Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cooking and baking

Utterly butterscotch recipes!

orange swan — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:53:38 -0800

Please hit me with your best butterscotch cake/dessert recipes. I'm planning a company dinner and when it came to deciding on a dessert, I found I had a hankering for something butterscotch. What are your best butterscotch cake or dessert recipes? I'm thinking something relatively simple that can be served with ice cream, because one of my company is four-year-old boy who loves his ice cream.

Snickerdoodle Emergency!

padraigin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:29:06 -0800

Quick! Help me continue my snickerdoodle baking extravaganza now that I'm out of cream of tartar! I am making about a million cookies for Halloween festivities at my kids' school tomorrow.

I ran out of cream of tartar and need to make one more batch of dough.

My snickerdoodle recipe calls for one teaspoon of baking soda and 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar.

I have baking powder. My cookbook (America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, where the snickerdoodle recipe I'm using is found) indicates that one teaspoon of baking powder can be replaced with 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar.

I don't get how 1/4 teaspoon of anything plus 1/2 teaspoon of anything equals a teaspoon of something else, but I need to know if I can substitute baking powder for the baking soda/cream of tartar combo in this recipe without totally jacking it up, and if so, in what proportion?

I've been grating a le~mon~, all the live long day~

wiretap — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:48:05 -0800

Fresh Lemon Zest - so yummy yet so annoying to grate. There must be an easier solution! My first experience with using fresh lemon zest is in a lemon sugar cookie recipe which asks for 2T of it, in a doubled recipe (4T total. egads). After carefully grating away the skin of a couple lemons and having my hands become tender and sore from the lemon oils and still not having enough lemon zest, I'm starting to feel like avoiding dessert recipes that include lemon zest at all.

Googling "lemon zest substitute" suggests a spice aisle product known as "dried lemon peel" which is similar but apparently is not as good as fresh lemon zest (I'm guessing it is less flavorful?).

My questions:

1. Is there a *better* lemon zest substitute that I can easily purchase at a grocery store?

2. If not, and dried lemon peel is the only close choice, should I add a little lemon flavoring to the reconstituted peel? And how much flavoring per t/T of peel should I include?

3. Could I just use lemon flavoring and fake the color in the recipe with yellow food dye? And again, how much flavoring would equal 1t or 1T of fresh lemon zest?

What are the most immensely satisfying things you do in the kitchen?

ORthey — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:12:20 -0800

Punching down risen dough (and slicing it with a dough scraper). Cooking garlic in sizzling hot butter. Putting potatoes through a ricer. Help me find more incredibly satisfying things to do in the kitchen! I cook/bake a lot, and realized that I derive great happiness from certain aspects of food preparation that are immensely satisfying and fun, and want to learn more of these so that I can have even more fun in the kitchen.

I know it's subjective, but what are some of the most wonderfully fulfilling tricks/techniques/recipes that you use and love in the kitchen? Sights, sounds, smells, sensations... it's all fair game. It doesn't even have to be anything extraordinarily delicious, just really really satisfying.

Thanks!

Where to find a good weight chart for the kitchen?

The corpse in the library — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:55:15 -0800

I'm looking for a poster showing the weights of various commonly used ingredients. I like to use my kitchen scale when cooking because it makes cleanup so much easier, but most of my recipes are American and show measurements in cups, not ounces. I'd like to have a poster in my kitchen that showed things like:

1 CUP SUGAR = 8 OZ
1 CUP WHITE FLOUR = 4 1/4 OZ
etc.

Basically this, but pretty enough to put on the wall. Either ounces or grams is fine. Anybody seen an attractive chart like this?

Ideas for Baked Goods/Confectionary Exchange

Mayhembob — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:49:03 -0800

I'm participating in a baked goods/confectionary exchange. What are some things I can make that can be easily packed and that won't spoil/stale during shipping?

Piece of Cake

misha — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:38:42 -0800

My lovely castle cake pan is sadly suffering from disuse. Help me out with your favorite bundt cake recipes and glazes. I'm especially looking for recipes that go well with seasons or themes (for example, for Fall/Halloween, maybe a pumpkin or haunted house chocolate bundt cake), but I'd enjoy anything from your favorite, easy-to-make staples to the most exotic variety. Again, don't forget to include special glazes (and yes, I have seen the top 20 on allrecipes.com).

Best way to clean bowl in which you've mixed bread dough?

markcmyers — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:22:24 -0800

Best way to clean bowl in which you've mixed bread dough?

Help me with one last girly sorority project :)

Gonestarfishing — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:04:08 -0800

CookieFilter! I have this cookie press with the standard lot of holiday themed dies that came with it. I am either looking for a particular set of dies, or a way to create them myself. This weekend is formal recruitment for my sorority, Gamma Phi Beta, and will be the first one I have not participated in for awhile due to my graduation. I wanted to do something nice for all the sisters, especially since it will be my little sister's first recruitment. I want to bake them cookies, and I was thinking to myself, my oh my that's a lot of chocolate chip cookies to make (at least 100, probably more), and then I remembered that I have a cookie press! This will surely make things easier, right?

As happens whenever I embark on doing a project for someone else, it quickly turns into this unmanageable beast. I now want to make cookies in the shape of our Greek letters: Gamma, Phi, and Beta. I know if I tried to form them by hand it would take hours upon hours to complete, and they would look like total crap and probably bake unevenly.

So. I want to find a regular alphabet die set, as I could use the L and the B for the gamma and beta, but what to do about the pesky phi??? Suggestions on die sets, either Greek alphabet or non, and/or how to make the phi would be greatly appreciated!

I would not be opposed to using cookie cutters to accomplish this goal, if they can be found, or made.

Alternatively, our symbols are the crescent moon, pink carnation, our gem is the pearl, and our chapter animal is the fox if anything can be found in that vein.

If you can think of another project I could do (with the help of my big sister) that you would have appreciated during the long hours of formal recruitment and is fairly inexpensive to make for 100 women, let me have it! I'm open to suggestions, and am not stuck on the cookie idea.

Good cookie press cookie recipes are welcome as well! The sugar cookie recipe I have now is good, not great in my opinion, plus the amount of sugar gives the consumer bad breath after consumption...a big no-no for recruitment!

Recruitment ends on Sunday, so my project will need to be completed soon! Help me MeFites!

What's skim milk good for?

EatTheWeak — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:42:43 -0800

Skim Milk: Useless or mostly useless? During a round of somewhat distracted shopping, I accidentally came home with a half-gallon of skim milk rather than the regular kind! Drat! I purchased the milk to use as an ingredient, primarily in waffles. However, the batch of waffles I made with the skim was pitiful - no fluff or firmness to them at all.

I tried dipping some cookies in a little bit of it and also tried it with a bit of granola - in these cases, the skim milk was somewhat functional, but the whole enterprise was hobbled by the fact I just plain don't like the taste of the stuff.

So, I've got most of a half gallon left to use, and I'm wondering what to do with it, as using it as a waffle ingredient, as originally planned, didn't work and drinking it straight is no good. Are there any recipes that call for skim milk specifically? What might I do with this stuff that plays to skim milk's strengths? Does skim milk have any strengths?

Cooking Diary?

Maia — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:04:51 -0800

Where can I buy a notebook/journal intended to let me record the meals I cook? I'm looking for not only something to hold recipes, but something where I could also put the date and my opinion of the recipe. In essence, it'd be like a cooking diary. Does such a thing exist?

Summertime and the livin' is easy but damn that weather is changeable.

Mutant — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:49:08 -0800

Since London's fickle summer is in full swing, I need recipes for dishes that can be eaten either hot or cold. I do all the cooking at home and have a few stock recipes which adapt well to changeable weather; in other words, dishes that can be eaten either directly out of the oven or chilled then consumed, as ambient dictates.

At times its too damn hot to eat warm food, but then its not uncommon for the evenings to get so chill we need to get warmed up a little (it went down to 9C at night a couple times last week). Trouble is, I tend to plan out the meals a week in advance and would rather not have diet and my kitchen time dictated by London's changeable weather.

So I'm looking for dishes we can eat as we like. Today, for example, I'm making baked beans for dinner which is very suitable - bake for four hours, then since its a little humid and gross, chill for later. I've also got a couple of macaroni casseroles in my repertoire but am looking for other dishes.

Veggie preferred, but if they contain meat we'd rather this was a fractional additive like the ham in baked beans.

What to make when supplies are short?

BusyBusyBusy — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:48:52 -0800

Are there some tasty dessert recipes I can make that don't require baking or any of the things I have trouble getting in Ghana? I love desserts, and would like to make some for my lovely hosts here in Kumasi. I probably could find some ingredients if I really searched, but I'd prefer to make things using what is readily available. I cannot use an oven or a microwave, but can cook on a stove top.

Things that are available are... oatmeal, sugar, peanut butter, cocoa, margarine, digestive cookies, condensed milk... I also brought with me a few boxes of chocolate instant pudding.

