Dave Oney was born mid last century in Middlebury, Vermont. He received his BS in Chemistry and worked as a polymer chemist in Massachusetts and New Jersey. He became a microscopist (someone who studies little bitty things using a microscope) and photomicrographer (someone who photographs little bitty things) before settling into a 35-year career in technical sales of scientific imaging equipment (the science of digitally recording itty bitty things, sending the image to a computer for analysis.) He designed and created a number of products contributing to this field. He is (was) proficient in several computer languages and is currently working on mastering English.
After making a few more paradigm shift career changes Dave and his wife, Fran, retired and moved closer to their children and granddaughters and now live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.
For some reason I had a craving for Italian Bread. To the best of my knowledge I never made King Arthur Baking’s Supermarket Italian Bread, so it was time to give it a try.
I followed KAF’s (I know it should now be KAB’s, but old dogs and all that…) recipe and made two loaves almost identical both inside and out to what KAF published on their website.
Very nice flavor, good crumb and great crust!
Italian Supermarket Bread
KAF INGREDIENTS
Dough • 4 cups (482g) AP Flour • 2 tablespoons (21g) potato flour or 1/4 cup (21g) dried potato flakes • 1/4 cup (35g) nonfat dry milk • 2 teaspoons salt • 2 teaspoons sugar • 2 teaspoons instant yeast • 1 1/3 cups (301g) lukewarm water • 3 tablespoons (35g) olive oil (I use spray olive oil) Topping • 1 egg white, beaten with 1 tablespoon water, or substitute Quick Shine • sesame seeds
METHOD
In your stand mixer bowl combine the yeast, sugar and water and allow to rest for 10 minutes
Add half of the flour and all of the rest of the dough ingredients till cohesive. Add the rest of the flour mixing between each addition
Knead the dough for 5 to 8 minutes, until it’s smooth and supple, adding more water or flour as needed.
Cover the dough and allow it to rise for 1 hour, or until it’s doubled in bulk.
Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface and divide it into two pieces. Shape each piece into a smooth 16″ log. Place the logs into the two wells of a lightly greased Italian bread pan, cover, and let the loaves rise until very puffy, about 1 hour.
Brush the loaves with the egg wash (or spray them with Quick Shine), then sprinkle heavily with sesame seeds. Slash the loaves diagonally, making 3 slashes in each, and immediately put them in the oven. Bake in a preheated 400°F oven for about 25 minutes, until the loaves are golden brown. For the crispiest crust, turn off the oven, prop the door open, and allow the bread to cool in the oven
During our “Springsteen Concert Tour” we stopped at a Logan’s Roadhouse for a meal. (We love roadhouse rolls.) Logan’s rolls are formed into round, buttery, enriched rolls, while Texas Roadhouse rolls share the same characteristics but are formed as squares. I opted for round.
In a compromise I rolled the dough into a rectangle, 12” x 8”, and cut it into 24 pieces (6×4). I then rolled each into a sphere using the same technique I used to make dinner rolls. (Place the roll on a barely floured surface, cup you hand over it and roll in a circulate motion until it forms a nice ball and there are no creases.
The taste was spot-on, but QC felt they weren’t as light and fluffy as the commercial roadhouse rolls. Next time I will make the dough a slightly higher hydration and perhaps proof a little longer. Any other suggestions are welcome!
Roadhouse Rolls
INGREDIENTS • 1 (2 ¼ tsp) packet packet active dry yeast • 1 ¼ c. warm milk (about 105-110 degrees F) • ⅓ c. granulated sugar • ¼ c. unsalted butter room temperature, (½ stick) • 1 large egg room temperature • 1 tsp kosher salt • 3 ½ – 4 c. all-purpose flour plus more for kneading • 3 Tbsp unsalted butter melted
METHOD
In your stand mixer bowl, add milk and sugar, sprinkle yeast over it.
Let the yeast set until foamy, about 5 minutes.
Then add ¼ cup butter, egg, salt and 2 cups flour to the yeast mixture. Beat on medium speed until batter is smooth.
