You Need This: Oven Thermometer and Silpat Liners

Well, despite the fact that I’ve been cooking this week, I haven’t been cooking anything new or exciting… life has been busier than normal (my sister was in town staying with us last weekend, and my favorite Southern belle is making a last-minute trip to visit me this coming weekend), and that has resulted in sticking to the basics when it comes to dinner. When I get super busy, I tend to stick to meals that I’m familiar with, because then I can count on them being easy, quick, and delicious (and I can also count on them producing leftovers for my husband to take to work) – so that has meant things like chili, pasta, and even easier stuff like salads and quesadillas. In other words, not much that I haven’t already shared here.

However, in preparation for Crist’s arrival, I will be doing some baking, and I figured that if I’m going to share one my favorite cookie recipes with you all, then perhaps I could first share some of my favorite baking TOOLS. There are many items that I use while baking that are really important to me (a stand mixer, high-quality measuring spoons and cups, good rubber spatulas, etc), but I wanted to focus on a couple things that are less obvious, and that people are less likely to have already.

First up, an oven thermometer. Sure, it probably seems a little silly to put a thermometer in your oven, when your oven is built to read its own temperature… but you might be surprised to know that the vast majority of ovens run either hot, or cold. So, when you think you’re baking something at 350°, there’s a good chance you’re actually baking it at 335°, or 370°. An oven thermometer is an easy way to make sure the temperature reading on your oven is accurate – and if it’s not, you can then adjust accordingly. The style that I have looks like this:

It just hangs on one of the racks in the oven, and doesn’t interfere with anything at all. Since my oven seems to run pretty accurately, I mostly use it to determine that my oven is actually preheated to the appropriate temperature when it says it is. A lot of ovens will beep that they’re preheated and ready, when they’ve really got a ways to go to hit the desired temperature; the oven thermometer helps you determine if your oven is ACTUALLY ready.

More than anything, having a thermometer in your oven helps ensure accurate baking results, time after time. I know that my oatmeal coconut cookies will turn out the same every time, because I’ve determined through a lot of practice that they’re just perfect after baking for 8.5 minutes, right at 350°. It’s a small investment that can be a huge help in the kitchen!

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Secondly, I am a huge fan of using silpat liners for your baking sheets (speaking of which, I prefer to use rimmed baking sheets when I bake, instead of traditional cookie sheets… just personal preference). Silpat liners are basically parchment paper on steroids. Parchment makes me nuts because it’s always too big and needs to be cut down to fit my baking sheets, and I have to try and keep it from curling up at the edges, and I run out all the time. Silpat liners can be used over and over again, they lay nice and flat, they’re designed to fit perfectly and neatly on a rimmed baking sheet, and NOTHING sticks to them. NOTHING. I have been known to pull the final sheet of a batch of toffee cookies out of the oven as I’m running out the door, and they sit on the baking sheet for hours longer than they should – and if I were using parchment (or had just greased the sheet pan), that toffee would cool and harden, and my cookies would fall apart as I was trying to remove them later because the toffee bits would stick to the paper or pan. Using the silpat liners, ALL types of cookies pop right off, whether they’re still warm, or have been cool for 3 hours. Awesome. A quick rinse with hot, soapy water, and they’re ready to go again! (As a side note, I don’t wash them in between sheets of cookies – I will do an entire day of holiday baking without washing them, and just wash them when I’m totally finished.)

At $20 a pop, they’re a bit of an investment up front – but they’ll last for YEARS, and are so much more useful and convenient than a $4 roll of parchment paper that will run out after 5 batches of cookies.

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And there you have it! Two of my (many, admittedly) most useful baking gadgets. I’ll be back here tomorrow to share one of my VERY favorite cookie recipes with you all!

Crist told me if I didn’t bake cookies for her, she wouldn’t visit,
Tina

 

 

*Both images from their respective Amazon.com links.

happy new year!

Christmas Gift Guide!

Life has kind of derailed our grand balsamic week plans, so we want to make it up to you. Christina and I have put together a whole list of our favorite things that you can give or receive this holiday season. Per usual, you should be able to tell us apart – Christina’s the talky, baking one and I’m of few words. Photo credits are linked through the photos.

Stocking stuffers!

Fleur de Sel is a fancy, relatively expensive ingredient. It feels kind of crazy to spend $15 on a little bag of salt, quite honestly. But, the bag will last forever, and adding fleur de sel to a dish is like adding MAGIC… so it’s totally worth the price tag.

Another fun salt-related gift is this mini salt kit. Tasting salt might sound… kind of odd, I realize, but you would be amazed at how different each of these salts taste, and how they can totally change the taste of your dish. Include a loaf of good, crusty bread, a small bottle of good olive oil, and a bottle of wine to make a larger gift – all the fixings for a fun evening of salt tasting! (I know, it still sounds weird… but add bread and wine to anything, and I’ll call it a party.)

An olive oil mister is a great tool to add to any kitchen. It’s perfect for controlling the amount of oil you’re using to coat a pan, or to dress a salad. As I explained in my pizza post, I like to mist olive oil onto my pizza crust edges so they’ll get nice and brown and crispy – and the mister is so much easier to use, instead of trying to spread olive oil evenly with a spoon.

I’ve given up on the silicone utensils that never seem to get clean. The bamboo ones are awesome and have held up well (but you should hand wash).

Geechie Boy Grits: you know you want some.

