Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here they are. The best cookies ever.  Cooks Illustrated uses some subtle techniques to tweak the traditional ingredients that go into a chocolate chip cookie recipe.  For example: a large portion of the butter is melted first then removed from the saucepan into a bowl with the rest of the butter to be mixed into it.  Then you add 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk, vanilla and sugars.  This is mixed. And mixed. And mixed.  And then mixed some more until ALL of the sugar is COMPLETELY dissolved. Whisk it folks. Whisk it good with resting of about 2 mins between about 30 seconds of whisking. ALL sugar MUST be dissolved.  Add your dry and chips and you are ready to bake. Use about 3 tablespoons of dough and bake for about 8 to 12 mins. depending on your oven.  Set to 350 F.  Lovely chewy cookies every time. Even if they are over baked.  ENJOY!

New Stuff

The weekend is almost here and I think it will be a pound cake recipe this time.  I actually have a lot to do this weekend but I hope to be able to squeeze in some baking. Now that I think about it I don't think there are enough hours in one day for everything I have planned. I will attempt the baking on Sunday but I promise nothing!  Cheers and luck!

The red velvet cake was a bust.  They were supposed to be alternating layers of red velvet cake and chocolate cake with cherry filling, chocolate ganache and cream cheese icing.  This did not work because the fillings were so heavy it made the layers of cake collapse.  It finally became a sort of trifle.  Everything was piled into a trifle bowl. It didn't look bad but it was too sloppy for me.  The whole trifle thing reminded me of a pile of cake chunks, which is what trifle is but still. It wasn't appealing enough to consume. I have a film of it being put together and I will try to post it but for now here are some pics.

Red Velvet Cake Day

Today is the Red Velvet cake day. I filmed some video but I am having a lot of trouble posting it.  I will make another attempt to post the video later today.  The recipe is from some guy who was on tv on a showdown.  This cake is blood red and Marisela was concerned about the unbleached flour. I have faith in the addition of the entire bottle of red food coloring! Pretty scary but I do believe they are tasteless and odorless. 

BTW I am looking for a 1,2,3,4 golden cake. Anybody have any good recipes?

The final product.

This is it. The final product. The cake was assembled and delicious!

Cake

This is the cake portion of the Boston Cream Pie. The first one is obviously the pastry cream. 

Boston Cream Pie

Now I am going to try to post my June 7th Boston Cream Pie.  Here are my pictures again.

Third Time's the Charm

This is my third attempt at getting this blog started. First I lost my sticky buns then my Boston Cream Cake.  I will make this one stick and update my stuff all over again.  

Finished Cake

The Boston Cream Pie is finished. The recipes are from Joy of Cooking. Marisela used their suggestion of the Gold Cake, Pastry Cream and Bittersweet Chocolate Glaze.  Their recommendations are Hot-Milk Sponge Cake, or 1-2-3-4 Yellow Cake or Gold Cake. After the layers were assembled some more pastry cream was spread around the cake to press some more cake crumbs around it.  Very pretty and I will twitter on the taste later!

La Creme

Here it is the creme patisserie in the process. Marisela is actually making a Boston Cream Pie. This recipe is from the Joy of Cooking. Not the most recent. I find the one before the current to be my favorite.  First the pics that I believe is the mis en place (is that how you spell it?)  The egg yolks, sugar, corn starch and flour. First whisk this stuff and then warm up some milk and beat it in. I added video because the mixture curdles and looks disastrously ruined until you keep whisking and it comes together like magic. It turned out quite well.

Celebration

Today is a day of celebration. I like to celebrate Tom Jones' birthday.. :-)  I hope to post a video of some creme patisserie in the making!  My sister will actually be making this. 

Blueberry Muffins

I made these muffins from the Cook's Illustrated  Number 98, May & June 2009 issue, Best Blueberry Muffins.  There were 4 different possible toppings to make. The one recommended was the simple white sugar and lemon zest. I went with the streusel topping. There was also the orange glaze and finally the almond crunch. My streusel didn't exactly come out the way I wanted as the heat and humidity greatly affected by crumbly topping. But the muffin itself is moist soft and sweet with the tart blueberries exploding in the batter. The actual recipe called for taking half of the blueberries and cooking them down to a jam with some sugar but I prefer whole berries in the muffins. I think I will continue to use the basic muffin recipe and experiment with the added fruits.  My favorite part?? The buttermilk! I am a new fan of buttermilk in baked goods. Last week I noticed that it imparted a subtle tang and flaky consistency to my sticky buns! 

Tania's Blog

I am ready for my close-up Mr. De Mille.  More baked goods pics for tomorrow coming but it will be a surprise.