Gradually add flour until soft ball of dough forms. Then increase speed on mixer to medium high and beat for 2-3 minutes longer. Dough should be tacky, but not sticky. If too sticky, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time.
Lightly grease large bowl and place dough in ball, turning once to coat. Cover the bowl with clean dish towel and set in warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 45-60 minutes.
Punch the dough down dough gently. Lightly flour the work surface and turn dough out of bowl. Knead lightly if necessary.
Let set a few minutes while you prepare the baking sheets with a silicone mat or by spraying with non-stick cooking spray.
Roll dough out to 12×8 inch rectangle, ½ inch thick.
Cut the dough into even pieces using a pizza cutter so you have 24 pieces of dough. It’s optional to roll the squares into spheres if you like.
Transfer rolls to prepared baking sheets, separated by at least 1”. Cover with dish towel and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled in size, about 45-60 minutes.
20 minutes prior to rising being done, preheat oven to 350 F.
Place the rolls in the preheated oven at 350 F. Bake rolls for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
I had problems with the macaron tower. Being frugal, I used left over almond flour. Mistake! The flour was too coarse, even after running through a fine mesh sieve. The resultant batter was grainy and too thick to pipe properly. However, the taste was fine and they were crisp on the outside, had good legs, and were chewy on the inside.
Cooling MacaronsFailed Tower“Improved” TowerFollow the links for recipies and methods.
I thought building the tower on my parchment-lined-styrofoam-cone would be easy if I started with a nice even base, then add macarons in a logical sequence row by row. Let’s just say it failed, not due to any ineptitude on my part but rather from geometrical issues with the cone. (It becomes smaller as you go up. Who knew?) I deconstructed the tower (breaking several macarons in the process) and re-built it by placing a single color in a spiral from bottom to top. (The nice teal one.) This method was better, but next time (and there will be a next time) I need to compensate the spiral with basic Euclidean geometric principles.
The teal macarons are filled with homemade plum jam, the pink with plum/raspberry jam and the white with hazelnut butter. They all taste good, but the hazelnut butter didn’t adhere well and the cookies tended to separate. QC suggests using a tart filling like lime or lemon curd to balance the sweetness of the macaron.
I made three trays of chocolates, each with a different shape. To make them a bit special I piped lines of tempered white chocolate in two of the molds and let it cool before filling with tempered 64% chocolate. For the third, I piped some white chocolate into the bottom of each well and used a toothpick to made a star pattern. It worked reasonably well but led to my major mistake with this treat.
White stripesSet up for temperingCompleted chocolate shellsCoconut cream (top), caramel (center), and orange jelly (bottom) filled chocolate shells
I attended a seminar on working with chocolate in Hawaii last year. The most important takeaway was the use of Mycryo to temper chocolate. I changed how to heat the chocolate and now use the microwave. 200g of dark chocolate requires 90 – 120 seconds with a 1000w microwave. After 60 seconds use small bursts and check the temperature between each one. If the temperature exceeds 104F it’s ok, just don’t go too high.
I failed to allow enough time between my golf round in the morning and our traditional happy hour dinner/drinks at our favorite pizza/bar. I tried to un-mold the chocolates too soon and broke many. In fact only six of the orange jelly confections survived. I should have allowed time to put the in the freezer for a few minutes to help them release. Oh well.
Notice the lack of shine on the macarons, and the points. Plus they were too thick, but had good feet. You can see a chip in the chocolate in the center candy, but also see how the white chocolate lines came out.
The confection with the faint stripes (left) are filled with fresh orange juice jelly, the hearts with soft caramel and the dome shaped ones (right) with coconut cream (think the inside of a Mounds bar. )
Overall, everything tasted good and that’s the most important!
I had a few oranges left over from “poaching” my neighbors, John and Amy’s, trees. Luckily, I saw a Jaffa cake on GBBO which gave me the idea of created a Jaffa-ish dessert. Populate in Britain, Jaffa cakes include sponge, orange and chocolate.
