Tag: Southern Living Magazine

Two Minute Chocolate Cake tastes like …

2 Comments

…well, two minute chocolate cake. Good for a chocolate craving emergency. I used the Lucky Peach Magazine recipe Here. I had white chocolate chips instead of chocolate chips but that should not have affected the cake consistency. Good doused in ice-cream but still a bit odd and chewy. Try it for yourself and let me know. Maybe the microwave is to blame. Baked the two minute batter in a 350 oven for half an hour. Still, good flavor, strange texture. Fun to watch erupt in the microwave.

IMG_2152 IMG_2151 IMG_2150 IMG_2149

What constitutes a failed recipe?

  1. When the end product following the guidelines does not correspond to the image or expectation?
  2. When the instructions are not followed or understood?
  3. When the instructions are not clear?

Recipes are an odd conceptual category between practical instruction and theoretical consistency. The material threat of subverting conceptual clarity as any humble cook knows is very high. Altitude, humidity, quality of ingredients, interaction of ingredients, measurement discrepancies, tools used, water quality, everything contributes the supposed success of the recipe (not to mention subjective tastes). Recipes should be used as a list and an ontographic map towards a particular gastronomic experience that someone else found. If we want to reach the same destination, we need to follow the directions as best we can. We can never know if we arrived at the exact taste location (unless we are recreating a known or familial taste). Good recipes give us skills that take us to different related places, like my favorite zucchini bread or chocolate chip cookie recipe. How you relate to recipes is a philosophical preference. Do you nervously follow every detail, blame the recipe if it doesn’t meet expectation, blame yourself and accuse your skill level, blame the ingredients?  A lot of anxiety related to cooking comes from relinquishing too much power to the recipe.

I enjoy trying recipes and watching the process of either supposed success or failure. I say “try” because I rarely exactly follow a recipe. Here is another experiment from the weekend that I would say was a success.  The pancake recipe from Southern Living advised not to beat the ingredients vigorously together with an image that showed very lumpy batter and gave instructions on when to flip the pancake.

“Cook the pancakes 3-4 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look dry and cooked.”

This is a good example of object oriented material thinking. It is not only a measure of time but an assessment of how the ingredients are reacting together. Even with these gentle guidelines, I found it tricky to modulate the heat of my cast iron pan so that the bubbles would form just in time the edges and bottom turned golden, not burnt. Some batches were better than others. Ironically, the first two (usually the worst) were the best. Delicious pancakes. Fluffy, flavorful, buttery…oh yes…very buttery, crispy edges. Thank you, Southern Living recipe writer and tester.

IMG_2148 IMG_2147

Then there are delicious dishes that need no recipe, no introduction. Just yummy. Ugly maybe, but so yummy, like my fried egg with bread, marscapone and raspberry jelly. Just dip and enjoy. Or Brie and jam baked in puff pasty. Gooey melting cheese that lazily spills out of flaky pastry. Puff pastry makes everything decadent and as Atiya would say, regal.

IMG_2153IMG_2154

That’s my weekend report. It was delicious.

Next time you cook, call it an experiment in material philosophy.  Notice how you feel and make decisions when things work and when they don’t. Then, come back and share your experiences here with other hungryphilosophers. No judgment, just awareness.

Wishing you a wonderful and delicious weekend ahead,

Hungphil

Squashed Strawberry Cake and Baked Fudge Pie

2 Comments

Published recipes are tested and idealized concepts executed with skill. The application of such perfection are, shall we say sometimes, less than perfect. Most always, still delicious, most always, opportunities for learning and creative adjustment. In the spirit of sharing the tasty and the ugly, just thought I’d report on my weekend baking experiments. I tried two recipes from recent issues of Southern Living Magazine. As I have previously admitted, I am incapable of following recipes. It might be symptomatic of my general aversion to authority and direction. So…. when I say I’m reporting on executing recipes, I mean, I’m confessing how I subverted or mutated the recipes, for better or worse. At any rate, I eat the evidence. Don’t judge me.

The first recipe was from the Community Cookbook section of the magazine for Fudge Pie. For the most part I followed the recipe. I was so proud of myself until I realized that I was supposed to mix in the pecans (and not merely scatter them on top like a pecan pie). No worries, the pecans got toasty and the pie was just as delicious (I imagine). Will I mix the pecans in next time? I don’t know.

DSC_0060

The second recipe was far more ambitious. It was the Strawberry Lemonade Layer Cake on the cover of last month’s issue. Mine does NOT look like the cover. My analysis of the visual discrepancy identifies three deviations from the recipe:

First, I did not use the 9 inch pan as directed. The 8 inch pan yielded a taller cake. A situation which would not be so bad except that the cake would not fit in my covered cake container. So, yes, I squished the cake (a bit) for the lid to fit. I’m not sure how detrimental this deviation will be at dessert time. I may have to pretend its a rustic strawberry shortcake or maybe I can dump it in a trifle bowl. Some creative adjustment may be required.

Second, when I squished the caked down, the delicious strawberry jam (yes! the recipe called for me to MAKE the strawberry jam) leaked out. Again, a situation, I’m guessing the magazine recipe did not call for. Instead of delicately sitting between the cake layers like a glossy red sweet and fruity buffer, the “jelly” behaved more like an oozing red sauce bleeding out of the white and red speckled cloud. Hmmmm. Was I supposed to boil the “jam” liquid more? Fear not, this is just another moment of creative rescue. I’ve decided to serve the left over red strawberry lemon syrup…yes…”syrup” not “jam”  as a drizzle over each serving of cake (spooned or sliced, as the first condition dictates).

Third, I did not add the red food coloring in the frosting. The cake looks good anyway. Just not like the image on the magazine cover. As you can somewhat see below (I’m afraid to take off the lid for a picture!), reality on the right and ideality on the left. I would eat both. But, my very own tasty ugly reality that I brought into being is what I have sitting in the refrigerator waiting to be devoured. Can’t I make my cake, have my cake and eat it too? Yay to glorious imperfect making and …….eating. Happy cooking and eating everyone!

strawberry-lemonade-layer-cake-mDSC_0064