Friday, September 17, 2010

Baking Stones

The Question: Question after reading your blog (What's for Dinner?). We have a pizza stone that we used to keep in our oven. We only have two oven racks, however. Do you suggest keeping the pizza stone at a particular height in the oven? And, if you are baking brownies, for example, do you just put the pan on top of the stone?

The Answer: I absolutely love baking stones. I definitely keep my stones (I have 2!) in the oven at all times. Ceramic is a wonderful heat-holding material, so it will actually help to hold/regulate the oven temperature. I don't keep the stones at any specific height, just where my racks happen to be, ensuring that there's enough room to still put things on the racks of course! And, I definitely just put my brownie pans, baking sheets, etc directly onto the stone when baking. Happy baking!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Apples for Apple Cake!

The Question:
Did you feel that grating the apples gave the cake a smoother texture, and do you think this was an advantage or a disadvantage, given the extra prep time? I have a similar recipe but the apples are
left in chunks, so you "know" there is apple in there. Was your texture perfect or too smooth?
* This question is in response to a What's for Dinner post on apple spice cake. See for link: http://whatsfordinner-fft.blogspot.com/2010/09/apple-spice-cake-with-brown-sugar-glaze.html


The Answer: I think that the grating of the apples was an essential part of this particular cake recipe. It did make for a smoother texture, with an almost undetectable apple bite, although the flavor was clearly apple. I think that part of the beauty of this cake was the smoothness and lightness, and I'm pretty sure that this wouldn't have occurred with the apple chunks. In addition, after grating the apple, a lot of the liquid was squeezed out, leaving less wetness in the batter, which was also a definite positive to the finished product. And, since I'm not generally a huge fan of apple cakes, I prefer to leave out the chunks! Except for maybe raisins in carrot cake, I prefer a more uniform cake eating experience.