Beef Stew with Bean Paste (BRW)

• 1 1/2 pounds boneless beef sirloin, cut into 1-inch cubs
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons dark sesame oil
• 1 large potato, peeled and diced (I realized that all my potatoes had indeed gone bad.)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped (So I used extra carrots. Later, I've realized that the dish might have had better texture if the potato had been there. Oh well, it would probably be awesome to use boneless chicken thighs in here as Bittman suggests substituting.)
• 2 long fresh red chiles, 2 small fresh chiles, or hot red pepper flakes to taste (Not sure why I kept leaving out chiles on my grocery list.)
• 2 tablespoons go chu jang or dark miso, or to taste (I looked for the things myself at that Korean supermarket on Harvard Ave in Allston. Next time maybe I'll just ask the people who work there. Used some dark Miso from Whole Foods.)
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds for garnish (Damn, I did have sesame seeds on hand but just started eating anyway.)
• 2 tablespoons chopped scallion for garnish (Don't do garnishes apparently.)

Mise en place.


Carrots and onion sauteed in sesame oil. Potatoes probably would have released starches to thicken the sauce, but I didn't have any.


On some leftover brown rice from that Chickpea and Eggplant dish. I bought the smallest jar of kimchee because I didn't want to but TOO much, but I used a third of the jar here.
I'd make this again some day sure. With actual fresh chiles, potatoes, and chicken thighs.

Hot, Sweet, and Sour Chickpeas with Eggplant (HCEV)

• 2 tablespoons neutral oil, like grapeseed and corn (Rather save the grapeseed oil for MMB recipes and corn oil is another thing Michael Pollan has successfully made me feel queasy about. So peanut oil it is.)
• 1 medium eggplant, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 2 hot fresh chiles, seeded and minced, or hot red pepper flakes to taste (Used a couple orange habaneros since I love spiciness. Boy, did it hurt when I threw them in the saucepan. I had me, the roommate I was cooking with, and the roommate who had is door open near the kitchen coughing the whole night.)
• 1 sprig fresh curry leaves or dried leaves (Interestingly enough, the Indian supermarket in Central Square on Mass Ave only has fresh leaves and I had to get dried ones from my Indian co-worker last fall when I wanted to make my own curry powder. Too damned tired to drop in and buy some last night.)
• 3 cups black or regular chickpeas, with about 2 cups of their cooking liquid (Used regular here. Oh, Mark Bittman, if only I cared enough to execute this to your highest standards; most of the time I do pretty well.)
• 1 tablespoon Sambar Powder or curry powder (The recipe for Sambar Powder did sound compellingly interesting, but I had some above-mentioned curry powder left that I plan on throwing out in a couple weeks, as per some of Bittman's other advice.)
• 1 teaspoon ground tumeric
• Pinch of asafetida [optional] (I bought a tiny container of this about two years ago at world famous Kalustyan's in Manhattan's Little India. Didn't attempt to wrench open the container until last night. Sure, shit's optional, but Indian food won't taste the same without. Also if you live in Boston, there's no real excuse when there are Indian grocery stores everywhere.)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon tamarind paste or freshly squeezed lime juice to taste
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Chopped cilantro leaves for garnish (I rarely even lie to myself about garnishing anymore by buying fresh herbs. I left out the ingredient below as well.)
• Chopped roasted peanuts for garnish

Mise en place.


Threw the food back in the pan to mix the whole thing up with a splash of Staci Z's lite coconut milk. Going into shopping at the Whole Foods in Symphony, I had to wonder why coconut milk wasn't on the grocery list, and after actually making the dish, it so called out for a bit of richness.
Though sauteing chopped habeneros was a thoroughly intense experience, I thought the dish wasn't overwhelming and had a nice slow burn. Staci differed on this point.

Compost Cookies (MMB)

