Kitchen Pet Peeve: Breaking Bad With Eggs

 

Okay, I have an egg.....errr....I mean.....bone to pick with certain folks.

This is a HUGE pet peeve for me. It bugs me to no end. People who break an eggs and dump them directly into a pan or a bowl of ingredients, instead of breaking the eggs into a separate bowl and then adding them to the recipe. 

Don't do it. Just........don't! 

Why? Because...

1.

There could be impurities in the egg, especially fresh, "yard" eggs. Fun little things like blood spots or calcium deposits. We had a hen that had issues with that. The eggs were fine, but there were often calcium deposits inside her eggs. Not fun picking that stuff out. Sometimes just a little, sometimes a lot. She was an Araucana, and I don't know if they are more prone to that or not. She was on the same varied diet as the other hens and we didn't see that happening with the others anywhere near as often. 

2.

You don't really know how old the egg is. It might have been missed and on the verge of rotting. Imagine ruining a recipe (or your breakfast), by breaking an egg like that into a pan. There is a water test that can help determine the age of an egg before you crack it open, but if you get in a hurry and decide not to do the test, you might regret it.* 

3.

Pieces of eggshell might fall into your recipe if you don't break the egg in another bowl first. Imagine serving a lovely piece of cake to each of your guests, and one of them ends up stabbed in the gums from an errant piece of eggshell. Eggshell Roulette. Bad. Very bad. 

4.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention my grandfather's egg story. He was in the AAF (Army Air Force) in WWII. Shortages of some foods were common all over, even for soldiers. But they did have fresh eggs in the mess halls, when they could get them. Sometimes the eggs were fertilized eggs with developing embryos. So they had extra protein with their eggs on occasion. (I have no reason to doubt this story, because people were very careful about food back then. Nothing was wasted. Unlike today, when food waste is rampant.) So, if you're buying eggs from someone who keeps chickens, you might be buying fertilized eggs, unless they keep their roosters separate from the hens. I suppose that's possible, depending on the size of their operation. I just know that we always had a rooster in with our chicken flock, so we could raise more chickens to replace the ones we lost to critters that would break into the chicken yard on occasion. I assume others might do the same. Of course we kept the broody hens and their clutch of eggs separate from the rest of the flock, but it is possible that some people are careless about it. So imagine cracking a raw egg directly into your cake batter and it has a partially developed embryo. 😒

🥚🥚🥚

Think about it though. How much trouble is it, really, to use one extra bowl and crack your eggs into it for inspection before adding to the recipe? No trouble at all. One extra dish to wash. No big deal compared to what could happen otherwise.

This is one of the things that always drove me nuts on cooking shows. I don't watch those much anymore, but I do watch food videos on social media sometimes, and I find myself bracing for the addition of eggs. 

"Oh, but it looks so cool when I can break an egg open with one hand to add to the recipe," they might be thinking. Well, it will still look cool if it's done over an empty dish. No excuses! 

Here's a little summary...

Photo by: Alex Loup

NO!

Photo by Jordane Mathieu

NO!

Photo by Michelle Henderson

NO!

Photo by Klaus Nielsen

So in conclusion, if you are "Breaking Bad with Eggs," please break that bad habit!

🥚🥚🥚

*The Egg Test

I mentioned this test above, and in case any reader might not be aware of this tip, this is it. (Just remember, this test is in addition to your egg safety check, not "in lieu of."):

You just need a small glass bowl, or a cup wide enough to fit an egg when it's on its side. Fill it with room temperature water (or just directly from the tap), then put the egg in. If it stands up on its end, it is still okay to use. If it floats between the bottom and the top, it might be okay. If it floats all the way to the top, don't use it. 

If you are still uncertain, break the egg on a plate and look at the yolk. Fresh eggs have yolks that "stand up," and the white sits close to the yolk. Older eggs have yolks that don't look as tall and firm, and the whites are runnier. If you see that the yolk is flat or almost flat and the yolk is extremely watery, forget about it! It's no good. Run away from that runny egg! 

Kitchen Tip for Pepperoni Lovers

 

Pepperoni, a classic topping we know so well. I still love it on occasion. What I don't love is the excess oil. I have been using paper towels to remove it on take-out pizzas (and frozen pizzas) for years. 

At some point back in the 90s, when I used to make homemade pizza for the kids on a regular basis, I started thinking about ways to remove some of the oil in the pepperoni before baking the pizza. 

There are two different ways I do this. One is simply layering the pepperoni slices on a plate and popping it in the microwave, then heating it for short intervals until the pepperoni releases enough oil to satisfy me. 

