I am a big fan of coconut and try to use it in recipes whenever I can. Coconut milk and coconut cream are great, but really I like the taste and texture of shredded coconut and that is generally the type of coconut that I - and probably most of you bakers our there - use most. The most commonly found in grocery stores in my area and in most of the US is sweetened shredded coconut, but unsweetened shredded  coconut is also easily available and I often get asked which is better for baking for use in a certain recipe or if the two can be substituted for one another.The simple answer is that the two are pretty much identical in how they behave in recipes, mixing in easily and adding a nice, chewy texture. You can use these two types of coconut interchangeably in a recipe and get good results. That said, if a specific type is called for in a recipe, I would try to stick with it because the two coconuts taste a bit different and will give you a different result. If no specific type is called for, you can use what you have on hand or whichever type you prefer.

The sweetened coconut has sugar added to it before drying, so it tends to be a bit sweeter and more moist from the outset. The sugar actually helps to bring out the flavor of the coconut, but since most baked goods will have sugar in them anyway, this isn’t necessary to ensure a good finished result and unsweetened will still perform well. There is a small chance that sweetened might be slightly too sweet in a recipe that calls for unsweetened, but the sweetened coconut is not so sweet on its own that it should really throw off a recipe in that way.

Most recipes that call for pumpkin recommend using canned pumpkin puree. There are a variety of reasons for this, including the facts that pumpkin puree is relatively inexpensive, easy to find, convenient to use and very consistent in color, flavor and texture. Having a standard ingredient to recommend helps cookbook authors and recipe writers to help you achieve the desired results with their recipes. You can find both regular and organic pumpkin puree pretty easily these days at both regular and specialty markets. That said, it is also very possible to make your own pumpkin puree and this is a great option or those of us who like to eat squash and pumpkin on a regular basis.

First, start out with a whole pumpkin. It’s best not to have one too large, or it will be difficult to work with. Peel it, slice it open and seed it. Bring some water to a boil on the stovetop. Cut up the pumpkin flesh into chunks and drop it into the boiling water. Cool the pumpkin pieces until they’re tender, exactly the same way you would with potatoes.

Drain and cool the pumpkin pieces, then put them in the food processor. This is the only part where making your own gets tricky. Pumpkin can be fairly fibrous, and canned pumpkin puree is very smooth, so make sure that you process your pumpkin as much as possible. Sometimes, I add back a little bit of water to the puree so that I can process it more easily. I aim to get the consistency close to that of the canned puree (fairly thick, but not dry) so that I know it will work out in the recipes that call for it.

When I make it, I use pumpkin puree within a day or two of making it, storing it in the refrigerator in the meantime.

You can get creative with recipes for Christmas and decorations for Fourth of July, but no holiday is quite as fun as Halloween when it comes to looks. You can have all manner of decorations, from simple carved pumpkins to full-sized haunted house displays, and can take your holiday treats from snack sized candy bars to more elaborate, homemade treats, like Vampire Cupcakes. The food, like the decorations, should be fun and there is no real limit to how creative you can be. It’s a great time to experiment. After all, in the even that a treat doesn’t turn out looking the way you hoped, you can always say that it was just supposed to be an extra-scary zombie version of the cookie, cake or cupcake, right?

Here are some great, fun ideas for Halloween recipes. Don’t wait until the night before the holiday - some of these are too good to give away to trick-or-treaters!

• Vampire Cupcakes and Vampire Cookies are two of my absolute favorite Halloween recipes, both “bleed” fruity red fillings when you bite into them. They’re also perfect for non-Halloween occasions, like a Twilight movie viewing party.
• Speaking of vampire treats, a big batch of raspberry jam-filled Vampire Pancakes is a great way to get Halloween off on the right foot.
• Slime Filled Cupcakes from the Black Lagoon are another creepy cupcake, filled with oozing, bright green lime curd!
• Franken Berry Cereal Bars and Spooky Peanut Butter Puff Truffles are fantastic for making with kids because both are easy and start with boxed cereal. Kids can pretty much do everything themselves, with just a little adult supervision.
• The recipes for both Halloween M&M Cookies and Leftover Halloween Candy Bundt Cake incorporate regular Halloween candy. The cookies get a festive look from dark, creepily-colored seasonal M&Ms, while the cake is best made the day after Halloween when you have a bag of leftover mini chocolates that needs to be used up.
• The cookies pictured at the top are part of a batch of Skeleton Gingerbread cookies, decorated to look like carved pumpkins. Mummy Cookies with White Chocolate Wrapping are a good alternative if you prefer to start out with a chocolate, rather than spice, base.
• Candy apples are another classic recipe. Make sure to start out with some good apples, and either dip them into melted caramels or make a batch of Salted Maple Caramel Apples for a variation with a little extra fall flavor.
• Not everything needs to be themed. Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes and Pumpkin Brownies with Pecans are both good choices, getting pumpkin in to make them Halloween-appropriate, but perfectly appropriate for other fall and winter occasions, too.
• If you see a bag of Halloween Oreos, you might want to pick it up to try out some black and orange Halloween Oreo Cheesecakes