• 225 g butter, at room temperature (16 tablespoons [2 sticks])
• 200 g granulated sugar (1 cup)
• 150 g light brown sugar (1/4 cup tightly packed)
• 50 g glucose (2 tablespoons) ["In a pinch substitute 18 gram (1 tablespoon) corn syrup for the glucose." Maybe I'll buy glucose some day but I might as well use up this bottle of Karo corn syrup first.]
• 1 egg
• 2 g vanilla extract (1/2 teaspoon)
• 225 g flour (1 1/3 cups)
• 2 g baking powder (1/2 teaspoon)
• 1.5 g baking soda (1/4 teaspoon)
• 4 g kosher salt (1 teaspoon)
• 150 mg mini chocolate chip (3/4 cup)
• 100 g mini butterscotch chips (1/2 cup) [I just found normal butterscotch chips in my shopping.]
• 1/4 recipe Graham Crust (85 g [1/2 cup])
• 40 g old-fashioned rolled oats (1/3 cup)
• 5 g ground coffee (2 1/2 teaspoons)
• 50 g potato chips (2 cups) [Tosi says Cape Cod because they're sturdier than most. I bought some Kettle brand chips.]
• 50 g mini pretzels (1 cup) [The one thing I dislike about the authentic cookies. I just added 50 g more potato chips.]
  

The ever present European butter in my execution of Christina Tosi recipes.


Mini chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, Graham Crust, old-fashioned rolled oats, and ground single origin Columbian coffee from Monserrate, Huila.
I LOVE New York City's Think Coffee for their constantly rotating selection of single origin coffee. However, Christina Tosi says it really doesn't matter what you use as long as you haven't already used it (EW!) and it's not instant. At MMB, of course they use Stumptown.


Wait, no! We must have more junk food!


Ooh, potato chips. Played it safe and bought plain ones. Who needs to eat a cookie made with sour cream and onion chips?
At least not the first time around.


Stir until just incorporated.


Formed and ready for an hour chill-down in the fridge.


The first batch were a bit burnt, but they taste phenomenal. I sort of expected bigger notes of coffee. I turned the knob back a bit for the batch I'm pulling out in 30 seconds.
Yes, Helen S., I've gone back to white flour at least for cookies.

Graham Crust (MMB)

• 190 g graham cracker crumbs (1 1/2 cups)
• 20 g milk powder (1/4 cup)
• 25 g sugar (2 tablespoons
• 3 g kosher salt (3/4 teaspoon)
• 55 g butter, melted, or as needed (4 tablespoons [1/2 stick])
• 55 g heavy cream (1/4 cup)

Typically used as an actual graham cracker crust for such pies like Crack Pies (picture to follow), I threw this together tonight so that I had the component ready when I make Compost Cookies tomorrow (entry to follow, ha).
Threw a pinch in my month and it was pretty unbelievable. This blows the Keebler pre-made stuff out of the water. Yes, salt certainly gives sweet things depth and this clearly shows that.


No, I've never had the infamous crack pie (named thus-ly because apparently it's impossible to stop eating) since it never sounded totally my thing. However, I'll probably wind up making it up soon-ish to share with friends since it really is sort of ubiquitous for MMB.


The Arnold Palmer cake that didn't wind up collapsing.



Proof that actual slices were to be had this time around.

Shucking Oysters 1.0

Sick of having to pay through the nose for raw oysters in restaurants (generally $2.50 each though I know there are $1 nights), I decided to take the plunge and buy 3 Wellfleet oysters for under $4 at Whole Foods in Jamaica Plain. The fishmonger kindly showed me how to shuck and where the oyster knives where. I didn't get his name but he expects to hear back from me and tell him how it went.


And how did it go? I think I did a pretty good job for a first attempt.
Honestly, this was the first time in a long time that I had a raw oyster and didn't get a shell fragment in my mouth. I'll probably want to chill them more next time. I'll almost certainly do at least 1/2 dozen next time and bother to break down an actual lemon to squeeze over everything. I rock.

By the way, shucked oysters are typically served on a bed of kosher or rock salt to keep them from rolling around and spilling their delicious juices everywhere.

White Bean and Sage Tart with Quinoa Crust (HCEV)

• 1 tablespoon neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, plus more for greasing the pan [Decided that the particular cuisine of the variation I selected could certainly stand up to a bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. And it's just less messy to grease a pan with a wrapped stick of butter.]
• 1/2 cup quinoa
• salt
• 2 cups cooked or drained canned white beans [Cannellini struck me as a good choice. Even the name of the beans are Italian.]
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 1 small red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped [Mom gave me an orange one so who needs buying a slightly different pepper. It really doesn't matter THAT much unless you're attempting to substitute a significantly more bitter green bell pepper for the sweeter varieties. Or of course, vice versa.]
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary or thyme, or about 1/2 teaspoon dried [I was just about to vent about the fact that I forgot I somehow don't own dried rosemary and went "DOH" when I read the thyme part. I wound up using some Herbes de Provence. Decidedly not Italian, but at least it contains both of those herbs.]
• 3/4 cup cream, vegetable stock, bean-cooking liquid, or water [Used some chicken stock I had open in the fridge. I'm not a vegetarian; so, sue me.]
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup corn kernels (frozen are fine; don't bother to thaw)
• 3 egg yolks

Oh, quinoa, clearly it doesn't take much more than me trying to open the glass jar my roommate Staci Z keeps you in to propel you ALL OVER my work space.