I also had some pistachios left over from another project so I made the “cake” a pistachio flavored one. Actually, I didn’t make a cake, I made cookies, where they should have been biscuits. Whew! That’s a convoluted way to say I made pistachio flavored – mouse filled – cookie based tempered chocolate domes. Hmmm, that’s not much shorter, is it?
Cutting jelly disks2 sizes of jelly disksWhite chocolate streaked silicone moldTempering chocolateCoating silicone moldsSecond coat assures a well coated moldMousse filled moldsAdd biscuit to moldAdd mousse on top of biscuitSealed Jaffa domed “cake”Completed Jaffa domed dessert
The orange paired nicely with the chocolate but the combination of those flavors overpowered the pistachio. I made some plain pistachio cookies with leftover dough and they were excellent. To make the pistachio cookies leave the rolled dough about 1/4” thick.
JAFFA DOME “CAKE”
Procedure Outline:
Make orange jelly 1/8” thick – refrigerate
Make whipped cream – refrigerate
Streak silicone molds with melted white chocolate – allow to cool
Coat white chocolate streaked silicone molded with tempered dark chocolate – 2x – allow to cool between each coating
Make pistachio biscuit 1/8” thick – allow to rest a couple of minutes a. While warm, cut into appropriately sized disks to fit in silicone molds – b. allow to cool. They should snap like a biscuit.
Make vanilla mousse
Fill domes ~ ¼ full with mouse (piping is easiest)
Insert appropriately sized cut disk of orange jelly into each mold
Cover jelly with vanilla mousse
Fit pistachio biscuit over bottom of mold
Cover biscuit with vanilla mousse
Pipe tempered chocolate around the edge of the bottom.
Cover bottom with a layer of tempered dark chocolate – approx 1/8” thick.
(Note: my orange jelly and biscuit were too thick (1/4” each) so I reduced the amount of mousse in each cup and couldn’t cover the bottom of the dome with chocolate. The directions reflect appropriate changes. Next time!)
Orange Jelly
INGREDIENTS
600 ml (2½ c) Orange juice, about 5-6 oranges
Orange zest from 3 oranges
50 g ( ¼ c) Sugar
¼ teaspoon Salt
65 g( ½ c) Cornstrach METHOD
Grease 9-inch (24cm) square pan or similar size pan with oil and set aside.
Zest two oranges and place it in a sauce pan.
Squeeze the juice from the oranges and measure 2½ cups (600ml). pour the juice into the pan. Add the sugar, salt and cornstarch.
Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly until thickened, about 6-8 minutes.
Pour the mixture into prepared pan, spread to 1/8” thick, allow to cool to room temperate, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
Vanilla Mousse – Vegetarian
INGREDIENTS WHIPPED CREAM – YIELDS 1 ½ CUPS OF WHIPPED CREAM • 1 c whipping cream • 4 tbl confectioners sugar • 1 ½ tsp Cream of tartar • 1 tsp vanilla WHITE CHOCOLATE • 1 cup white chocolate chips • 3 tbl whipping cream AGAR AGAR • 2 tsp Agar Agar • 2 tbl warm water
METHOD
WHIPPED CREAM
Before beginning with the recipe, place the mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for at least 10 minutes to chill.
Once the bowl has chilled, add heavy cream and vanilla and beat on low speed until the cream starts to thicken slightly.
Add the cream of tartar and powdered sugar and beat with increasingly higher speed until stiff peaks form. Once done, set it in the fridge to chill.
AGAR AGAR MIX
Mix 2 tsp Agar agar powder with 2 Tbl lukewarm water
Whisk to combine
Let set 4 – 5 minutes for the agar agar to bloom
VANILLA MOUSSE
Heat the white chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave. Start with one minute, stir. If not melted try 15 seconds and stir again, then 10 seconds.
Add agar agar mix and stir for 5 minutes. It will be thick like jelly, that’s ok. The white chocolate and agar agar will turn smooth and shiny.
