Fondue Feasts

Fondue goes in and out of style, but at heart it’s an ancient form of one-pot-cooking. And right now it's hot, hot, hot.

Fondue can be a pot of melted cheese, liquefied chocolate, or boiling-hot oil for cooking meats. The fun part is skewering nibbles on long forks and dipping into the communal pot. What better way to gather your best pals and truly share a meal.

Fondue for All Reasons

Girls Night In: chocolate fondue, baby! Get your best-friends-forever in front of the widescreen, tune in a chick flick and pull out all the forbidden goodies: brownie bites, Oreos, marshmallows, angel food cake, and strawberries. Now get dippin’ and dishin'.
Little Dippers: cheese fondue. Let the kids pick and prepare the dippers (sliced sausage, mini hot dogs, pretzels, veggie bites) because sometimes everything is better with melted cheese. Make it nacho cheese fondue by adding bottled salsa. Make it a total dip experience by serving it at your kid's next pool party.

Double Dip: cheese fondue for dinner; chocolate fondue for dessert. Turn this into a romantic dinner for two with candlelight, music, wine, and lots of succulent nibbles to feed each other.

All Dips, All the Time: entertain buffet style by setting up several fondue stations. Let guests wander and cook their own meats, vegetables, and desserts.

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Planning the Menu

Start the meal with a salad. It's not fondue, but it's a nice way to whet the appetite for the main course.

Strawberry Spinach Salad I Blue Cheese Pear Salad

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Pick at least two savory fondue options to give guests variety.

Cheese Fondue Parmesan Fondue Beef Fondue with Sauces Wine Fondue

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Pull out all the stops for dessert by taking a basic recipe and embellishing it with added liqueurs and inventive dippers.

Totally Groovy Chocolate Fondue Five-Minute Chocolate Fondue Butterscotch Fondue

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Fondue Tricks and Tips

Best food size: Aim for 1-inch cubes, just enough for one or two bites.

Best fondue pot: Ceramics work best for showcasing dessert fondue; metal pots work best for cooking meats and vegetables in oil, wine, or broth.

Best temperature: A tea light candle or low flame (a warm 120 degrees) keeps cheese or dessert fondues at perfect melting temperatures. If you’re cooking meats in a pot of hot oil, the oil needs to be kept at 375 degrees to cook food quickly and evenly.

Best oil: peanut oil. A low smoke point makes it best for high frying temperatures.

Best wine: Something acidic (like Sauvignon Blanc) helps keep cheese fondue smooth.

Best fast fix: Cheese mixture clumping? Add a few drops of lemon juice. Chocolate or butterscotch mixture separating? Whisk in a little more cream.

Best fondue fork stand-in: Long wooden skewers. Find them at the supermarket along with other supplies for outdoor grilling.

Foolproof Pie Dough

For one 9-inch Double-Crust Pie.   Published September 1, 2010.   From Cook's Illustrated.

Vodka is essential to the texture of the crust and imparts no flavor—do not substitute. This dough will be moister and more supple than most standard pie doughs and will require more flour to roll out (up to 1/4 cup).

2 1/2	cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
1	teaspoon table salt
2	tablespoons sugar
12	tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2	cup chilled solid vegetable shortening , cut into 4 pieces
1/4	cup vodka , cold
1/4	cup cold water

Instructions

1. 1. Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogenous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.
2. 2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

Step-by-Step

Key Steps to Foolproof Pie Dough

1. MAKE A FAT AND FLOUR PASTE: Completely blending part of the flour with all of the butter ensures a consistent amount of fat-coated flour in the final dough.

2. ADD MORE FLOUR: Pulsing in the final cup of flour ensures a consistent amount of uncoated flour in the final dough.

3. ADD WATER AND VODKA: Sprinkling with water and vodka ensures even distribution. No need to skimp—unlike water, vodka won't make the dough tough.

Rogel rápido

Estirar los discos de empanadas hasta lograr el tamaño de un plato mediano, pincharlos con un tenedor, acomodarlos en una asadera seca y cocinarlos en horno unos 10 minutos aproximadamente. Una vez fríos, rellenar con dulce de leche en varias capas. Batir las claras con el azúcar hasta obtener un merengue consistente y cubrir el alfajor.

Ingredientes

• 1 paquete de tapas de empanadas
• 1 kg. de dulce de leche

• 4 claras de huevo batidas a punto de nieve
• 100 grs. de azúca

Masa de Panqueques

Colocar en un bol los huevos y la sal, batir bien y agregar de a poco la harina alternando con la leche, hasta obtener una preparación omogenia, chirle sin grumos, dejar reposar 10 minutos, preparar los panquenques.En una sartén tipo panquequera de 18 cm. de diámetros, calentarla sobre la llama, pincelarla con manteca derretida, poner un cucharoncito de la mezcla y hacer correr rápidamente para que cubra bien toda la panquequera cocinar a fuego moderado, cuando los bordes comiencen a dorarse, el panqueque estará cocido de ese lado, darlo vuelta con una espátula y dejar cocinar unos minutos del otro lado.
Nota: Se tiene que echar cada vez una pequeña cantidad de pasta para obtener panqueques finos, se debe pincelar la panquequera con la manteca cada vez que se prepara un panqueque.

Ingredientes

• 3 huevos
• 1 pizca de sal fina

• 250 gr. de harina común
• 1/2 litro de leche

Meringues TIPS and Secrets

Shaping Meringues

Use 2 soupspoons to drop 2 tablespoon dollops onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Place 3 rows of 5 cookies on each sheet.

Beating Egg Whites for Meringue

Properly whipped meringue is glossy and smooth, with the consistency of shaving cream.

Individual Brownies

Published November 1, 2003. - Cook´s Illustrated

When baking brownies, Michelle Miceli of Cranston, R.I., pours the batter into greased muffin tins rather than a baking pan for easy no-cut brownies. The treats are perfect for tossing into a lunchbox or for portable snacking. Fill regular muffin tins with brownie batter to a depth of 1 inch, or two-thirds full. We found that our recipe for Chewy, Fudgy Triple Chocolate Brownies (see the May/June 2000 issue) cooked up in just 15 minutes, less than half of the normal baking time. See Illustrated Technique

Brownies TIPS: How to cut them

Neatly cutting brownies can be tricky because half the crumbs end up sticking to the knife, especially if the brownies are really fudgy. Callie Svenson of Tarpon Springs, Fla., found a neat remedy. Instead of using a serrated or chef's knife, she uses a sturdy plastic knife. It glides easily through even the stickiest brownies, picking up no crumbs. See Illustrated Technique

Baking Powder N1: Secrets

Published March 1, 2003. From Cook's Illustrated.

Wanting to know whether all baking powders performed alike, we tested four nationally available brands in our carrot cake to see how they fared.

The formulas used to make baking powders today are much more carefully calibrated than when this leavener was first packaged for home cooks nearly 200 years ago, but the chemistry remains the same. Baking powders depend on the inclination of an alkaline substance (sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda) and an acid (originally cream of tartar, but today there are more options) to react and produce carbon dioxide gas bubbles, thereby leavening batters for muffins, cakes, and other baked goods that need a quicker rise than can be provided by yeast.

Baking soda has always been a pretty good buy, while cream of tartar, a byproduct of wine making, has never come cheap. It was first used in prepared baking powders in 1835, but by the 1850s a cheaper alternative, monocalcium phosphate (MCP), was introduced, and it continues to be used in baking powders today. MCP is similar to cream of tartar in that it reacts with baking soda immediately when the two are combined with water. (Cornstarch is a component of all baking powders. It absorbs moisture, thereby helping to keep the acid and the baking soda from interacting during storage; it also helps to disperse the acid and baking soda evenly throughout a batter.) What this immediate reaction means in professional baker's terms is that MCP gives a batter more bench rise (the leavening that takes place before a batter goes into the oven) than oven rise (the leavening that takes place in the oven). This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does require the cook to get the batter into the oven fairly quickly; if not, the baking powder will exhaust much of its leavening power on the bench, and the muffin or cake will not rise as much as it could or should in the oven.

Enter the acidic leavener sodium aluminum sulfate (SAS), added to many baking powders since the beginning of the 20th century. SAS and a compound used interchangeably with it today, sodium aluminum phosphate (SALP), don't react with baking soda and water at room temperature. It's only in the oven, when the temperature rises above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, that their leavening power goes to work. Several top-selling brands of baking powder make use of both MCP and one of the aluminum compounds as a kind of insurance so the home cook gets both good bench rise and good oven rise. (Another popular brand uses only MCP with no aluminum compounds.) The MCP goes to work as soon as liquid is added to the dry ingredients, and the SAS or SALP kicks in when exposed to the heat of the oven. In most such formulations, about one-third of the leavening takes place on the bench and the balance in the oven. These baking powders are all referred to as double-acting, in reference to the fact that the leavening action takes place twice-once outside the oven, once inside the oven.

Does any of this make any difference in the kitchen? To answer this question, we made biscuits, scones, and yellow cake with the aluminum-free brand and baking powders containing SAS or SALP. We then compared the results. Both types of baking powders performed well in terms of creating a good rise; thus, the brands containing aluminum do not guarantee more oven rise as long as the mixed batter made with aluminum-free baking powder isn't left to sit around before baking. The other issue is taste. Critics of baking powders containing SAS or SALP state that these compounds give baked goods a slight but unpleasant metallic flavor. A couple of our tasters could indeed detect a very slight metallic flavor in each baked good made with the baking powders containing aluminum, but most tasters could not discern a difference.

