Facing My Fear of Silicone Bakeware

Wilton's silicone bundt pan -
just like the one I so bravely used

Last night, for the first time ever, I baked a cake in a silicone bundt pan. GASP! Yup, I faced one of my biggest baking fears, bit the bullet, and used a flimsy, flexible, hard-to-keep-lint-out-because-it-sticks-to-the-pan red Wilton silicone pan.

Here's how it started.
I went to a friend's to bake a cake and even brought my conventional metal, fail-proof pan with me. It's heavy-duty, and I've used it enough times to know it does my cakes justice.

But when my friend presented me with her silicone alternative, all feelings of safeness and ease were chucked out the window and a sinking feeling overwhelmed me. Should I use the pan I brought that I know works? Or should I try this wobbly thingamabobber some people swear by but I have yet to trust?

While never having tried it myself, I'm not unfamiliar with silicone bakeware. Between testimonials from friends and plenty of reading on the Internet and in cookbooks, I have valid concerns about the adequacy of said bakeware and what it does to the integrity of my cakes.

Here are just a few things I've heard about silicone bakeware that have freaked me out (NOTE: These are rumors and should not be taken as fact):

• It's actually more difficult to remove the cake from the pan and you can't use a knife to cut the cake away because you'll tear the material
  
• Since it's a thinner material than metal, it burns the cake and you have to watch the cooking time carefully
• It doesn't produce crusts or edges on your baked goods
• It's difficult to wash and dry
• Lint sticks to it
• It's a challenge to take the cake out of the oven because it's not sturdy. As you're lifting the pan out, you might tear the cake as it wobbles around because it hasn't cooled and set yet.

So now that you see what's been going through my mind, you can appreciate my queasiness when my friend presented me with her silicone bundt pan. At the same time, I was extremely curious to try it and break the ice already. What if it turned out to be earth-shattering, life-changing, and produced amazing cakes? I decided it was worth the risk.

I do have one confession to make.
As with plenty of scary things in life, baby steps are useful and make it easier to handle the challenge you're facing. So instead of diving right in and embracing the silicone pan for all its alleged goodness, I took the supposedly unnecessary measure of greasing and flouring the pan. Please don't mock me!

Williams-Sonoma cast aluminum bundt pan -
still my preferred pan!

The Result
My cake baked evenly in the pan, so that's relief #1. It also didn't stick to the pan one bit: relief #2 (though if you recall my confession, I may have tampered with the test a little). But on the downside, when I inserted a toothpick in the center and it needed about 10 more minutes to bake, it already looked done on the outside. I think it ended up overcooking the outside a little, just as I feared. The solution to that is to cover the cake with foil partway through baking so the outside doesn't burn while you give the inside a chance to finish baking. So while that downside is annoying, it's not a deal-breaker.

I think the biggest problem I have with the pan is its flimsiness. As suspected, it wobbled when I took it out of the oven, even as I took extreme care to keep it still. The super hot cake is in a very fragile state immediately out of the oven, and its structure continues to set during the cooling. I almost broke the cake in half as I lifted it out of the oven because the silicone pan it was in was not supporting its still-setting delicate state.

If I use this pan again, I will absolutely place the pan on a cookie sheet and bake it like that. Not only does using a cookie sheet make it easy to lift the cake out of the oven, but the double thickness of having two pans will help prevent burning on the bottom of the cake. But the key here is if. If I will use this pan again. The fact that every time I use it it's going to give me butterflies is not good! But then again, last night's cake worked out, so maybe I'm panicking over nothing? At least now I can cross "using silicone bakeware" off the list of things to do before I die. Phew!

Have you ever used silicone bakeware? Are you a fan of it? Any disaster stories? Do tell!