That method is acceptable, but I like the stovetop method better, because you have more control over the process. Just use a frying pan, (any will do the job), and toss your pepperoni in over low to medium heat. The slices don't have to be precisely lined up in one layer for this. Just toss in a handful, (or more if you're having a big pizza bash), and toss them around occasionally until they change color and the oil is released. Then pull them out and drain on paper towels. 

How long you want to do that is up to you. The pepperoni will be crispier after you bake the pizza, so monitor your oil-release level. After you've done it a couple of times you'll learn what your desired level of oil removal is. 

I have also used this method and made pepperoni "sprinkles" to add to pizzas (after baking the pizzas), salads, sandwiches, and other dishes that benefit from a sprinkling of crispy pepperoni. I just leach enough oil from the pepperoni until it is crunchy, then drain and chop it up when cooled. 

If you're a total pepperoni fiend you can make a double-pepperoni pizza and use the pepperoni sprinkles along with the familiar Parmesan cheese & red pepper flakes to finish off the pizza after baking. Pepperoni Heaven! (Just keep a large supply of antacids around as a sub for after-dinner mints. 😉)

You can use the same methods on cubed pepperoni. It won't make pizza into a health food, but at least it will remove a lot of fat without compromising the flavor. 

If you have any questions, just drop me a line in the comments. 

*Note:  Images are Public Domain

No attribution required.

Russian Buttercream - Three Ingredients For A Quick Fix

Vanilla Sponge Cake with Russian Buttercream
Garnished with Macerated Strawberries & Strawberry Sauce

Russian Buttercream

One day I was looking through some recipes for Russian desserts. In the past I've made savory Russian dishes, but never dabbled enough in Russian desserts. It was time to remedy that situation. While I was looking, I stumbled across Russian Buttercream. 

What? Russian Buttercream? How did I not know about this? Three ingredients? Are you kidding me? 

Nope. Three Ingredients: Butter, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla. That's it! 

That's all you need, and the recipe comes in handy when you are in a hurry and need a frosting ASAP! 

As luck would have it, I already had some 4-inch cakes on hand, because I had planned to make Strawberry Shortcakes. Well, that would still happen, but with Russian Buttercream instead of whipped cream. Yeah, I know, I wasn't making "traditional" strawberry shortcakes using a sweet biscuit base, but sometimes we like to switch things up. 

So I go to the food safe to find a can of sweetened condensed milk. We always have that stuff on hand. I rummage. I grab the flashlight so I can look in every corner on every shelf. What? How do we not have any? We always have it! 

Classic case of: "We always have that ingredient on hand when we don't need it, but when we need it we don't have it." It happens sometimes. No rush. Testing delayed for a few days.

The Recipe

Easy as pie! (Actually easier than pie, since making a pie requires more of a time commitment.) Grab 2 sticks of butter from the fridge and set them out until they soften. They should be a little firm, not to the point where they are the consistency of Pond's Cold Cream. (Do they even make that anymore? That might be a bad example.) Not to the consistency of mayo. They should be firm, but not mushy. 

Take out one can of sweetened condensed milk and have your vanilla on hand. 

When the butter is ready, beat it with a mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes. It should look considerably lighter. If you're using a stand mixer, use a spoon and coax the condensed milk into the bowl a little at a time while the mixer is still running. Alternatively, just add in small increments, stopping the mixer between each addition. You can do it 3 to 4 ounces at a time. Add vanilla in at any of those points. 

If your butter seems too soft or the mixture looks like it might be separating, just pop it in the fridge for a few minutes, then take it out and whip it some more. (I had to do that a couple of times because it was pretty warm in the kitchen when I made it.)

So easy. It has a good flavor and is not too sweet, and it has a silky mouth feel. You can pipe it and it will hold its shape, as seen in the photo above. If your hands are hot, work quickly or take breaks and pop the piping bag in the fridge for a few minutes. 

How Does It Hold Up?

If your sweet creation is going to be consumed pretty quickly, using this frosting is not a problem. It will be okay for a few hours if the temperature where it's being held isn't too warm. I frosted a cupcake to test out what would happen to the frosting overnight and the frosting started to lose cohesion and get oily. The cake in the above photo was in the refrigerator overnight and looked just as good the next day. If you go that route, just take the cake out 30 minutes to an hour before serving so it can soften up a bit. If you have stored cakes in the refrigerator before, you know what I mean. 

For Chocolate Russian Buttercream, just add 1/2 to 1 cup of cocoa and whip it with a mixer until well combined. 

Yes, this recipe is a winner. It's a good idea to keep some sweetened condensed milk in your pantry so you can make this recipe instead of relying on one that is commercially made. The flavor is miles above the canned stuff!

