Boston Cream Pie - the rematch

As some of you may remember, back at the end of April/beginning of May, I tried to make a Boston Cream Pie on the recommendation of a friend and reader. (The first of those two posts is here; the second is here.)

I'll save you the trouble of going back and reading all the way through both of those (though - the photos are pretty-ish) and let you know that the final product was a tad underwhelming.

So I immediately set to work searching cookbooks for a better version. And - since the person who had originally spurred on my attempts is in town this week - I decided it was time to try again.

This time, I broke out The Best Recipe cookbook, which is from the America's Test Kitchen people, who also put out Cook's Illustrated magazine.

I'm not going to lie. I'm a little leery of some their recipes. They can veer wildly from deceptively simple to way-too-detailed (I encountered both of these while working on this cake). But the one thing they do have going for them is tons of testing - so the recipes will honestly produce good results almost every time if you follow their directions.

I was happy to see the name of the first half of this recipe (the part we'll be going through today), though - it gave me a bit of hope:

After all, who doesn't love to be told that a recipe is "foolproof"?

So, with ingredients gathered... I set out on my second attempt at Boston Cream Pie...

Why yes, there are two different kinds of flour in that picture! How observant of you!

Before really getting into the cooking, I got to do some arts and crafts. You see, the recipe calls for greasing your pans, and then lining them with parchment circles. But, since we seldom actually do this (I don't often use round cake pans, and when I do I typically grease-and-flour), we don't have any of those on hand. We do, however, have a Costco-sized roll of parchment paper, so I got out the roll and my handy scissors and set to work making a circle-type liner.

First, I verified what size the pan was.

Then I cut squares of parchment that were just a hair smaller than the pan.

Then I folded it in the same way that you fold paper to make an eight-pointed paper snowflake. (Does everyone know how to do that? I remember being very confused by it when I was a little kid. 

Minor problem: If you get too carried away with the snowflake cutting, you end up with a pan liner that really won't do you much good.

Luckily, I was able to restrain myself for the second one (and the third one).

You still grease the bottom of the pan, even though it's going to be lined. This is so the parchment won't stick.

Yippee! Two non-snowflake-lined nine-inch pans!

Okay. Now on to the actual baking.

I think we have a sifter, though I'm not sure where it is. So this is the dry ingredients all being whisked together.

This is the milk and butter being heated/melted. Such a tiny little saucepan.

Now we're talking! Egg whites in the mixer, whole eggs (and extra whites) in a bowl, and dry ingredients hanging out near the blender (which has nothing to do with this recipe).

This is where some things started to get a bit weird.

Action shot!

For instance: The amount of time it took for the eggs to reach soft peaks seemed longer than usual (not sure what was up with that), and the recipe calls for one-quarter cup of sugar, but you actually use it in two portions (three tablespoons at a time) - and I kind of wish it had just said "3 tablespoons" twice, so I hadn't scooped out a quarter cup and then had to try to scoop out the tablespoons out of that.

Eventually, though, I had my soft-peak egg whites and was ready to move on to the rest.

This is one of those places where you really need to read the full recipe. It talks about beating the eggs and sugar until they are "very thick and a pale yellow color." Now, I don't know about you, but when I mix sugar and egg together, it tends to turn yellow pretty fast - and get really thick at the same time.

But the recipe goes on to say "about 5 minutes." So I went with the recipe. And, yes, it was eventually very pale yellow - and even thickened up more than I expected it to.

Alright. We have progress. And it was time to slam everything into the same bowl. Very carefully.

Can you see the two different colors of the eggs?

You see, the flour mixture is kind of heavy. And you've just spent ten minutes or so trying to get your eggs all light and airy (and, yet, thick), so you don't want to just drop the flour in and flatten it all. 

I won't lie: I laughed when I read the very precise "fold 12 times... fold 8 times" for this step and the next one. 

It kind of looks like a tiny, inverted, double boiler.

Remember our poor little saucepan? Well... It needed to be covered and kept warm (really - how much more like a street urchin can it be?), and we don't have a lid for it. So I covered it with a small bowl.