Mise en place at this stage in the game.


The quinoa blackened long before I noted any golden-browning going on.


After reading Bittman's intro to the recipe again, I guess it would've been faster to drag out my food processor for the first time since moving at the end of January. Probably would've been easier to gauge consistency as well, but blenders are easier to clean.
Oh, while separating the yolks out for the dish, I unthinkingly cracked a whole egg into the blender. Managed to scoop most of the white out with my hands eventually. Thankfully this isn't a dish that is broken by traces of egg white (I think a recent MMB recipe I read stressed the importance of this but I forget which one by now).


First attempt at a tart. Cooked quinoa pressed into some odd tart pan I found in the cupboards. Isn't it supposed to be fluted from top to bottom?


Not much to be said about my presentation at this juncture.


My first bain-marie. Taking my definition from Epicurious.com this time because the Wiki just confused me:

The French call this cooking technique bain marie . It consists of placing a container (pan, bowl, soufflé dish, etc.) of food in a large, shallow pan of warm water, which surrounds the food with gentle heat. The food may be cooked in this manner either in an oven or on top of a range. This technique is designed to cook delicate dishes such as custards, sauces and savory mousses without breaking or curdling them. It can also be used to keep cooked foods warm.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com:80/tools/fooddictionary/entry/#ixzz1pubMMhTr

Looks more like a blob than a tart on the plate. Tastes pretty good. Maybe it'll firm up in the fridge a bit more.

Cornflake-Chocolate-Chip-Marshmallow Cookies (MMB)

Redoing the cookie featured in the last photo of this blog's maiden entry, hopefully executed better than last time. I know people enjoy crispy cookies, but I also know that these cookies should look like this:


So on with the show then. However, before we get to the main event, first we'll have to explore the component I have to bake first:

cornflake crunch
MAKES ABOUT 360 G (4 CUPS)

• 170 g cornflakes (1/2 [12-ounce] box [5 cups])
• 40 g milk powder (1/2 cup) [No need to drive yourself nuts looking for this. Even the Stop and Shop in Jackson Square has this. Much cheaper than Whole Foods or Harvest Co-op if I buy that big ass bag I saw.]
• 40 g sugar (3 tablespoons)
• 4 g kosher salt (1 teaspoon) [I don't think I've yet mentioned that kosher salt and "table salt" have different sodium contents and structure. Don't substitute one for another.]
• 130 g butter, melted (9 tablespoons)

Use the good stuff please when it comes to that last ingredient and baking Christina Tosi's recipes. I do.




Mise en place.


Christina Tosi says, "Put some in a plastic bag and take it on the go as the best snack ever", but it's her Milk Crunch (I'll come to this in a future entry when I bake her Blueberry and Cream cookies for the third time. Favorite cookie ever!) that makes me weak in the knees with desire. However, I admit it's quite good and the amount made that doesn't make it into the cookie I snack on liberally until it's inevitably gone.

cornflake-chocolate-chip-marshmallow cookies
MAKES 15 TO 20 COOKIES

• 225 g butter, at room temperature (16 tablespoons [2 sticks])
• 250 g granulated sugar (1 1/4 cups)
• 150 g light brown sugar (1/4 cup tightly packed)
• 1 egg
• 2 g vanilla extract (1/2 teaspoon)
• 240 g flour (1 1/2 cups) [A discourse on the subject of flour to follow this ingredients list.]
• 2 g baking powder (1/2 teaspoon)
• 1.5 g baking soda (1/4 teaspoon)
• 5 g kosher salt (1 1/4 teaspoons)
• 3/4 recipe Cornflake Crunch (270 g [3 cups])
• 125 g mini chocolate chips (1/4 cups) [This and the mini marshmallows below are important to use to get a little bit of each in every bite.]
• 65 g mini marshmallows (1 1/4 cups) [Briefly imagining myself making marshmallows from scratch someday. It's a fairly reasonable process for a home cook, but... Who knows.)

