Today is the last day to submit baking questions to the Ask Aida show on the Food Network. So far, lots of great questions have been asked
In case you need some inspiration, or are looking for a quick answer, take a look at some of the baking questions I’ve previously answered on Baking Bites:
I’m only taking questions until midnight tonight (11/25), so think up your best ones and leave them in the comments section of this post. All the questions that aren’t chosen for the show will be answered over the next few weeks on site, so ask away!
I admit that I didn’t know much about the Build-a-Bear workshop until the last year or so, when I met some kids who were big fans. It’s a cute concept: a store where kids can design custom teddy bears. If I wasn’t already familiar with the place, I would never have associated the Build-A-Bear Workshop Cake Pan with the chain of stores and would simply have thought this was a cute 3D teddy bear cake pan – which, when it comes down to it, it is.
The pan is made out of heavy duty aluminum by Nordicware and is cast with a nonstick interior finish, which should help the details of the eyes and eyebrows, as well as the bear’s larger features, come out cleanly. Like other shaped pans, the halves of the bear are baked separately and sandwiched together with frosting. Kits for making the bear outfits – directions, fondant, etc. – are also available, but seem expensive for what you’re getting because, among other things, the fondant “clothes” don’t come already rolled and ready to apply. The patterns are nice, but the cake looks great without frosting and simple decorations shouldn’t be hard to do yourself.
This pan is exclusively sold at Williams-Sonoma, and when you purchase it, you should receive a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase at a Build-A-Bear store. If you’re planning on doing some shopping there this holiday season and don’t want to buy the pan for coupon, there are some coupon codes online ($5 off $10 purchase, $10 off $30 purchase) that might come in handy, as well.
Often, I like cookies that have one or two main ingredients that stand out. Chocolate chip cookies. Cinnamon-rolled snickerdoodles. Peanut butter cookies. But every once in a while it’s fun to indulge in a cookie that has a little bit of everything in it and these Ranger Cookies are the perfect example of that.
I’ve seen these “everything cookies” show up under many names before, including “kitchen sink” cookies and “cowboy” cookies. The recipes vary from cookie to cookie, but the underlying idea is that the cookies have a lot going on inside. The first time I saw this ranger cookie recipe, it was printed in a local newspaper (the LA Times, but I have a clipping of the recipe and not a link to the old article) and attributed to a 1952 Los Angeles Unified School District’s cafeteria, where they baked their own cookies instead of ordering them from some larger supplier, as is more commonly done today.
I made a few changes to the original recipe I had, changing the amounts of ingredients here and there to suit my tastes, but the overall effect of having some of everything is the same. The cookies include oatmeal, rice krispies, chocolate chip, shredded coconut and walnuts, as well as butter, salt, sugar, vanilla and all the other key elements of a good cookie base. They’re full of favor and, while the come out of the oven crispy around the edges, they take on a slightly chewy texture after they have cooled. The nuts add a bit of a crunch and the rice krispies, while not dramatic themselves, add a certain lightness to the cookies.
These cookies don’t spread quite as much as you think they will based on the size of the balls of unbaked dough simply because they have so much stuff packed into them. They’ll spread out some, of course, but they will be a bit thicker – especially those that end up with a slightly higher proportion of chocolate chips or walnuts in them.
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Puff is a cute single-subject cookbook focused on one ingredient: puff pastry. Because the holiday season comes hand-in-hand with entertaining, I find that I stock up on puff pastry more than any other time of the year. Puff pastry is just a simple dough with a light and flaky texture and, although it is buttery, not much personality on its own. It is this relative plainness that makes puff pastry such an incredibly versatile ingredient. It can be made into desserts or used as a base for savory appetizers and main courses. Puff pastry is also very easy to work with and readily available in the freezer case of just about every single grocery store. Once it is defrosted, it is pretty hard to go completely wrong.
The hardest part about using puff pastry is that you have so many options it’s hard to decide what to do. It is here that Puff steps in, providing 50 unique and easy to follow recipes for using puff pastry. It includes bite-sized appetisers that can be perfect for feeding a hungry crowd over cocktails, as well as recipes that use the pastry for dressing up dinners, using the flaky pastry as a base for a gourmet pizza, for instance. There are also plenty of dessert recipes, from quick palmiers to more complex tarts.
One thing that bakers will really appreciate with this book, in addition to the ideas and photos it provides, is that the author takes the time to describe the process of making puff pastry from scratch. It’s really not as difficult as you might think (I’ve done it before) and the results are great. If you opt not to go this route, there are lots of good tips on handling frozen dough to make sure you achieve the best finished product no matter what recipe you’re using.