Things that are available, but inconvenient to get are... butter, milk, breakfast cereals (rice krispies, special k), flour (I have about 2 cups).

Things I cannot find are... chocolate chips (though I could get chocolate bars), flavorings like vanilla or almond extract, marshmallows, corn syrup, brown sugar, cream cheese.

I've had some trouble finding recipes on the internet that fit this strange criteria. So far I've made oatmeal no-bake cookies, which I loooove, but I would like to make something different this time. Thank you so much for your ideas and help!

Getting Potatoes Right

Fairchild — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:08:46 -0800

How can I make perfect baked potatoes while roasting other meats? I'm roasting a bone-in turkey breast that will take 1 3/4 - 2 hours at 325 degrees. I want to make four baked potatoes as well. Should I bake them at 325 for the entire time it takes to roast the turkey breast?

Last week I baked four small to medium sized baked potatoes on their own in a 350 degree oven for an hour and they were still undercooked. This method has never failed me, maybe I used to do them at 375 and forgot.

Thanks.

Help a health-conscious snacker bake!

schmoo — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:28:08 -0800

Please suggest me some snacks, light or portable dishes that are both healthy and involve baking or cooking. I love to cook. I especially love to cook recipes that involve lots of chopping, stiring, mixing, frying or baking. I don't like recipes that are just an assembly of ingredients, or which only take 2 minutes. I like to be in the kitchen! That said, I'm not looking to spend hours in the kitchen, so something that takes 3 days isn't really an option!

I cook a lot of meals like this in the evenings, but I'm looking for snacks that I can bake or cook. - Things that I can take to work in my lunchbox, snack on after work, or leave in the fridge and graze on for a few days.

However, I'm also pretty health-conscious and trying to, if not lose a few pounds, definately not put any on. This rules out the normal things that I think I would find fun cooking - cookies, cupcakes, muffins, quiche, samosas, breads, etc. That list seems biased towards sweet things, but savoury are just as welcome, if not more.

The kinds of things that I am looking for, and have experimented with already are: falafels (baked, not fried), healthy lo-cal dips (would welcome more of these!) and glazed nuts (not the most low-fat of snack but at least has health benefits). I would love any and all suggestions for things along these lines. I would also welcome low-calorie versions of the things that I don't bake - cookies, cakes, etc.

So - give me your recipes for low-fat, low-cal or just plain healthy snacks and light dishes which involve cooking or baking.

I have searched previous posts, and while there are many on health snack ideas, none that meet my particular criteria! Thanks in advance!

How do I prevent pizza dough from forming big gas bubbles in the oven?

markcmyers — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:14:44 -0800

How do I prevent pizza dough from forming big gas bubbles in the oven?

Meringue expertise needed

pluckemin — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:51:24 -0800

What am I doing wrong when I make meringue? Whenever I try to make a meringue, the same predictable pattern occurs: I'm beating the egg whites with my hand mixer, and everything's looking good. The meringue's getting lots of volume, and it reaches a soft peak stage. Then I slowly add the sugar while continuing to beat the meringue, and suddenly the whole thing becomes glossy and, although the meringue is still voluminous, the peaks are so floppy and stretchy that they could no longer properly be called peaks. I try beating it a bit longer and there seems to be no improvement, so I give up for fear of overbeating the whites.

I have watched the angel food cake episode of Good Eats multiple times, so I think I have a decent handle on the general concepts of meringue. There are a few possible problems that occur to me:

-I'm overbeating the whites. My hand mixer is a piece of crap that I bought at Walgreens for $10, and its lowest speed is still really fast. But the meringue doesn't seem coagulated like overbeaten whites supposedly are -- it's very smooth and glossy.

-I'm underbeating the whites. The glossiness and limpness when adding the sugar is normal and if I just kept up the beating it would eventually reach hard peaks. But I've tried continuing to beat for a while and there seems to be no change in the consistency.

-Fat is somehow getting into it. I use a metal bowl and I try to wash my beaters thoroughly, but my kitchen hygiene isn't perfect. But if this were the case, wouldn't the meringue be messed up from the start and not seem to be going well until I add the sugar?

Help me, kitchen experts!

Where can I buy cherry blossom extract?

CoralAmber — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:06:15 -0800

Unique ingredient filter: Does anyone know where I can buy some cherry blossom extract, preferably online or around Chicago? I love cherry blossom flavored goodies from Japan and would like to make my own. I know cherry blossom (sakura) extract exists, the evidence is here, but I can't find any to purchase in stores or online.