Aunt Bertha's Spinach Kugel

I love kugel. It's a very traditional Ashkenazi Jewish side dish but it comes in so many varieties that it's hard to generalize what it is. Let me try: a (usually) noodle pudding or casserole, made either dairy or non-dairy. Sometimes, it doesn't have noodles at all, but it's still baked in a casserole dish and is sort of "scoopable." I've had some that are really sweet and can practically pass for dessert, and I've had others that are completely savory. If I'm serving one at dinner, I'll typically serve it warm, but kugel is perfectly acceptable to eat at room temperature. My ancestors used to prepare and eat kugel, even when they lived in Eastern Europe centuries ago, and it's really neat that such a tradition continues today.

This spinach kugel is a dairy kugel, though it can be made pareve to serve with meat if you swap out the milk with Mocha Mix and the butter with margarine. The secret to the flavor is using a packet of onion soup mix (Lipton's makes one).


The recipe comes from Bertha Froomkin, who was my bubbe's best friend, and so close to my mom's family growing up that my mom called her "Aunt" Bertha. My mom's mom's (my bubbe's) first name was also Bertha. And in fact, both of their maiden names were Berman. So they were both Bertha Berman. And the story gets better. When Bertha Berman Froomkin went into labor in Youngstown, Ohio, to give birth to her son Michael, my own bubbe, Bertha Berman Aron went into labor in Youngstown, Ohio, with my mom Joyce ready to be born. Bertha and Bertha shared a hospital room and had their kids one day apart! I guess they were true BFFs, attached at the hip even during childbirth!

Aunt Bertha in 1968, visiting my mom's family in Los Altos, CA,
just after they relocated from Youngstown, Ohio

Spinach Kugel
Recipe from "Aunt" Bertha Froomkin

2 (10-oz.) packages frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and drained well
1 lb. medium egg noodles, cooked and slightly cooled
2 cups milk, or if making pareve, can use Mocha Mix
6 eggs, beaten
1 - 2 packages onion soup
1/2 lb. melted butter or margarine

Combine cooked noodles with the rest of the ingredients. Spray or grease a 3-quart pan and place noodle mixture in it. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes. Yum.


Step-by-Step in Pictures

Boil the noodles till soft...

Add the milk and melted butter...

Add the 6 eggs (I used Egg Beaters)...

Add the onion soup mix (the recipe says 1 or 2 packets; I used one)...

Thaw the frozen spinach and squeeze the water out of it...

Add the spinach to the noodle mixture...

Combine everything...

Spread the kugel mixture in the pan...

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes (I cooked mine longer because I prefer very crispy noodles on top)...

Cookie Comedy

Poor Cookie Monster!!!!!

The 9-foot Monster Challah

Baked in early September by Tony Sapia at Gemelli's Bakery near Penn State
Source: Collive.com

Run for your lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most of the time when I want an expensive kitchen item, I either save up money over time (ex. KitchenAid standmixer), or I come to grips with the fact that it's just not practical enough and I'll never own it (ex. juicer). In the case of the 10-foot oven, I haven't come to grips with anything and I still really want it.

Because how else do you expect me to reproduce this 9-foot challah at home?

Source: Collive.com

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Monster oven remains on my wishlist. I'm not budging.

The Recipe-Singing Band. Huh?

A band called One Ring Zero has begun a foodie project where they ask chefs for recipes and then they set the recipes to music and perform them word-for-word. Yeah, that's right: verbatim! There's no rhyme. But is there reason? Recipes as lyrics? Sounds strange. But you've got to listen to a couple of these!

Chef Michael Symon of restaurant Lola in Cleveland, who I just watched compete against three culinary students on Iron Chef America, submitted Octopus Salad with Black-Eyed Peas. The band sang the ingredients and instructions to the salad and it came off as a rock song! And no, in case you're wondering, that song title/recipe is not referring to a collaboration with will.i.am.

You can also listen to the polka-inspired "Spaghetti with Sweet 100 Tomatoes," a recipe submitted by Chef Mario Batali. Very clever.

I think my personal favorite is the creepy sounding "Lamb Shanks Roasted in Paper," recipe by Chef Jenny Morris. I can't decide if it sounds more like it belongs at a funeral or at a Jewish wedding. Kind of Klezmer-ish, but haunted, too. Have a listen and let me know how you'd describe this craziness!