Add 2-5 Tbl warm milk and mix until the chocolate is thick but runny. Don’t add too much
If desired add a few drops of white food coloring to lighten the yellowish mixture and mix well
Gently fold the cool to touch white chocolate [and agar] mixture into the cool whipped cream until combined. Do not beat and deflate the mousse
Add remaining 1/3 cup of ground pistachios and gently fold into vanilla mousse.
Pistachio Shortbread Cookie
INGREDIENTS • 1 cup (230g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature • 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar • 1/4 cup (50g) light brown sugar • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract • 1 teaspoon salt • 2 and 1/4 (281g) cups all-purpose flour • 1 cup (100g) finely chopped pistachios, divided
METHOD
Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Line a double layer cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until completely smooth, about 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat together until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla, salt, and flour and beat on low speed, gradually increasing to high speed as the mixture combines. Don’t over mix. Add 2/3 cup of the finely chopped pistachios, reserving the rest to add to the mousse.
Roll the dough out between sheets of parchment paper on the cookie sheet.
Bake the shortbread for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned on top and around the edges.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.
Cut appropriate sized circles. Be sure the circles are ¼” less diameter than the molds, allowing 1/8” space around the cookie for chocolate.
I ended up cutting 1/8” bits off the circumference of the large cookies.
I often make a no knead bread which uses the stretch and fold technique and is delicious, has a good crumb, crust and air holes.
I saw this recipe in my Facebook feed and I was skeptical it could compete with my usual recipe/method.. After a trial bake it was every bit as good as my go-to recipe with NO stretch and fold or kneading. Prep time was about 10 minutes. Total “hands-on” time was about 15 minutes.
I mixed the three ingredients (plus water) with my danish dough whisk assuring all the dry ingredients were well hydrated before covering and placing in the fridge overnight.
In the morning I let the dough warm to room temperature and rise for about 3 hours. I placed it on a well floured parchment paper, folded it into a round boule, flipped it over so the folded side is down. Before placing in the Dutch oven I cut a deep X in the top.
No Knead Bread – 3 Ingredient
INGREDIENTS
3 1/2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoons instant yeast
1 2/3 cups water (100 degrees F
METHOD
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Using a wooden spoon or Dutch dough whisk blend warm water into the dry ingredients. This dough will be wet and shaggy, also very forgiving. Mix until no dry flour is seen. Cover with plastic wrap and put a towel on top to proof for 8-10 hours at room temperature or for several days in the fridge.
If refrigerated, take the dough out and place on parchment before heating the oven so it gets to room temperature, then preheat the oven to 450 F with the covered Dutch oven inside.
Dust a large square of parchment paper with flour and turn out the dough carefully. (It will be sticky but try to preserve the proof.) Dust the top with flour and using a dough scraper gently fold the dough over and create a round boule. Use the sharp edge of the scraper to score lines in the dough. Cover with the plastic wrap and let rest until pot and oven are up to temperature.
Remove the pot from the oven. Place the parchment paper and dough into the Dutch oven and replace lid. Bake, covered, for 35 minutes. Then, anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes uncovered (this is a personal taste issue about the crispness of the crust). Let the bread rest 30 minutes. It will be hard, but you will wreck the loaf by cutting into it immediately.
was created for a post-wedding cake. Daniel and Frances were married in Sacramento, then honeymooned in Egypt. Upon returning to the States they stopped by South Florida for a second reception for our friends and family who couldn’t travel to California. I made my first “wedding” cake for that party. It shares the colors of Boston College and the University of Florida. I then continued making cakes for various occasions before expanding into pastries and entrees.
is my writer’s portal. Short stories and novellas are described and listed with links to Amazon and Kindle for purchase, or Kindle Unlimited Members to read for free. Backstreets, my collection of imaginary backstories of a number of my favorite songs will be available shortly.
