the wrong size! So I used this 9 inch tart pan I own that has high sides. It worked out fine. I'm glad you like it.

Please, Rhea, tell us what you've been baking!

Edited February 23, 2004 by SethG (log)

[Rhea_S]

Recipes tried so far from RLB's Bread Bible: Ricotta Loaf, Banana Feather Loaf, White Sandwich Bread and Tyrolean 10-Grain Torpedo. The first three are spongy breads with soft crusts. I don't really like those kinds of bread, but I felt like baking and had the ingredients. The white sandwich bread is just as soft as Wonder Bread but with more flavour. The Tyrolean 10-Grain is really delicious - soft, airy, flavourful crumb and a thin crisp crust. I ate half within 5 hours of the bread coming out of the oven. I have a little less than half at home that I may be able to photograph later.

[mdt]

A chocolate dish always sounds good to me! My vote is for either the Chocolate Truffle Tartlets or the Mocha Brownie Cake.

[SethG]

Do you own little tartlet pans, mdt? I don't. I wonder how that recipe might scale up to a larger pan.

[mdt]

I do have small tartlet pans, but it should bake up just fine in a larger size. Of course I was not thinking much about equipment and just the final result when I was looking at the recipes! Looking forward to baking anything chocolate.

[brngckn]

I will have to look at the book again tonight when I get home, but I'm remembering a chocolate mascarpone and something else cheesecake....

Oh, and I also just happened to see Alton Brown on cheesecakes over the weekend.

Edited February 24, 2004 by brngckn (log)

[Rhea_S]

Pizza Rustica

Ten-Grain Torpedo

The Pizza Rustica took longer than the recommended time -- closer to an hour. I don't know if that was because the pasta frolla had been refrigerated and was cold.

Edited February 24, 2004 by Rhea_S (log)

[EllenC]

Rhea_S - Your pictures always look SOOO good. You make me hungry!

[brngckn]

How about Chocolate-Mascarpone Cheesecake on page 256-258?

[SethG]

Kirsten, chocolate was your suggestion-- and you called it first!-- so my belief is we should do the cheesecake. The cake looks pretty simple, for a cheesecake. No fussy crumbs or toppings to contend with. And it looks really tasty.

So I'd be in for the cheesecake.

I happen to have an eight inch springform, but it's actually 3.5 inches high! It will still work, right?

I like the fact that the cake can be frozen-- I may make the cake, then freeze half of it for later.

Also, I would caution anyone who hasn't put a springform pan into a water bath before: wrap the outside of the pan in a double layer of foil. Otherwise water may seep into your pan. This ought to be mentioned in the recipe, but it isn't.

[bloviatrix]

A single piece of heavy-duty foil works also works well.

[SethG]

So, what do you guys think-- cheesecake, or something else?

[Rhea_S]

I'm ok with the cheesecake. I only have to buy one more box of cream cheese. I might also go on the hunt for the 4-in springform pans and make mini-cheesecakes. I don't feel like sharing anything I make at work because lunch hours for professional staff has been reduced to a half hour with no other breaks (except for smokers of course). We also have to account for our time to the nearest quarter hour, work a minimum of 37.5 hours per week and get absolutely no compensation for extra time worked. Yeah, I surf the web lots during the day and I have my own, large office rather than a tiny cubicle, but I work very quickly, do amazing things with SQL, and stay late or come in on weekends when I get asked at the end of the day/week for data that's needed by the next business day. I have a fancy title, but I don't get paid much more than the secretaries who still have two 15 minute breaks on top of the half hour lunch. Please excuse the rant, but I needed to blow off steam before my blood pressure goes through the roof and I faint.

[SethG]

Gosh, Rhea, what do you do for a living? It seems odd to have a "professional" title and yet have such rigid requirements regarding your time on the clock, breaks, and such.

P.S. I'm glad someone else is in on the cheesecake.

[EllenC]

The Cheesecake sounds good to me.

Rhea - your job sounds hideous. I had a job like that and I empathise with you completely.

[Rhea_S]

It's not so bad now that I've calmed down. At the very least, it's a fairly stable job and I only have a 5 minute commute. I work for a state agency and my official title is Assistant Director of Information Systems. Doesn't that sound important? We didn't have such rigid requirements until the newish governor passed his new ethics act regarding state employees. Anyway, I've been planning a major career change for quite some time now; I just have to attend to a few more details.

