Canned creamed soup instructions

Discussion here.

For the obsessive Mac'n'Cheese lover

From scratch.

Here.

Chocolate Pudding

Pudding from scratch? No easy bake or J-E-L-L-O brand in these parts of the world, sorry to say. I hereby present:

Easy baked chocolate pudding

120 g (240 ml, or just less than 1 cup) all purpose flour
pinch of salt
10 ml (2 t) baking powder
100 g (100 ml or 2/5 cup) white sugar
60 ml (4 T) cocoa powder
125 ml (1/2 cup) milk
30 ml (2 T) melted margarine or butter, or oil (I find oil works best)
5 ml (1 t) vanilla essence
another 50 g (50 ml or 1/5 cup) white sugar
375 ml (1 1/2 cups) hot water
Serves 6 (or 4 kids)

Mix the flour, salt, baking powder, 100 g sugar and half of the cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl. Add the milk, melted margarine and vanilla essence. Pour batter into a deep greased baking dish. Mix the remaining sugar and cocoa powder together and sprinkle over the surface of the batter. Pour the hot water slowly over everything. Bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).
Check during cooking time when you try it the first time because if your dish isn't deep enough the chocolate sauce may boil over.

Can be had with delight over ice cream.

Cookies Perfected: Fantastic Basics, Tips and Troubleshooting

Click the link below to find the original page. This is fantastic overview that brings a little science to the art of cookie baking.

Perfect Cookies

By: Allrecipes Staff

Some cookies should be crisp and delicate, while others ought to be chewy and tender.

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Ingredients

Using the correct ingredients is key. Follow the recipe closely and measure ingredients carefully for best results.

Fats Cookies are made primarily with butter, margarine or shortening. Fats play a major role in the spread of a cookie--whether a cookie keeps its shape or flattens in the oven. Shortening and margarine are stable, and will help cookies keep their original unbaked shapes. Butter melts at a much lower temperature than other solid fats--it melts at body temperature, resulting in a “melt-in-your-mouth” burst of flavor. Cookies made with butter tend to spread out. Butter is essential in certain cookies, such as shortbreads; if they don’t hold their shape, consider lowering the amount of butter, sugar, or baking soda in the recipe. The amount of fat also affects the cookies: in general, more fat equals flat, crispy cookies while less fat equals puffier, cake-like cookies. Whipped spreads are not suitable for baking: use solid sticks of margarine instead.

Flour Flour also affects how cookies behave. Most cookie recipes call for all-purpose or pastry flour. Both bread flour, with its high protein content, and cake flour, which is high in starch, produce cookies that tend to spread less. (The gluten in the bread flour and the absorbant starch in cake flour are responsible for the similar results.) Higher flour-to-liquid ratios are needed in shortbread and crumbly-textured cookies.

Baking Powder and Baking Soda Baking powder and baking soda are the two most common leaveners in cookies. Baking soda is simply bicarbonate of soda, while baking powder is a combination of bicarbonate of soda plus cream of tartar, an acidic ingredient. Baking soda neutralizes the acidity of the dough, allowing the cookies to brown in the oven. Since baking powder already contains its own acid, it will not reduce the acidity in the dough, and the resulting cookies will be puffier and lighter in color.

Sugars Like fats, sugars liquefy in the oven. The type and amount of sugar used play a big role in cookie performance. White sugar makes a crisper cookie than brown sugar or honey. Cookies made from brown sugar will absorb moisture after baking, helping to ensure that they stay chewy. Most chocolate chip cookie recipes contain both brown and white sugars. If you lower the amount of sugar called for in a cookie recipe, the final baked cookie will be puffier than its high-sugar counterpart.

Eggs and Liquids Eggs are a binding agent. Liquids can either cause cookies to puff up or spread. If egg is the liquid, it will create a puffy, cake-like texture. Just a tablespoon or two of water or other liquid will help your cookies spread into flatter and crisper rounds. Egg yolks bind the dough and add richness but allow a crisp texture after baking, whereas egg whites tend to make cookies dry and cakey. To make up for the drying effect of the egg whites, extra sugar is often added. This is why cookies made with just egg whites tend to be so sweet--think of macaroons.

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Mixing

Cookies are not as delicate as cakes, but proper mixing is still important. Some recipes require a creaming step in which the fat and sugars are beaten together until light-colored and fluffy. Other cookies require a sandy texture, so the fat is cut into the flour. Over-mixing can incorporate too much air into the dough, resulting in flat, overly spread-out cookies. Follow the recipe instructions. Once you combine the dry and wet ingredients, mix until just combined.

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Temperature

Unless otherwise specified, ingredients should be at room temperature before mixing. Cookie dough that is chilled before baking will hold its shape better. Rolled and cut-out cookies should be refrigerated before baking for sharper, clearer edges. Drop cookies, such as chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies, can be at room temperature before baking; the spoonfuls of dough will spread and flatten out to the desired result.

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Equipment and Baking

Different baking sheets and ovens produce different results. Thin baking sheets may allow the bottoms to brown too fast. Special insulated baking sheets allow air movement and help cookies bake evenly, but they can be expensive. Semi-thick rimmed baking sheets--also called jellyroll pans--are available just about everywhere, and are a fine multipurpose baking choice. Rather than greasing each baking sheet, consider investing in a roll of parchment paper or a nonstick pan liner to make cookie removal and clean-up easy.

