Delightful Vanilla!

I grew up adding vanilla to everything. In fact, on and off through my young years, I tried to taste the liquid of the glass bottle: lulled by the intoxicating "siren smell," each time I renewed hope it would taste as sweet as it smelled.

Back then, we exclusively used Mexican vanilla in my mother's kitchen. Once you've had that, I think you never go back to "imitation vanilla" or "vanilla flavored" extracts.

I moved to Germany, where only a powdered "Vanilla Sugar" option is readily available, and that simply didn't work for me. Totally diluted in flavor, it is tasteless next to the Mexican variety.

Then my mom gave me a bottle of Azteca Vanilla after a Mexican cruise. Wow! According to the online reviews I'm reading, this brand is arguably one of the best -- and safest -- Mexican vanillas (doesn't contain coumarin).

Further, it is a clear vanilla (as opposed to a dark opaque color), so you can use it in white cakes or frosting without adding color. It is so strong in flavor that I dilute it with water, in most recipes. Therefore, 28 months later, my 250 ml bottle is still 2/3 full, after much baking.

Only caveat: good luck finding it online! Otherwise, pick it up on your next Mexican vacation.

All I can say further is that every dessert I've made in the last two years has been met with requests for my recipes. And I'm not even that great of a baker. It is that good, peeps.

I'm just not sure how to break it to people that it's the Mexican vanilla -- which definitely they can't find anywhere near here -- and not my baking that should take any credit....

Oriental Pasta Salad

(recipe from my sister-in-law's sister)

2 cups chicken (cooked and chopped)
1 1/2 bags baby spinach
3 cans mandarin oranges
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1 6 oz. bag craisins
2 cans water chestnuts
1 bunch green onions
6 oz. honey roasted peanuts
16 oz. bowtie pasta (cooked and well drained)

Mix Together:
1 cup oil
2/3 cup vinegar
2/3 cup teriyaki sauce
6 T. sugar
1 t. salt

Add pasta to dressing and let set overnight. (Can be shortened if time necessitates.)

Add the rest of the ingredients before serving.

She adds:
I don't go by the amounts above. I use the 16 oz. of pasta, but just eyeball the rest. If you don't like peanuts, or sunflower seeds, or whatever, eliminate them. The dressing is what makes this salad soooo good.

Sachertorte: Viennese confection

Here’s a delightful interpretation of this Viennese treasure:

Cake Ingredients
5 oz. softened butter
A half cup sifted powdered sugar
8 egg yolks
8 egg whites
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate
Two-thirds cup of flour
A half cup sugar
2 tablespoons apricot jam

Glaze Ingredients
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoons butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Cream together butter and powdered sugar. Add 1 egg yolk at a time, mixing until creamy. Melt the 5 oz. bittersweet chocolate in a double boiler or microwave; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Fold in flour. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and sugar until stiff. Fold into chocolate mixture. Pour batter into a lined 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 50-65 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack. Heat apricot jam and smooth over entire torte, including the sides. For glaze, melt the 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate with butter and frost the cake. Serve with whipped cream.

Makes 8-10 servings.

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.