Friday, December 21, 2012

Random Kitchen Information

Rather than buy brown sugar I buy molasses.  Add it to crystalized sugar, and you have brown sugar.  It is true - just read the bag of brown sugar you just purchased.

Cumin is the key ingredient in taco seasoning.  I never buy packaged taco seasoning instead I use this approximate recipe (I rarely measure, just guess).  As long as I have cumin it tastes like tacos!  1t salt, 2T Chili powder, 1t cumin, 1t garlic powder/clove garlic, 2T paprika.  Sometimes I add oregano.

Teriyaki sauce can be replaced with 2T soysauce, 2T apple cider vinegar, 2T honey.

Baking is my favorite way to prepare bacon.  It stays flat so it stacks in sandwiches nicely, plus I love the finished taste and texture.  Lay it on a  metal cooling rack in a pan (single layer), or if you have a crisping pizza pan that just happens to fit perfectly on top of your deep dish pizza pan you can lay your bacon on it.  It sometimes helps to coat the pan before placing the bacon to avoid sticking.  Put it in a cold oven, turn on your temperature to 400 and bake for about 20 minutes.  I have tried it with a warm oven and it does not work as well.

I like to make a large batch of bread dough in a 5 gallon covered pail and pop it into the fridge.  Similar to the 5 minute artisan bread books.  The 5-minute doughs tend to be wetter doughs so you do not have to knead them... however, for my basic bread recipe, I make it the same way whether I am baking that day, or prepping the dough for use throughout the week.  Make your dough per the usual directions, only rather than letting it rise in a warm place for 1 hour or so (first rise), put it in your bucket and put it in the fridge.  Want fresh baked bread, reach into the bucket and pull out a hand-full.  My loaves usually start with 20oz of dough.

That is all for today!

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