a little OT, but PlutoTV added a Julia Child channel, which Stu & I have been watching a lot.
We want to create a Julia Child drinking game, w/ items like “eats a dollop before the item is finished” (not tasting it, but good ole chowing down), “brings out a big glass cut with heavy cream”, “drinks wine while cooking”, “makes a dismissive remark about vegetarians”… that sort of thing.
One thing she said that cracked us up (some pastry thing), “What if you’re on a diet? Well, that’s too bad…”
My nieces and nephews demolish the gingerbread house every Christmas Eve. They are consuming plenty of Royal icing! And the adults all get some too. Although due to one nephew’s nut allergy, we are severely limited in candy options, but Skittles and Nerds are safe and copious quantities are used. Since Skittles and Nerds are not the best flavor combos with gingerbread, adults mostly take small helpings. But we all end up eating some.
I think the icing tastes fine, BTW, though my mother would agree with you.
The flavor is okay. But the texture resembles concrete.
Huh, I don’t recall ever using anything with nuts in a gingerbread house. Not because of an allergy, just because we didn’t care for nuts. We relied heavily on gumdrops and non-pareils, and necco wafers – the latter two being shaped somewhat like nice shingles. Oh, and candy canes for accents.
Well no, not nuts per se. But when I was a kid I certainly used plain M&Ms and Kit Kat & Twix bars and chocolate covered pretzels… none of which have nuts as an ingredient, but all of which are made in facilities / on equipment that handles nuts and could therefore kill my nephew.
This is also partly why I got into making ice cream. There are very few kinds of store-bought ice cream that he can have, and the ones that are safe are mostly not that great. (Store-brand vanilla made with artificial vanilla flavoring, for example.)
If you want decent-quality ice cream at a family event, it has to be homemade.
That said, a local gourmet ice cream outfit has changed their cleaning process and re-ordered their batches so that a bunch of flavors are made before the first nut-based flavor. So while he still can’t get their ice cream in a scoop shop as the scoop and opened carton would be contaminated, there are now certain flavors that my brother & SIL can buy in the “take home” section and serve. More expensive, but non-lethal and better tasting than the artificially flavored store-brand.
I seem to remember seeing somewhere that the riskier part of raw cookie dough is the raw flour. Eggs these days are pretty clean.
There was an issue recently with some raw flour infected with something unpleasant. There was a recall, and I had a different brand is all I really remember.
I agree. I love eating it. But, I’m done with the tempering of the eggs. last time I did it, it just took too long and it’s very high-maintenance. The real vanilla makes it yum.
For family events I make a brown sugar vanilla bean. Great with any kind of cake/pie or by itself.
If I’m making ice cream just to eat by itself then honey lavender.
Wow, I have no clue what brand of flour I have. I buy whichever unbleached flour is cheapest… usually the store brand, but sometimes a fancy-pants brand if it’s on sale or I have a coupon that I actually remember to use (a rare occurrence but it’s happened). If it got recalled two months later after I’d transferred it from the paper wrap into the plastic flour bin, I’d have no way to know if that’s what I had or not.
I usually buy King Arthur, except for cake flour, where I usually buy Swansdown. When I don’t buy those brands, I tend to remember that I bought a different brand.
My regular supermarket doesn’t have a store-brand for flour. The place I started going during covid (better ventilation, no one-way signs) does have a store brand, but I don’t think I’ve tried it.
Yeah, I suppose if it was Swansdown cake flour I’d know that’s what I have… is there even another brand of cake flour?
But for all purpose flour or bread flour… sometimes store brand, sometimes King Arthur, sometimes Gold Medal, sometimes the store’s organic brand, occasionally Pillsbury, probably not ever Bob’s Red Mill anymore (I used to buy it at Bob’s Red Mill when I lived in Oregon but it’s expensive here and I don’t really notice the difference), and it seems like there’s another fancy brand that I occasionally get coupons for in the mail. It’s got a flower in the name, but I can’t recall the name. I just remember chuckling about flower / flour. Except the word “flower” isn’t in the name, so I’m probably kind of weird for making that connection in my brain.
Point being… no clue which brand of flour is in my all purpose bin nor my bread flour bin at the moment.
Fun fact re: homemade mayonnaise.
It’s healthier to keep it out at room temperature for 1-3 days before refrigerating than to refrigerate right after making it.
The pasteurization by the use of acid (and garlic! if you enjoy it) with the egg occurs more quickly at room temperature.
The store near me that sells store-brand AP flour also had their own brand of cake flour. I’ve also purchased softasilk in the past, but haven’t seen it recently.