How Can I Reduce the Sugar in Baking Recipes? Good Questions
Q: I started baking a lot in the last few years, almost always sweet recipes. But I prefer my baked goods subtle, not headache-inducing, and I always measure sugar scantly or outright reduce by a quarter-cup or so. But I know that sugar does more than sweeten – it adds moisture and improves texture, and who doesn’t want a good moist breakfast cake?Is there a good way to offset the negative effects reducing sugar has on the texture of a baked good (quick breads and cakes, mostly)?
Dec 31, 2010
Help Me Plan a Brunch for 50 People! Good Food
Q: Each member of the law journal I am on is charged with bringing breakfast and lunch for the entire staff once a quarter – a responsibility un-affectionately and euphemistically referred to as “snack.”I would like to make something delicious, unique (i.e. something that people aren’t tired of eating yet) and vegetarian, but won’t require a Herculean effort or huge budget to pull together.
Dec 30, 2010
New Year’s Recipe: Roasted Beet Salad with Whipped Goat Cheese
We asked some of our favorite food bloggers to share a holiday treat with us during our holiday break. Kasey (also of eating/sf) writes a fabulous blog that mashes up food and music. Here’s a slice of Turntable Kitchen, a story of New Year’s in a Russian family, with a beet recipe to match. My family, being Russian, celebrates New Year’s a bit differently than most Americans. Growing up, we wouldn’t get a Christmas tree, but rather, a New Year’s tree.
Dec 29, 2010
Holiday Recipe: Frozen Peppermint Cake
We asked some of our favorite food bloggers to share a holiday treat with us over our holiday break. Allen writes Eating Out Loud — a bright and scrumptious food blog full of good things to eat. He doesn’t disappoint here — how about some frozen peppermint cake?Every year as we inch closer to Christmas my mind races with all of my favorite holiday desserts. My mother would make everything from peanut brittle to cakes and pies.
Dec 22, 2010
Frida Kahlo’s Favorite Treat: Coconut-Stuffed Limes
Have you ever seen anything like these candies?We did a complete double take when we saw them on the Splendid Table website. They look like little edible marbles or some interesting new nut that you pop out of the shell straight into your mouth.Apparently, they were one of artist Frida Kahlo’s favorite sweets. We have a feeling they will soon be ours as well!These sweets sound almost like coconut macaroons stuffed inside candied lime peels.
Dec 16, 2010
Make Holiday Butter Mints In Any Shape Or Color
Many people have strong opinions about mints, especially those of the wedding variety. But those who have either been on the fence or a little shy about them — you’ve never had a real, melt-in-your-mouth butter mint. Bonus: they’re easily customizable for any party and a snap to make!Amanda over at Bake It Pretty has been kind enough to share her recipe for butter mints. This time she pressed them gently into a small snowflake mold to make them festive for the season.
Dec 15, 2010
8 Things To Add To Cookies Without Altering The Recipe
1. Dried Fruits: Dried fruits are easy to add, but there is one trick that’s extra important. Make sure to soak them in hot water for 30 minutes before adding. That way they don’t wick moisture from your existing recipe and will help punctuate the dough with their sweetness instead. 2. Chocolate: There really isn’t many a cookie that can’t take a handful of chocolate being added to it.
Dec 13, 2010
Sanding Sugar: Color Your Own!
Sanding sugar is one of those specialty baking products you find yourself buying once and then forgetting about in the back of your pantry, until after you’ve bought the exact same color again, of course! Ever wondered if you could just color your own, as you need it? Here’s how!Sanding sugar, that sparkly, crunchy topping to sugar cookies and fancy baked goods is nothing but coarsely ground sugar.
Dec 13, 2010
Quick Tip: Clean Your Zester With Heat Not Water
For the last several weeks we’ve been putting a new idea to the test when it comes to the cleaning of zesters. We’ve been zesting every chance we get (really it’s a rough job, but someone had to do it) and have come to the official conclusion — we don’t need water to clean our zesters or microplaners.What? No water!? That’s ridiculous — which is what I thought too until I gave it a try.
Dec 10, 2010
Squash-Baked Mac and Cheese with Amaretti CookiesRecipe Review
Yep, you read it right. This mac n cheese has a crumbly, sweet, cookie topping—and it makes the dish (it’s so good). But before you scroll straight to the recipe, read our notes. Because whoa, there is one major mistake in there.We got this recipe from Martha Stewart—a consistently foolproof source—but it is originally by chef Todd English.
Dec 9, 2010
Best Way to Stop Onion Tears? Put Bread In Your Mouth
Do you know this tip? To stop stinging eyes and tears when cutting onions, put a piece of bread in your mouth and let it hang out while chopping. Have you tried this, and does it work for you?I had never heard this tip until I took that cooking class in Paris in the fall. One of the participants mentioned it, and so of course I had to try it as soon as I was in my kitchen at home.Now, usually I wear contact lenses and have no trouble with crying or stinging while cutting onions.
