Man, that looks great Malkav and Christien. I wish I were in Spain, waiting for that bread. I could use it to mop up those Singapore-style noodles.
nKoan
3222
Because that’s where the rain mostly falls on the plains when you ride the train.
My girlfriend is on a business trip to Spain. Whenever she goes to visit these groups she takes baked goods as a sort of gesture of goodwill. I’m the baker.
Two loaves went this time. I’m worried about them getting through customs and whatnot, which is probably silly, but still, waiting to hear.
-xtien
Everyone knows the file is baked into a cake!
Malkav, I always enjoy your posts. Someday, when I buy a cookbook again, I’m buying every single one that you use :)
My parents visited last weekend. Among other things, mom and I cooked two fruit quickbreads. Specifically, Cranberry-Orange-Walnut and Banana-Pecan.
The recipes (particularly the banana bread) are pretty heavily tweaked from some stuff I found online. Both turned out fabulously. The banana bread’s far and away moister, but I just can’t get enough of the cranberry-orange!
The cranberry-orange is glazed with an orange-infused icing, while the banana bread’s actually modified from a vegan recipe and uses no eggs at all (though I did opt to use some plain Greek yogurt I had around for this batch instead of the coconut milk yogurt I used when baking for a vegan friend a couple of weeks back).
If anyone’s interested, the recipes are here.
I’m going to try to make my first cheesecake tomorrow. I would appreciate any and all advice/tips from those who have done this before.
I plan to follow this method/recipe, although I have a spring-form pan, and not a solid pan. It’s this pan, but I still may use some aluminum foil as insurance.
Anyway, tips and advice are welcome!
-xtien
These are really minor, nitpicky things, but represent some of my frustrations from recent attempts.
If you put stuff into the cheesecake, give it a quick toss in flour (or your standard preferred dietary substitute), like you would for other kinds of cakes/quickbreads. Will help keep it from sinking to the bottom while it bakes.
Know your oven well and position it for even cooking. Getting the middle properly set (and not runny) without overly darkening the edges is already sort of obnoxiously hard (at least w/ the recipes I’ve used), so don’t make it harder on yourself by sticking half the cheesecake into your preternaturally hot rear-right-corner or whatever.
Aside from that kinda really minor stuff, it’s honestly not bad, and even a “screwed up” cheesecake with cracks or sunken fillings or too-golden-edges is still frigging delicious.
RichVR
3228
The best repair for cracking is covering the cheesecake with cherries or some other fruit. Cracks do not affect flavor. :) Oh Alton’s sour cream cheesecake. I made it once. Heavenly.
nKoan
3229
If anyone complains about cracks in cheesecake, take their slice away and give it to me.
Alton Brown’s crust treatment and baking method seem pretty busy to me, but he’s generally reliable.
Do not make it with pumpkin. Pumpkin cheesecake is neither fish nor fowl. Yes, yes, I know no one has mentioned pumpkin yet, but it’s important to get that out there.
I have one of those Nordic Ware spring form pans, and it worked AOK. Made unpacking the cheesecake very easy.
RichVR
3231
Yeah Alton is very detail oriented. And one might want to cut corners. Just this once, don’t. Trust me. I say this about Mario Batali’s Artichoke Pie as well. Sometimes the best stuff is worth the work.
In total agreement about pumpkin. Pumpkin essentially has no flavor of its own. If you want something pumpkin pieish, just use pumpkin spices in the cheesecake.
I made this but it didn’t look as good as yours, malkav. I found an adapted recipe from the same book and it had rice noodles. It was tasty and the kids liked it, though. Next time, I’m just using pasta noodles.
I won’t be putting any stuff into it. I’m going for the standard model since this is my first time and it’s a birthday cake I promised to learn to make a couple of years ago. I’ve been weirdly afraid to try it.
Know your oven well and position it for even cooking.
This may be the most difficult part (well, that and trying to remember where I put the paddle attachment for my mixer). I know my oven pretty well, but cheesecake strikes me as less forgiving than banana bread and brownies and casseroles.
Thank you, Armando.
-xtien
Thank you so much for this report, Courteous D. I’m nervous about the water bath thing and folks seem to go on about that with other pans. I’m happy to know this one worked for you.
-xtien
Thank you for this admonition, RichVR. As well as for your testimonial to trying this and it working out that you posted above. I needed that. I’m assiduous in following recipe directions, sometimes to my detriment (that is, sometimes it hinders my improvisation as a cook), so I appreciate the reinforcement.
-xtien
Oh. And I have no intention of introducing pumpkin to this party.
-xtien
I used rice noodles, FWIW. Guilin brand Rice Vermicelli. It was right next to another product that I’d always assumed was some sort of weird decoration because it was a mass of vibrant clear pink strands but is apparently also some sort of rice noodle.
Really? Holy cow. The ones I got where puffy and white. When I mixed them in, it turned into a sort of gelatinous mass of sesame. I have a picture somewhere. It looks (and sounds) worse that it tastes. I’m glad you told me that about Guilin brand. It’s much better looking!
Downside of “rice noodles” in a recipe is that it’s exceedingly vague compared to the variety available. Just short of referring to adding “pasta” to a lasagna and hoping your audience figures out what kind you mean!
From flat and broad to skinny and round, long and short, etc., there’s a ton of different kinds. Recipes that recommend a brand, style, or even just straight up give you some Asian characters to search for in the market are few and far between, but very valuable for this kinda stuff.
. . . says a guy who may or may not have basically ruined his first pad thai ever with entirely the wrong kind of “rice stick.”
The recipe I used specified “dried rice vermicelli” or I would probably have been lost.