2018 saw Fran and Dave’s Big Adventure as we took three weeks to drive across country, from Sacramento to Vermont. I blogged each day, pretending our Poodle/Havanese rescue Rosalita was with us. This turned into the book “Road Trip! Rosie Goes ‘There and Back Again.’” I wrote it primarily for the friends we visited on the trip and my family members. GhostsThatSellMemories contains my trip blog and additional travel adventures post Road Trip. I also used Ghosts to catalog our fall 2022 trip to Italy and France. I posted every day for about three weeks. A lot of fun, but a bit of a chore after a while. (Header photo of our hometown, Middlebury, Vermont by my life long friend David Griggs.
Recently I invited our new neighbors, John and Amy, to join my small cadre of baked goods tasters. As it turns our they have several orange trees (not that that had any influence on my asking them to join the group) and they offered me as many oranges as I liked. That is the very good news.
Here is the other side of the coin. QC’s Mah Jongg group (who I made the key lime tarts in the previous post for) cancelled Tuesday’s game, so I gave away most of the tarts I made for them. Then, they changed their minds and decided to play (with 6 tartlets and some of one of the 6” pies left.)
Then, they decided they would try to gather enough players for another game on Wednesday. As it turns out, for some reason, I had some extra oranges in my possession and no plans other than juicing, so… chocolate orange shortbread cookies for Wednesday’ game, and more samples for my tasting cadre.
Cutting the rolled cookie doughDust with sugar before bakingSous Vide for keeping chocolate in temper at 90 FTempered dark chocolate with wiggly line white chocolate
I like to melt the chocolate in the microwave using short bursts (first is 1 minute, each other 30 seconds) while stirring between each burst. The white chocolate wasn’t tempered, nor was it quite fluid enough to pipe nicely. I made a second batch and it was much better.
I used my bench knife to act as an end block, lined up six cookies and spread dark chocolate over them all. While the dark chocolate was still liquid I piped the white in thin (occasionally straight) lines and ran a tooth pick across the top of the cookie to make the feathering.
The orange flavor comes through, but isn’t too strong. Next time, I may add some essence as the chocolate nearly overpowers the orange.
Orange Shortbread Cookies
INGREDIENTS • 1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling • 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature • Zest from 2 large oranges • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract • 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour • ¼ teaspoon salt • 6 ounces finely chopped, dark or semisweet chocolate, your choice
METHOD
Combine the sugar and zest, blending with a fork until thoroughly mixed and fragrant.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar/zest mixture until they are just combined. Add the vanilla.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter and sugar/zest mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Roll the dough ¼ inch thick and cut to 3 by 1-inch with a pizza cutter. Place the cookies on an parchment paper lined baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (rotate pans after 10 minutes), until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.
When the cookies are cool, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
TEMPERING DARK CHOCOLATE. Weigh 1% of the mycryo butter so it’s ready to add. To calculate: • 100g/3.5oz chocolate + 1/2 teaspoon (1g) mycryo cocoa butter • 200g/7oz chocolate + 1 teaspoon (2g) mycryo cocoa butter • 1kg/35.27oz chocolate + 5 tsp (10g) mycryo cocoa butter.
METHOD
Melt the chocolate on a bain-marie (or use a microwave, melting in 30 second bursts, stirring well between each burst and checking the temperature, reducing to 3 or 5 second bursts when almost ready).
Make sure the chocolate reaches a temperature of 122º F (a few degrees higher is OK). Take it off the bain-marie as soon as it gets near and give it a good stir then if necessary return 5 seconds or so at a time, stir and check the temperature.
Once off the heat (and off the bain-marie) let the chocolate cool to 94ºF. Sprinkle on the mycryo cocoa butter and wait a few seconds as it melts then stir in to combine. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the chocolate off the sides and fold into the middle. Stir well and continue to stir well fairly frequently. Keep the tempered chocolate in the sous vide, or Bain-marie at 90 F.
Today should be the last of a long line of rainy days. At least I hope so. I have two days of golf this week, something that hasn’t happened since December.
To celebrate the sun I decided to make some Key Lime Tartlets. I guessed how much tart dough I would need, and was pretty close.
I used all the prepared tart pans that I had and missed by two! Not bad.
