Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[kalee]

That looks good! I have apples so will make it this weekend.

[Silentgypsy]

That wasn’t an issue. We lived in Phoenix at the time and they were forever relocating my office so it was nothing unusual to see me carting big boxes of stuff around. The fact that I’m boring and that no one was the least bit interested in my job was an additional benefit. Sometimes I think I missed my calling (cat burglar).

[kalee]

That’s the recipe I used tyears ago when I catered. Everyone loved it.

[kalee]

That’s the recipe I used years ago when I catered. Everyone loved it.

[Silentgypsy]

Oops—I meant to add that Phoenix is big and flat so I drove to work.

[Silentgypsy]

Oops. Expend, not exspend.

[Silentgypsy]

You catered? You must be a super-organized person! A job like that would kill me. I can only make one thing at a time, serially.

[Silentgypsy]

If you make the cake in post 96, could you possibly tell us about the topping? I’d like to have a reliable recipe for crumb topping overdose opportunities. Aliska’s cake in post 85 looks so moist and gorgeous but her experience indicates that it could be improved with a different topping. Maybe the cake in 85 and the topping from 96? That sounds like a plan.

[kalee]

I will.

[Aliska]

Re #100 and a couple others. I'm not ignoring you, got off on one of my tangents, then get drained. Am waiting for some mac and cheese to bake and fear I got too much salt in it. Hope the mac soaks some of it up; I didn't put as much as it said in the mac cooking water. Now I've messed up a bunch of pans because the glass round one I was going to use was going to be too full. One full pound of large elbow mac and tons of cheese, I wanted it creamy.

I read since Velveeta went south which used to add smoothness and tasted ok mixed with better cheese now is horrible so the suggestion was to mix 1/2 sharp cheddar (and it's important to use a good brand like Kraft and better if not too $$$ and 1/2 American which we can't buy in a block. I always look for the deli slices, the full pound, it has kept for a long time unopened in my meat drawer, so I used a bunch of that and about 1 cup Gruyere.

JT, the real cornflower is Bachelor's Button I think, but different plants have different regional common names.

The recipe for the coffee cake looked ok, that's the big Nordic Ware bundt pan. I got the large tube pan because I already had 2 or 3 standard size bundt pans (which I don't use for some time).

I got a brainstorm last night. I love apple crisp if I can make myself peel the apples and can find some decent cooking apples. I need the fruit because I can't chew well enough to eat them raw.

So I had a couple recipes for apple crisp and also muffins with streusel and what better for me to experiment with that streusel top on my apple crisp?

Also wanted to look up apricot which I adore uh oh, this one looks good but I'll use the streusel on the one we've been talking about.

I can't promise when I'll get to it, next up is cheese pie with cherry pie filling topping, but if my daughter will help me, pretty soon, so I'll be sure to let you know if it works and can post a photo. Yeah, the cake in #85.

Now I gotta copy that recipe and may have to make some changes, can't get fresh apricots and don't want to use preserves. Gotta convert from metric, oh well, I can do it.

Recipe Apricot Streusel Cake:

https://chantellabellasblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/apricot-streusel-cake/

Thanks for all the fun chatter, help, suggestions and feedback! If I forgot to address a point somebody made, I'll try to get back to it.

[Silentgypsy]

Oh, my, that looks wonderful. We had a German bakery in my old neighborhood that produced incomparable plum kuchen and almond boats. I’ve approximated them but never got them exactly right. You have much more discriminating taste than I. I’d go for it with the canned apricots.

[Aliska]

The good news is that it calls for self-rising flour. I just got some because Chef John insists it works best for his chicken and dumplings and fresh peach cobbler.

So it occurred to me why not try that in the apple cake? But the apricot one is sunken in the middle, too. So I have decided the dough is not heavy enough to support the cake and it should be more like the 2nd streusel photo, skinnier on the bottom but doesn't look sunken.

The case against a tube pan of any sort for streusel is you either have to cut it in the pan or somehow find a way to turn it out without damaging the streusel if they don't have removable bottoms (I gave mine away, don't really miss it but sometimes there's a particular use for every odd pan you own).

We had a German bakery, probably several as I live in a German heritage area. The couple got old and they shut it down for sanitary reasons. I went in there only once because they delivered trays of the doughnuts every Sunday to a nearby little supermarket which is history now, too. They had these marvelous little pies with rather thick crusts made in cupcake tins with papers, then filled with apple filling, a top set on, and iced. The crust was thick and possibly lard but tasted really good. No, I can't duplicate any of that either.

Bakeries come, I get a favorite or two, then they go. Happy Joe's used to have a bakery, and they had the best apple fritters and foldovers of soft puff? brioche? pastry, filled with fruit, with three lines cut in top for vents then lightly frosted (maybe not). The cream cheese or almond paste combo ones were the best. Then they went, just like my favorite restaurants.

But their trademark (back to the German bakery) which has never been replaced were berliners and large vanilla cake doughnuts with chocolate frosting; my friend thought they were potato doughnuts. I don't try to make them. There are other doughnuts from the past and present I like the best, but nothing equal to that German bakery. The current ones are chocolate chip glazed with an almost transparent glaze which gets a little hard but the doughnut stays moist (locally owned, not Krispy Kreme) Berliners are those raised deep-fried puffs, filled with a certain kind of raspberry filling and rolled in sugar.

