Bake Like A Ninja

This week’s Friday Tip is a little late…my apologies to anyone waiting on pins and needles, but my guess is that most were distracted by the wedding more than chomping at the bit to get a cooking tip from me.

This week’s tip is about tempering.  It’s a very easy little trick/technique that can be used in a number of different ways and can really save your cookies when you need it.

Why temper?

Because there are times when you’ll want to add something that cooks either really quickly or at a relatively low temperature to something that is hot.  And you’ll want to incorporate that ingredient completely, rather than having it cook itself into heartbreaking little clumpy bits.  An example:

Buenas! How is it Friday already?

Today we’re getting away from the freezer and warming things up. Specifically plates.

Ever noticed how recipes sometimes ask for food to be transferred to a warm plate or platter? Warming dishes is simple enough but I’ve found a couple of ways to do it that I think are really easy, so I’m going to share them.

Little butter cubes (backed by the frozen chicken stock Rockettes) waiting to blossom into pie crust...

Happy Friday – time for a tip!

We can’t seem to get away from the freezer (what did we do before there were freezers?). Today’s tip is about fat – the kind you cut into pastry, not the kind that results from eating pastry.

A lot of new bakers – and seasoned ones, now that I think about it – are intimidated by pie crust. I’ve written about pie before, but this tip is so good that I think it warrants its own post. The key to working successfully with pie dough is keeping everything cold, especially the fat. So whatever fat you choose to use, keep it cold.

Happy Friday!

Last week I mentioned how much I like ice cube trays for freezing small amounts of liquid.  This week, I have another freezing tip that has to do with freezing smaller individual items that are not liquid.

Every so often, I’ll make a bit too much ravioli or gnocchi or other bit of yumminess and I’ll also actually have the foresight to realize that I have too much before I cook it.*  When that happens, I usually want to freeze the extra amount, because pasta and gnocchi are both too soft to just throw in a ziplock in the fridge and we don’t have a ton of space.  What to do?