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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

4 out of 5 stars 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

 

 

 

 

 

Gourmet Pastry Brush

Hugs & Kisses Cookie Cutters

 

Airbake Cookie Sheets

 

Hand Mixer

 

 

 

Silpat Baking Sheet

Bundt Pan

 

 

24-cup Muffin Pan

 

 

Cake Pan

   
 

Wilton 53-Piece Supreme Decorating Set

 

OXO Good Grips Silicone Spoon Spatula

 

 

KitchenAid KT2651X Epicurean 475 Watt...

 

Breadman TR2200C Ultimate Bread Machine

 

 

Hardwood Rolling Pin

 

French Rolling Pin

 

 

 

OXO Good Grips Flour Sifter

 

Copper Mixing Bowl

 

 

Polder Cooking Thermometer with Timer &...

 

Kuhn Rikon LaPatisserie Cookie Press and...

 

 

 

Frieling 9-Inch Glass Bottom Nonstick...

Giant Muffin Tin...

 

 

Exoglass Spoon.

 

Nordic Ware Nonstick Cooling Grid with...

 

 

Chicago Metallic 12-Cavity Nonstick...

 

Angel Food Cake Pan.

 

 

 

LOVE Cookie Cutters

Love Cookie Cutters

Mini Springform Pans

Giant Heart Cookie Pan

Madeleine Pan - 12

Heart Bundt Pan


 

 

Paint Brushes in Various Sizes




 

 

Candy Dipping Tools

 

 

 

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

 

5 out of 5 stars 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

 

 

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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