It's not the book, it's the accessories

My friend Emily gave me a cookbook for Christmas, BakeWise by Shirley Corriher. Ms. Corriher is a bio-chemist, the go-to scientist when a professional chef has something go wrong and needs to know why. Emily knew I, with a degree in chemistry and a what-if frame of mind, would enjoy this book and that she herself would also. Alas, it proved so popular she could only find one copy pre-Christmas, and I was the lucky recipient. In turn, when the shelves were restocked in January, I found her a copy, used a 40% off coupon, and made everyone happy.

But back to the book. It was a gift, but so far, it hasn't been free. First off, I was fascinated that one could make bread without the yeast being exposed to 120-degree liquid, that 68-degrees, given the right set of circumstances, was sufficient. Somehow, that just didn't seem right, and in order to run her experiment and see if I got the same result, I needed to buy a different yeast, the quick-rise kind. Four hours later, I had 4 extraordinary bagettes. Unreal. I'm not going to be turning the old kitchen into a French bakery any time soon, but should the occasion arise (so to speak), I'd consider making them again.

Then there were the biscuits and the need for White Lily Self-Rising Flour. White Lily is made from soft Southern wheat, as opposed to the hard Northern red variety found in bread flours. It took a trip to Dallas to obtain the White Lily--and the biscuits were incredible.

Now I was on a roll. I make a good pound cake, but here, at the front of the book, was the recipe for the ultimate one. But I needed potato starch, an ingredient tagged by the book as 'kosher'. Well, I was game to try and find it at the local store and sure enough, it was there with the other small mill offerings like semolina and oat flour. Now that I had the ingredients and the regular all-purpose flour, I was ready to see how this pound cake stood up against my favorite.

Stand up, isn't quite the word, as it collapsed in a heap. My husband, bless his heart, declared it of good flavor and has eaten it anyway. But not to be out-maneuvered, I have repeated this experiment today. So far, one side has collapsed to half its height. It's been a graceful collapse and I resisted slicing until it was fully cool. The taste is good, full of vanilla, but this just isn't going to be the ultimate pound cake for our family. Anyway, it took 6 bowls and 7 measuring cups to make it.

But besides adding extra ingredients to my kitchen shelves, I've bought a baking stone, two instant-read thermometers (didn't realize I needed digital until the first one was out of the package), two 9 x 2 inch non-stick cake pans which I probably should have owned anyway, CookWise, her first book from 1997, and regular White Lily flour because I was at the store... and why not.

Why not, indeed. That's the reason I've already picked out my next experiment, uh, project: Boston Cream Pie. From scratch. I wonder how many bowls and cups it'll take.