Tempering eggs is a critical culinary process, especially when it comes to making puddings, custards and other similar recipes. Eggs are tempered when a hot liquid (usually milk) is carefully streamed into them, bringing the eggs up to a very high temperature without cooking them. When properly incorporated, eggs have thickening properties that will help bring a custard to the appropriate consistency. This process is trickier than it sounds, since eggs cook a lot more easily than other ingredients and the last thing you want to add to a pudding is scrambled eggs!

To temper an egg, or multiple eggs, you need a large bowl and a whisk. Give the eggs a brief whisk in the bowl. Take your hot milk mixture and, working with just a few teaspoons at a time, pour it into the eggs as you whisk continuously. Adding the milk in this slowly prevents the eggs from being coked instantly from exposure to heat. Keep adding the milk in very small increments until all of it has been added. Strain the egg mixture back into your saucepan, removing any bits of egg that might have gotten cooked, and proceed with your recipe as written.

Now, you could try and just stream in your eggs (or egg mixture, as seen in this banana cream pie recipe) to the hot milk mixture to save time and dishes. This is not a good idea. When your egg hits that hot liquid, even if you whisk very fast as you work, it will cook almost instantly.  In a best-case-scenario with this method, you will end up with a lump or two in your finished pudding/custard.  In a worst-case scenario, you will end up with a saucepan full of scrambled egg pudding. If things go awry in the previously described method, you’ll only have to throw out a small portion of your hot milk mixture and start over with new eggs, saving a lot of time and a lot of batter.

The ChefStack Pancake Machine isn’t designed for home cooks, but it’s such an interesting gadget I can’t resist mentioning it. The clever machine makes pancakes without any human intervention and can turn out up to 200 pancakes an hour. Since it takes a few minutes to cook a homemade pancake after whipping up the batter, you’d need a very large and very hot griddle to accomplish a similar feat. It comes with packages of all-natural, low fat pancake mix that are combined with water to make a batter. The whole package is then placed in the machine, which pumps out the batter into three different sizes of pancakes and cooks them on a nonstick “cooking belt” (basically two very hot conveyor belts that sandwich the pancake batter).  Even more amazing is that the machine is about the size of a regular microwave oven, so it takes up virtually no counter space.

It’s not going to be replacing plate-sized diner-style pancakes any time soon (my favorite variety!), but these gadgets might pop up in a coffee shop or two that are looking to  expand their hot breakfast options and offer something other than muffins and bagels. That wouldn’t be a bad thing - I’m all for having pancakes for breakfast a lot more often! They’re priced at $3,500 and are available at the end of this month.

Mascarpone cheese is a rich, creamy cow’s milk cheese that is somewhere between butter and cream cheese in terms of both texture and flavor. It is smoother than cream cheese, but thicker and much less “melty” than butter. It has a very delicate, subtle flavor, more like butter than cream cheese. The cheese originally comes from Italy and is popular in many Italian dishes, including tiramisu and cheesecake. It is also a great addition to some pasta dishes - especially filled or baked pasta dishes, like lasagna and ravioli - as it adds a richness that other cheese can’t quite match.

Even though the cheese is from Italy, it is made in many different parts of the world and is widely available in most markets. To use it simply, you can spread it on a bagel or toast as-is, but it’s subtle flavor can actually be a bit boring with this application. It’s better to blend in some fruit, jam, or even some savory flavors to make a really interesting spread, taking advantage of the blank canvas of the cheese to add flavor so that you can really appreciate its creamy texture.