Archive for November, 2011
Holiday Baking tips…
November 30th, 2011 | 
Author: Yep that time of year is upon us and I’m afraid to tell you this but… it’s rapidly approaching. While I can’t help you much on present suggestions (well not unless they are for me – I like diamonds, pigs, kitchen gadgets and All-Clad) what I can help you out on are some tried and true tips to help you survive the holiday baking season.
Go through your cookbooks, recipe boxes, magazine papers you “borrowed” from your dr’s office (c’mon admin it, you’ve done it – we all have at least once or ten times in our lives. Shhh I won’t tell) and make a list of your top 10 items you want to bake. Yes 10; if you plan ahead you can make at least 10 different types which would look amazing on any cookie tray! You don’t have to make a bajillion of each; just a few dozen really. Enough for you, your family and guests. Okay.. maybe a few more for you. After all YOU baked ‘em, you should be able to enjoy them!
Ingredients…
Go through your recipes and write down what all you need:
- Flour – typically most cookies call for All Purpose Flour. If a recipe calls for Self-Rising flour and you only have All Purpose, don’t panic. The only real difference between the two is Self Rising already has the leavening and salt in it. To make All Purpose flour into Self Rising, simply follow this rule of thumb. 1 cup of Self Rising flour = 1 cup of All Purpose flour plus 1 tsp of baking soda and 1/4 tsp salt. See now, that wasn’t too bad!
- Sugar (white and brown) – very few cookies I make call for dark brown sugar but it doesn’t hurt to keep a box of it on hand (and tightly sealed!)
- GOOD VANILLA not that imitation vanilla flavor crap either! I’m serious here people. I will come to your kitchen and take away your rolling pin if I find out that you bought it. You want honest-to-goodness REAL vanilla. Yes it’s pricey but you only use a little bit of it and it lasts. You wouldn’t exactly use imitation cow when eating a steak would you? Yeah, I think not
- Unsalted butter – no margarine or tub stuff. The oil content in that is too high and your cookies will have a higher tendency to burn.
- Eggs – use Large, not extra large (unless your recipe calls specifically for extra large). Also, make sure they are fresh. No, not from a chicken’s booty fresh, but not outdated.
- Baking Soda & Baking Powder – Please, please please check the expiration dates on these. Prior to starting The Kitchen Whisperer I would replace both of these every year at Christmas time. Even though they may be kept in a covered container, the ingredients will lose their potency and your cookies will not rise properly.
- Cream Cheese, fillings (preserves, icings, etc for thumbprints, pastries and so forth)
- Nuts – Look in your cabinets right now; I’ll wait. No.. seriously, go look. If you are storing nuts in anything other than the freezer or fridge, I would strongly urge you to not eat them. Why? Nuts contain fat and fat, over a period of time can go rancid.
- Decorations – Sprinkles (jimmies if you’re from Pittsburgh), dusting sugars, nonpareils, icings, food colorings, kisses and candy for cookies
- Chocolate – Chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips (I’m so in love with these right now), chocolate for melting – drizzles and dippings
- Parchment Paper – I will not bake one piece of bread, dough or cookie without it! It is a Godsend to any baker!
- Containers – You’re gonna need somewhere to house all of your hard work. Make sure they are air tight. If they aren’t and you want to use it anyway, wrap the container with plastic wrap. As Mr. Fantabulous would say “Cocoon it!”
- Baking pans/sheets, bowls, spatulas and cooling racks – make sure you have at least 2 cookie sheets. I like 3 only because it gives the one that I just took out of the oven more time to cool while I’m placing cookies on one and the last one is in the oven.
- Spices – no, I’m not talking about chili powder (which actually goes really well with chocolate) but the other spices – Cream of Tartar for Snickerdoodles, Ginger, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, all spice
Prep Work
I’ve been getting a ton of questions about “Hey, I want to get started early on my Christmas baking. Can I bake the stuff now and freeze it?” My response is “Sure you can but…” What’s the “but???” Cookies never quite taste the same after they are fully baked and then frozen/thawed. Again, even before I started TKW, I always made all of my dough (at least all of the dough that could be pre-made), shaped the cookies, flash froze them and then packaged them up with the temperature and time they take to bake them written on the package. Then the week of Christmas when we all have 9000 parties to attend, I would take out enough of each cookie I wanted to bake and pop them straight into the oven, frozen and all. You end up with a fresh, thick awesome cookie. Now granted, don’t make the dough 6 months in advance but 3 months in advance is good. Right now, with Christmas being less then a month away your cookies will be good to go.
