A couple of days ago I was just about to leave work when I got chatting with Kate - cant quite recall what started the conversation but somehow it got onto my web plans. Anyway as she was listing the things she thought would be useful she told me the story of how only just recently she had learned the importance of ICE COLD water for making good pastry. One of the wise women in her family had showed her.
I told her that story reminded me of my colleague Hilary a couple of years back, who shared with us over morning tea, that she had discovered the tip that you should stir baking powder before you use it. Kate had never heard this before - and I was bit bemused because this useful bit of information can be found (along with many others) along the bottom of the pages of that great New Zealand institution - the Edmonds Cookbook.
Later than evening I was telling my daughters about my discussion with Kate and they too expressed surprise and a certain level of indignation that such useful pieces of information were being denied their generation (although Ana did feel quite virtuous about the fact that she usually shakes the baking powder before she uses it)
Tonight I was looking for a recipe and ended up tidying the bookshelf. I happened upon my old Edmonds cookbook and would you believe - at the bottom of the page it was open to - was that important little snippet of knowledge so many of my Gen Y and millennial friends felt deprived of. I must have a look (and will update you) to see if it is still in the new editions. I remember feeling quite upset when I discovered that, rather than remaining a sacrosanct institution, the recipes are actually changed on a regular basis in the Edmonds book. Mine is still old enough to contain such classics as Spanish Cream and Marshmallow Shortcake!
So here, from a well-used and smudged 1978 Deluxe Edition, is the famous baking powder tip...
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