You Are Invited

Jan 01, 2008 | From the kitchen of Rose in Announcements

I will be giving a lecture on flour and an angel food cake demo for the New York University Experimental Cuisine Collective on Thursday, January 17, 4 to 6 p.m. at NYU Washington Square Campus.

You are welcome to come but as space is limited, please RSVP Anne E. McBride and she will e-mail you the address.

aemcbride@gmail.com

Also do let me know as it will be great fun to meet those of you who are in the area and might be able to come!

P.S. There's no admission charge.

The Popcorn Diet

Jan 05, 2008 | From the kitchen of Rose in Savory Cooking

Personally, I don’t wait til New Year’s to do this diet but whenever the mood strikes all year long. It just seems like an appropriate time to post it!

Melt some unsalted butter—preferably clarified. I use 2 tablespoons. Pour it into a small spice or other glass jar and keep it warm. (Use a thermos or your imagination to keep it melted.)

Go the the movies at dinner time and order a small unbuttered popcorn. (In 99.9% of movie theaters so-called buttered popcorn is actually oiled popcorn and to be avoided at all aesthetic costs.

When you’re safely cradled in your seat in the darkened theater, carefully pour a little of the butter onto the popcorn. Slowly eat one popped kernel at-a-time. When you reach a level that no longer has any little pockets of butter pour a little more on top.

Consider this dinner and go to sleep shortly after the movie, before you realize that you might still be a little hungry.

Once a week and you may well have lost 5 pounds and gained some delicious movie memories.

P.S. The reason for the butter is the extra pleasure it gives to satiate hunger.

Update on the Spanish Cake Bible

Jan 09, 2008 | From the kitchen of Rose in Announcements

I've just learned that the Spanish edition of my book will be published Oct/Nov of this year (2008). Of course it will be available all over Spain but if you want to be able to purchase it in the US please post your comments on this blog and I will forward them to the publisher. This will motivate them to find a US distributor!

Don't Kiss Me in Public

Jan 12, 2008 | From the kitchen of Rose in Special Stories

I found this photo of me and my newphew Alex taken for my book Rose's Celebrations about 15 years ago! It wasn't the one used in the book so i had to photograph the photograph. but i couldn't resist sharing this with you. Those of you who have ever been a boy of 8, or had a boy of 8, or have a boy of 8 will find it quite familiar!

As Orange as it Gets

Jan 19, 2008 | From the kitchen of Rose in Recipes

I have a cousin, Peggy Samson, who flies to Spain every year to bring back Seville oranges to her home in London to make orange marmalade. If you live in the U.S., however, all you have to do is order from a Ca. company owned by Eric and Kim Christensen and appropriately named “Ripe to You”! www.ripetoyou.com or call 559-626-7917. These oranges are available now and will only be in season for about 2 months but they will keep refrigerated for several weeks.

Seville orange are also known as bitter oranges because they have an acidity level of about that of lemon. They offer the true orange flavor of a sourball candy and will give you the consistency of a perfect lemon curd, unlike that of other oranges which don’t thicken adequately. Don’t use the zest for the curd, however, as unless it is sweetened with tons of sugar as in a marmalade, it is undesirably bitter. Best to use naval oranges for the zest in the curd.

Note: weigh the yolks or measure them as you need the full amount to achieve the best texture.

Continue reading "As Orange as it Gets" »

Did You Know…?

Jan 26, 2008 | From the kitchen of Rose in Notes

I’ve decided to start a new posting that I will schedule every once in a while as I collect these helpful tidbits that professional bakers take for granted that might not occur to anyone to pass on to home bakers. Here is the first posting:

1) Convection ovens (other than most counter top models) need to be set about 25°F/15°C lower, i.e. to arrive at the equivalent temperature of 350°F/175°C set the oven at 325°F/160°C.

2) Honey and yeast: it’s best to use processed (supermarket) clover honey as other honey, especially raw honey, may have an antibacterial effect which kills the yeast. it’s fine to experiment as some other types of honey will work but make a small batch of dough in case it doesn’t.

3) Brown sugar: store it in a canning jar. If and when it becomes rock hard, all you need to do is to make a little foil cup, set it on top of the sugar, wet a paper towel and wring out the extra water. set it in the cup and screw on the lid. Within an hour it will start to soften and by the next day it will as soft as when you first bought it.

4) How to tell when a cake is baked: if your oven has a window watch toward the end of baking. The cake will lower visible in the pan and you’ll know it’s time to test for doneness.

Hector's Great Video Tape of My Lecture/Demo on Flour

Jan 31, 2008 | From the kitchen of Rose in Web Appearances

Hector has done a heroic and magnificent job of editing the video tape of my presentation on flour for the NYU Experimental Cuisine Collaborative. It was really a labor of love and he did it for all of you who could not be there and expressed regret at not being able to hear and see it. Now thanks to him you can do both. And thanks to Woody for manning the camera between prepping the cake samples--all those great zooms are his doing!

You can see the video file here: http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/RoseECC.mov (it's 150 MB, a very big download).

Photos and another copy of the same video are available on Hector's site: http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/ECC/index.html

Welcome to Real Baking with Rose, the personal blog of author Rose Levy Beranbaum.

Spend A Moment with Rose, in this video portrait by Ben Fink.

Heavenly Cake Bake Along

Hector's Take on Rose's Cakes