I also guessed how much key lime filling would be required and missed it by a country mile. (Which makes me wonder, is a country mile longer that a city or suburb mile?)
If you know (or follow me) you know I am not one to throw away anything, so I made two 6” graham cracker pie crusts to use the excellent left over filling
Once the tart dough rested 30 minutes in the fridge I rolled it, and used a cookie cutter to cut circles about the diameter of each tart pan, plus twice the height. Once pressed into the pan I docked the bottoms with a knife then lined them with parchment paper. It’s easier to line them if you crumple the paper first.
I should have applied the egg was before filling the paper lined cups with beans. I had to unload, egg wash, and replace the paper and beans. Live and learn.
I used Italian merengue to counter the tartness of the key lime. I also added some lime zest to counter the sweetness of the merengue… a never ending wormhole.
The filling was sharp, the shell sweet and melt-in-your-mouth, and the merengue perfect. What more could you ask for?
Key Lime Tartlets
INGREDIENTS
SHELL • 100 g cold butter cut into small cubes • 200 g all-purpose flour • 60 g icing sugar • ½ tsp vanilla • ¼ tsp salt • 2 egg – 1 for the dough and the other 1 reserved for an egg wash
FILLING • zest (grated rind) of 1 lime • 4 large egg yolks • 14-ounce can (397g) sweetened condensed milk, (1 1/4 cups) • 3/4 cup (170g) Key lime juice or lime juice • 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon lime oil, optional
METHOD
SHELL
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Mix butter with sugar
Add salt then vanilla
Add egg
Stir in flour. Mix by hand until incorporated
Cover with plastic and refrigerate for 30 min
Butter tartlet pans, or use non-stick pans
Roll dough to about ⅛” thick
Lay over tart mold and press into all crevices
Roll top to cut off excess
Prick holes in bottom and sides of formed dough
Fill tarts with pastry weights (I put beans in a cupcake paper and remove 5 minutes before the end of the bake.)
Paint edges of the tartlet with the egg wash.
Bake in preheated oven 350 deg F (175 C) for 15 min
Immediately remove from pans and cool on a wire rack
FILLING
Whisk the lime zest and egg yolks at high speed of an electric mixer for about 4 minutes. The mixture will lighten in color and thicken somewhat, appearing similar to Hollandaise sauce.
Stir in the sweetened condensed milk, mixing until smooth. Beat at high speed for 3 minutes; the filling will become slightly thicker and gain a bit of volume.
Add the lime juice, stirring just to combine. The mixture will thicken again. Add lime oil to taste.
Pour the filling into the crust and return the tart (on the baking sheet) to the oven. Bake the tart for 18 to 22 minutes, until it appears set around the edges though still a bit wobbly in the center. The center should read about 145°F on a digital thermometer.
Remove the tart from the oven and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for several hours before serving.
Once chilled, serve the key lime pies cold with whipped cream and a lime slice if desired. Store leftover pies in the refrigerator (covered) for up to 1 week. If they last that long!
Notes Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Up to 1 day in advance, you can prepare the crust ingredients and the filling ingredients separately. Store each covered tightly in the refrigerator until ready to assemble and bake. Likewise, as noted in set 4, you can bake the key lime pies and store in the refrigerator for 1 day before serving. Key lime pies freeze well, up to 2–3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Heat over low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat to medium-high and allow the syrup to come to a boil.
In the meantime, add the egg whites to a medium-sized, heatproof bowl and mix (with a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment) until foamy and the whites are almost able to hold soft peaks.
Once the syrup is boiling, clip on a candy (or sugar) thermometer.
Cook until the syrup reaches 116°C/240°F, then take the pan off the heat and slowly drizzle the hot syrup into the bowl with the foamy egg whites, mixing continuously to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Don’t pour the syrup onto the whisk, or the syrup may splatter against the sides of the bowl (or into your face!). Instead, aim for a spot close to the whisk.
Once all the syrup has been added, keep mixing until the bottom of the bowl feels cool to the touch and the meringue has cooled down to body temperature.