[arbuclo]

OK, I went crazy and I didn't follow in your footsteps this weekend. I finally got Baking with Julia from the library (and I'm gonna REALLY have to buy it!) and baked a few things. I didn't do the stuff you guys have done b/c some other things caught my eyes instead.

I did the X cookies which taste magnificent. They're fun to do if you're in the mood to do something a little fiddly. I didn't read the part about the egg wash which is used to stick the pastry together when you roll up the cookies. I noticed it wasn't sticking so I just used my ever present water spray bottle which worked fine.

I also did the Persian and Oasis Naan using one batch of the dough. I liked the Oasis best because it had more flavour by itself. I served some yogurt dip with the Persian which helped a bit. The hardest part of the recipe is that I don't think my oven gets to 500 degrees, so it takes longer to cook the breads and they probably don't turn out as nicely.

I also made the cheese and tomato galette. Mine seems much smaller than the one pictured but the corn meal in the pastry gives a magnificent texture. I used some cherry tomatoes straight out of the garden instead of the normal toms because I have such an abundance at the moment. (I live in Melbourne Australia, which is why I have summer produce overflowing at the moment!)

Next weekend I may try the French apple tart that you guys did earlier. However, it's the Australian Grand Prix so I may be a bit busy. I'll try to do it on Monday which is a public holiday here (Labour Day) and take it to the office on Tuesday. (There's only 2 of us!)

Can't wait to see the cheesecake pics from you guys!

Thanks for the inspiration!

(I've got pictures I could post. How can I post them?)

Edited February 29, 2004 by arbuclo (log)

[brngckn]

Well, I wrapped in double foil, but water got in there anyway. It was tasty mush, but still mush. I'm going to try this again during the week. I'm going to buy real cheesecake pan right now. You can never have enough bakeware, right?

[SethG]

Sorry, Kirsten. That sucks.

I made the cheesecake, and it tastes great-- but I did have a problem. The recipe calls for you to bake and cool, then flip the sucker over onto its top and put the crumbs on the bottom, and then flip it once again onto its bottom. This procedure is fraught with peril. I don't know what I did wrong-- maybe I didn't cool it long enough (?)-- but the top of my cake stuck to the board onto which I flipped it. I found this out when I flipped it back onto its bottom, and a few pieces from the top broke off my cake and stayed with the board. So I lost my smooth, shiny top. This had no effect on the taste, and I stuck the pieces back on, but it still pissed me off royally.

I forgot to take a pic when the cake was whole, although it's just as well. It's tough to take a good picture of a chocolate cheesecake. Some of you may prove me wrong. Here's a pic of the partially eaten cheesecake:

Forget the picture, it tasted great, although (and this is just me) I prefer plain New York cheesecake to any flavored cheesecake I've ever tried. Give me none of that fruit syrup, either. I just want that wonderful, creamy white cake. Just like they make it at Junior's. I'll be glad to take any of you baking buddies there if you make a trip to Brooklyn!

I also cheated, and made the rustic potato loaves yesterday:

Now these were a great success. They expand a lot in no time, and look very impressive when done. They taste good too, although the "rustic" in the name is really just the look. This is a very quick-rise white bread with some potato in it. The flavor is given depth by the potatoes, but otherwise it tastes pretty much like white sandwich bread. I think this would be a good bread to do a little experimenting with. Maybe add some rye or whole wheat flour, or use a little sourdough starter for flavor-- this would make it a more convincing faux-artisanal bread.

I'm just rambling on. The potato loaves were great. Tremendous results given the really minimal time involved.

[EllenC]

I am SO glad to hear somebody else had problems with the flipping back and forth. My cheesecake looked perfect until I got it onto the other plate and there were huge holes in the top. I put them back on but the cake looked more like a mud pie that anything else. It tasted good and everybody loved it, but I was sadly disappointed with the way it looked.

Thanks for the info on the potato loaves. I think I am going to try them this week.

Oh, BTW, I totally agree with you on the plain NY style cheesecake. There is nothing like it!

Ellen

[ComeUndone]

Here is a trick that I use to prevent the top of cheesecakes from sticking to the plate when I flip them over. Instead of using a cardboard round to support the top of the cake, I use a large plate covered *tauntly* with plastic wrap. First, the cake is less likely to adhere to plastic wrap. Secondly, because of the depth of the plate, it means there is usually some space between the plastic wrap and the bottom of the plate. It's kind of awkward to describe, but it gives the plastic wrap some "bounce" which means the weight of the cake will put less pressure against the plastic wrap.

Once the cake is flipped right side up, gently peel away the plastic wrap.