I have been looking at these for years, but never made them until this month. I think watching the Great British Bake Off has emboldened me to try these fussier cookies. And they
are indeed fussy. The dough is a bit on the dry side and somewhat hard to work, and getting the two colors even is tricky at best. I think they look okay, but I wonder how many times they had to try them in order to get the perfect pictures in the book.
Then, I have to say the flavor was a little disappointing. I thought the chocolate would pop a lot more than it did. That could be the chocolate I used in the recipe, though, so your experience might be different.
All in all, fun, but not as amazing as I hoped.
Volume 3 includes the chicken section, and what a versatile ingredient for those who are eat meat. It also includes cheese, which as we have learned is a Midwestern staple. Put the two together and you have what Minnesotans call a hot dish.
dish for Hot Dish). We made it with two types of cheese – a medium cheddar and a mild cheese sort of like a Havarti – and it was just wonderful! I think you can vary the personality of this dish widely, depending on the cheese(s) you use. This one was going to a pot luck, by the way, hence the not very elegant presentation in the photo. I’m really not sure how people would feel if I insisted that they fix their plates and then let me photograph their food, haha.
Happy birthday to J (a few days ago) and also happy birthday to this blog! On this day, 5 years ago, I started this blog – my first one. I thought I should celebrate with cake! Now I have to admit the actual cake recipe is from another of my favorite vintage cookbooks, my mother’s copy of To the Bride. The filling and frosting are both from volume 3 of the Encyclopedia though. The filling is crème pâtissière from the Cremes and Custards section. Honestly, I thought I got it thick enough but you can see that once on the cake it definitely oozed down the sides. It is the most amazing tasting stuff, but not as stiff as needed. The icing is Semisweet Frosting from the Chocolate section. It was a good consistency and generally good but I think I should have gone with the bittersweet chocolate approach. For my first effort at Boston Cream pie completely from scratch, not bad, but not perfect either. This means I’ll just have to try again, right?
combo of ground pork and beef, instead of the beef only in the recipe. The sauce is basically brown gravy with vinegar, brown sugar, and soy sauce. Pickled pearl onions, added at the end of cooking, definitely take the whole thing in a new direction when you get a chunk into the mix. I think this is the original idea behind the recipe now often made with ketchup. This is both less sweet and less tangy, although you could add more brown sugar and vinegar to taste.
Teach One Feed One 