The answer? Aluminum-free baking powders work just as well as brands made with aluminum compounds. If you have a keen palate that is highly sensitive to metallic flavors or if you wish to limit your ingestion of aluminum, choose an aluminum-free powder

Chewy Brownies N2: RECIPE

Makes twenty-four 2-inch brownies.   Published March 1, 2010.   From Cook's Illustrated.

For the chewiest texture, it is important to let the brownies cool thoroughly before cutting. If your baking dish is glass, cool the brownies 10 minutes, then remove them promptly from the pan (otherwise, the superior heat retention of glass can lead to overbaking). While any high-quality chocolate can be used in this recipe, our preferred brands of bittersweet chocolate are Callebaut Intense Dark Chocolate L-60-40NV and Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar. Our preferred brand of unsweetened chocolate is Scharffen Berger. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

1/3	cup Dutch-processed cocoa
1 1/2	teaspoons instant espresso (optional)
1/2	cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water
2	ounces unsweetened chocolate , finely chopped (see note and related illustration)
4	tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter , melted
1/2	cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2	large eggs
2	large egg yolks
2	teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2	cups (17 1/2 ounces) sugar
1 3/4	cups (8 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4	teaspoon table salt
6	ounces bittersweet chocolate , cut into 1/2-inch pieces (see note)

Instructions

1.         1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Referring to directions in Making a Foil Sling (related), make sling using the following steps: Cut 18-inch length foil and fold lengthwise to 8-inch width. Fit foil into length of 13 by 9-inch baking pan, pushing it into corners and up sides of pan; allow excess to overhang pan edges. Cut 14-inch length foil and fit into width of pan in the same manner, perpendicular to the first sheet (if using extra-wide foil, fold second sheet lengthwise to 12-inch width). Spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2.        2. Whisk cocoa, espresso powder (if using), and boiling water together in large bowl until smooth. Add unsweetened chocolate and whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in melted butter and oil. (Mixture may look curdled.) Add eggs, yolks, and vanilla and continue to whisk until smooth and homogeneous. Whisk in sugar until fully incorporated. Add flour and salt and mix with rubber spatula until combined. Fold in bittersweet chocolate pieces.

3.        3. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted halfway between edge and center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack and cool 1½ hours.

4.        4. Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan. Return brownies to wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve.

Chewy Brownies N1

Who is not deeply in love with brownies and have tried several and millions of different recipes????
Most of the times we taste in a friends house a recipe tha
t was incredible, but then, when doing it at home it is just different!

Ok. Here some secrets from "Cook´s Illustrated" Just great! please tell me how did it go!!!!

Cracking the Code to Chewy Brownies

Ever since box-mix brownies appeared on the scene, these industrially engineered treats have held the key to chewy texture. It was high time to break the monopoly.

The Problem

Brownies are a tricky business: Homemade recipes have better flavor, while boxed mixes claim best texture. We were tired of having to choose.

The Goal

Our goal was clear: a homemade brownie with chewiness (and a shiny, crisp, crackly top) to rival the box-mix standard—but flush with a rich, deep, all-natural chocolate flavor.

The Solution

After testing numerous “chewy” brownie recipes, it became clear that to create a brownie with a truly chewy texture, we had to start from scratch. We consulted our science editor to see if he knew of any tricks that boxed brownies use to achieve their chewiness, and he responded with a phrase that would influence the direction of our research: high-tech shortening system.

First, a chemistry lesson: Fat can be divided into two broad types—saturated (solid) and unsaturated (liquid). The right combination of these fats is what gives box brownies their unique texture. Box brownie mixes already come with the saturated fat component, so when a cook adds unsaturated vegetable oil, the liquid fat and powdered solid fat combine in a ratio designed to deliver maximum chew. To get the same chew at home, we would have to discover the perfect proportion of liquid to solid fat.

We devised a series of recipes that all had roughly the same amount of total fat, but with varying ratios. After much trial and error, we homed in on the ratio that produced the chewiest brownie, and sure enough, the box-mix virtually mirrored our results. To combat greasiness, we replaced some of the oil with egg yolks, whose emulsifiers prevent fat from separating and leaking out during baking.

Now we could focus on the chocolate flavor. Because unsweetened chocolate contains a similar ratio of saturated and unsaturated fat to butter, we could replace some of the butter with unsweetened chocolate, thereby providing more chocolate flavor. Espresso powder improved the chocolate taste as well.

One last thought occurred to us: Only chocolate that is melted and incorporated into the batter actually affects the ratio of fats in the mix. Theoretically, we should be able to incorporate chocolate chunks into the mixed batter, and they should have no effect on texture as long as they didn’t melt until the batter started baking. Sure enough, folding in bittersweet chocolate chunks just before baking gave our chewy, fudgy brownies gooey pockets of melted chocolate and rounded out their complex chocolate flavor.