Vanilla Sponge Cake with Russian Buttercream,
Macerated Strawberries, and Lemon Curd

Recipe: Tasty Peanut Butter Cookies And A Little Bit Of History

 

Low Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies

What the Fork?

Who loves peanut butter cookies? 

They were never my favorite when I was growing up. I may have eaten them if they were around, but I could take them or leave them. They just didn't ring my bell. The school used to serve them to us as one of the dessert items. They were always dry & hard. I did like my Mom and grandma's versions better, but they still weren't that thrilling to me. 

Of course they were always easy to spot on a buffet table, because everyone marked them with a fork. Usually crosshatch, but not always. There are different lines of thought about why that practice started. Some say it was to make it easier to identify the cookie. Well, it's peanut butter. The smell alone is the identifier. It's not like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that you bite into, only to find you were betrayed because they are full of raisins. 

Some feel that they were marked simply as a way to press the cookie down so it baked evenly. (Yeah, I could buy that, but it really depends on the recipe.) Why not just use the bottom of a glass to press them down? A fork seems like a goofy way to press cookie dough down when there are other ways that are more efficient. 

Another line of thought is that they were marked so anyone allergic to peanuts would know. Maybe, but I wonder if peanut allergies were at the same level as they are now. For instance: Many schools don't serve them anymore, or allow them to be carried into school because peanut allergies are so prevalent now. 

My line of thought is this: The person who first made the marks did it for decoration only, so it would resemble the ridges on a peanut shell. 

I tracked down the first published recipe that included the fork treatment in the instructions. It was a cookbook named "Pillsbury's Balanced Recipes," in a recipe for "Peanut Butter Balls." There was also a recipe for peanut butter drop cookies in the same cookbook. You can find this cookbook for sale on vintage book websites or auction sites. The price is usually out of this world, though, because the book cover is a nifty silver tin, and it has binder rings so the recipes can be removed for ease of use. I found pictures on Reddit of pages from the cookbook, but I didn't want to use those because they aren't mine. If you use a search phrase and mention the cookbook, you can view the images too. 

Who Invented Peanut Butter?

According to Smithsonian Magazine, the Incas were the first people to grind peanuts for use. The Incas were known as "master agriculturists" and many of the crops grown during their era are still a part of the Peruvian diet today. 

In the United States, peanut butter made its first appearance in the late 1800s. In 1895, John Harvey Kellogg filed a patent for boiling and grinding nuts into a paste. Peanuts weren't specified in that patent, he used other nuts too. Nonetheless, peanut butter was born. 

Kellogg...sounds familiar, eh? Well, if you thought about the cereal, you are correct. He was a "cereal pioneer." He was also a doctor and nutritionist, and in charge of a sanitarium. He wanted to create foods that were easier for his patients to eat, and peanut and other nut butters helped resolve that issue. Before the end of the century, one of his employees invented a machine to roast and grind peanuts, which surely made consuming peanut butter a much more pleasant experience for his patients. 

So peanut butter was around, but not very well known right away. In 1896, Good Housekeeping magazine published an article that encouraged housewives to grind their own peanuts using a meat grinder. This may have been at the behest of Mr. Kellogg, who preferred a plant-based diet and viewed meat as an aphrodisiac. (That's speculation on my part, but the article was so close in time to his invention, that it seems likely.)

The first recipe for peanut butter cookies was published in 1902 in a cookbook called "Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book." Her recipe didn't call for using a fork to press the cookies down before baking because in her recipe, the dough was rolled out and cut into squares. I suspect she was influenced by the Good Housekeeping article though, because directly above the cookie recipe are instructions for grinding peanuts. (Her cookbook is in the public domain, and you can view it here. Alternatively, you can purchase a copy of it from an online merchant's site, but the prices are a little high, so...nah! Digital all the way!) 

Peanut butter was formally introduced to the public in 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair. 

George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver was an amazing man. He was a scientist, inventor, and teacher. He had a master's degree in agricultural science and spent a lot of time helping farmers with his experiments. Read more about this extraordinary man here. 

Mr. Carver also did more for peanuts than any other American. He published bulletins on many subjects when he was alive, and I ran across one of them regarding peanuts. In this bulletin, he was promoting the use of peanuts and there are 105 recipes for peanuts! I am definitely going to try some of these recipes. Check out this bulletin. He was very thorough with his research and developed 300 ways to use peanuts! Ultimately, he became known as "The Father of the Peanut Industry." 

George Washington Carver
(Public Domain Photo)

Recipe

This is now my favorite recipe for peanut butter cookies, (at least until I make one of Mr. Carver's recipes). 😁 It does not have a ton of sugar, and I don't use a fork to make the crosshatch marks. I like the way the cookies look without human intervention, and I have had no issues with them baking thoroughly. 

