Baking from scratch: what's that all about?
By Marcia Poole | Posted: Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Fruits of Winter Crostata brings a nice warming touch to cool weather dining.
Good Eats Nov. 5, 2008
Baking? Who needs it? With the ever-expanding selection of refrigerated and frozen makings for virtually every kind of goodie, baking from scratch seems almost extinct.
Think about it. Cookies? Go directly to the supermarket refrigerator section where pre-formed cookie dough awaits in a dizzying array of shapes, sheets, flavors and special occasion themes.
How about pies, cakes, cupcakes, and fruit crisps and cobblers? No problem, the freezer section has them aplenty snuggled up with eclairs, creme puffs, lady fingers and other confections once labored and fussed over.
Now Duncan Hines is wooing consumers with frozen brownie batter, ready in a disposable pan that pops into a conventional oven. This is today's version of baking for many Siouxlanders and food companies are happy to accommodate.
I marvel at corporate savvy for reinventing favorite goodies as effortless fast food. We quibble about what constitutes quality, but we buy products that make desserts more doable than they were back in the day when baking was an everyday art form.
Vintage cookbooks give us a taste of what it used to be like when the height of convenience was a "modern" refrigerator and a quality cake flour product.
The first cake flour has been credited to the Igleheart family from Evansville, Ind., where soft winter wheat was processed and sold as Swans Down Cake Flour. This bit of commercial food history comes from General Foods' 1947 consumer booklet, "Learn to Bake: You'll Love It!"
The Iglehearts marketed the flour in 1894 and by chance a traveling cake-pan salesman used it in his baking demonstrations. Or so the story goes. The booklet goes into detail about the essence of fine cake flour and the small amount of tender gluten that yields readily to the leavening action of baking powder and other leavens. "It takes this kind of flour to build the tender, delicate structure that is desirable for cakes."
The post-WWII baking booklet doesn't stop at the intricacies of cake flour. It covers fats and other ingredients; the proper pans and how to grease them; measuring; sifting; creaming; baking; instructions for making a pastry bag and other decorating tips; and even how to cut the cake.
All this comes before we get to recipes that seem daunting by today's definition of baking. "Minikin Jelly Rolls" with just seven ingredients, are billed as one of the quickest and easiest recipes. But the big news comes with the revolutionary "Mix-Easy" method that puts a cake together in just two short beating steps that "save time, work and dishes."
So what happened to baking? The discussion probably should begin with refrigerator and freezer technology development that got seriously under way in the late 19th century. Credit generally goes to meatpackers, brewers and the dairy industry for taking us from labor-intensive ice to the artificial cooling that made the frozen food industry what it is today.
Clarence Birdseye, the acknowledged patriarch of commercially frozen foods, was selling frozen fish and game beginning in the 1920s. Down Omaha way, Swanson was selling frozen chicken, turkey and beef pot pies by the early '50s.
Swanson marketing employee Gerald Thomas devised a frozen turkey dinner in an aluminum tray. Inspiration struck as he watched Pan American Airlines staff prepare frozen meals for in-flight reheating in convection ovens. The company moved on Thomas' idea and the TV dinner was born.
This week's recipe calls on another icon of short-cut baking products: Pillsbury. It's made pie dough-making a thing of the past in many kitchens. The recipe combines the convenience of refrigerated pie crust with ingredients that recall the oldest food preservation method -- drying. Raisins combine with dried pears, plums and apricots in a warm, fragrant filling for a cold-weather crostata.
While some cooks may recoil at the thought of using refrigerated pie crust for this classic Italian pastry, others will have no problem with the time-saver. Hang on to this recipe for a holiday pleaser.
Fruits of Winter Crostata
Prep time: four hours, 30 minutes
Start to finish: six hours
Two-thirds cup dried pears, chopped
Two-thirds cup dried apricots, chopped
One-half cup dried plums, chopped
One-quarter cup golden raisins
2 cups apple juice
1 Pillsbury refrigerator pie crust (from 15-ounce box), softened as directed on box
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Two-thirds cup chunky applesauce
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Three-quarters teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon sugar
One-eighth teaspoon ground cinnamon
In medium bowl, mix chopped dried fruits, raisins and one and one-half cups of the apple juice. Refrigerate about four hours or overnight until fruit plumps up; draining any excess juice.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Unroll pie crust into ungreased 15-by-10-inch pan. In two-quart saucepan, thoroughly mix cornstarch and remaining one-half cup apple juice. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and clears. Add applesauce, lemon juice, almond extract and fruit mixture, stirring until well blended.
Spoon fruit mixture onto center of crust to within two inches of edge. Carefully fold two-inch edge of crust up over fruit mixture, pleating crust slightly as necessary. Sprinkle sugar and ground cinnamon over crust edge.
Bake about 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown and fruit mixture is bubbling. Cool 30 minutes before serving. Cover and refrigerate any remaining crostata. Makes eight servings; 290 calories each. Source: Pillsbury
Baking? Who needs it? With the ever-expanding selection of refrigerated and frozen makings for virtually every kind of goodie, baking from scratch seems almost extinct.
