Category: how-to

let’s keep 2009 going the right way – by looking back at the best of 2008! here are the top 10 most popular recipes on pete bakes from last year.

10. real apple pie vs mock apple pie

around the fourth of july, i was feeling very patriotic – so patriotic that i made TWO apple pies – one with real apples and one from an ancient nabisco recipe that uses zero apples. would we be able to tell the difference between them? find out!

9. english muffins

gotta love those nooks and crannies! the only thing better than a warm toasted english muffin with butter and jelly is one that you made from scratch. you’ll never go back to the bread aisle again.

8. jewish apple cake

this cake isn’t just for rosh hashanah anymore. it’s perfect anytime of the year (and anytime of day). just make sure you let it cool completely before trying to get it out of the pan, or else you’ll be apologizing to your guests.

7. ginger cheesecake

who doesn’t love rich, decadent cheesecake with the kick of ginger? and here’s the secret: the crust is the best part. and don’t worry about cracks, it doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to taste great.

6. cheese danishes

we used to reserve danishes for special occasions, but now you don’t have to. your friends will think you went to a real fancy bakery, but it can just be our little secret. unless you’re baking them for me, in which case, i’ll get over it.

5. how to make braided challah

half the fun of baking is wowwing your friends and family before they even take a bite. challah is a beautiful, flavorful and light eggy bread that works great as french toast. it was the first yeast bread i ever tackled and it’s become one of my favorites.

4. chocolate chip coffee cake

this will become your go-to sour cream coffee cake. make it for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or dessert and get ready for requests from all of your friends for the recipe. a great starter cake for beginning bakers.

3. brownies! with coffee!

the original brownie recipe came courtesy of my mom, but the idea of adding coffee came from ina garton. and now i don’t think i can eat brownies that don’t have coffee in them. get a giant glass of milk ready and start baking!

2. spinach artichoke dip

spinach and artichoke and cheese – sounds fancy, no? why limit yourself to eating this dip only when you go out to eat when it’s so easy to make at home? try it with tortilla chips or homemade wheat thins!

1. onion bacon and cheese buns

let’s see…bacon, onions and cheese…in a roll…for breakfast? how could life get any better?

it’s time, once again, to get wrapped up in the fervor of the season and make resolutions we will probably never keep. and although i’ve only actually kept one (to walk more and take the bus less), it’s still not a bad idea to reflect on the past year and think about what we can do for ourselves and others to make this new year the best yet. so without further ado, here’s what i’m looking forward to changing in my life in 2009:

be a better grocery shopper
have you ever heard of the method of shopping around the borders of the grocery store? that way, you hit the fruits and veggies dairy and meat counter, but skip the snacks, soda and other preservative-laden junk. yeah, i don’t do that. i rarely have a balanced collection of food in the fridge, and it’s time to fix that.

cook more seafood
fish is great, but i only know a few simple recipes. i’m slowly getting over my fear of screwing it up (and making the apartment stink for days afterward), but i need to kick it up and experiment with different flavors and ingredients.

eat at thai x-ing
i keep hearing legends of how great this restaurant is, but i still haven’t experienced it first hand. thai x-ing is basically a basement on the edge of NW DC where one guy cooks everything and there’s only one table. you have to call hours beforehand just for pickup so he has time to get to your order. we must go.

bake a bastilla
bastilla is a traditional moroccan dish with layers of chicken, eggs, almonds and a ton of fragment spices like turmeric and ginger, wrapped in dough and topped with cinnamon and sugar. it’s been on my recipe list for months now. edit: i finished this one! check it out!

a few blog-specific resolutions:

post more often
i’m not setting a number for myself, but i want to get a couple of recipes in each week, along with at least one post a week on techniques, equipment or anything else i can offer (advice, cookbook reviews, etc).

actually learn how to use the settings on my camera
i know the best way to learn about photography is to practice, but i also know my camera probably has a ton of handy features that could speed up the learning process. it’s time to figure out how to take pictures in my low-light kitchen so i’m not limited to the few hours of daylight i have after work to bake.

all recipes will be in american and metric measurements
this is a simple one. and with a new baking scale, i’ll probably actually keep this one!

check out more resolutions from luke at cookography and nick at macheesemo. what are you looking forward to in 2009? any resolutions?

when i eventually buy my own house, an in-house brick oven is at the top of my wish list. i’d also love an outdoor earth oven (susan has been building one over at wild yeast; i’m jealous). while in the meantime (and realistically, forever), i’m not going to have one at my fingertips, there’s no reason i can’t simulate a hearth oven in my own kitchen using baking stones.

what’s the point of baking on a hot stone? stones retain heat much better than metal baking sheets, giving your bread a better crust (like putting a good steak on an extremely hot cast iron pan). waiting for cold sheet pan to heat up can cause the bread to bake unevenly. the stones work best when you heat them up as you preheat the oven. i usually heat the stones up about 100 degrees hotter than the recipe temperature, then turn it down to the appropriate temp just before putting in the bread, making up for some of the heat lost when you open the oven door.

i used to have a pizza stone (an awesome gift!) that worked very well for about a year. however, some kind of oil must have seeped into the stone because it began dripping and smoking profusely whenever i turned on the oven. more than once the apartment filled with smoke and eventually i had to trash it. the problem with pizza stones is that they can be incredibly expensive ($40-$100!) to replace.

i decided to do a little research and found a great alternative in unglazed quarry tiles. you can find them at any hardware/home store (my dad and i hit up home depot). these are 6″ x 6″ and about 1/2″-3/4″ thick, though 1″ thick is probably ideal. the best part? 12 of them cost me less than $5, so it’s definitely not just for die-hard bakers. since i started baking on these tiles, my bread has looked and tasted better than ever – and the crust is incomparable to older loaves. i have them arranged on a middle rack as in the above picture. a few quick tips:

• make sure they are unglazed! glazed tiles can contain harmful chemicals and metals like lead in them. if you aren’t sure, ask someone at the store or contact the manufacturer. liquid should be absorbed by the tiles, not roll off of them.

• cleaning: when you first bring the tiles home, wipe them with a solution of water and baking soda. you can do this if they get pieces of crust stuck on them as well. do not use soap, as it will seep into the stones and then get into any food you put on them.

• transferring bread to the tiles: you might be asking, “if i’m not using a baking sheet, how do i get my dough onto a 500 degree stone without burning off my fingertips?” with smaller loaves, you can pull out the shelf a little bit and literally toss the bread onto the tiles. with anything larger, a cornmeal covered pizza peel is your friend. i recently invested in one (less than $10) and it’s made getting the bread into the oven a cinch.

• care: these tiles require very little care. they may darken from use, but should be fine. you can also leave them in the oven even if you aren’t baking on them. if i need to bake on a sheet, i just move one of the empty shelves above the one with the stones. it won’t hurt them to heat up over and over. if your tiles ever do break from use, you can replace them for mere pennies!