Dec 8, 2010
David Tanis’ Wild Mushroom Ragout with Ziti
Heart of the ArtichokeTanis’ own kitchen ritualsDavid calls himself a restaurant chef that prefers to cook at home. Chez Panisse allows him to bring the best of home cooking to the tables there in the six months a year he cooks at the restaurant. The rest of the year he, presumably, is cooking up the dishes in this book (all beautifully and simply photographed by Christopher Hirsheimer of Canal House Cooking).
Dec 8, 2010
Quick Tip: Add Whole Stems of Thyme to Soups
all the herbsoff the stemsThe leaves gradually loosen during cooking and come off on their own, he explained. The leaves are generally so small that it doesn’t matter that you didn’t mince them beforehand. When cooking is done, just pull out the now-stripped stems of thyme along with the bay leaf and anything else you’re not actually serving.We gave this a try in our last batch of Beef and Barley Stew and it worked like a charm.
Dec 6, 2010
All Afternoon or Less Than an Hour: Chicken Soup with Herb Dumplings A recipe in two versions
The cold, damp, dark shivery days are upon us and there’s nothing like a good, hearty bowl of soup to make it all just a little better. Does chicken and dumpling soup seem like the last thing you can whip up for supper and more like an all-day project? Not necessarily! Read on for the short and long version this delicious recipe!
Dec 6, 2010
Becoming an Intuitive Cook: 5 Easy Steps
When faced with a pile of ingredients, do you go hunting for a recipe to match or do you rely on your own cooking knowledge to make a meal out of it? In the December issue of Food & Wine, former recipe addict Daniel Duane writes about his journey to becoming a more intuitive cook with the help of Thomas Keller, and boils the process down to five very practicable steps.
Dec 6, 2010
Cooking Beans in a Clay Pot: A Review of La Chamba
If you’ve read The Kitchn for any length of time, you know that I am a big fan of beans. But not just any old beans — fresh, heirloom dried beansWe are pretty big fans of Chamba, here at The Kitchn. What is La Chamba cookware? It’s a line of black clay pots, bowls, and other cookware made in Colombia using traditional methods. All the pottery is made in the village of La Chamba, and it is made from natural clay mined in the area.
Dec 3, 2010
Holiday Gift Or Appetizer: Spanish Fig & Almond Balls
If you have any intention of serving a cheese board at your holiday get-together, let us suggest whipping up some of these easy and delectable Spanish Fig and Almond Balls. They would also make a wonderful gift for the cheese lover, wrapped in cellophane and accompanied by a wedge of good cheese.The recipe comes from Good Food and is based on a Spanish fig cake or pan de higo.
Dec 3, 2010
Favorite New Utensil: Sauté Tool from Epicurean
We never would have thought we’d be completely smitten with something as basic and universal as a spatula. But this wood-composite spatula from Epicurean is one of the best tools to come into our kitchen in a long time! We’re thinking this would make a great gift for all our foodie friends and family this year.Epicurean calls this particular style of spatula a “sauté tool.
Dec 2, 2010
Popcorn Balls! 4 Gooey, Crunchy, Festive FlavorsCHOW
We could go a lot of places with ball puns (Jingle Balls, anyone?)—all of them tricky. So let’s just say this: Popcorn is cheap, fun, and hard not to like, especially when you make it into these cocoa, curry, and eggnog-flavored clusters. Yes, eggnog.We are no strangers to flavored popcorn, with our Peanut Butter Popcorn, Maple-Butter Spiced Popcorn, and Smoke Monster Popcorn (from the Lost finale).
Dec 2, 2010
Hanukkah Recipe: Apple and Cheese-Stuffed Latkes
Potato latkes are such humble little things, yet so incredibly addictive. This version puts the traditional applesauce topping on the inside, where it gets warm and wonderful as the latkes cook. We love adding cubes of cheese to the filling, too. They melt into pockets of cheesy goodness and add extra savory depth to this classic dish. For this recipe, we’re essentially making a fresh applesauce and sandwiching this between two layers of potato pancake.
Dec 1, 2010
Mark Bitterman’s Chèvre with Black Sea Salt and Cacao Nibs Cookbook Review & Recipe from Salted
think you know saltLike most people with a deep love for something good, Bitterman can’t help wanting to share his passion. The Meadow, a specialty store that he and his wife opened in Portland, Oregon, has become a mecca for salt-lovers across the nation. His recently published book, Salted: A Manifesto On The World’s Most Essential Mineral, takes things one step further.
Dec 1, 2010