Baking Essentials

Here are some of my "new" favorite baking essentials that have come in super handy this February while I've been baking away.  I used them tonight to bake sugar cookies, in preparation for a cookie decorating date I'm having with some friends from church tomorrow.

First is the big red mat, which is from Tupperware.  This plastic baking mat is super helpful in keeping the counter clean and those big white circles are very helpful when making pastry as it guides you to the proper size for your pie plate.  For cookies, with a little flour added, you have a perfect non-stick surface and you don't have to worry about cutting the counter with the cookie cutters.  Bonus!

The large white tube is my rolling pin.  This big plastic tube works perfectly with the spacers (the other white "sticks" in the picture).  The spacers are used on either side of the dough you're working with to make a uniform thickness for pastry or cookies.  They really help in keeping all the cookies looking the same.  The rolling pin itself can be used with different types of doughs, as well as for rolling fondant icing (which I've yet to do).

These are just a few of the instruments that ease the baking process for me.

Dessert, Anyone?

I woke up this morning with the anticipation of one of my nephews coming to join us for dinner.  Thinking to myself, "Self... what would make him feel really special?" I remembered what he'd told me on one of his last few visits.  That visit I had wanted to surprise him with his favorite pie, only to realize that cherry is not only NOT his favorite, but one he doesn't like at all.  Oops!  So in light of that faux pas, today became "Favorite Pie ~ Take Two" and hopefully tonight it will be a big hit.

Now I realize that technically pie is not a cookie, cake or cupcake, but Oh My since it's my site I can bake and blog whatever I want. This recipe is super easy and fully "manufactured" thanks to the Crisco and Dr. Oetker products I used to make... Lemon Meringue Pie.  If you've never made a lemon meringue pie before, don't be intimated.  It's much easier than you might think.

I always make my own pastry which is where my favorite pie-making ingredient (besides Cake and Pastry flour) comes into play.  

My paternal Grandma was a fabulous piemaker and she swore by Crisco so that is what I've always used.  Tradition or habit?  Whose to know after all this time!  Making pastry is fairly easy with practice but I often find the most difficult part is putting it into the pie plate without it breaking apart.  Sometimes I'll lay the ball of pastry between two sheets of plastic wrap to roll out.  This makes transfer very simple, but today I just rolled out my pie shell on my handy Tupperware rolling mat.  Do you have one of these?  If not you really must.  I use it to roll and cut my cookies and  pie dough.  My Mom had one when I was growing up and it's one of the few Tupperware musts I own!  Here's what it looks like:

Once my pie shell was baked (following the directions on the Crisco box) I let it cool.  Hours later I followed directions on my box of Dr. Oetker's Shirriff Lemon Pie Filling before pouring it into the cooled shell.

Again, I let the pie cool on the counter before making the meringue with the leftover egg whites (the egg yolks are in the lemon pie filling) and sugar.  Once it nicely baked in the 350F oven it came out looking like this:

Dessert Anyone?