And if you really want to make someone happy, pair those grits with some Palmetto Cheese. Yes, they ship it anywhere! I recommend the jalapeno for snacking, and the plain for topping hamburgers.

While you’re at it, why not add some Duke’s Mayo too? It’s the best on the market, and puts all the others to shame. (Christina said I needed to explain why on earth mayo is on a gift guide. It speaks for itself.) (I am very passionate about mayonnaise.)

If you know someone who loves to bake, give them some cookie scoops! They’re basically just tiny ice cream scoops (I may or may not also use them to control my ice cream intake – don’t judge me), but they’re perfect to use for making cookies. Have you ever tried to “place dough by rounded teaspoons onto the baking sheet” and wanted to hurl those damn spoons across the kitchen? Problem solved.

General gifts!

My husband and I love us some cheese, so I thought it would be really fun for us to make our own! This kit includes everything you need to make 10 batches of either mozzarella or ricotta cheese (she has kits for other kinds, too). As with the salt kit, you can make this into a fun gift basket by adding some good bread, a package of fresh pasta, and a jar of high quality pasta sauce.

Another variation on this gift basket would be a cheese kit, some interesting salamis, and a box or two of really good crackers.

The introduction of silpat liners into my kitchen has been a revelation. I do a lot of baking (and a lot of cookies, specifically), and dealing with parchment paper made me nuts – it was always too big for my baking sheeet, so it had to be cut down, or it would curl up at the edges, or I would run out of it and not notice until I was ready to put some cookies in the oven. Then I got myself some silpat liners, and I am SO GLAD. NOTHING sticks to these, they can be used over and over and over again, and they fit a baking sheet perfectly.

The Salad Spinner changed my life. Judge if you must.

Surely you’ve seen TONS of beautiful cupcakes with amazing looking frosting swirls on top. The larger piping tips to make those beautiful frosted caupcakes can be kind of hard to find, but this kit contains all the piping tips you need to frost cupcakes beautifully.

If you know someone who loves to make cupcakes, you could easily (and pretty inexpensively) put together an awesome cupcake kit for them. Buy an assortment of pretty cupcake liners with a bakers basket, some fun sanding sugars or sprinkles, a package of bakery boxes, and some brightly colored bakers twine – the perfect supplies to make your baked goods look professional and pretty!

Another great gift is a set of really nice measuring cups and spoons. I KNOW, it sounds super boring – but for someone who loves to cook or bake, it’s a pretty awesome gift. I can’t tell you how many set of plastic measuring utensils I went through before getting a good set – they crack, they break, they warp in the dishwasher. I got these sets at my wedding shower, and they. are. AWESOME. A little pricey, but they’ll last FOREVER.

You have separate cutting boards for your meats and your vegetables right? Right? I love a grooved cutting board for cutting meat.

We got these mixing bowls as a wedding present, and I swear I don’t know how I ever cooked without them. I use them every single day. I like the glass better than the melamine (which I also have) because the glass can go in the microwave!

Christina gave me this covered 9×13 last year for Christmas and I’ve used it more than I ever thought I would.

Cookbooks!

I came across Sweet Tea and Screen Doors a couple years ago, and loved the stories alongside the recipes. You’re going to want to make that banana pudding first.

Charleston Receipts Repeats is just a good, classic Southern Junior League cookbook. From salads to sweets, you will reach for this one over and over again.

Any time I need an appetizer, I look at Charleston Receipts Party Recipes first. It’s full of small bites, both cold and hot; for seated dinners, buffets and cocktail parties.

If you’re looking for a great baking cookbook that covers all your bases, pick up the Williams-Sonoma Baking Book. I received it at my wedding shower a few years ago, and it’s a really great resource for recipes for every kind of baked good you can imagine.

I have at least 40 cookbooks, and I rarely use any of them, if we’re being honest. There is one that I open more than all the others combined, though, and that is the Barefoot Contessa Family Style cookbook. This is my favorite of all her cookbooks – and as an added bonus, it gives you access to her awesome recipes, without having to listen to her say “How easy is THAT?!” every 5 seconds.

We need Internet Shopping Addiction Therapy, but HO HO HO anyway,
jcristg and Tina

You Need This: Flat Whisk

I totally should have posted this “You Need This” installment before I posted my last recipe, with the delightful pan sauce… but, alas, I am not that smart. So here we are.

You know how, sometimes, you’re making a sauce, or a gravy, or deglazing a pan, or whatever – and you just feel like your whisk is being TOTALLY ineffective? Because, like, 1/20th of the whisk is actually making contact with the pan itself? So you’re having to pull some contortionist-style moves to get the whisk to cover more ground, and pick up all the yummy stuff at the bottom of the pan? (Yes, I AM rather talented at turning a very benign kitchen annoyance into an earth-shattering event, thank you for noticing)!

I introduce to you… THE FLAT WHISK. This thing is AWESOME for bringing together (and smoothing the lumps out of) sauces and gravies and the like – when the liquid you’re whisking is not really deep enough for a standard whisk to be effective.

Now just imagine – you’re in charge of Thanksgiving dinner this year. You’re doing your best to make a lovely, rich gravy for the turkey that you painstakingly basted in the oven for hours on end… and you place the roasting pan on the stovetop, and start trying to deglaze it with some chicken stock, only to find that you just can’t! get! any of those lovely, crispy, turkey bits up with your stupid regular whisk!

Guess you’d better invest in a flat whisk before you ruin Thanksgiving with your lumpy, flavorless gravy again.

 

-Tina

*Photo borrowed from here.