Yorkshire Pudding

Some years ago, I visited the British branch of my family and learned how to make Yorkshire pudding.  The name is pretty misleading because it’s not a pudding at all, it’s sort of what you’d get if a popover and a soufflé got together in Britain’s Yorkshire county.  Typically it’s served with roast beef (my Aunt L makes a fabulously succulent one) and it must be eaten rather quickly the way you would a soufflé lest it deflates.  The interior of a Yorkshire pudding is moist, pillowy and soft, while the exterior is golden brown and thinly crisp.  The sum [...]

More Homemade Pop Tarts

Last week, black raspberry pop tarts were in the spotlight, and I focused mainly on the crust.  And just in case you’ve forgotten what it looked like:

This week, my eyes are on the fillings.  Specifically, Nutella.  I briefly contemplated a key lime marmalade filling but nixed it because it has a similar consistency to the black raspberry jam and I wanted to see how the pastry would do with a heavier, denser filling.
Turns out it makes a big difference.  But we’ll (ha! I just used the royal “we”!) get to that in a minute.
I decided that while cutting out eight [...]

Homemade Pop Tarts

One of the things I miss about my childhood are Pop-Tarts (coincidentally, a store called Pop-Tarts World opened in Times Square a few days ago).  The Pop Tarts of yesteryear were unadorned sandy crusts encasing a filling made mostly of sugar flavored with fruit.  And while I look back on those years with the great fondness borne of infrequent indulgences in processed food, I also know that try as I might, there is nary a naked pop tart to be had these days.  Seriously.  I’ve looked.  Some time in the 90s, FROSTED pop tarts came on the market (because apparently [...]

The Blind Baker’s Helpful Hints

Every time I make pancakes or bake red velvet cupcakes, I am left with loads of buttermilk and no idea what to do with it.  In the past, it languished in my refrigerator, forgotten and unused, and I’d sadly look on as I poured rancid buttermilk down the drain.
Not this time.
Remember the Le Creuset silicone muffin cups from my post on Southwestern Corn Muffins?  I found another use for them: freezing leftover buttermilk!

Though each muffin cup has a 1/2-cup capacity, I chose to freeze the buttermilk in 1/4-cup increments to allow for expansion as it froze.  I sat the cups [...]

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red velvet cakes used to scare me; I’d never seen a RED cake before but, as is my approach to life, I was willing to try it.  Which was when I fell in love.  So for a recent family get-together, I baked red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  I was aiming for a deep red, fine-crumbed vanilla cake with just a hint of chocolate…
… Oh, who am I fooling?  I dumped cocoa in there like it was going out of style!  And if cocoa is really going out of fashion in your part of the world, please tell me [...]

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