Recently I developed a strong guilt about eating white flour. I look at some coworkers' lunches and all the stuff I used to feel okay eating every day (The rules go out the window when I occasionally indulge my guilty pleasures: Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC...) and all I see are GIGANTIC ZEROES. Oh Michael Pollan I love you and all, but now I feel bad about all sorts of things.
I may just have to break down and buy another bag of white flour after I saw the first batch come out of the oven.


Butter and sugar measured out by weight with my trusty Cuisineart digital scale I bought at TJ Maxx in Downtown Crossing a few months back. Also they are in my stand mixer's bowl for the 10-minute creaming process. Don't even bother with anything less; sorry, Elise V.


The result of 10 minutes in a powerful machine plus a free-range egg and vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredient on low just until they come together. Tosi strongly urges that you don't walk away at this juncture. She says it does not take any longer than a minute, but from my experience it's more like 15 seconds.
A cookie is not a place for gluten-development, folks.


Cornflakes! Marshmallows! Chocolate Chips! Raw cookie dough!
A younger Christina Tosi wouldn't have bothered with the whole baking thing. Her grandmothers didn't restrict the dough eating until the day she really overdid it according to legend.


Oh please oh please I hope you turn out right this time...


One hour chilldown in the fridge before baking or they won't retain their shape while baking. Maybe they won't anyway. Blargh.


Cookies spaced far apart enough for spreading.


Temperature right at 375 degree F. For the moment


Is this the second or third batch? I guess it doesn't really matter since I failed on both.


Oh, the temperature climbed to 400 degrees. That's lovely... Not.


Pulled it back to 360 and the baking time from 18 minutes to 15 minutes.


Was this round a moderate success? Oh let me go and eat one since they're probably done cooling...

Mung Bean Dal with Apples, Coconut, and Mint (HCEV)

• 1 1/2 cups dried mung beans, washed, picked over, and soaked if you like ("Other beans you can use: pigeon or black-eyed peas or chickpeas, cooked for up to an hour longer." I used black-eyed peas today because I proved to be too lazy to go to Chinatown.)
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 2 medium green apples, cored, peeled, and chopped
• 2 tablespoons peeled and minced fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• Pinch ground tumeric (optional)
• 2 cups coconut milk, either made from scratch, or canned (use 1 can, slightly less than 2 cups, with a little water)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, or to taste
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1/2 cup sliced scallion (Whoops, it didn't make it on the list, but I was fine.)
• Juice of 1 lime

Mise en place.


Finished product and Mark Bittman's forward to the piece was quite true:
"Many dals rely on deep flavors, but here's an example of how fresh, bright ingredients can set off the natural heaviness of beans. The result is a hearty dish that manages to be refreshing, even in summer."

Some funny cartoons about some of my idols in the brand-new Lucky Peach Issue 3 that Momofuku through McSweeney's just put out (Arnold Palmer Cake came from Issue 2):


It's sooo true that all her creations are basically like this.


It is true that Mark Bittman is vegan until dinner. I'm more suspicious of the post-11 pm claim.

Momofuku Pork Buns

Typed up these recipes for Karen M. to execute for the Ramen party she is kindly hosting for me next month. I'll be making the pork belly as well for the Ramen, but if Karen needs any help with this steamed buns (Karen, you can probably buy these at Super 88, too.) I can probably squeeze it into my prep schedule.
In any case David Chang's pork buns are served at all his restaurants: Noodle Bar, Ssam Bar, Milk Bar, Ma Peche, nearly brand-new Booker and Dax, and I have to believe they must have them at tasting menu, on live reservation only, single daily seating Ko (probably one of the top 5 most difficult to get into NYC restaurants). I've had them only a couple times, but they are quite good.

Also, hopefully, I'll have a guest entry from Karen when the event nears.



momofuku pork buns serves 1
(from Momofuku)

• 1 Steamed Bun (recipe to follow)
  
• About 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 3 or 4 slices Quick-Pickled Cucumbers
• 3 thick slices Pork Belly
• 1 scant tablespoon thinly sliced scallion (green and white)
• Sriracha, for serving

1. Heat the bun in a steamer on the stovetop. It should be hot to the touch, which will take almost no time with just-made buns and 2 to 3 minutes with frozen buns.
2. Grab the bun from the steamer and flop it open on a plate. Slater the inside with the hoisin sauce, using a pastry brush or the back of a spoon. Arrange the pickles on one side of the fold in the bun and the slice of pork belly on the other. Scatter the belly and pickles with sliced scallion, fold closed, and voilà: pork bun. Serve with sriracha.

steamed buns makes 50 buns

"Okay, fifty buns is a lot of buns. But the buns keep in the freezer for months and months without losing any quality, and if you cut the recipe down any more than this, there's barely enough stuff in the bowl of the mixer for the dough hook to pick up. So clear out a couple hours and some space in the freezer and get to work."

• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups water, at room temperature
• 4 1/2 cups bread flour
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• Rounded 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup rendered pork fat or vegetable shortening, at room temperature, plus more for shaping the buns, as needed

1. Combine the yeast and the water in the bowl of a stand mixer outfitted with the dough hook. Add the flour, sugar, milk powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and fat and mix on the lowest speed possible, just above a stir, for 8 to 10 minutes. The dough should gather together into a neat, not-too-tacky ball on the hook. When it does, lightly oil a medium mixing bowl, put the dough in it, and cover the bowel with a dry kitchen towel. Put it in a turned off oven with a pilot light or other warmish place and let rise until the dough doubles in bulk, about 1 hour 15 minutes.
2. Punch the dough down and turn it out onto a clean work surface. Using a bench scraper or a knife, divide the dough in half, then divide each half into 5 equal pieces. Gently roll the pieces into logs, then cut each log into 5 pieces, making 50 pieces total. They should be about the size of a Ping-Pong ball and weigh about 25 grams, or a smidge under an ounce. Roll each piece into a ball. Cover the armada of little dough balls with a draping of plastic wrap and allow them to rest and rise for 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, cut out fifty 4-inch squares of parchment paper. Coat a chopstick with whatever fat you're working with.
4. Flatten one ball with the palm of your hand then use a rolling pin to roll it out into a 4-inch-long oval. Lay the greased chopstick across the medium of the oval and fold the oval over onto itself to form the bun shape. Withdraw the chopstick, leaving the bun folded, and put the bun on a square of parchment paper. Stick it back under the plastic wrap (or a dry kitchen towel) and form the rest of the buns. Let the buns rest for 30 to 45 minutes: they will rise a little.
5. Set up a steamer on the stove. Working in batches so you don't crowd the steamer, steam the buns on the parchment squares for 10 minutes. Remove the parchment. You can use the buns immediately (reheat them for a minute or so in the steamer if necessary) or allow to cool completely, then seal in plastic freezer bags and freeze for up to a few months. Reheat frozen buns in a stovetop steamer for 2 to 3 minutes, until puffy, soft, and warmed all the way through

pork belly for ramen, pork buns, & just about anything else

MAKES ENOUGH PORK BUNS FOR 6 TO 8 BOWLS OF RAMEN OR ABOUT 12 PORK BUNS

• One 3-pound slab skinless pork belly
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 1/4 cup sugar

1. Nestle the belly into a roasting pan or other oven-safe vessel that holds it snugly. Mix together the salt and sugar in a small bowl and rub the mix all over the meat; discard any excess salt-and-sugar mixture. Cover the container with plastic wrap and put it into the fridge for at least 6 hours, but no longer than 24.
2. Heat the oven to 450˚F.
3. Discard any liquid that accumulated in the container. Put the belly in the oven, fat side up, and cook for 1 hour, basting it with the render fat at the halfway point, until it's an appetizing golden brown.
4. Turn the oven temperature down to 250˚F and cook until the belly is tender--it shouldn't be falling apart, but it should have a down pillow-like yield to a firm finger poke. Remove the pan from the oven and the mea juices from the pan and reserve (I'm guessing this is the fat one would use in making the steamed buns.). Allow the belly to cool slightly.
5. When it's cool enough to handle, wrap the belly in plastic wrap or aluminum foil and put it in the fridge until it's thoroughly chilled and firm. (You can skip this step if you're pressed for time, but the only way to get neat, nice-looking slices is to chill the belly thoroughly before slicing it.)
6. Cut the pork belly in to 1/2-inch-thick slices that are about 2 inches long. Warm them for serving in a pan over medium heat, just for a minute or two, until they are jiggly soft and heated through. Use at once.

quick salt pickles, master recipe
MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS

Halve or double the recipe as needed.

• Vegetable, prepared as indicated
• 1 tablespoon sugar, or more to taste
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste

1. Combine the vegetable with the sugar and salt in a small mixing bowl and toss to coat with the sugar and salt. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Taste: if the pickles are too sweet or too salty, put them into a colander, rinse off the seasoning and dry in a kitchen towel. Taste again and add more sugar or salt as needed. Serve after 5 to 10 minutes, or refrigerate for up to 4 hours.

quick-pickled cucumbers: 2 meaty kirby cucumbers, cut into 1/4-inch-thick disks.