If you bake a lot, you are probably familiar with your oven's temperature. The one I use tends to get a little hotter so if I have a recipe that says "bake for 8-10 minutes," I'm going to check it at 8 minutes. It really sucks when cookies get too brown on the bottom. 

This recipe will make approximately 36 cookies if you use a cookie scoop that is 1.5 Tbsps. in size. A cookie scoop is not a mandatory item though. You can simply use 2 spoons to drop the cookies onto the sheet. That's what I did for years until cookie scoops spoiled me. 

For this recipe, I used Jif Natural Peanut Butter, and the cookies in the photo at the top of this post were the result. You can use your favorite if you like. 

Ingredients

3/4 C peanut butter

1/2 C butter (room temperature), or shortening 

3/4 C packed light brown sugar

1 egg (room temperature)

3 Tbsps. milk (as needed, you might not need all 3)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 3/4 C AP flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt 

Instructions

1. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl - cream butter (or shortening), peanut butter, and sugar until well combined. 

3. Add egg & vanilla, mix thoroughly. 

4. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. 

5. Repeat step 4. 

6. Add the rest of the flour and mix well. If dough is too crumbly & not holding together, add 1Tbsp. of milk & mix thoroughly. Repeat with the remaining Tbsps. of milk if necessary. 

7. Cover bowl of dough with plastic wrap or a lid and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour. (With our fridge, I usually refrigerate for 30 to 45 minutes.)

8. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking liners. (If you don't have any available, don't worry about it. You can bake them directly on the sheet, just keep a closer eye on them. The sheets don't need to to be greased whether lined or not.) 

9. ***When cookie refrigeration time is almost up, set oven to 375°.

10. Remove dough from refrigerator and drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. 

11. Bake for 8-10 minutes. 

12. Remove from oven and let cookies rest for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. 

***Important Note: If you are using dark sheet pans, or older pans that have a darkened bottom, reduce oven temperature to 350°. Darker pans absorb more heat and can result in cookies getting too brown on the bottom, or even burned. 

These cookies aren't overwhelmed by sugar and you can actually taste the peanut butter. Eat them as is, or frost them with peanut butter or chocolate frosting. 

Enjoy! 

Tiramisu Cookies

 

I mentioned these in a previous post. The idea involving these beauties had been simmering on a back burner in my mind since at least last year. It was time to bring it out into the world. I had originally planned to make a sandwich cookie version, but I changed my mind, and I'm glad I did. 

The holdup for this experiment was time, but also indecision about what the base cookie should be. I had originally planned on a nice, fat, sugar cookie. Sure, I could have made batter for ladyfingers and used that, but...nah. I wanted a cookie that could be eaten by hand and not one that required eating utensils. With ladyfinger batter they would have simply been "Tiramisu Bites." 

There are other recipes out there, and I did review them, but none of those were what I had in mind. I wanted to get as close as possible to the real thing. Then the bell finally rang. Why not make a cream cheese cookie for the base? The ingredients for cream cheese cookies mimic the ingredients for "substitute mascarpone" anyway. So, hey! This could be IT! Would the cookies be sturdy enough for the base? That was the next question for which I needed an answer. 

I made the dough, chilled it so it wouldn't spread too much, and used the Norpro 1.5 Tbsps. scoop so they would be uniform in size. The resulting cookie was soft, but not too soft. I thought they would work. 

The next component was the "coffee liqueur." I obviously couldn't dip the cookies in that. It wouldn't work. So instead, I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Baking Chips to make a coffee-flavored ganache. I had espresso powder on hand because I purchased it some time ago, when I initially had the idea. I was going to simply use the powder alone at first, but the ganache seemed like a better idea. More "oomph." I added it to the cream but ended up adding more after the ganache was finished, because it needed more. It was fine. I just stirred it in and added a bit more cream. 

For the next component, I made a white chocolate ganache using rum & vanilla. The cookies were finished with a dusting of cocoa powder. 

The result? Success! The cookies exceeded my expectations. It was like biting into the real thing, "mouth feel" and all. The cream cheese cookies complimented the other elements perfectly. The mascarpone element had been worrying me, and I had wrangled with that for a while. I thought about cream cheese powder in the ganache, etc. But it was totally unnecessary. The right flavor was in the cookie base, and the rum in the white ganache covered nicely for the coffee liqueur. All of the right flavors were there, albeit in a different order. I was very happy with the results. I was able to share with some friends for a taste test and they loved them as well. 

I will be posting the full recipe and instructions for these soon. Now on to the next experiment! 

Tiramisu Cookies