Category — Bakeware

I’m a huge fan of the cooking TV show Top Chef, DC . This season, one of the most common judge complaints stem from food that had been unevenly cut, thus cooking the food at different rates. An important kitchen tool called a mandoline can ensure even cooking time for cut fruits and vegetables. Get a stainless steel commercial mandoline —it’ll be easier to clean and much safer to use than any old cheapie mandolin. The quintessential recipe to test out your new stainless steel commercial grade mandolin would be Ratatouille ! I will admit, until Disney’s culinary rat Remy came into town, I had no idea what Ratatouille was and now, thanks to Smitten Kitchen , she’s taken this movie fantasy dish and turned it into a reality using her very own trusty mandolin.

Ratatouille’s Ratatouille As envisioned by Smitten Kitchen

1/2 onion, finely chopped, 2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced, 1 cup tomato puree (such as Pomi), 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 small eggplant (my store sells these “Italian Eggplant” that are less than half the size of regular ones; it worked perfectly),1 smallish zucchini, 1 smallish yellow squash, 1 longish red bell pepper, Few sprigs fresh thyme, Salt and pepper, Few tablespoons soft goat cheese, for serving.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish , approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the olive oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.

Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube.

On a mandoline , adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.

Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.

Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.

Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. (Tricky, I know, but the hardest thing about this.)

Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.

Serve with a dab of soft goat cheese on top, alone, or with some crusty French bread, atop polenta, couscous, or your choice of grain.

I love cake. Imagine a beautifully baked and frosted cake, disappointingly plopped onto a dinner plate–it’s not okay! Ceramic cake stands are sturdy and beautiful, and if you’re having cake for dessert, then you deserve to present that confection of heavenly goodness on something equally as stunning, right?

image via Heart of Light

There are stands that are simple and understated, like this Lenox Opal Innocence Carved Footed Cake Plate , that let’s the cake, well, take the cake.

There are stands that make make-believe tea parties easy, like this one from Now Designs, a 12-3/4 inch Pink cake stand .

And for the unique cake lover: a BIA Cordon Bleu Melina Garden Cake Stand . This looks like it could be straight out of Alice in Wonderland. Smoking Caterpillar shaped cake anyone?

Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup Crisco shortening
Ice water

Filling:
1/2 to 1 cup all-purpose flour
6 to 7 cups apples
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°.

In a medium mixing bowl cut the shortening and salt into the flour by hand or with a pastry blender until it’s the texture of cornmeal.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of ice water over the mixture and mix just until the dough is moistened.  Repeat by adding 6 to 8 tablespoons water (one at a time) until all the dough is just moist.  Take care not to over mix.

Divide the dough in half and roll into a ball.  Roll 1 ball into a circle to fit a 9 to 10 inch pie plate . To transfer the pastry to the pie plate, wrap it around a rolling pin and ease it into the pie plate.

In a medium bowl, make the filling by combining the apples with the brown and white sugar.  Add flour, cinnamon and continue mixing until they are well coated.

Add the apple filling into the pastry-lined pie plate.  Make sure the apple are lying flat.  Cut the butter into small pieces and put on top of the filling.

Roll the remaining pastry into a 12-inch circle.  Place on top of the filling.  Trim off 1-inch beyond the edge of the pie plate.  Crimp the edges as desired.  Cut slits to allow steam to escape when baking.  Sprinkle a little sugar and cinnamon over the pie.

Cover the edges with foil to prevent over-browning.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream .

Recipe courtesy Food Network .

Once in awhile it’s fun to make up a big batch of sugar cookie dough, and let the kids go at it with cookie cutters, and a big bowl of royal icing.  It’s worth the mess, and probably something the kids will remember for a long time.

Cookie cutters have really evolved over the last decade or so.  My favorites are still the large copper cookie cutters that turn out huge cookies, but some of the new takes on cookie cutters look like a lot of fun, especially if you have kids or grandkids.

The circus cookie cutters above include a seal, an elephant, a giraffe, a lion, and a tiger.  I like the little pop-out mechanism for getting the dough out of the cutter without messing it up.  Add some sprinkles, and a cardboard circus tent, and these would definitely spark some little imaginations.  I found the circus cookie cutter set at Williams-Sonoma.

Here’s a suggestion for cookie sheets, especially if you have a tendency to over-bake….like me!

I’ve always had a tendency to over-bake baked goods.  Even though my mom always told me to pull things out of the oven “before they look done”, I just never seemed to get them out early enough.  A few years ago, I started using AirBake cookie sheets, and it’s really fixed my over-baking dilemma.  In fact, I’ve become so accustomed to cooking with AirBake bakeware, I’m not sure I could use any thing else.

If you’ve never heard of them, AirBake pans are double-layered insulated aluminum bakeware.  Because of the layer of air between the two layers of the pan, it’s hard to overcook, and nearly impossible to burn cookies or cakes.  The 2-piece AirBake set above includes a pizza pan and a cookie sheet, and it’s available at Target.  AirBake bakeware is made by WearEver, and there are plenty of pieces to choose from, including jelly roll pans, muffin pans, cake pans, etc.

If you haven’t tried silicone bakeware, you’re missing out on a easy way to create beautiful and delicious baked goods.  At first,  I was skeptical of the seemingly flimsy baking pans, but decided to try one when I found a silicone muffin pan on sale one day.  It’s the best non-stick pan I’ve ever had.  By simply twisting the flexible pan, the muffins popped out perfectly….without shortening or non-stick spray.

Since we’ve been talking a lot about Halloween recipes, you might want to check out this silicone leaf and pumpkin mold for making individual size cakes (about 20 per cake mix) for your Halloween party.  The pumpkin and leaf silicone pan is oven-safe to 500 degrees, and it’s available at Chef Central.