Yesterday my review for the book that inspired my Bookish Bakes posts posted, The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Verant. I love reading about food because it gives me so many ideas. In this book, chef Sophie has traveled from NYC where her dreams went up in flames back to her family’s chateau in France, which her grandmere Odette has transformed into two restaurants and a hotel. There, she rediscovers her love of food and finds a new purpose, all while making Odette’s favorite dessert, creme brulee. So, of course, I had to make creme brulee for this Bookish Bakes post. Never mind I’ve never eaten one, much…
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Bookish Bakes: Lemon Meringue Cake
On Monday I posted a picture of a slice of this cake accompanying my Kindle featuring my then current read The Baron of Magister Valley by Steven Brust, so I thought I’d share my ratio recipe for the lemon meringue pie. If you give me a choice between cake and pie, I’ll almost always pick cake. For whatever reason, pie is not one of my favorite things. Once in a while I crave a chocolate pie or, if it’s the fall, I’ll opt for one or two pumpkin pies. Very rarely will I pick a lemon meringue pie, though I would agree they’re quite tasty, especially if you like lemons. So,…
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Adventures in Ratio Baking: Turning Custard Into Pudding
So, a while ago, one of my bloggy friends (hi, Lisa!) asked something about pudding. I didn’t have an answer then about the difference between custard and pudding as they sound a lot alike. Since then, I’ve ended up with egg yolks on my hands and no good idea of what to use them for. I decided to finally look into what, exactly, pudding is. It’s so simple it almost made me want to roll my eyes. Add a thickener, like flour or cornstarch, and you get pudding. Yes, that’s right. Pudding is little more than custard with a bit of starch mixed in (the eggs are actually optional though…
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Basic Ingredients for Custard, Biscuits, and Muffins/Quick Breads
Some time ago, I shared lists for the basic ingredients for cakes, cookies, and bread. That was really some time ago. About a year ago, actually. I’ve done much more baking since then, wandering into the realms of custard, biscuits, and muffins. As this posts, the world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic, and, for whatever reason, people are stress baking. Eggs and flour are difficult to find. I haven’t asked my husband to pick up butter yet as I, a baker at heart, always keep plenty on hand, so I don’t know if they’re as hot a commodity as other things. Like toilet paper. Oh, the toilet paper jokes… So, if…
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5 Things You Can Bake Without Planning
Short on time or baking at the spur of the moment? These 5 things are perfect choices! For years, whenever I wanted to bake, I had to plan for it. I had to make sure I had my recipe and all the ingredients I would need, and remember to let the eggs come to room temperature and the butter soften. When I started ratio baking last year, I realized that, as long as I kept my basic baking ingredients stocked, I really did have everything I needed to bake. Not having to use a recipe has been freeing, but, when I do want to try something a little different I…
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Adventures in Ratio Baking: Custard or Ice Cream?
A few weeks ago, it was cold. Well, cold for Southern California, meaning it was somewhere in the 70s. But I still got the insane idea to make ice cream. Now, it’s been well over a year since I’d used my ice cream maker, so I’m not quite sure why the idea to use it popped into my head. Well, maybe it’s because I was a bit caught up in making custard and I know custard can be used to make ice cream. When my husband and I were traveling across the county almost a decade ago, we stayed for a bit of time in the Midwest with one of…
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Toasted Coconut Custard
A few weeks ago, I discovered a can of coconut milk sitting in the cabinet, about to expire. I hate wasting things, so my mind started whirling about what I could do with it. Coconut cake! It was nearly perfect. I’m still tweaking it, so, one day, in the next few months, I’ll share that recipe. Anyways, after making the coconut cake, I discovered I still had coconut flakes left over. I spent days pondering what to do with it. I started thinking about toasting it and making it part of a trail mix, but then I started wondering if I could ratio bake something else and use up some…
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Adventures in Ratio Baking: Pie Ratio Plus Custard Ratio Equals Chocolate Pie
About a year after starting ratio baking, I’m finally at a point where I can combine ratios. Quite frankly, I was kind of counting down to this day. How amazing would it be if I could made a dessert using just ratios? Well, it finally happened. Last year, I tried the ratios for making pie dough and custard with the goal of making a chocolate custard pie. Now, I’m not adverse to eating a whole pie, but, most of the time, I just want a slice. I’m not that much of a pie eater. At some point last year, I decided to pick up some mini cake tins, and then I kept…
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A Year of Adventures in Ratio Baking
About a year ago, I got it into my head that I’d like a kitchen scale and I’d like to figure out ratio baking. The Husband got me a kitchen scale for Christmas, probably because I wouldn’t shut up about it, and then my brain panicked because it meant I should actually use it. I spent the first few weeks of the year thinking about it, thinking of taking the scale out of the cabinet and making something. I wasn’t quite sure of what to make, and I froze again. Then I decided I wanted cake, and the cake ratio looked simple (1:1:1:1 flour to sugar to eggs to butter)…
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Adventures in Ratio Baking: Let’s Try Custard Again
A few weeks ago, I tried making custard using it’s ratio of 2:1 dairy to eggs. Since it just says dairy, and since I just happened to have a can of sweetened condensed milk sitting around doing nothing, I thought, well, why not? Turns out there’s a reason why I’ve never seen a custard recipe use sweetened condensed milk. It’s thick! And super sweet. Last week I decided it was time to try again. The right way. With actual dairy. And I mean using milk. Just milk and eggs, and, of course, cocoa powder because chocolate. Everything is better with chocolate. Well, that’s a lie. I wouldn’t want chocolate on…