You're supposed to make a "well" in one area of the batter, and then pour in the dairy mixture. But - um - it's a liquid. How do you make a well in a liquid? I ended up with a kind of "fast-closing crease" and decided to go with it.

No-well, No-well...

I'm probably as surprised as anyone that another eight "folds" actually seemed to get us where we needed to be:

Into the pan and oven we go with our "foolproof sponge."

Do they look even? I can never tell if they're even. Especially when I'm holding a bowl in one hand and a spatula in the other and just trying not to drop everything on the counter.

Just a hair over the prescribed time, they looked like this: 

Contrary to the recipe, they didn't really feel "firm" - but they did have a nice spring to them when I touched them. So I figured they were good to go.

Until...

Okay. You're supposed to run a knife around the edge to loosen it from the pan. And I did. But the knife bumped against the parchment and kind of gouged into the cake layers. (Yes, both of them. I cannot believe I did it to both cakes. >sigh<)

Following their directions, I inverted a plate onto the pan, covered it with a towel, and then...

Flipped that bad boy out of the pan in one swift bam on the counter.

Moment of truth: peeling the parchment off the bottom and hoping it comes off without any issues. 

Some of the light spots are actually caused by the parchment insulating the cake from the direct heat of the pan. I think this is another reason that greasing the pan is so important - it helps to conduct the heat.

From pan to plate, and then from plate to cooling rack:

And, yes, the whole parchment-lined-pan thing really did its job. Just look at the difference between the sides (just greased) and the bottom (greased and parchment-ed). 

I realize that this is a really horribly mean place to leave off, but it's already almost three dozen photos, and my laptop isn't quite sure what to do with me.

Next week we'll make the pastry cream (spoiler alert: there's booze in it!) and the chocolate glaze (spoiler alert: you get to figure out what it means for something - other than a first date - to be "tepid"), and put the whole thing together!

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See what can happen if you send me a recipe idea? (And - even better - what happens if you send me a recipe idea and then come to visit!?) Let me know if there's something you want me to try, and I'll see if I can work it up into a blog post (or four).

Writing 101: Sometimes Technology Is Not Your Friend

I've been working with authors for a long time - probably close to a decade on at least a semi-professional basis, but really all the way back to college - in creative writing courses as well as just helping out friends as they wrote papers.

Not me.

I'm part of the generation that started working with keyboards on typewriters (mostly electric, at least), and experienced things like "daisy wheel" typewriters (which kept typing even when you had stopped because they had to catch up with you - which completely threw me off in the same way that an out-of-sync movie does).

I also had a dictionary. And - in my parents' house - a full set of World Book Encyclopedias. And - at school - a full school library.

Also not me.

We went through word processors that would show you one line of text at a time, and then print it out when you moved on. There was a computer lab in the basement of my dorm when I was in college - it had no Internet access of any kind, but it would allow you to type up your papers, and then print them out on a dot-matrix printer. In grad school, the computers in the lab got an upgrade - and so did the printers.

I still had a dictionary, but the school libraries were much bigger with stacks upon stacks of card catalogs and references for books and topics I'd never heard of. But this idea called "spellcheck" was beginning to take hold. 

And then, suddenly, I had my own computer in my apartment. And my own printer. And a dial-up connection to the World Wide Web, which I could even use when I brought home a laptop from the consulting job I had.

Yep. Both mine.

I was still mainly relying on my dictionary and my reference books, but suddenly I could also rely on my computer to tell me if words were spelled wrong, or if my sentences were oddly constructed. (Okay - the grammar checking function mostly just annoys me, if I'm being honest, but it does help to point out some of the cases where words might be spelled right, but are simply the wrong word in the situation.)

Then - in 2007 - the iPhone came on the scene, and everyone suddenly had access to all sorts of technology right in one handheld device. Spellcheck and web searching became the norm, and - in many cases - it was for the better.

Which of these tools are you more likely to use for making a note?

