In the Kitchen with Donald

[marcyleecorgan]

Oh my! So I have this childrens book about Donald in the kitchen, but everything goes terribly wrong for him. I will have to figure out how to share some pictures...

 

[Donald - my hero]

Oh my! So I have this childrens book about Donald in the kitchen, but everything goes terribly wrong for him. I will have to figure out how to share some pictures...

Yeah, that would be where i got the picture from the first post -- but i cropped out one of his ingredients

 

[marchingstar]

Yeah, that would be where i got the picture from the first post -- but i cropped out one of his ingredients
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hahaha. I bet we all know someone who is a bit of a donald in the kitchen


...my wife comes to mind...

 

[ottawamom]

Here's the cake i decorated for DS birthday today. He's 23 and still loves sprinkle s

 

[Donald - my hero]

Time for me to step up to the plate (so to speak) and start sharing my hints, tips & recipes. I'm not a chef, but i play one at home I get immense pleasure from being in the kitchen, even when I'm creating something that I'm not even able to taste, and find it both a stress buster and a wonderful distraction to a racing mind.

First a bit of an introduction: When our kids were little I started a home-based baking business, "Cause for Celebration" and sold everything from hand-painted seasonal cookies, Christmas baking ( not unusual to make over 200 dozen cookies and at least 100 pans of squares each year -- i must have been nuts!) birthday cakes (including those 3D ones) right up to wedding cakes (even made my sister's while in the middle of moving! again, nuts!!) Anyone who is a part of the Airmiles community has followed the ongoing saga of my food allergies that led to baking everything from bread to cookies to pasta, getting a new mixer from Airmiles (Max the mighty mixer), our oven dying led to buying my fancy-pants new oven (Owen) and my ever-shrinking diet has led to some serious outside-the-box cooking.

A few basic tips:
Baking is a science and until you are confident with a recipe altering it might lead to something even the dog will ignore. Here are things i have found helpful over the years
A scientist needs accurate tools for success, same for a baker

• Good set of dry measuring cups and spoons that have a nice flat edge for leveling - unless a recipe states "heaping" you want to be accurate
• Varying sizes of liquid measures (you want one that is just slightly bigger than you need to measure - need only one cup of milk and use a 4 cup measure and it will be off!
• Best bet is a scale that you can use for both dry & liquid ingredients and lets you "tare" or Zero meaning you can do true one-bowl baking - add the flour, zero the scale and then add the correct amount of sugar without a measuring cup!
• The correct size baking pans - don't put a recipe for brownies that should be in a 11x13 pan into a 8x8 one unless you want to clean the oven OR a loaf of bread that should be in a standard size pan (8.5 x 4.5) baked in a 9 x 5 pan will end up looking like it a ski hill!
• A calculator if you're wanting to scale recipes up (i bake 2 or 3X a batch of cookies at once) or down (that one grandma used to make 5 dozen buns at once!!) - this will put your old algebra skills to use and works best with the scale mentioned above
• A couple of go-to websites with TRUSTED recipes - I'll provide my favourites later
• And as mentioned by @samsteele, bread making slips into the artist side of cooking which is why those recipes will have measurements that are ranges. You need to play around and find what works best for you.

Cooking on the other hand is an art and when you get to let loose and follow your heart & tongue. Recipes are still needed (and in some cases like the InstantPot a necessity for things like timing!!) but can be used as a springboard. Your family HATES peas? Don't use them, maybe sub out for corn! You can't eat certain items due to food allergies (welcome to my world!) use items that are similar and go with the flow (i can't eat poultry but make several recipes with beef instead)

 

[Donald - my hero]

I'm a big fan of artisan bread baking with steve on youtube. Will try to link one of his video's below. If not allowed, then pls delete. Think others can simply google 'artisan bread baking steve youtube' and will find many of his easy video tutorials.

I've shared several youtube videos over the years and they've never been deleted! I welcome these kinds of posts, it's great to be able to actually WATCH how something should be turning out instead of trying to figure out the elusive "knead until soft" or "raise until double" or "cream butter until lighter"

I seriously doubt this thread will draw any attention from any of the moderators and if it does I'll be the one to hear!

 

[tinkerone]

I've shared several youtube videos over the years and they've never been deleted! I welcome these kinds of posts, it's great to be able to actually WATCH how something should be turning out instead of trying to figure out the elusive "knead until soft" or "raise until double" or "cream butter until lighter"

I seriously doubt this thread will draw any attention from any of the moderators and if it does I'll be the one to hear!

