The Toll Of It All…

Reasonably I don’t have too many pet peeves. Or at least I don’t think I do. When I do thou I voice it in my classes and presentations to see if I get a laugh out of it and if others feel the same way… This one is a keeper.

Toll House Cookies. Purchasing a 12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips just to make a batch of the famous cookies. Bliss.. until you mix up a batch and start eating the raw creamy buttery chocolate dough.  I only yielded about 18 cookies! I looked on the package and the recipe states.. Makes 60 cookies. Sixty Cookies! Did I eat that much dough? The next time I made them, I didn’t eat any dough, not a smidgen.  I took the dough and cut it into 6 equal pieces. Then I took each of those pieces and cut those into 10. What I had was ten smaller than marble size cookies that were actually burned when I baked them for the exact timing that the recipe called for. I don’t think Mrs. Ruth Wakefield really intended us to eat cookies with only 2 chips in per cookie.

Here is the original recipe and yes it states the yield is 60!

Toll House Cookies

I really think it should say. Yield: 1 dozen plus dough eating.

When I am working on a recipe I am always making sure the yield will come out the same for you as it did for me. I would hate to have made a batch of muffins that supposedly yielded 24 and I only got 18. 

Here is a great cookie that I have put together.. They are moist and full of flavor. Browned Butter Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies. They yield 20 cookies, but if you eat any dough you will get 12!

Here is the recipe.. Enjoy!

Browned Butter Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies 

Brandied Cherries!

Last week when I was at the farmers market I almost bought a bag of cherries. Almost does not cut it! I had bought peaches to make jam and tomatoes that tasted unlike their distant relative from the supermarket. I got to thinking this morning that maybe I had time to pack some brandied cherries. After going to two farmers markets today I found some for $4 a pound.  After a few stops (Kitchenware store for an OXO cherry pitter), BevMo for Brandy.. supermarket for more jars and sugar.. I finally got the jars of Rainier Cherries jarred and ready for their 4 month in the dark.. Oh how I wish I had a root cellar!

If you would like to make my Brandied Cherries here is the recipe:

Brandied Cherries

Peach Jam

It was time... I ran out of Peach Jam.   Last year after reading Russ Parsons Jam making story in the LA Times I only could think of Peach Jam! So I made 12 jars last year.. Now I am out.. I still have a number of berry jam jars left...

Here is the recipe.

Jam and Easy Way! 

Make sure you follow the directions perfectly and you will be well rewarded! 

Banana Pecan Three Layer Cake! The Power of the Internet...

Banana Pecan Three Layer Cake

Last night I thought I would bake a cake... I was about to get out the normal 9-inch pans and then decided that a taller version would be oh so much better! I had about 5lbs of over ripe bananas that I kept in the freezer. Time to defrost them! 

After mixing the batter and popping the cakes into the oven I thought I would check out Facebook.. After a short chat with a few friends the buzzer rang... I took the cakes out and placed them on a cooling rack.. Grab the iphone... snap snap.. Posted! Within 5 minutes these pictures went viral! You would have thought it was a star in trouble. No just a pastry chef that has baked for the stars!

The excitement of the posts were overwhelming.. From the high seas of crews around the globe to a colleague in the sky flying 40,000 feet in the air to UK and French friends.. to even my buddy Brian that is serving in Africa in the US Army. I wish I would have had a cake for each of them!

Today I iced and decorated the cakes.. Again. mayhem. This time from a few of my friends that are tv and music stars!

If you want to create mayhem and the world to talk here is the recipe... If you would like to get the pans to make the cake in.. you can order them from my store.. Also check out my new book you can pre-order!

Banana Pecan Cake with Cream Cheese Icing.  

Where has George Been?

It has been too long! I have been out of touch and here is a little blog entry!

I conducted 2 back to back tours of the South of France! It was our last tours! They went out with a bang.. Here I am in the former kitchen of Julia Child. This year she would have turned 100! I have a few talks in last summer that I am doing.. One in her home town of Pasadena! 

If you are on my Facebook page you will see the day to day tour in pictures! 

Check them out!

George