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Baking
Cooking done with care is an act of love. ~ Craig
Claiborne
Baking can be very
successful with nonstick pans and baking sheets. The Silpat sheets can be used for
delicate
cookies. A pastry brush is essential when baking bread or rolls and you want to brush them
with melted butter or oil. A spoon/spatula is one of my favorite tools when scrapping
batter out of a bowl.
The French-style rolling pin is essential for
pastry and rolling out tortillas. Exoglass spoons can
be used in place of
wooden spoons and are dishwasher safe. I love the
nonstick cooking rack!
Wilton Master Tip Set
The perfect basic set!, October 6, 2000
The
ultimate set of decorating tips for virtually any technique. The tip box
holds all components neatly for storage and transport. 57 piece set
includes decorating tips 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 22, 24,
27, 30, 31, 32, 42, 45, 46, 47, 48, 54, 59, 61, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70,
73, 74, 78, 96, 97, 98, 101, 102, 103, 104, 106, 108, 109, 123, 124,
129, 134, 136, 195, 199, and 2C; 2 flower nails; 2 couplers; and a
plastic tip box.
I love this set of decorating tips. The only thing I don't like is the
storage idea of keeping the "flower nails" in the plastic
container. They are almost impossible to keep in place when you close
the lid. Finally I put a piece of tape on each side to hold them in so I
could close the storage container. You can either order pastry bags
(which you then have to wash) or you can use those plastic bags that
reseal. They
work perfectly. Simply insert a tip in the corner of the plastic and
wrap a piece of tape around the top of tip and plastic bag. It will hold
in place well and you can toss the bag later.
This is a good solution for the tips:
Cake Decorating Set
Biscuit Cutter Set
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Buy the
King Arthur Flour Online
King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion
The King Arthur Flour All-Purpose Baking Cookbook
The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary...
More
Kitchen Essentials
Time to bake cookies..., December 17, 2005
This is much larger than it looks in the picture
and that is why I love it. It is perfect for cooling cookies, a
cake or just about anything you are baking that needs to be cooled
down.
Since I usually sit at my dinning room table to ice cookies, I
love the covered feet, they don't scratch or ruin my wooden table
top.
Cleaning this nonstick cooling rack is a breeze. All you do is
basically wash the grid with soapy water, rinse and you are done.
It is so easy to clean.
Sometimes I put a few pieces of wax paper under the cooling rack
and drip icing all over little petit fours. That can get a bit
messy, but this rack can handle just about anything. What I love
is that when I rinse it under hot water, all that icing just melts
off very easily. On normal metal racks, it tends to just get glued
on.
So, I think this "Cooling Grid" is just superior.
Sometimes you find an item that you could not live without...this
is just one more item to add to that list!
~The Rebecca Review
SAF-INSTANT Yeast
Professional Results at Home, October 28, 2005
If you love using your bread machine and want a reliable yeast
that does not need to be proofed (can't remember the last time I
did that), then this yeast will make your life much easier. While
this is not a rapid yeast, the bread does seem to rise more
quickly than with packets of yeast from the grocery store. This
saves time and gives you an empowered feeling instead of the
"is this going to rise or not" feeling.
The yeast can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer and is very
convenient to use. Unlike the yeast cakes, you don't have to worry
about mixing it with water or milk. You just measure it into the
bread machine.
Here is the recipe I love making for Focaccia bread. It turns out
wonderful and you can start it in the bread machine or make it by
hand. We serve this in slices or squares topped with butter and
fresh rosemary or an herbed cream cheese. Perfect with homemade
soup in the winter.
Focaccia for the Bread Machine (start in machine, finish by hand)
2 ½ cups water
2 tablespoons Saf instant yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons freshly crushed sea salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cups all-purpose flour (the Baker's Catalogue sells an amazing
flour)
Measure the water, yeast, sugar, salt, olive oil and flour into
the bread pan. Program for white bread, dough cycle and large
loaf. After the dough has been kneaded, you can put it in a large
stainless bowl and cover the dough with a damp cloth. I normally
forget it is in there and catch it just before it is about to rise
over the top of the pan, so it still works, either way. You could
also use half the ingredients for just one loaf if you want to let
it rise in the bread machine
pan.
Let it rise until double in a warm place. My secret it to turn the
oven on and then almost immediately off (just leave it on until
you feel some heat on your hand) and this seems to create a
"just warm enough" environment for bread to rise. Punch
down and divide into thirds. Roll out two squares and one
elongated loaf. This works well on the regular size cookie sheets.
If you have a larger cookie sheet, you can roll the dough into two
8-inch squares.
Make deep indents with the end of the rolling pin handle at
regular intervals. Then brush with olive oil. Let the bread rise
until almost doubled.
Either sprinkle with sea salt or sprinkle with dried or fresh
rosemary and sea salt. You can also top the dough with tomato
slices, onion slices and sliced and pitted Kalamata olives before
baking.
Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
After the bread cools, it will slice easily and it freezes very
well. I normally slice two loaves and cut one into squares for
sandwiches.
To make an Herbed Cream Cheese: Blend together 1/3 cup butter, 1
(8-ounce) package cream cheese, 2 teaspoons dried parsley, 2
teaspoons dried rosemary and 1 teaspoon dried thyme.
The idea for this bread came to me after visiting a sandwich shop
at a garden center in Seattle. After arriving home from visiting
my grandmother, I knew I had to try to make the cream cheese and
the bread because they were perfect to serve with homemade soup.
This bread has a lot of possibilities so you can vary the toppings
to suit the types of soups you are serving.
The Instant yeast always works and with a bread machine, you end
up feeling like a professional baker. The results are sure to
impress. The bread always has a "fresh from the bakery"
taste unlike the taste of breads made with packets of yeast.
~The Rebecca Review
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One certainly cannot learn the technical details of cookery
entirely from books, but if the cooks,
celebrated and obscure had believed that written recipes were unnecessary, we
should now be
in a sad plight indeed. ~Elizabeth
David, author of French Provincial Cooking
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