If you like to bake cheesecake (and we love to!), you know that a water bath, or bain-marie, keeps the cheesecake top from cracking.
If you’ve never used a bain-marie: All you have to do is set the springform pan into a roasting pan filled with warm water. As the cheesecake cooks, the moisture from the water protects the cheesecake from cracking.
Now for the real tip: No matter how good a springform you have, water from the water bath can leak in through the bottom while the cheesecake is baking, creating a soggy crust. To fix this problem, all you have to do is wrap the bottom of the springform in foil before putting it into the bain-marie.
Cheesecake perfected!
Here’s a fun fact: The water bath was originally invented by alchemists, who needed a way to heat their materials slowly and gently. The alchemists were trying to change base metals into gold and create an “elixir of longevity.”
Everyone can enjoy tasty, gluten-free
pasta dishes. Photo courtesy Caesar’s.
People with gluten intolerance can’t have regular (wheat) pasta. They need to find alternatives made from rice, potatoes and other starches.
What about people who want an Italian dinner?
Caesar’s Gluten Free & Wheat Free product line offers favorite pasta dishes in single serving entrées that taste just like wheat pasta. And they microwave in seven minutes.
We tried the manicotti, stuffed shells and vegetable lasagna.
The rice flour noodles pass nicely for al dente semolina pasta (rice flour noodles are delicious in their own right).
The ricotta filling is smooth and creamy.
All three entrées tasted pretty much the same—noodles, ricotta and marinara sauce; we’d be glad to eat any of them. The one thing we could wish for is more seasoning, but we added our own, alternating basil, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic, oregano, and were happy.
The products are available at grocery stores nationwide and at Amazon.com.
We’ve all made a pot of oversalted soup or stew. A classic kitchen trick is to add a thinly-sliced raw potato and let it sit to absorb some of the salt, until the slices become translucent.
If that doesn’t work for you, here are four more ideas, courtesy of the newest edition of the kitchen helper book, How To Repair Food:
Dilute the soup. Divide the contents into two pots and add more liquid—broth, water, tomato juice, etc.—until the soup tastes right.
Add canned tomatoes. If they work with the recipe, tomatoes and their liquid are sufficiently bland to absorb some of the saltiness.
Add some fresh lemon juice. The acid can counteract saltiness. You can use lime juice if it’s better for the recipe.
Add a few pinches of brown sugar. It won’t desalt the soup, but it may cover up the saltiness without over-sweetening the soup.
Discover the different types of soup in our Soup Glossary.
You can fix salty soup. Photo of bouillabaisse
courtesy MackenzieLtd.com.
If you didn’t find what you liked in our recent Halloween Candy feature, here’s more:
The scary images on these dark chocolate pavés (flat-topped squares) from Christopher Norman won’t frighten away chocoholics.
The luscious, creamy fillings will banish all fears:
The ghost contains wild berry dark chocolate ganache
The pumpkin holds peanut butter ganache made from both milk and dark chocolate
The devil is full of spicy apricot dark chocolate ganache
The black cat has a classic dark chocolate ganache.
This type of decoration is known as transfer, short for cocoa butter transfer. The designs are reproduced in colored cocoa butter on large sheets; then carefully transferred by hand to the top of each chocolate.
October 20, 2010 at 7:58 am
· Filed under The Nibble
Now that we’re into winter squash season, expand your use of squash beyond a dinner vegetable. Squash can be sauteed, steamed, oven roasted, grilled, mashed, puréed and made into soup.
But don’t overlook savory or sweet squash soufflé and squash pie (pumpkin is a squash, but you can make pies with butternut squash and other varieties). Add squash to stews and casseroles. Season it with your favorite spices (we like nutmeg and cinnamon) and fresh herbs. Make squash fries (like sweet potato fries).
Acorn and butternut squash are delicious vegetables that also can be puréed into a dip or hors d’oeuvre.
SQUASH DIP RECIPE
1. Bake or steam a 2-pound squash.
2. Place the flesh in a food processor with 1 tablespoon orange juice, 1 tablespoon butter, 1 teaspoon orange rind and 1/2 teaspoon allspice. Blend on high for one minute or until smooth.
3. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or more.
Autumn Comfort Mac & Cheese incorporates
butternut squash, pancetta, cavatappi and a
variety of cheeses. Photo courtesy Tillamook Cheese.
4. Spoon or pipe into vegetable chips (Terra Chips are excellent), potato chips or mushroom caps; or serve with crudités.
