Here are some highlights from this past weekend’s meals:
fried calamari (by Mr. Y2K) and panzanella salad (by me)
The calamari was excellent…and very much restaurant quality.
Oven-baked panko-herb crusted chicken (by Mr. Y2K)…with some stragglers from the panzanella salad
Blueberry cornmeal pancakes with orange maple butter , andouille sausage, scrambled eggs
Who reins supreme (for red velvet)? Continue reading and find out…
I was in search of the ultimate red velvet recipe. I did an analysis of 8 different recipes (yes, I really did) and compared their ingredients. Generally, they all had the same ingredients with similar proportions. However, there was a difference in the fat ingredient –> butter and oil. The recipe I used before contained butter and tasted great, so I was a bit skeptical about the oil. I decided to put the two ingredients to the test.
Left contains butter, right contains oil
Just based on looks alone, I preferred the one with the oil. It developed a nice dome, richer red color, and more air bubbles. The one with butter just spread out and was flat on top.
flat top vs round top
This is what the insides look like:
with butter
with oil
The one with oil definitely created more/bigger air pockets in the batter.
Now, for the fun part…Mr. Y2K and I did a taste test. The flavors were pretty much the same – all very yummy. However, we both preferred the texture of the oil batter. It was much more moist and spongy. I wanted to have more people taste test so I topped them with a cream cheese frosting (butter recipe w/ chocolate hearts) and sent them off with Mr. Y2K to take to his office.
Final results? Oil: 11, butter:1
OIL wins!
