Monthly Archives: August 2010

Aug 6 2010

Kitchen Scale

I just bought a new kitchen scale. To be precise; an EatSmart Pro Scale from Open Sky.
I have used one in the past, when I was on weight watchers diet.
I know the importance of weighing my food instead of eye balling for weight loss, but I didn’t know how important
it was when baking. This video from Rose Levy Bernanbaum,
discusses why she feels it is important to weigh your ingredients when baking.

According to Baking Illustrated, “Baking is an exacting art and nothing provides accuracy more than weighing ingredients.”
They tested 2 types of scales, electronic and mechanical and the electronic scales were vastly preferred.

Now after using my own kitchen scale and trying a pie crust, once using the scale and one measuring, the pie crust that I made after weighing the ingredients came out much lighter and flakier. So I have to agree with the pros.

I highly recommend using a Electronic kitchen scale when cooking.

Aug 6 2010

Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie

My friend Lindsey Birthday was a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to surprise her with a new dessert.
I knew she love chocolates chip cookies and I wanted to find something that would fit the bill.
The first cookbook I thought to look in was “Baked” by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.
I was flipping through the book and discovered this recipe.
I whipped it up and brought it to work. The comments were this was not just good but”amazing!”
People are still talking about it and asking when we are going to have another.

Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie, is a “cross between a pecan pie and and chocolate cookie-a very good,
gooey chocolate chip cookie.” It is primarily a southern dessert, not often found in any part of the country
(except in my kitchen in California!)
The pie is almost always served warm and a la mode.

I have to say this one of my new favorite desserts and will be making it for a long time to come.

Bon Appetit

Recipe for Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie