New book! I am definitely not thinking about my bookcases in the garage which I will need to finish painting real soon, nor about all our books stored in the attic, piles and piles of books threatening to slide....No I am not! Instead I am sitting at the diningroom table, eagerly reading with a stack of post-it notes at my elbow....
I went for a quick visit to the city centre this morning, couldn't resist dropping by the second-hand bookstore, the envelope with birthday money burning a hole in my pocket... Secretly I wished that the Williams Sonoma collection I saw during my last visit would still be there, but alas, someone else beat me to it. Scanning the rows of books I saw a Betty Crocker edition of "Best of Baking" (pun intended!) and I thought this was more than appropriate! Only € 9,50! A steal!
The book starts with a glossary on cooking terms, how-to's, measuring (please America stop the stupid cups thing and get weighing! To scoop or not to scoop is not my favourite pastime) there's a fairly large bread section, a lot of cookies, muffins and brownies, even main dishes and a separate chapter "holidays"!
I was going to stay away from breadbooks this time, aiming for cookies and pies and such but now I have all this and more in one book. I will let you know about the results a.s.a.p. Yippee!
(And Angelika...I have bought a pair of "boots made for walking" as well! Shh don't tell, I want it to be a surprise).
You know what? I love recipes that measure everything in cups instead of in grams :)
ReplyDeleteI find it so much simpler and I love that I don't have to heft the scale around.
I saw the coolest stainless steel measuring cups at the Bijenkorf... maybe those will change your mind about American measurement methods?
Weeeelllll...you know what? I do own such slick stainless steel measuring cups (why? because of all these american books I fall in love with hehehe) ánd the spoons ánd endless conversion lists and still I have to add/subtract when making dough... I think I have a light hand.
ReplyDeleteAnd now the final question: do you scoop or do you spoon? I think you can make a cup of -for example- flour weigh everything between 120 and 150 grams....
Can you believe all http://www.baking911.com/howto/measure.htm>these instructions?
Now think again, would you need such pages of instructions if/when you simply weigh? No you don't!
Oh How I loooove these discussions, I am grinning and enjoying myself immensely, you should see me ROFL. In dutch: verkneukelen while I type! :D
O dear, the book-bying-bug (BBB) has striken again. I think it's the time of year, more indoors...blabla..well I have to find some excuse! The bug was here too, and the mailman delivered 6 books (only one not-cooking/bakingbook), so i know the problem...where to put them?
ReplyDeleteOh and give me grams instead of those cups anyday! I've read conversions of all-purpose flour from 115 to 150 grams. So what's the use of cups? You can learn to work with them, but very precise they're not!