Think about it. Cookies? Go directly to the supermarket refrigerator section where pre-formed cookie dough awaits in a dizzying array of shapes, sheets, flavors and special occasion themes.
How about pies, cakes, cupcakes, and fruit crisps and cobblers? No problem, the freezer section has them aplenty snuggled up with eclairs, creme puffs, lady fingers and other confections once labored and fussed over.
Now Duncan Hines is wooing consumers with frozen brownie batter, ready in a disposable pan that pops into a conventional oven. This is today's version of baking for many Siouxlanders and food companies are happy to accommodate.
I marvel at corporate savvy for reinventing favorite goodies as effortless fast food. We quibble about what constitutes quality, but we buy products that make desserts more doable than they were back in the day when baking was an everyday art form.
Vintage cookbooks give us a taste of what it used to be like when the height of convenience was a "modern" refrigerator and a quality cake flour product.
The first cake flour has been credited to the Igleheart family from Evansville, Ind., where soft winter wheat was processed and sold as Swans Down Cake Flour. This bit of commercial food history comes from General Foods' 1947 consumer booklet, "Learn to Bake: You'll Love It!"
The Iglehearts marketed the flour in 1894 and by chance a traveling cake-pan salesman used it in his baking demonstrations. Or so the story goes. The booklet goes into detail about the essence of fine cake flour and the small amount of tender gluten that yields readily to the leavening action of baking powder and other leavens. "It takes this kind of flour to build the tender, delicate structure that is desirable for cakes."
The post-WWII baking booklet doesn't stop at the intricacies of cake flour. It covers fats and other ingredients; the proper pans and how to grease them; measuring; sifting; creaming; baking; instructions for making a pastry bag and other decorating tips; and even how to cut the cake.
All this comes before we get to recipes that seem daunting by today's definition of baking. "Minikin Jelly Rolls" with just seven ingredients, are billed as one of the quickest and easiest recipes. But the big news comes with the revolutionary "Mix-Easy" method that puts a cake together in just two short beating steps that "save time, work and dishes."
So what happened to baking? The discussion probably should begin with refrigerator and freezer technology development that got seriously under way in the late 19th century. Credit generally goes to meatpackers, brewers and the dairy industry for taking us from labor-intensive ice to the artificial cooling that made the frozen food industry what it is today.
Clarence Birdseye, the acknowledged patriarch of commercially frozen foods, was selling frozen fish and game beginning in the 1920s. Down Omaha way, Swanson was selling frozen chicken, turkey and beef pot pies by the early '50s.
Swanson marketing employee Gerald Thomas devised a frozen turkey dinner in an aluminum tray. Inspiration struck as he watched Pan American Airlines staff prepare frozen meals for in-flight reheating in convection ovens. The company moved on Thomas' idea and the TV dinner was born.
This week's recipe calls on another icon of short-cut baking products: Pillsbury. It's made pie dough-making a thing of the past in many kitchens. The recipe combines the convenience of refrigerated pie crust with ingredients that recall the oldest food preservation method -- drying. Raisins combine with dried pears, plums and apricots in a warm, fragrant filling for a cold-weather crostata.
While some cooks may recoil at the thought of using refrigerated pie crust for this classic Italian pastry, others will have no problem with the time-saver. Hang on to this recipe for a holiday pleaser.
Fruits of Winter Crostata
Prep time: four hours, 30 minutes
Start to finish: six hours
Two-thirds cup dried pears, chopped
Two-thirds cup dried apricots, chopped
One-half cup dried plums, chopped
One-quarter cup golden raisins
2 cups apple juice
1 Pillsbury refrigerator pie crust (from 15-ounce box), softened as directed on box
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Two-thirds cup chunky applesauce
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Three-quarters teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon sugar
One-eighth teaspoon ground cinnamon
In medium bowl, mix chopped dried fruits, raisins and one and one-half cups of the apple juice. Refrigerate about four hours or overnight until fruit plumps up; draining any excess juice.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Unroll pie crust into ungreased 15-by-10-inch pan. In two-quart saucepan, thoroughly mix cornstarch and remaining one-half cup apple juice. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and clears. Add applesauce, lemon juice, almond extract and fruit mixture, stirring until well blended.
Spoon fruit mixture onto center of crust to within two inches of edge. Carefully fold two-inch edge of crust up over fruit mixture, pleating crust slightly as necessary. Sprinkle sugar and ground cinnamon over crust edge.
Bake about 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown and fruit mixture is bubbling. Cool 30 minutes before serving. Cover and refrigerate any remaining crostata. Makes eight servings; 290 calories each. Source: Pillsbury
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Young Person wrote on Nov 5, 2008 10:19 PM:
seasoned baker wrote on Nov 5, 2008 2:57 PM:
scratchcooker wrote on Nov 5, 2008 2:26 PM: