Archive for January, 2009
You don’t need a popover pan to make popovers. A muffin tin will work perfectly well, even though you will only need to use 6 of the muffin. The only real reason to have a popover pan is that it gives you a good incentive to make popovers more often. I know this to be true because I got one not too long ago and have been making popovers far more often than I normally do. The light, crispy-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside puffs are easy to make and are a great accompaniment at just about any meal, whether it’s soaking up gravy at dinner or being slathered with jam at breakfast.
My basic popover recipe is reliable and produces a light, tender puff. I recently set to work on creating a whole wheat popover for some variety. Whole wheat flour doesn’t take to popovers as well as all purpose flour does. It has less gluten in it and is heavier, so the popovers tend to not rise as high and be far more bread-like than regular popovers. The best way I’ve found to incorporate whole wheat flour is actually to use white whole wheat (it’s lighter than regular whole wheat) and mix in some all purpose flour to restore a little bit of the lacking lightness.
The remade popovers are more substantial than their entirely all purpose counterparts, but still have a crispy outer edge and a soft, moist interior. In every batch, I had one stubborn popover that would not develop the big hole in the center that is a popover signature even though the others always turned out just fine. If this happens to you, don’t worry about it. The popover will still be tasty, just a little more filling than the others in the batch.
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Over the past few years, I’ve noticed that Girl Scout cookies have gotten smaller in size while the boxes have gone up in price. This “grocery shrink ray” has hit lots of products, so the fact that it happens at all isn’t too surprising, but there is some point where consumers really need to step in and think before they buy. This year, the Girl Scouts have had to announce that they will be decreasing the number of cookies in each box of Thin Mints, Tagalongs and Do-Si-Dos (homemade version pictured above). Some of their other cookies will be resized without dropping the total number. This means we’re paying more – a lot more – these days for fewer cookies. A box of GS cookies currently (although please mention it in the comments if the pricing in your area is different!) is $3.50.
The change isn’t surprising given the rising cost of equipment and ingredients, but this has been going on for some time. A side by side comparison of cookies from now and 10 or 15 years ago might show quite a size difference. I’ve said before that I think it’s a better idea to donate money to your local girl scout troop and make your own cookies. You’ll know exactly where that money is going, you’ll get more cookies from a batch than you would in a box or two, and you won’t have to worry about any partially hydrogenated oils in the batter adding trans fats to your diet.
All this said, I’m sure I’ll still buy a few boxes – they’re hard to resist even when you have homemade. Just maybe not quite as many as I might pick up otherwise.
Meringue powder is an ingredient that you won’t see called for in recipes very often, but you will see if you browse the aisles of a baking supply store or a craft store with a cake decorating section. It also shows up on the ingredient lists of some packaged frostings and icing mixes. Meringue powder is a fine white powder made primarily from dried egg whites, with cornstarch to keep it from clumping while stored and some food gums to help it bind together easily when it is being used. The powder can be reconstituted with water and forms up into a nice, fluffy meringue when beaten at a high speed.
It is primarily used to make royal icing, as it adds a lot of stability to the frosting and a nice texture. The reason that it is used in royal icing is that many older recipes for the stiff icing called for raw egg whites and the meringue powder is a good substitution for them. Meringue powder can also be used as a substitute for egg whites in angel food cake (and often is, in some larger bakeries that offer… discount prices on their cakes). It works in that recipe because angel food cake really is just a meringue with a little bit of flour and flavoring added to it. Even though it works in these two recipes, meringue powder cannot be used as a substitute for egg whites in any recipe where egg whites are called for. It’s really just a substitution for egg whites that have been beaten to stiff peaks and will perform best in recipes that specifically look for that – like angel food cake and even some mousses. That being said, real eggs are always going to give you a better flavor in the finished product. Angel food cakes will be more moist and natural tasting when made with real egg whites (even though they’re actually not made when made with meringue powder), and if you choose to use the meringue powder in a mousse, it may have a starchy aftertaste from the cornstarch in the meringue powder.
It is a useful ingredient – especially if you do a lot of cake decorating – but I would only use it in a pinch with a regular egg white based recipe and save the bulk of its use for frostings.
I’m a big fan of using airtight containers for food storage for a variety of reasons, including increased freshness and longer shelf life of the foods you’re storing. Most of my containers are on the utilitarian side. But I have a soft spot for old fashioned cookie jars, both for nostalgia and for the fact that they make for a much more appealing presentation than a Rubbermaid container. This Cupcake Cookie Jar is a perfect example of this. The jar looks just like a giant cupcake ( complete with sprinkles and a cherry on top), with a cupcake wrapper for the base and icing for the lid. The fact that it looks like a tasty treat itself gets you in the mood to indulge just looking at it.
I also like the fact that this cookie jar is not too big, just 7.5in in diameter by 9in high. It holds enough for a couple of servings so anything you put inside will stay nice and fresh as it gets eaten. I’d still stick to the utility containers for practical reasons, but this is still one cupcake I wouldn’t mind indulging in.
Lemon poppy seed muffins are one of the few types of muffins that utilize poppy seeds. The tiny little seeds don’t add much flavor to a pastry (not in small amounts, anyway), but add color and texture to an otherwise plain pastry. They fit well with lemon because they don’t detract from the delicate citrus flavor of the fruit while making the muffins ever so slightly more interesting. There is no reason that poppy seeds can’t serve the same purpose in muffins made with other flavors, so I subbed out lemons for fresh limes and baked up a batch of Lime Poppy Seed Muffins.
These muffins are moist and slightly chewy, with a top that has a nice crispness to it when the muffins are fresh out of the oven. Because limes are more acidic than lemons, these muffins are very zesty and bright in their flavor. There is just enough sugar to take the edge off the limes and to really highlight their flavor. I stirred in a good amount of lime zest to make sure you can really taste it in the finished recipe. As always, I recommend using fresh limes for this recipe. If you have fairly large limes, you’ll probably only need 3 to get the required amount of juice.
The batter will fill the muffin cups up to the top when you’re dividing it into the pan. The batter is thick enough that your muffins should have a nice domed top that rises up above the muffin tin. You can get more (smaller) muffins out of the recipe by only filling the cups up 2/3 of the way, but you’ll need to reduce baking time by a few minutes if you choose to go that route. Personally, I love muffin tops and would take the bigger muffins any day.
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