You should share your videos, if your comfortable. I watch a lot of food preparation videos and I am always looking for new ones.
By the way, I’m loving this thread.

 

[prairiesarah]

This is a great pizza dough recipe. I make it in my Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook.

https://www.chef-in-training.com/perfect-pizza-dough-recipe/#_a5y_p=1848245
I pretty liberally oil the pans and flip the dough as I'm pressing it out so both sides are oiled. It makes 4 large-ish individual pizzas. I actually made 3 last week, then took the last ball (had cut it into 4) and froze it. Mid week I needed something for myself for dinner and took it out thawed it for a bit with a little help from the microwave and it was pretty decent. Not as good as when it's fresh, but better than a lot of pre-made pizza crusts.

 

[Gigi22]

Just made Amy + Jacky’s Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup www.pressurecookrecipes.com/instant-pot-butternut-squash-soup/ for dinner. I followed their suggestions to first roast the squash and carrots, and browned the butter before sautéing the remaining veg, garlic and herbs. It was wonderful!

 

[Pinkgurlshubby]

I dusted off our bread machine today. First loaf I made had this huge air pocket on top, the whole length of the loaf. I've never had this happen before so I made another one and had the same results. I started questioning the yeast and remembered I had bought a new jar a few months ago so I went back into the pantry to look for it in case I was using old yeast when I found the brand new bag of bread flour. I had just opened the brand new bag of flour bread. Long story short my wife had bought a second bag of flour and I hadn't noticed. And of course I was using the wrong flour. For the record the loaf was really good. Most issues with bread machines is the bread is soggy and people give up on them. I stopped using ours when the new bakery opened up in town but since everyone is panicking and buying everything in sight the bakery has gotten busier and sells out as well as the grocery store so I decided to go back to making our own. Let's see how I do in a few days when I make some more.

 

[Gigi22]

I dusted off our bread machine today. First loaf I made had this huge air pocket on top, the whole length of the loaf. I've never had this happen before so I made another one and had the same results. I started questioning the yeast and remembered I had bought a new jar a few months ago so I went back into the pantry to look for it in case I was using old yeast when I found the brand new bag of bread flour. I had just opened the brand new bag of flour bread. Long story short my wife had bought a second bag of flour and I hadn't noticed. And of course I was using the wrong flour. For the record the loaf was really good. Most issues with bread machines is the bread is soggy and people give up on them. I stopped using ours when the new bakery opened up in town but since everyone is panicking and buying everything in sight the bakery has gotten busier and sells out as well as the grocery store so I decided to go back to making our own. Let's see how I do in a few days when I make some more.

Yeah, my plan is to bake more bread. I don’t want to brave going out to the grocery just for a loaf of bread, so I see a lot of bread machine use in my future! I do have a very nice recipe for cinnamon buns that I haven’t made for a while. A project for the weekend!

 

[Starwind]

I'm also planning on doing some baking. Bread {machine and oven, including some new recipes]. Muffins of a few different types. Good to have on hand anyway (my muffin stash is almost out!), and I figure even better for if the house gets sick - comfort food that is already made and just needs defrosting

 

[Donald - my hero]

Bread by the Duck! *** I don't have a bread machine so have no clue how to use one or what you need to use, I'll let others give tips of that

Few pointers about yeast - Keep the opened jar in the fridge and it should be good to go for 6 or more months.

You can find several different types of yeast in the grocery store, If you don't want to bother with "Proofing" or even dissolving it, grab the quick-rise or instant and just add it in with your dry ingredients - just like it sounds, it will take less time for your dough to rise .

Traditional Yeast, just a tad slower off the mark

You can use either in any recipe, just swap 1:1> If the recipe calls for "yeast" it's assuming the traditional, go ahead and use the rapid but DON'T dissolve it! If it calls for "instant/quick" and you only have traditional, go ahead but DO dissolve it first.
Trouble measuring it if you are using an old recipe that says __ of envelopes?



***Edited to add***
Since there seems to be a real shortage of every type of yeast EXCEPT Pizza yeast i think i need to point out what Fleischmann's has to say about pizza yeast specifically as well

DESCRIPTION
It’s easy to make great tasting homemade pizza
No rise time – just make and bake
Specially formulated to make it easy to roll or press out dough with no snapback
Make your crust any way you want it – thick, thin, whole wheat – endless possibilities
Not recommended for bread baking
Available in strips of three packets (0.75 oz.)
Gluten-Free

 

[Val56]

Bread recipes? You can't do much better than the white bread recipe in the Betty Crocker Cookbook. Easy, hard to screw up, and if you're ambitious try the Egg Bread recipe on the next page. I make a lot of bread, and these are my go-tos. If ya got a KitchenAid mixer, both can be made in it, but I usually hand knead for a couple of minutes after taking the dough out of the bowl. Good luck!

 

[Val56]

PS we made pasta for the first time today, after watching a couple of YouTube videos to see what the consistency should be. Easier than we expected.

 

[Donald - my hero]

You should share your videos, if your comfortable. I watch a lot of food preparation videos and I am always looking for new ones.
By the way, I’m loving this thread.

Oh hell-to-the-NO! That's not what i meant at all I share links for youtube videos ,here on the Disboards,that people might actually LIKE to watch, not me in my disasterzone, uhm kitchen, yeah my kitchen! These 4 pictures were taken on DIFFERENT days --I am a mess!

 

[juniorbugman]

Hey I have the same cutting boards. You probably got them from Canadian Tire and the canisters from Tupperware?

 

[samsteele]

Also have the same cutting boards. Great minds and all that

 

[Donald - my hero]

My FAVOURITE site for all things baking is
King Arthur Flour
I haven't had too many failures with their recipes and when i get stuck, they have excellent step-by-step blogs with pictures.
This is the first bread i tried from their site and haven't looked back! An easy to make, hard to screw-up, truly no-knead bread recipe. The recipe looks long, it's not really that hard, honest!!!

No-Knead Crusty White Bread

Servings: 3 or 4 loaves, depending on size - I've made them into bowls for stew or soup! no need to bake it all at once, fresh bread for several days!
Ingredients

• 7 1/2 cups (907g) All-Purpose Flour
• 3 cups (680g) lukewarm water (105 ° F)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons (14g) instant yeast or active dry yeast

Steps

1. The flour/liquid ratio is important in this recipe, so measure carefully. Your best bet is to weigh the flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess.
2. Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl, or a large (6-quart), food-safe plastic bucket.
3. Mix and stir everything together to make a very sticky, rough dough, just stir-stir-stir with a big spoon until everything is combined.
4. If you've made the dough in a bowl that's not at least 6-quart capacity, transfer it to a large bowl; it's going to rise a lot.
5. Cover the bowl or bucket, and let the dough rise at room temperature for 2 hours. Then refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, or for up to about 7 days. The longer you keep it in the fridge, the tangier it'll get; if you chill it for 7 days, it will taste like sourdough. Over the course of the first day or so, it'll rise, then fall. That's OK; that's what it's supposed to do.
6. When you're ready to make bread, sprinkle the top of the dough with flour; this will make it easier to grab a hunk. Grease your hands, and pull off about 1/4 to 1/3 of the dough — a 14-ounce to 19-ounce piece, if you have a scale. It'll be about the size of a softball, or a large grapefruit.
7. Plop the sticky dough onto a floured work surface, and round it into a ball, or a longer log. Don't fuss around trying to make it perfect; just do the best you can.
8. Place the loaf on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Sift a light coating of flour over the top; this will help keep the bread moist as it rests before baking.
9. Let the loaf warm to room temperature and rise; this should take about 60 minutes (or longer, up to a couple of hours, if your house is cool). It won't appear to rise upwards that much; rather, it'll seem to settle and expand.
10. Preheat your oven to 450°F while the loaf rests. Place a shallow metal or cast iron pan (not glass, Pyrex, or ceramic) on the lowest oven rack, and have 1 cup of hot water ready to go.
11. When you're ready to bake, take a sharp knife and slash the bread 2 or 3 times, making a cut about 1/2" deep. The bread may deflate a bit; that's OK, it'll pick right up in the hot oven.
12. Place the bread in the oven and carefully pour the 1 cup hot water into the shallow pan on the rack beneath. It'll bubble and steam; close the oven door quickly.
13. Bake the bread for 25 to 35 minutes, until it's a deep, golden brown.
14. Remove the bread from the oven, and cool it on a rack. Store leftover bread in a plastic bag at room temperature.

 

[samsteele]

This is the first bread i tried from their site and haven't looked back! An easy to make, hard to screw-up, truly no-knead bread recipe.

Will def have to try. Thanks so much for posting esp all the detail! Very much appreciated by many