Christian InTech Articles - Cooking TIps

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Christmas Recipes: Cakes & Tarts. No.2 of 7 - Prune, Apple & Calvados Tart Christmas recipe serves: 8 calories per serving: 685 preparation time: 30 minutes + chilling cooking time: 50 minutes Suitable for freezing Christmas recipe ingredients: * white flour, plain 175 g (6 oz) * butter, 225 g (8oz) *... How to Cook Turkey on Natural Gas Grills Add a new twist to an old tradition by cooking your holiday turkey on your natural gas grill. The smoky flavor adds a wonderful taste that your family will surely enjoy. The holidays bring with them thoughts of carving and serving... Oriental Chicken Wings This exciting Chinese chicken dish masterfully blends the flavoursome tastes and spices of the exotic Orient. Try it today; you won't be sorry! 1 1/2 pounds chicken wings -- disjointed 1 medium egg 1/2 cup soy sauce 2 tablespoons garlic powder... Safe Food Handling For The Holidays Did you know that the turkey you thawed on the kitchen counter, instead of in the fridge, could now contain bacteria levels high enough to harm human life, even though you can't see, smell, or taste it? There's nothing better than a home... Whisk your way to a perfect meal every time! The whisk. A true versatile cooking utensil. Whisks come in all shapes and sizes and surprisingly accomplish far more then what most think they do. One of the dictionary definitions for a whisk is--A kitchen utensil usually in the form of stiff...         Cookie Baking Tips Making better cookies is a lot easier if you understand the difference between the average commercial bakery and the home kitchen. These tips should allow you to make better cookies at home whether it be for a special party or your annual Christmas cookie baking session. There are 4 major things that are done commercially that are overlooked by the average home baker. Number 1 is that the average home baker does not have a stone oven. Most commercial bakeries have stone shelves and that disperses the heat to the pan in a much more even manner. Obviously, buying a commercial oven for this alone is not feasible for most of us. (I have considered putting a commercial pizza oven in my laundry room but my better half vetoed that idea :-(. Thus I settled for going out and buying an oven stone for our regular electric oven. This serves the same purpose with no loss of space in our laundry room and at a huge savings versus the price of a commercial pizza oven (even the used one I wanted). The second thing is the thickness and quality of the cookie sheet. The average commercial facility uses a sheet pan or half sheet pan which is probably 2 to 3 times as heavy as the ones used by the average home baker. This like the oven stone disperses the heat much better and makes it much easier for the cookies to bake evenly. I definitely recommend checking out your local restaurant supply house to get some half sheet pans which will definitely be better than the cookie sheet available at your local supermarket or Walmart. The third item I use when baking cookies is parchment paper. It is much easier to remove the cookies from the paper, your tray doesn't get all cruddy and need to be cleaned between batches and you will have much less burning on the edges. The fourth thing the average home baker misses is portion control. I have a variety of ice cream type scoops that I use for portion control. This allows each cookie to be the same size and allows them to all bake consistently. When I used a spoon I always ended up with a variety of sizes no matter how careful I was and the cooking was never quite even. Hope these tips allow you to make better cookies in your house. I know using these tips has improved mine. About the Author Michael Paetzold is the owner of I Love Desserts (http://i-love-desserts.com) your source for all things about desserts.