in which i bake
Dec. 12th, 2019 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishFor my birthday a couple weeks ago I thought I'd try and make my grandmother's notoriously finicky cinnamon creme pie. This did not work out; near as I can tell, either I failed to sufficiently stir the egg yolks into the cornstarch/sugar/salt mixture, or I overcooked the custard mixture and scrambled the egg yolk etc mix. (Or both! Embrace the power of And!) I'd run through all my eggs trying to separate three yolks, so I didn't try again after that. Maybe later this week.
Erin and I have been watching Foodwishes on youtube on occasion, and Chef John frequently bakes things on a Silpat sheet instead of parchment paper or whatever. I ordered one on Amazon and accidentally shipped it to Vancouver instead of up here, so it was ready for pickup last week. This meant I got to bring it along to HollyCon and try it out on some biscuits there. Worked fine; mildly annoying to clean, but no more so than tearing parchment paper.
The biscuits, though. I accidentally bought pastry flour instead of normal flour, and didn't realise until I was packing up to leave. So I didn't really understand when they turned out exceptionally... crispy, I guess. Not overcooked, not burnt, but the individual layers were thin and fried.
So when I got home I experimented: made a batch of sourdough drop biscuits yesterday and the day before, one with normal flour and one with pastry. Can confirm that pastry flour makes biscuits that are weirdly crispy/crunchy on the edges. Unsure what I will do with this newfound knowledge (and pastry flour), since I don't make pie crust.
Also yesterday I made cookies, because a) it's an excuse to have the oven on in a chilly apartment and b) it is likely cheaper than buying a box of them. Specifically, I made ginger snaps without molasses.
They turned out ... a notch or two above "alright," I think. Next time will use brown sugar instead of at least some of the white, and maybe grate some frozen ginger into them too.
And currently I've got meringues in the oven, because I never actually used the leftover egg whites from the failed cinnamon creme pie. Curious to see how they turn out; I don't think I actually whipped them long enough.
I still don't really understand why I stopped cooking when I moved to Vancouver, but I'm glad I'm doing it again.
Erin and I have been watching Foodwishes on youtube on occasion, and Chef John frequently bakes things on a Silpat sheet instead of parchment paper or whatever. I ordered one on Amazon and accidentally shipped it to Vancouver instead of up here, so it was ready for pickup last week. This meant I got to bring it along to HollyCon and try it out on some biscuits there. Worked fine; mildly annoying to clean, but no more so than tearing parchment paper.
The biscuits, though. I accidentally bought pastry flour instead of normal flour, and didn't realise until I was packing up to leave. So I didn't really understand when they turned out exceptionally... crispy, I guess. Not overcooked, not burnt, but the individual layers were thin and fried.
So when I got home I experimented: made a batch of sourdough drop biscuits yesterday and the day before, one with normal flour and one with pastry. Can confirm that pastry flour makes biscuits that are weirdly crispy/crunchy on the edges. Unsure what I will do with this newfound knowledge (and pastry flour), since I don't make pie crust.
Also yesterday I made cookies, because a) it's an excuse to have the oven on in a chilly apartment and b) it is likely cheaper than buying a box of them. Specifically, I made ginger snaps without molasses.
They turned out ... a notch or two above "alright," I think. Next time will use brown sugar instead of at least some of the white, and maybe grate some frozen ginger into them too.
And currently I've got meringues in the oven, because I never actually used the leftover egg whites from the failed cinnamon creme pie. Curious to see how they turn out; I don't think I actually whipped them long enough.
I still don't really understand why I stopped cooking when I moved to Vancouver, but I'm glad I'm doing it again.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-14 06:00 am (UTC)