Arnold Palmer Cake: Part Three

Lemon Tea Cake

• 115 g (8 T) butter (preferably Plugrà) [See my note on this topic in my 3/10/12 entry]
• 300 g (1 1/2 C) sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 65 g (1/3 C) grapeseed oil
• 110 g (1/2 C) buttermilk¹
• 70 g (1/4 C) lemon juice
• 4 g (1 t) lemon extract (Whole Foods and Harvest Co-Op in Central appeared to only have alcohol-free lemon flavoring.)
• 185 g (1 1/2 C) cake flour
• 20 g (9 bags) Lipton black tea leaves
• 4 g (1 t) baking powder
• 4 g (1 t) kosher salt

Mise en place


Cake batter ready to go into a 350° F oven for thirty minutes. I think I've used my stand mixer so much in a little over a month that at least a couple weeks ago I've thrown the tilt of the head out of alignment; therefore, the cake isn't 100% homogenized but it's easy to hide.
Finally bothered to twist the screw clockwise a tad after this though.


And 30 minutes passes.


Stamping out the cake rings. Lesson learned this time is that it's useful to stamp out parts of the circle instead of doing my best to try to stamp out two complete circles from a quarter-sheet pan.


Tosi says to use scraps to build the bottom layer of the cake that no one will ever see... Unless of course your entire cake collapses in on itself as it did on my trial run on Sunday. Oh, I tried to be careful, but certainly I wasn't careful enough. "Judy, please pack your knives and go," Padma Lakshmi as if I'd ever be cooking at such the high, hyper-restaurant-paced level that puts you in the running on Top Chef.


A cake layer smeared with lemon mascarpone. Essentially, it's lemon curd lightened up (I think that's the turn for it...) with a bit of mascarpone, an Italian cheese often associated with tiramisu.


The non"pectic-nh" pectin I used this time was not at all quite as successful as when I used the Ball brand pectin at the TAGS hardware store in Porter. Hopefully this doesn't lead to obvious architectural failure when this cake is served two Saturdays from now, but HEY!, I didn't break any layers so far!


What... I don't break any layers at all?!

Yes of course I see the crack, but a crack is not a full break.


All composed and with just a bit of a saran wrap and ready for a 2-week hibernation in the freezer.


Trial run cake before it collapsed. Looks an awful lot like the professional version except a little crooked as I'll never let Joe A. finish saying.


So far I haven't served an actual "slice" of this to anyone. This is what remained after composing the trial run cake. Good lord, I can just see how stupidly convenient it is to make a cake from a box and just ice it with canned frosting, but it makes my skin crawl.
Hopefully I can offer actual slices to my family on March 24th.

¹Excerpts from the Wiki for Buttermilk:

Originally, buttermilk was the liquid left over from churning butter from cream. Traditionally, before cream could be skimmed from whole milk, the milk was left to sit for a period of time to allow the cream and milk to separate. During this time, naturally occurring lactic acid-producing bacteria in the milk fermented it. This facilitates the butter churning process, since fat from cream with a lower pH coalesces more readily than that of fresh cream. The acidic environment also helps prevent potentially harmful microorganisms from growing, increasing shelf-life. However, in establishments that used cream separators, the cream was hardly acidic at all.

Commercially available cultured buttermilk is milk that has been pasteurized and homogenized (if 1% or 2% fat), and then inoculated with a culture of lactic acid bacteria to simulate the naturally occurring bacteria in the old-fashioned product. Some dairies add colored flecks of butter to cultured buttermilk to simulate residual flecks of butter that can be left over from the churning process of traditional buttermilk.

Condensed buttermilk and Dried buttermilk have increased in importance in the food industry.

And what does all the food literature I've read have to say on the topic? Well, that buttermilk in the dairy case is certainly not real buttermilk and since the stuff is used so sparingly I wouldn't buy the stuff. Different authorities support the use of clabbered milk (milk mixed with a bit of lemon juice or white vinegar and left to get lumpy) or powdered buttermilk which is found in the baking aisle of most conventional supermarkets. I'll go with the dried stuff, particularly when baking, but take note to add the buttermilk powder with the other dry ingredients and the reconstituting water with the wet.