Has anyone had success any success locating this unique ingredient before?

p.s. I'm so jealous of everybody going to the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC this year!

What are your favourite ways to avoid waste in the kitchen?

orange swan — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:16:24 -0800

What are your favourite kitchen and pantry management tricks to avoid the waste of food and money? In my kitchen, I go through my fridge and freezer once a week to be sure I know what needs to be used up soon. I freeze leftover orange zest or chopped bell peppers. I make bread pudding from bread crusts, bannock bread (or my Grandmother Swan's awesome potato donut recipe) from leftover mashed potatoes, and banana bisque from elderly bananas. What are your favourite tricks for making sure you don't waste food or money in cooking?

Please do keep your suggestions oriented towards reasonably healthy cooking. There should not be any answers that feature the word "Spam".

We had a similar thread a few weeks ago on MetaChat, but I thought bringing the question to a larger audience would mean even better results.

How can I make sense of this coconut bread recipe?

CKmtl — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:29:09 -0800

I found a recipe for delicious-looking coconut buns, but it's missing a bit of info and has distinct ESL qualities. Can anyone help me make sense of it? The author seems to be Chinese. She's done a pretty good job writing it up, but a few parts are unclear (at least to a baking novice, like myself):

- Would you take the spoons of yeast and salt to be teaspoons or tablespoons?

- What would you take "crush it up with (unsalted, I presume) butter" to entail?

- "You can do all of the above with a toaster"... Buh?

What dishes are considered classic cuisine? What are some different exercises and sports to try?

ReneeOg — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:06:38 -0800

I need help selecting classic cuisine dishes to perfect and new exercises and activities to try as part of my New Year's Resolution! So it's New Year's resolution time again. In addition to the requisite resolutions (workout more, get my paperwork organized, clean the basement, call my grandma more), I've decided I'd like to tackle one basic "classic cuisine" dish a month and to counteract the caloric intake, try a new physical activity every month.

I've had a hard time searching for classic dishes for my list so far. I was inspired by a Top Chef episode where each chef had to make classic dish or put a new spin on it, but the only two dishes I can remember are lasagne and veal picatta.

As far as physical activity, I already do yoga, run and take a brutal cycling class twice a week. I live in Michigan, so take the climate into consideration in your suggestions.

Can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Yuletide Christmas bagels

Mutant — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:05:54 -0800

Home made bagels. Christmas bagels actually. Mrs Mutant loves the bagels I've made using a variation of this recipe, and the price is certainly right (plain, about three pence each direct cost). Before baking I've dusted my bagels with confectionary sugar or chocolate chips, both of which have been received as well as good old plain (I always make mixed batches).

We're hosting kin for Christmas and as I'm doing the cooking I'd like suggestions on how to dress up the bagels into a food suitable for breakfast on the day itself, or Boxing day or pretty much anytime during the holiday period.

What's a good recipe for gingerbread construction materials?

ErWenn — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:35:40 -0800

I'm thinking about building a gingerbread house this year, and as usual for food topics that have yet to show up on Good Eats, I'm at a loss for where to find a good recipe. I'm looking for something that balances structural integrity with taste because I think it's utterly ridiculous to build something out of edible materials and then not eat the thing. Besides, eating the roof off of a gingerbread house must be at least twice as much fun as biting the head off a gingerbread man.

If you can also point me to a good recipe for the frosting stuff that you use to stick things together. I think it's called "royal frosting", but I'm not positive on that.

How to sell home baked goods?

Stagecraft — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 09:31:16 -0800

I am a culinary student in NYC studying the art of Pastry. I would like to start a small home business and make pastries to sell at local craft fairs. Does any one know how to go about this? How do the laws and regulations differ for home baking versus commercial baking? Is it even permissible to bake at home and sell at craft fairs? Would it be easer to rent out commercial space and then sell at the fairs? Help would be appreciated. Thanks! My wife is a crafter and sells at craft fairs in NYC. I would like to make chocolates and other baked goods for her to sell and I am just wondering how to go about it.

Will my pie turn to mush overnight?

hibbersk — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 11:41:02 -0800

I'm cooking my first ever pie for a lunch tomorrow (apple pie from Jamie Oliver's "Jamie's dinners" book if that makes a difference). I'm likely to be busy in the morning so can I get away with making it tonight so it just needs heating tomorrow? Or will the pastry go soggy overnight? Second option is to make the pastry and filling tonight, keep separate and assemble tomorrow. Or just get up ridiculously early? Thanks!