Adventures in Cookbooks
Nov. 13th, 2019 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
writerkitI experimented with a new cookbook!
"Baking by Flavor" by Lisa Yockelson
I forget whether this came from one of my many adventures in library sales or the Harvard Bookstore Warehouse Sale; both are definitely places I go about acquiring discount cookbooks. Either way, I was, when I bought it, theoretically going to cook from it with Best Friend. It's just been a while since I bought it with that intention and we've only now gotten around to actually doing this. (We are, um, distractable. Very distractable.)
I realized something about my cooking practices while in the process of doing this, by the way, namely that while I do have just about a zillion cookbooks, what I actually *want* from them isn't "go through, cook a thing, decide if they're good or not based on thing, keep or toss". I want to go through one cookbook and really get to know it, develop an understanding of its habits and quirks. (You will likely see me posting commentary on many recipes as I go through it.) Cookbooks are also at best guidelines for me, so while I made "Banana Loaf", it was somewhat modified from its original form-- I had a premade spice blend that mostly overlapped the listed spices so I used that instead, and of course I put no eggs in anything at all ever.
It was tasty! Moist and soft and cinnamony and delicious. The recipe calls for a molten cinnamon ripple center that I feel like does not add enough to the bread to be worth the trouble, but I might see how the cinnamon ripple works as a topping next time; I think that would be better that way. (Also, it was pointed out to me that turbinado doesn't melt as well as the brown sugar the recipe actually calls for and this is probably contributing.)
Between my having someone over and two of my roommates having their partners over, one of our loaves did not last long enough to get cool, which is always a good sign. This is why we made two loaves. (You are also likely to see a spate of banana recipe discussion coming soon, as one of my roommates has accumulated a large pile of frozen dead bananas, and the household has decided that if I want to turn the Strategic Banana Reserve into banana baked goods this is a Good Thing and to be encouraged.)
"Baking by Flavor" by Lisa Yockelson
I forget whether this came from one of my many adventures in library sales or the Harvard Bookstore Warehouse Sale; both are definitely places I go about acquiring discount cookbooks. Either way, I was, when I bought it, theoretically going to cook from it with Best Friend. It's just been a while since I bought it with that intention and we've only now gotten around to actually doing this. (We are, um, distractable. Very distractable.)
I realized something about my cooking practices while in the process of doing this, by the way, namely that while I do have just about a zillion cookbooks, what I actually *want* from them isn't "go through, cook a thing, decide if they're good or not based on thing, keep or toss". I want to go through one cookbook and really get to know it, develop an understanding of its habits and quirks. (You will likely see me posting commentary on many recipes as I go through it.) Cookbooks are also at best guidelines for me, so while I made "Banana Loaf", it was somewhat modified from its original form-- I had a premade spice blend that mostly overlapped the listed spices so I used that instead, and of course I put no eggs in anything at all ever.
It was tasty! Moist and soft and cinnamony and delicious. The recipe calls for a molten cinnamon ripple center that I feel like does not add enough to the bread to be worth the trouble, but I might see how the cinnamon ripple works as a topping next time; I think that would be better that way. (Also, it was pointed out to me that turbinado doesn't melt as well as the brown sugar the recipe actually calls for and this is probably contributing.)
Between my having someone over and two of my roommates having their partners over, one of our loaves did not last long enough to get cool, which is always a good sign. This is why we made two loaves. (You are also likely to see a spate of banana recipe discussion coming soon, as one of my roommates has accumulated a large pile of frozen dead bananas, and the household has decided that if I want to turn the Strategic Banana Reserve into banana baked goods this is a Good Thing and to be encouraged.)
