Penny Eisenberg: Tips

Yummm

Vanilla Sugar - Notes about its use

A word about vanilla sugar: if using commercial vanilla sugar use 1 or 2 teaspoons per recipe as if it were vanilla extract. Use regular sugar for the remaining sugar. If making vanilla sugar, use 1 vanilla bean to 1 pound of sugar. Let sit for a couple of days, and then measure out the vanilla sugar you need.

Pareve (non-dairy) Alternative for Yogurt

Tofutti™ Better Than Sour Cream is a terrific tasting non-dairy sour cream alternative that can also be used in place of yogurt. Add a little balsamic or cider vinegar, to taste, to give the sour cream a slightly tart taste, similar to yogurt. If this is still too thick, add a little bit of water, soy milk, or other milk alternative to get the texture you are looking for. A little sugar can also be added, depending on how the product will be used. If the yogurt is not in a baked dish, another alternative is to use pureed tofu. Use Mori-Nu (brand), silken, lite firm tofu - it's smoother than regular tofu, with a very fine texture that works well in desserts. Place the tofu in the processor, add a little liquid of choice (fruit juice, coffee, honey, etc), and process until completely pureed. The mixture will thicken considerably if it is chilled, so bear this in mind when using it in your recipe. For Apple Butter Puff Tarts with Tofu Apple Butter Filling, please see Light Jewish Holiday Desserts, Updates. Tofu has a distinctive flavor, however, so bear this in mind.

Lowfat Cheesecake

Most of my lowfat cheesecakes use cottage cheese to replace part of the cream cheese. It gets squeezed dry, and then processed until absolutely smooth. Because there are no fillers, the texture comes out exactly like full-fat cheesecake. Squeezing the cheese, however, has always been a messy and awkward procedure. Since publication of Light Jewish Holiday Desserts, I have developed a new method for removing the liquid from the cottage cheese. Instead of using cheesecloth, I cut off one leg from a pair of pantyhose, and put the cheese into it. It's easiest to fill the stocking if you put it in a tall cup and open the stocking onto the top of the cup, so that the stocking will stay open while you spoon in the cheese. Squeeze until the stuff coming out looks like thick sour cream. Then, invert the stocking into the processor. The cheese will come right out. Wash the stocking thoroughly, dry, and store for future use. There are many advantages to using the stocking. It's easier, neater, re-usable, and makes less mess. The cheese doesn't stick much to the stocking, and to get it out, all you need to do is invert the stocking. Don't use a knee-high - it's not quite flexible enough at the top which makes getting the cheese in a little harder.
Once the eggs are added, the mixture should be processed as little as possible.
Don't forget to bake the cheesecake in a bain-marie (a water-bath). This will ensure that the cheesecake will cook evenly throughout and will have a nice, creamy texture.

Egg Safety

Salmonella contamination is a constant problem with our egg supply. Young children, the elderly, and those with impaired immune systems are most at risk. To reduce risk follow these guidelines:

Bring home eggs from the supermarket promptly. Refrigerate them as soon as possible placed at the back of a shelf where the temperature is likely to be colder than the front, or on on the door. The temperature needs to be no higher than 40 degrees F.
Discard any cracked eggs, and for complete safety, do not eat batters, mousses and frostings that contain raw eggs. Techniques are now available to partially cook eggs for use in those types of foods (see Light Jewish Holiday Desserts, page 298, or Passover Desserts, page 131).
It is no longer safe to bring eggs to room temperature by leaving them out on the counter for several hours. This allows any salmonella present to rapidly multiple. A safer method is to immerse them, in their shells, in a bowl of warm water. It will take 5-10 minutes to bring them to room temperature. Room temperature eggs blend well with other ingredients, especially when butter is also involved.

Baking Tips

Measuring Flour:

The most important tip I can give you for any kind of baking, is to know how the author measured the flour. Regular full-fat baking is more forgiving of excess flour because the fat coats the flour thereby increasing tenderness. But even then, if you measure the flour differently from the author, you may come out with a poor result. If at all possible, weigh the flour. This will guarantee that each time you make the cake, you are using the same amount of flour.

Lowfat Baking Tips

Measuring Ingredients:

For my lowfat recipes measure the flour by sprinkling it off of a spoon into the measuring cup, and then level the top with a knife. In my recipes I call this "lightly sprinkled into a measuring cup". If you just scoop the measuring cup into the cannister of flour, it is possible that you will have up to 1/4 cup too much flour for each cup of flour used. This will make the dessert dry and heavy.
Use the exact ingredients called for in a recipe. Low fat baking is a little bit different from regular baking. If you change any of the essential ingredients, such as flour, fat, or liquid, you will not have good results. Even substituting regular sugar for brown, for example, might make the cake dry.
The desserts in Light Jewish Holiday Desserts should not taste like lowfat desserts. They should not be dry, spongy, gummy, or overly sweet. They should be delicious, moist, flavorful - in a word, like any wonderful dessert you would want to eat. If you experience any of these problems, please contact me. It is probably caused by an ingredient or method that you are employing that is different from mine. I'll help work out any kinks.

Mixing Techniques:

Do not overmix cakes. Because there isn't much fat to help tenderize them, they need to be handled delicately. Follow the instructions exactly.