Use immediately or keep in the fridge (covered) until ready to use. It’s a very stable meringue, so it won’t start weeping, leaking or collapsing.
NOTES Italian meringue can be made two days in advance and stored in the fridge until needed (covered with plastic wrap).
We’ve had two days without rain since December 26, 2022. It’s now January 14, 2023. This leaves a lot of time for baking and little time for golf.
Today, I made a Cheese-It clone crackers. They are quick to make, create very little mess, such that the kitchen can be clean before they finish baking, and are a delicious game-day treat.
The one caution is be sure they are well baked. They should be turning brown to be sure they will have the proper crunch.
I rolled them to about 1/8” thick, maybe a little thicker. At this thickness they were easy to transfer to the silicone covered baking sheet. My straight edge is about 1.25” wide which baked down to just about 1”.
At this size the recipe made about 4 dozen crackers.
Cheez-Its Recipe
INGREDIENTS • 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated • 3 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, room temperature • 1 Tablespoon vegetable shortening • ½ teaspoon salt • 1 cup flour • 2 Tablespoons ice water • Coarse salt for sprinkling METHOD
Combine cheese, butter, shortening, and salt in the bowl of your mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. The mixture will be crumbly.
Add flour in four aliquots and then the ice water. You may add a few more drops of water to help it come together but don’t to add too much. You don’t want a slack dough.
Pat the dough into 2 discs, wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375⁰F.
Using silicone mat roll each disc to 1/8 inch or less and sprinkle with coarse salt. I like to gently roll the salt into the dough.
Cut into 1 inch squares (a pastry wheel or pizza wheel is easiest). Punch a hole into the center of each square. (I use a sharpened chopstick (that I use to pierce choux pastry.)
If you have difficulty separating and transferring the crackers onto the baking sheet return the mat to the refrigerator for 10 minutes (while you roll out the 2nd dough disc).
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until puffed and browning around the edges. If they aren’t the crispness you want, return them to the oven for 2-3 more minutes. Keep checking every 2 minutes until they are done. I take one out of the oven and set it in the fridge for a minute to try them. Hey, someone has to do it.
Move crackers to a cooling rack. Makes about 5-6 dozen crackers.
I made these cookies as the base for decorations for my NYE 2023 cake. They were so good I decided to post the recipe alone
The secret to these cookies is the black cocoa. I bought this for another project a year or so ago, but now use it regularly. If you want BLACK frosting, royal icing or other goodies, this should be your go to ingredient.
The recipe made about four dozen 2” cookies . No tricks or tips, just follow the recipe.
Black Chocolate Cookies
INGREDIENTS • 1 1/2 cups (195g) AP flour • 3/4 cup (70g) unsweetened black cocoa powder • 1 teaspoon baking soda • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt • 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder • 1 stick (110g) unsalted butter, room temperature • 3/4 cup (150g) sugar • 1 large egg • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla • 1 teaspoon molasses
METHOD
In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, (2-3 min on medium.)
Beat in the egg, vanilla, and molasses.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 3 additions. When well mixed, remove the dough from the mixer, and form it into a ball. It should have the consistency of soft clay. If it’s stiff and unmanageable, massage some water into it, a tablespoon at a time until easily pliable.
Wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
When you are ready to roll-out the dough, preheat the oven to 350°F (175° C). Break off a chunk of dough from the ball of dough (about a quarter of it) and place it between two pieces of parchment paper. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to an even 1/2-inch thickness.
Use a cookie cutter or the rim of a small glass to cut out cookie shapes from the rolled out dough. Place on a parchment paper or silicone-lined baking sheet, allowing at least 1 inch between cookies on the cookie sheet.
Bake at 350°F (175° C) in the middle rack for 12 to 14 minutes, less or more, depending on the size and thickness of the cookies.
The cookies should bounce back when you press on their centers and be a little dark around the edges. When cool, they should be crispy.
Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing the cookies from the tray to cool on a rack.
aBatteredOldSuitcase 