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Wednesday, 14 December 2011

Tuesday Tip of the Day - Holiday Baking

I know it's not Tuesday today, but I've been tied up in the kitchen for a couple of days, and didn't have a chance to post yesterday.   I think though that I would still like to share a few really good ones with you this week.  Three, 3-layer cakes, two black forest tortes, 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies, 8 dozen lemon cheesecake mini tartlets, 87 pieces of peanut butter marshmallow squares, 2 chocolate pies, and 1 strawberry trifle later...I am ready to rest for awhile.

Since it's the holiday season, there are certain products we buy, cook with, and enjoy that we may not the rest of the year along with many we may use every day.  For this reason, there are a few tips I can share that help myself when I read them again as a reminder, and I hope will help you next time you are working with these items.

Cranberries, the higher they bounce...the fresher they are
Eggs, the heavier they are...the fresher they are
Pomegranates, the heavier they are...the more juicy they are
Turkey, the longer you let it rest...the tastier it will be
Chocolate curls, keep chocolate at room temperature until needed...makes it much easier to curl

Just a few tips I hope you find useful...do you have any tips you can share that might help during this holiday season?

Tip...prick pastry when making pies with prebaked shells with a fork to allow air to steam through pastry.  Create holes throughout the entire bottom and along the sides.  If crust begins to bubble up while cooking, simply remove pastry from oven, using a fork, poke a few additional holes in the crust and resume baking.
Some of my recent baking.

Triple Layer Vanilla Cake with a crushed Peppermint top


Frosting my Black Forest Torte

Everyone's favorite...Chocolate Chip Cookies

Baked to a light golden brown

Until next time we meet here again, happy cooking-happy baking : ) I hope you find some of these tips helpful.  Use the commenting Disqus section below to leave a tip of your own you would like to share, I'd love to hear from you and learn something new.  If you experience difficulty leaving a comment, visit our Face Book page to let us know and leave your helpful tip there, thanks! http://www.facebook.com/RecipesSwap