But then we got into the age of autocorrect and speech-to-text writing. And writing in shortened "text speak," which sometimes seems to want to send us all into a course on ciphers and hieroglyphs. This is the world where a voice message asking about "Going to South Dakota for the weekend" becomes - in text: "Going to sort the code for the weakened." (True story.)

Granted, in some situations (I'm thinking enabling people who could not otherwise communicate) this is amazing. But, from an editorial and proofreading standpoint... wow... there are times when I miss the days of dictionaries and encyclopedias. Or at least the days when people would read what their computers were writing before sending it out for the world to see.

Of course, the more people ignore their dictionaries and rely on their autocorrected emojis, the longer I'll have a solid job. So maybe I shouldn't disparage all that tech quite so quickly.

Sandwich Prep - One Month In

Remember how I posted at the end of May that I was planting tomato plants in the hopes of having tomatoes at some point this summer? The plants were so small and cute and photogenic back then. (You mean you don't remember? Luckily, I have a link to that post right here.)

Well, it's now been a month since those little guys were planted, and I believe we've reached the toddler stage. They're growing pretty well - or at least the surviving three (out of the original four) seem to be doing well.

The set of two, who are slightly surrounded by irises, have reached about 10 or 12 inches tall:

While, at the other end of the same planting bed, our single (not exactly sure what it did with its bedmate - not sure I want to know), is also doing quite well, without the iris interference:

Of course, just as I was feeling pretty good about my plants, I went for a short walk this morning and passed two gardens where the tomato plants are probably three feet tall and already flowering. Which means that they'll have tomatoes a good month or two ahead of me. But - hey - theirs probably won't have been documented in the blogosphere from the time they were just seedlings.

By the way, I don't want you to think that the only thing in our garden is tomatoes. Among the flowers in some pots near our back door you'll also find Super Chilis (really - that's what they're called), which are already blooming and producing the fruit which could, eventually, become part of a spicy, tomato-y dish:

In the meantime, well, I guess I'll just keep going to the grocery store or hunting down a farmers' market or two - because stalking my neighbors' plants would probably be fairly unneighborly.

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What's your favorite summertime food? Is there some family recipe that always shows up at the Fourth of July that you're not really sure is actually food? Let me know your thoughts and maybe your food comments and questions will factor into a later post!
 

Editing 101: The Musicality of Words

I truly love how words sound.

I love the word serendipity, which makes me think of sudden joy.

And the word ephemeral makes me momentarily all happy and warm.

Cozy sounds just . . . well . . . cozy, and spelunking sounds like it will include dripping water in mysterious caves.

There are words, however, that may sound fine but may not mean what you think they mean.

Penultimate is not quite as final as it sounds.

Inflammable actually means the same thing as flammable.

And, getting back to the sound of words, "sang" and "sank" - though both perfectly fine for Spellcheck, as well as sounding almost the same when read aloud - have very different meanings.

Which is why I laughed pretty hard when I read "Exhausted, he sang deep into the chair" earlier this week.

It was, for me, a serendipitous moment of ephemeral joy as I "spelunked" my way through the penultimate chapter of the manuscript.

A Pie Chart of Kitchen Tools (but without the chart)

Summer - along with lemon bars - seems to mean all sorts of pies. After all, this is the time of year when almost everything that can avail itself to becoming pie filling is in season.

From strawberries to tomatoes, and ice cream to whipped cream, it seems that everything goes in a pie crust in the summer.

While I was making some mini peach tarts a few weeks ago (okay... peaches aren't in season yet - I know that - I was actually using a jar of peach preserves), I looked at the tools I was using and realized that they are some of my favorite things in my kitchen.

Do you have something like that? A kitchen gadget, or bowl, or towel, or mug that automatically makes you happy when you use it?

Here are the things that I had pulled out to work on my pie dough:

First of all, I'm not sure you can tell, but that bowl is huge - and I think that a really big, heavy bowl is pretty much mandatory in my kitchen. I use it for doughs of all kinds (from pies to cookies and back again), but also for mixing batters and salads and serving chips. My mom had (and still has) a massive crockery bowl that I used when I was growing up, and mine is about the same size, and it's perfect (if, occasionally, maybe even just a little too small).

The rolling pin actually was my mom's until she got a marble one many years ago. (I swear that she got the marble one before I walked off with the wooden one.) I know that chefs on TV are always happy to have their flat pins with no handles, but I love the handles. They help me stay connected while also keeping my knuckles out of the flour. (Which, really, is kind of ironic considering the next tool.)

That thing in the bowl is a pastry blender. Whenever I watch the TV shows, people are constantly giving recommendations for how to make pastry in the bowl of a food processor, but I've tried that and just don't love it. Sure, it's fine for something like a graham cracker crust, but for a true pie crust (or scones or biscuits or any other flaky dough, in my opinion) you need to have better, more direct, control - and a closer feel for what you're doing.

While I'm at it - and while I'm admitting to putting my hands directly into my dough - I should mention that my most-used kitchen tools are probably my hands.

Have you ever seen the movie Chocolat or the movie Babette's Feast? In each of those, there is a discussion of the way that a cook's emotions impact the final product that leaves the kitchen. I love having my hands in my cooking and baking for that very reason. And I think that being able to look down at my hand and see my wedding ring covered in flour pretty much guarantees that whatever leaves the kitchen is going to be filled with love. 

And, yes, I know that most people will tell you that you should never put your hands into a dough that is supposed to be flaky because it will mess up your butter. But... well... they've obviously never tried my pie crust. 

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So what are you cooking this summer? Is there anything you are considering making that you'd like me try, first, so you know what you're getting yourself into? Let me know and I'll be happy to get my hands dirty on your behalf.

When Proofreading Gets Graphic(s)

I know I've mentioned many times that Spellcheck should be considered a "frenemy" because it doesn't always catch obvious errors.

Unfortunately, once you get really used to having Spellcheck in all of your documents, you tend to forget that it doesn't check the spelling of graphics. In other words, if you've got an artist creating images for you, those images won't be checked by the program when they're inserted into your work. (Which probably seems pretty obvious.)

What may not seem quite so obvious is that this also applies to a lot of file-creation programs. Even programs that are made to integrate seamlessly into MSWord or other word processing programs don't usually have MSWord-style spelling checkers. In other words, if you import a spreadsheet from Excel, or an image from PowerPoint (to name just two programs) - there is an odds-on chance that your MSWord won't spellcheck them for you.

(I should note that there are ways to have your spreadsheets be readable to MSWord, but they can result in the formatting being really off. So most people - for the sake of formatting ease - tend to import them as images. Hence the problems.)

Much of the time, this isn't a problem. After all, a good graphic tends to rely on the images, not the text. But... well... sometimes even the shortest phrases can have errors that slip past people.

I won't mention which morning show this came from - but if you figure it out that's on you.

And... yep... suddenly that typo is being broadcast to a nationwide audience. (Unless, you know, a "seson" is a Florida thing I don't know about.)

Proofreaders - we're the people who keep your graphic text from resulting in graphic language.

If It's Summer, It Must Be Lemon Bars

I know that I usually start my recipe posts with a photo of the recipe and ingredients, but I wanted to start with a photo of the end product, just so you know what goodness you're in for:

Honestly. Flaky crust, sweet/tart filling. All done in about an hour. SO good.

The version I make comes from The Joy of Cooking.

As you can probably tell, this has been around for a few years and is well-loved.

I have some friends and relatives who may call foul when they see the next photos. You see, I've been known to give these to people for their birthdays - and I think most people think I'm putting in lots of time and effort. But these are so easy - and all done in one bowl, so there's not even much clean up.

Yes, the page is dog-eared. It's also coated in splatterings of lemon and melted butter.

The two stacks are the two layers: crust on the left, filling on the right.

Lately, I've taken to using more sprays for greasing my pans, but for this one, you've already got the "butter paper" so it just seems easier to grease it the old-fashioned way.

Part of me feels like I should flip this photo (because it does kind of seem like the pan is floating, right?), but considering what came next, I figure this is fine.

This recipe is for an 8"x8" square pan. If you're not sure how big your pan is, it's best to err on the side of "too small" instead of "too large" because... well... you'll see.

The crust comes together so quickly, it's kind of ridiculous. Flour. Powdered sugar. Melted butter or margarine. Done.

OOhh... action shot!

Once you've got your ball of dough, you just mash it into the bottom of the greased pan. If possible, you push a little extra up the sides of the pan to form a kind of lip, so that the filling doesn't automatically overflow.

Unless you're in the Witness Protection Agency, I highly recommend using your fingers for this (though you will be prone to leave fingerprints everywhere after you're done, because... well... grease).

At this point, you pop the crust into the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. This gives you time to do things like take the dog for a quick walk and/or start the sprinkler on the front yard (for example).

With about 5 minutes left on the bake, I typically start the filling. (I could do it later, but I like the chemistry too much - you'll see what I mean in a moment.)

Please note: That lovely lemony color comes from the eggs, not from the lemon. (You can see the lemon peel still on top of the whisk.)

When you've whisked it all together, you get a glorious (though maybe slightly grainy) liquid lemon curd.

Yep. That's the same bowl I made the crust in. Why would I dirty a second one?

At this point, you pull the oven rack out just enough to pour the filling into the crust.

Unless... well... you open the oven and see this:

It was so bad, I even forgot to change the photo from rectangular to square.

This is where the whole "know your pan size" comes in. Apparently that's a 9"x9" pan. Which (quick math, anyone?) has a bottom surface that is about 17 square inches (not quite 25%) larger than that of an 8"x8" pan.

You know what happens when you spread the same amount of crust on that much larger a pan? It gets really thin. And it pulls and shrinks when it bakes, leaving you with massive fissures.*

This is bad, since it means that the filling will just flow straight through to the bottom of the pan. So... Well... If you look closely at the top of that photo, you'll see more margarine being melted.

Take two:

Ironically, I usually use these disposable pans, because usually these bars go to other people. I honestly never even thought about the size...

I should mention that a few small cracks are fine. As is the crust pulling from the sides of the pan. (This, of course, is assuming you've greased the pan well.)

Now that the crust is ready, it's time to give the filling another good stir and then pour it over the crust. But, first, take a moment to check out what happens when you mix lemon juice and baking powder:

Our creamy curd done got foamy, all on it's own!

I really wish I had a photo of me tipping that bowl of goodness over the warm crust (which was still on the rack in the oven), but I don't have enough hands for that kind of photography.

Here's what it looks like once the pouring is completed and I have an extra hand for the camera, again.

About 25 minutes later (after doing all of the dishes and moving the sprinkler), the bars will have puffed up just a bit and gotten a bit golden on top.

No, this isn't what they usually look like when you serve them. But some cooling has to take place, first. (If your kitchen isn't too warm, another half hour or so - basically one more rotation of the sprinkler - is usually enough.)


Again, we come to a point where I needed a third hand to get an action shot, so here is the basic idea of how you can get an even sprinkling of powdered sugar over the top of the bars:

When I was growing up, my mom would actually make these with a very thin layer of powdered-sugar glaze on top instead of the powdered sugar. Either way, that little bit of sweet is really nice.

Of course, I couldn't end this post without showing you a cut piece, so I had to cut into them (even though I'm supposed to be taking the pan to a dinner tonight). All in the name of journalism, folks.

The recipe says you can cut this into 16 pieces. Even in the enlarged photo, a 2"x2" bar still seems kind of small.

Seriously. How could you not agree that one (pan) of those would be perfect with some chilled white wine or maybe beside a Coke (mmm... lemon Coke) on a hot day?

*Don't worry. That fissured pan of crust didn't go to waste. Why would you throw away a lightly sweet, buttery (okay, margarine-y) crust, when you could eat it right out of the pan? So good.

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Have a recipe that you've always wanted to try but aren't brave enough? A family recipe that you're not sure still works? Or maybe a recipe you've heard of but never found? Let me know and I'll see if I can whip it up and feature it in a future post!