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Emily
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/dining/17bake.html?_r=1&em , visions of perfect-edged http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/cookies/recipes/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier and shapely cakes dance in their heads. But too often, the reality — both for the cookie and the baker — is ragged, fallen, and fraying around the edges.“I’ve cried many times at 2 a.m., when the cookies fall apart after all that work,” said Susan Abbott, a lawyer in Dallas who tries every Christmas to reproduce her mother’s flower-shaped lemon cookies, though she rarely bakes during the rest of the year.“It seems that home bakers don’t always follow instructions precisely,” said Amy Scherber, the owner of Amy’s Bread stores in Manhattan (where she also makes cakes and cookies, including orange butter cookies). “And then it’s so disappointing when things don’t turn out.”The most common mistakes made by home bakers, professionals say, have to do with the care and handling of one ingredient: butter. Creaming butter correctly, keeping butter doughs cold, and starting with fresh, good-tasting butter are vital details that professionals take for granted, and home bakers often miss.Butter is basically an emulsion of water in fat, with some dairy solids that help hold them together. But food scientists, chefs and dairy professionals stress butter’s unique and sensitive nature the way helicopter parents dote on a gifted child.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/dining/17bake.html?_r=1&em
over 3 years ago - Comment
Brandie Somewhere I once read a list of all the different butters and breakdown of what was in them, and then what those butters were best used for. I will so try to find it and share it here, because I think it is a good match for this article!
over 2 years ago
Becki I have been guilty of not letting butter get to room temperature on its own, and trying to coax it to cream-able temp via the microwave. Not usually a good idea.
over 2 years ago