Category: Uncategorized
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The Ultimate Ice Cream Recipe(s)
I have long promised to write up my Ultimate Ice Cream Recipe and all the myriad variations. The ice cream recipes here can be made in an ice cream machine (recommended if you make a lot of ice cream, they’re pretty great!) or in a food processor. I’ve tried all sorts of recipes, and the…
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Flour, Sugar, Cocoa Volume-to-Weight Conversions
Too many baking recipes have volume instead of weights for the dry ingredients! (I’m looking at you, Irma Rombauer…) But for best consistency (in terms of repeatability) and consistency (in terms of batter thickness) it is best to use weights. I have had these written down in various places, but really, they would be more…
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Becky’s Favorite Turkey Gravy with Roast Drippings
I’ve been making turkey gravy with roast drippings as long as I’ve been making my roast turkey. And I’ve never written down the recipe … until now! Warning: to get this right, this is a multi-day affair, starting with making turkey stock from the turkey neck and other bits that don’t get brined with the rest…
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Apple Pie
I’ve been working on a satisfactory apple pie recipe for years, and never came up with anything … well, better than a “replacement pie”. This Christmas, I tried a new crust and a new filling, and it was pretty good! And then when my sister texted me asking if I had blogged the recipe, I…
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Sam’s Favorite Red Velvet Cupcakes
Sam’s favorite color is red, so he’s naturally (or is that unnaturally?) predisposed to liking red velvet cupcakes. So when he asked for red velvet cupcakes for his third birthday, I wasn’t surprised. But I wanted to make them good! Even if I had to use red food coloring… To find a good recipe, I…
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The Best Whole-Wheat Bread-Machine Sandwich Bread
Our son is just like I was at his age: the only thing he will eat for lunch is a PB&J sandwich. We use natural crunchy peanut butter (Trader Joe’s is the best), and good quality strawberry jam. But the bread is the most important part. While the No-Kneed Bread makes delicious bread, it’s not good sandwich…
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Gingerbread with Fresh Ginger
I’ve tried many gingerbread recipes. I’ve settled on a slight variation on this one. It’s the perfect amount to make two 9″x13″ baking sheets, suitable for the 5″x7″x8″ house in my Complete Guide. For best results, you should make the gingerbread dough on one day, refrigerate it overnight, and roll and bake it the next day. You’ll want…
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The Complete Guide to Building a Gingerbread House
When I was a young lad, my mom made a gingerbread house every December, and I loved helping to decorate it. A few years ago, right after Sam was born, I revived the tradition. (I wanted to have a track record of building them so the first one when Sam was aware of what was going…
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Gingerbread House Royal Icing
The final component to a gingerbread house is the royal icing. This is literally the glue that holds everything together. My favorite royal icing recipe is adapted from here. It uses cream of tartar, which apparently has some magical property to help stabilize the egg whites (along with being the other half of baking powder). It really…
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Gingerbread House Stained Glass Windows
This was the first year that I tried to make stained glass windows for the gingerbread house. And it was a lot easier than I had feared … and they look great! I used a variation on this stained glass recipe. They’ve gone through all the trouble over many years perfecting the method. Fantastic! Gingerbread House…