“Double boiler” is the term that describes a two-pan setup, where an upper bowl is used to cook heat-sensitive food and a lower pan is used to simmer water to gently heat the upper bowl. The upper bowl is never exposed to direct heat in a double boiler setup, but is only heated from …
Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Bars
Most of the people I know enjoy cheesecake and, if I had to guess, I would say that you probably know a lot of fans of the rich and creamydessert, too. But full-sized cheesecakes can be difficult to make. Water baths are often required to …
All American Desserts
For some reason, especially around holidays during the summer, I get a craving to make lots of really classic American desserts. Strawberry shortcake, apple pie, star-spangled cupcakes. Since they’re all delicious desserts, I rarely make an attempt to fight this desire, and instead turn to …
What is overmixing?
When you’re reading through recipe instructions, particularly for baked goods, you probably come across the phrase “do not overmix” fairly often. The notion of “overmixing” can be confusing if you’re just getting into baking – after all, cookie dough is either mixed, or it isn’t, right?
The final stage of making a …
Dinner with a steamy chef
I’ve been watching Bravo TV’s Top Chef reality show since season one (they’re now in season three) and am a huge fan. It’s natural, then, that a Top Chef-related contest would catch my eye.
Glad – which is a huge sponsor of Top Chef – is running …
Funfetti brownie how-to
In spite of the fact that the mix looked so promising, the results of my own venture into making a homemade version were not particularly exciting. The brownies were excellent, of course, but the sprinkles didn’t add the same sort of festive look that they lend to funfetti cupcakes …
Funfetti brownie mix
I’m not necessarily one to endorse using boxed mixes instead of baking from scratch, but there are certainly some decent mixes out there to choose from. Brownie mixes tend to be consistently good, for example, and it’s not bad to have one on hand for chocolate emergencies (especially if you have kids who don’t …