Follow the recipe’s instructions for baking. Invest in an oven thermometer to be sure your oven temperature is calibrated correctly. Generally, cookies are baked in a moderate oven--350 degrees F (175 degrees C)--for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie. For chewy cookies, allow them to cool on the pan for 3 to 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. For crispier cookies, let cool for one minute on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack.

Troubleshooting

If you have a cookie recipe that you love, but aren’t getting the desired results, use these tips to get your perfect cookie:

• Flat If you want your cookies on the flat side, you can do some or all of the following things: Use all butter, use all-purpose flour or bread flour, increase the sugar content slightly, add a bit of liquid to your dough, and bring the dough to room temperature before baking.
• Puffy For light, puffy cookies, use shortening or margarine and cut back on the amount of fat; add an egg, cut back on the sugar, use cake flour or pastry flour, use baking powder instead of baking soda and refrigerate your dough before baking.
• Chewy Try melting the butter before adding it to the sugars when mixing. Remove cookies from the oven a few minutes before they are done, while their centers are still soft but are just cooked through. The edges should be golden. Use brown sugar, honey or molasses as a sweetener. Let cookies cool on the pan for several minutes after baking before transferring to cooling rack.
• Crispy For crisp, crunchy cookies, use all butter and a proportion of white sugar. Use egg yolks in place of a whole egg. Cookies should be baked completely. Let cool on the baking sheet for one minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

The ingredients, mixing techniques and baking temperature all affect how a batch of cookies will turn out.

Food Substitutions

Can't find brown sugar here anywhere. Can't find Molasses anywhere. This knocks out a lot of fine desserts. Maybe that's why we're rocking the brownie recipe so much these days...

Cooking substitution suggestions here.

Incidentally, molasses (or in Germany, Zuckerruebensirup a.k.a. Beet Syrup added to white sugar) plus sugar can substitute just fine. Things could get interesting with this double substitution.

Basic Cheesecake Recipe.

During a brief career in a whole foods restaurant in the early 1990s, I joined the owner in looking for the perfect dessert recipe that would keep people coming back for more. We wanted something basic which could be easily varied to suit the season or the ingredients on hand.

In my personal collection of cookbooks, I had Climb into Good Cooking, a collection of recipes compiled by residents of Bath, New York. The proceeds of the cookbook were donated to a new playground being built by the residents themselves. My boss chose a recipe from Climb into Good Cooking, titled simply, "Cheesecake."

I want to give credit to M. Von Hagn, who submitted the following basic recipe. The editorializing notes are mine and in parentheses.

* Cheesecake... serves 30 to 40 (assuming you have self-control and take only a sliver of this rich, tasty dessert).

1-1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 ounces (1/4 cup) all purpose flour 4 eggs 3 pounds of cream cheese (Lite or no-fat? Are you kidding?) 4 ounces light cream (Half'n'Half was our choice) 1-1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (which we did not use in most variations) 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla 2 small or 1 large springform pan (we used one large pan and the cooking time always worked out perfectly)

Preheat oven to 400-degrees and grease a springform pan. Soften cream cheese by putting in the microwave for about 1 minute or until softened. (You could also set the cream cheese out on the counter for thirty minutes or so for the same effect, particularly on hot summer days. But, ask yourself, do you want to turn the oven to 400-degrees on a hot summer day?)

Mix all the ingredients until smooth and pour in springform pan. (Don't you love it? No mix this, add this, mix again... By the way, be sure to use an electric mixer; much smoother texture than if mixed by hand.)

Bake approximately 50 to 60 minutes. Let cool for about three hours and top with your favorite topping (All our favorites had any extra ingredients mixed right in.) *

That's the end of the official "Cheesecake" recipe. Let it cool a short time then place it, uncovered, in the refrigerator for the remainder of the three hours. This cheesecake slices best if placed in the freezer overnight, then thawed for several hours before serving.

Think about how imaginative ice creams are these days and work that same magic when preparing your version of Cheesecake.

Are you preparing it for a Thanksgiving dinner? Stir in a small (approximately 15 oz.) can of pumpkin and a bit of Allspice or whatever spices you prefer in your pumpkin pie. Leave out the lemon extract.

Is it fresh fruit season? Stir in a cup of fresh blueberries or raspberries and bake as usual. Save a few of the berries to decorate the top.

Since my days in the restaurant, my daughter who is now married and has two children insists I bake this cheesecake as her official birthday cake. In her favorite version, I mix one cup of the basic mixture with 2/3-cup peanut butter. I stir one cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips into the remaining mixture, then "marble" with the peanut butter mixture. If this is your first time marbling, pour your basic mixture into your prepared springform pan. Place spoonfuls of the peanut butter mix here and there on the top, then cut through the mixture with a table knife in a swirling design.

Most cheesecakes have a graham cracker crust. I've always prepared this without. It's amazing the way it is: one dessert that can be easily prepared in any of a number of ways, weeks ahead of time if necessary, and frozen until needed. I've never known it to feed 30 to 40 people. No one could eat that thin a slice and not want just a little bit more.

This year I'm thinking of making a few outer additions to the birthday cheesecake since it does look rather plain (Looks are deceptive, aren't they!). I'll cut out a large number "24" from a piece of wax paper that covers the top of the cake, then sprinkle the exposed area with confectionary (powdered) sugar to show her age on top of the cake. Then I might create a few chocolate curls to circle the outer edge.

Better yet, I'll buy miniature Peanut Butter Cups (chocolate encased peanut butter candies) to place around the edge on the top of the cake. Omigosh, the calories... the goodness, the decadence of it all!