Maybe the dish they're eating is going to be in a song?

I couldn't find a video of the guys singing any recipes (maybe that's a work in progress...), but here's a great clip of them in Aviles, Spain, performing "The Natty Blues," complete with accordion, guitar, and really, really neat trumpet. Am I being converted to so-called "ethno-pop"?


Maybe one day I'll be driving to work, listening to the radio, business as usual, and suddenly I'll hear the lyric: "Bring the water to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer, so the water is lightly bubbling." That's when you know the food revolution has taken over the world. :-)

Scientific Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Chocolate crinkle cookies are a classic. Lots of cookbooks include a version, and I have memories of these from when I was a little kid. The difference here is that this recipe was developed by a biochemist! Shirley Corriher, the cookie's mastermind, is a cooking teacher and food scientist from Atlanta, Georgia, and her tips throughout the recipe definitely make me feel like I'm doing each step for a reason.


For example, she recommends rolling each ball of cookie dough into granulated sugar before rolling it into the traditional powdered sugar and her scientific reason is so that the powdered sugar doesn't absorb into the hot-out-of-the-oven cookie and disappear once it cools. The granulated sugar acts as a shield so the powdered sugar stays white and pretty. When I made these cookies, I froze most of them in a plastic freezer bag to serve a week later. I thought for sure the powdered sugar would be gone when the cookies defrosted and the condensation destroyed the nice white coating. But nope! They remained perfectly white post-freezer. Shirley, you're a genius!


Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Recipe by Shirley Corriher in Bakewise and republished in EveningEdge.com

1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons, spooned and leveled, bleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 3/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

In a medium bowl, beat together well flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Melt chocolate in the microwave on 50 percent for 1 minute, stir, and microwave for 15 seconds more and stir.

In a mixer with paddle attachment, beat 2 1/2 cups sugar, oil and corn syrup together to blend. Beat in eggs, egg yolk and vanilla. On low, beat in melted chocolate. Add flour mixture and beat in on low.

Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Take out about a quarter of the dough at a time to shape. Roll the dough into 1 1/2 to 2-inch balls. Pour 1/4 cup granulated sugar into one bowl and the confectioners’ sugar in another bowl. Roll each cookie dough ball very lightly in plain sugar first and then very heavily in confectioners’ sugar. By rolling in plain sugar first, the confections’ sugar does not soak in so much and stays on the surface better.

Place release foil (nonstick side up) on a baking sheet. Arrange cookies 2 inches apart. For crisp cookies, bake 12-14 minutes. You can have several sheets of foil covered with cookies ready. When one sheet is done, you can pull off the foil and cookies to a cooling rack. Rinse baking sheet with cold water to cool and then slip the sheet under a foil with cookies and get it right back into the oven.


Step-by-Step in Pictures

Mix together the sugar, corn syrup, and oil, then add the eggs and vanilla...

Will look just like this! Thick, yellow, and goopy...

Blend in the melted chocolate...

Add the dry ingredients and the batter will become thick...

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours...

Roll out balls of dough and prepare two bowls, one for granulated, one for powdered sugar...

First roll the ball of dough in granulated sugar...
Then roll the dough in powdered sugar...
Evenly distribute on the baking sheet...

Bake at 325 degrees F until perfectly crackly!

So good! And so pretty!

My Mom Met David Lebovitz, or OMGWTFBBQ!

My mom with David Lebovitz

You may have noticed if you've been following this blog that I am a big fan of David Lebovitz. I've made a bunch of his recipes, including this, this, this, and this. I read his blog. And I follow him on Twitter. You should, too.

So it should come as no surprise that when my mom met the man/pastry genius on Thursday at a talk/book signing hosted by Charles Chocolates in Emeryville, CA, I was jealous. And that was before I saw the above photo. Now I'm just....beside myself!

David, if you're listening, come down to LA so I can shake your hand, or serve you some Maple Walnut Ice Cream from your cookbook. Last time I made it, it was the hit of my dessert party.

Pretty please?