You figure each dough takes about 15-30 minutes to prep. Make it, shape it/scoop it and then place on a parchment paper lined sheet. Pop the pan in the freezer and in about 30 minutes to an hour, take the pan out and put the partially frozen cookies into a freezer baggie. Label it and put them back into the freezer. In one night, you could easily knock out 3-4 doughs. So in 3 days you could easily make those 10 types of cookies you have on your wish list.
Baking Days
When you’re ready to start baking, look at your recipes and start off with those cookies that cook at the lowest temperature. It’s easier to start off with a cooler oven and gradually increase the heat per each cookie than the other way. You have more control over the heat. If the cookies that you’re baking require decorations (kisses for Peanut Butter Blossoms), sprinkles, colored sugars – have that stuff all ready prepped/unwrapped BEFORE you start baking.
Set up a cooling rack station and a decorating station. Have a helper if you want. Turn on some holidays tunes, light a few candles and get into the festive spirit.
Keep in mind that frozen cookies will take a tad longer than fresh-from-the-bowl cookies. So if your chocolate chip cookies take 9-11 minutes normally at 375, straight from the freezer will take 2-3 minutes longer.
Yep that time of year is upon us and I’m afraid to tell you this but… it’s rapidly approaching. While I can’t help you much on present suggestions (well not unless they are for me – I like diamonds, pigs, kitchen gadgets and All-Clad) what I can help you out on are some tried and true tips to help you survive the holiday baking season.
Posted in Tips and Tricks | 
Tags: baking soda, baking tips, flour, holiday baking, ingredients, powder, sugar, tricks, vanilla | 
No Comments »
How did that get into my fridge???
So after dinner I’m rooting in the fridge, not sure what for really. Am I the only one that does this? And nestled behind the cucka brussel sprouts I made for Thanksgiving, I find 2 unopened bags of these:
Thing is I don’t recall buying them. And I know Mr. Fantabulous didn’t as well this is not his type of schtick if he ever visited the market. Apparently somewhere over the course of the last few months I acquired 2 bags of fresh cranberries and somehow managed to stuff them away in my wee back of my fridge. Looks like I’m making this real soon…
Lemon Cranberry “bruffin”
It’s more on the muffin-side but has a sweet bread type consistency. It’s loaded with lemon juice, lemon zest and a bajillin fresh cranberries. As soon as it’s removed from the oven it’s topped with a lemony syrup and then course white sparkling sugar. Best way to describe this sparkling sugar is well, it is friggen AWESOME! It’s like if the Glitter Gods and the Food Goddess had a baby… THIS is what they created!
Lemon Cranberry Bruffin
All things piggies…
So today I get an email from one of my dearest girlfriends with this in it:
These are just too precious!
Now wait.. let me give you some background info on me and my pig obsession. I’ve always, ALWAYS, loved pigs. Now no, I’m not talking about those big fat sows they have at farms and exhibitions but rather those teeny, tiny piglets that are just oh-so-cute that only get to about 40 pounds that can be kept indoors as pets, that use the litter box and that are as smart as can be. As I got older, my love of pigs grew and so do my collection. It got the point where it got a bit much, even for me. I mean when you actually have soap in the shape of a pig as your body soap you know you’ve gone too far. So when I got married and we moved into our new house I caved and downsized BIG TIME only leaving a me a few pieces that mean the most to me.
At one point in time I entertained the notion of getting a pig tattoo. I envisioned it as a female piggy sitting all cute and pristine, with her head tilted sideways wearing a tiara – yes folks, I AM A PRINCESS cause my daddy said so! LOL Aaaaaaaaaaaand if truth be told, if I ever did get a cute little pink teacup piggy her name was going to be Princess Bacon. I know, I’m twisted
So now back to today… I show Mr. Fantabulous the above canister set and before I can say ‘Look how cute these are’ I got a very firm and resounding “NO! Don’t even think about it.” … and the look of I mean it. See Mr. Fantabulous is a minimalist and hates all-things-knickknacky. The thought of getting these didn’t even enter my head, really … they don’t serve a practical purpose for me. I just thought they were cute. I’ll spare you the discussions we had over a picture but it was pretty funny to see his face get all red and the look of “I don’t think so” on his face.
Now if my friend had sent me a picture of this…
I think I would have done the “I looooooooooove you sooooooooooooooo much honey, can we please please please <insert the batting of baby blues and a plate of triple chocolate chunk cookies> get one, did I mention how much I love you?” pout
Okay no really, I wouldn’t get one even if he said yes. I work way too much to give it the proper attention it would deserve. Plus I’m allergic to well… everything. To date, breathing and seeing clearly trumps any animal obsession.
Hmmmm.. maybe I could develop a new obsession. Ohhhhhhhh diamonds! I’m not allergic to diamonds!!! MR. FANTABULOUS… diamonds don’t make me wheeze or sneeze
Turkey Pot Pie with a Puff Pastry Crust
Turkey Pot Pie
| Turkey Pot Pie with a Puff Pastry Crust |
- 2 cups cooked turkey rough chopped or shredded into bite size pieces
- 2 tsp Kosher salt
- 2 tsp Freshly ground black pepper
- 2 1/2 cups chicken or turkey stock
- 4 tbl unsalted butter
- ½ cup Vidalia onions, chopped uniformly (about ¼” big square pieces)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ½ cup cubed carrots (about ¼” big square pieces)
- ½ cup cubed celery (about ¼” big square pieces)
- 1 med-large skin on red potato, cubed (about ¼” big square pieces)
- 2 tsp thyme, finely chopped
- 1/8 tsp rosemary
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 1 tbl corn starch (optional) with 2 tbl milk
- 1 cup defrosted peas
- 1-2 sheets puff pastry dough
- 1 egg, beaten with 1 tbl water
- Preheat oven to 400
- Melt butter and sauté onion, celery and carrots till soft, ~ 8-10 minutes. Stirring often.
- Add 1 tsp of thyme, salt and pepper. Mix.
- Add in the garlic and cook for 2 minutes, stirring.
- Add in the flour and use a whisk scraping any of the yummy pieces off of the bottom of the pan. You want to ‘cook’ the flour taste out. ~roughly 3-5 minutes.
- Add in the stock and stir.
- Add in the rest of the salt, thyme, pepper, bay leaf and rosemary. (taste and adjust seasonings accordingly)
- Add in the potatoes, turkey and heavy cream.
- Bring to a slow boil.
- If you want the mixture thicker, put the cornstarch in a bowl and add the milk. Stir with a fork to combine.
- Add to the mixture and this will thicken.
- Remove Bay Leaf.
- At this point it’s done OR you can add the defrosted peas.
- Place 4 oven proof bowls on a baking sheet to catch any excess.
- Fill the bowls ¾ of the way full (actually a little more than ¾ full but not to the very top) with the mixture
- Unfold your puff pastry and lightly roll out on a floured surface to merge the seams.
- Cut the puff pastry so it’s 1 ½ inches bigger than your bowl – you want the overhang!
- Press the edges of the pastry to the outside of your bowl – you want it to overlap and stick to the edge.
- Brush the dough with the egg mixture.
- Make 3-4 small slits in the dough to allow the steam to escape.
- Cook for 25-35 minutes or until your dough is puffed and nicely browned.
How to freeze unbaked pies:
* Note: Make sure you are using a bowl that allows you to take it straight from the freezer to the oven. If you bowl doesn’t support this or you’re unsure, take the bowl out, uncover and start baking in a COLD OVEN! This will just take longer to cook (say another 10-15 minutes)
Follow all of the steps up to and including step 15. At this point, let the mixture come to room temperature in the bowls.
Follow steps16 and 17.
Before you place the dough on top, brush the dough with the egg wash mixture.
Place the dough EGG-WASH side down. This prevents the dough from becoming soggy.
Press the edges of the pastry to the outside of your bowl.
Put your bowls on a jelly roll pan or any other sheet-type pan and put the entire tray into the freezer. YES, uncovered! This is called Flash Freezing. If you were to wrap them now, the plastic wrap would stick to the dough and it would be a big ol’ mess. Flash freezing allows the outside to become hard and well, it allows you to wrap with plastic wrap without the dough sticking.
After about an hour (or until the dough is no longer tacky and is becoming hard to the touch, remove from the freezer (take the pan out too) and wrap each one in plastic wrap – if you’re anal like me, double wrap it.
Wrap in aluminum foil and then label/date each item.
When you’re ready to make, follow steps 19-21. Your baking time will be increased some due to them being frozen.
Brookies
Close your eyes and imagine if you will the most perfect chocolate dessert… crispy cookie-like exterior, fudgy brownie center and loads of melty chocolate chunks
Now open your eyes… imagine no more as I have that dessert. May I present to you The Brookie!