I have saved up some recipes which looked especially delicious that are German, one is an apricot kuchen, a sweet pastry, fresh apricots sweetened I assume on the bottom, covered with sour cream and sugar and baked. The other is a plum cake made with yeast dough only richer yellow and sweet. It's an upsidedown cake with those red plums in the top. I'll see if I can find the picture for that. It's a little more ambitious than I've been able to muster so far, and I never cooked with plums before. They are not even a favorite for eating but I do if they are ripe and sweet. I like canned plums and was going to get some, haven't had any for years.

It's flickr so it's bigger than at the recipe site. Well, I had to use the flickr one as it is the only one, there are other views there of the whole cake, etc. What a hassle it is to embed photos from there, way more code than I need plus it's somebody else's account this time.

http://centerstagewellness.com/plum-cake/>

Inverted plum kuchen. Also I've got several peach/custard recipes.

But the creme de la creme is serbian from youtube. It is way too much work to make but I figured out how to do it. Basically it is a regular puff pastry dough, baked in two pieces cut to make a bottom and top of the pan to hold the dessert. It's filled with a thick layer of lots of egg yolks pastry cream blended with the whites and whipping cream. It's called Krempita.

I'm posting a photo of a similar version, also called vanilla slice. It's a favorite in Serbia and nearby places.

I was going to embed a photo of one but can't find the right one. I've done enough damage for now ;-). There's a certain Krempita one on youtube. I converted the whole darn thing from Serbian (somebody said it was a slightly different language) and metric but never made it yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFXgPswkyB8 - this is the right one Krempita recept - Vanilla slice recipe

Some English/Australian recipes call for custard powder custard which is not fit to eat (they like the stuff). And forget cookie crumbs, puff pastry or I don't want it. I do use Bird's custard powder for baking cakes sometimes, adds special texture and taste or something.

Sorry, when I look through my saved recipes I come across some really delightful ones I've not been able to make. Some are disappointments, but now and then I get a real winner.

[Silentgypsy]

A friend visited Croatia and raved about a dessert that sounds very similar to your vanilla slice. I love custard in anything. A local friend who recently passed had >70 hens and gave us lots of eggs. Those eggs and local Amish honey made a wonderful lightly-sweetened baked custard that even my husband liked.

Since we live in the middle of nowhere, I've never even seen puff pastry here. It sounds delicate like something I'd tear apart trying to work. (Some of us have the touch, and then there are the rest of us. A cake decorator who appeared on "The Chew" actually made gorgeous rosettes while he was blindfolded! That guy was fantastic.)

[Aliska]

Sorry I blathered on so much, but I've saved some of those for years.

I love custard, too. I have an easy stirred custard you cook on top of the stove (carefully so it won't scorch but it works). It's not as solid as the baked kind but very tasty.

Puff pastry is available at most supermarkets in the frozen section. Pepperidge Farm is the most common variety. It's an awful pain to make it, never tried.

I found people raving over a slice that looked delicious on food.com, read the ingredients, 1 cup custard powder. And that stuff is expensive. I can certainly forgive people allergic to eggs to use it, and I only cooked some up once.

Lots of baked goods you have probably bought and eaten over the years consist of puff pastry, not anything that uses cream puff dough though (choux?)

There are some easier recipes on the web, but they aren't easy enough for me. If you do find and buy frozen puff pastry, it probably should be rolled a little bit.

You might get by with Pillsbury crescent roll dough that isn't perforated, comes in a sheet. In the refrigerated section in a can you have to hit on a seam to open. Then roll it fairly thin and prick it like a pie crust.

Maybe they don't have that in your parts. Too many choices. Walmart has Pepperidge Farm.

[Aliska]

P.S. Greeks make a custard slice called Galaktoboureko, have no idea how to pronounce it. For the top and bottom, they use filo dough (which I tried once also used in that baklava recipe somebody posted). It's tricky, have to keep it moist and handle carefully. It does look delectable and maybe if a good Greek cook made it, I would like it.

For the custard I got some semolina flour through Amazon and made just the custards in muffin tins (don't need a hot water bath for that kind of custard). It gets very thick and has eggs and vanilla in it, but I didn't like that either.

Usually it's a little deeper yellow than in the photo.

The filo pastry would be just as hard to find or moreso than puffed. It's also in the frozen section of the larger stores. But I think I would like mine made with real pastry cream and filo, too, if it doesn't have too much butter slathered on the sheets, at least the powdered sugar top doesn't.

[Silentgypsy]

I’ve made cream puff dough from scratch, but haven’t had the opportunity to work with puff pastry. Long ago, I made a soft custard recipe (stove top)that I served over apple dumplings. The instructions were from the 1960’s Betty Crocker cookbook. Those recipes were ambrosial! I’ve had homemade baklava made by an experienced Greek client, and my colleagues and I appreciated it very much! I’ve wanted to make crescent roll dough from scratch, but haven’t taken the time to do that yet. Haven’t seen the nonperforated product here yet. Have one or two recipes for an “easy” puff pastry dough, but haven’t attempted them yet. If I were you, I wouldn’t trust my report on homemade puff pastry because I’m not very discriminating and tend to like a lot of stuff that other people consider not palatable.

[Silentgypsy]

My area is funny. When I ask about something they stock and they don’t have it, they stock it but I’ve stopped looking for it because I’ve assumed that they won’t act upon a query. I’d rather work with what they have here. Oh, one exception: I’d love to try farro just once. One of my favorite authors (Lisa Scottoline) likes it a lot.