alexist

On Thursday I baked a cheesecake to take to clarisinda and papaspoof's.

The last couple of times I made it, it cracked badly, and after last time I discovered why: the recipe says to bake it at 350F. Cheesecakes should never be baked above 325.

So this time I decided to try to fix the cooking so it wouldn't crack. In addition to lowering it to 325 I decided to use a water-bath, which is supposed to be a foolproof method.

End result: one small crack in the topping. I'm not sure if this is due to the whipped egg whites in the batter: the cake rises, then sinks, which contributes to cracking. The water bath should moderate this (and it did). Someday, when I've got the equipment and space, I'm going to do a test with whipped and unwhipped whites to see how much they really lighten the cake. I've always thought that the whites made the texture lighter, but perhaps they also make it less creamy, and it would be nice to have a side by side comparison.

Now, this caused a slight problem with the timing--namely, with the new temperature, I had to guess! And I guessed slightly off--I think it should've been in 5 minutes less, maybe a bit more. It wasn't curdled, but the texture wasn't as smooth as it should've been.

I also tried using a vanilla pod (with a small amount of extract just in case) as I'd seen in some recipes. I won't bother again. I thought I'd get a richer vanilla flavor, but without steeping (as in custard) it just wasn't worth it.

Also the pan was slightly too small, but it wasn't all my fault ;) It's supposed to be a 10" springform. I had a choice of 24 or 26cm. (Thinking about it, 26 IS right... I thought 25cm, but really, it's 25.4 ;) ) I thought that a 26cm wouldn't fit in my roasting tin, and it was a cm either way and should be OK, so I got the 24. The topping overflowed a bit, though not catastrophically. As it turns out, my "10-inch" springform at home is actually 26cm anyway! The shops label by inches, but Kaiser manufactures in cm--and only uses even numbers. I knew this was true of the tinplate series, because they have the original labels on them, but the La Forme doesn't. I discovered this later when browsing cookware sites. (It's really annoying actually, because I use a springform to mold my tiramisu. My cake tins are American sized, 9" or about 23cm. 24cm tins are slightly too large and it gets very messy. However, I saw an adjustable cake ring when I went to buy the springform this time, which would solve the problem. :-) )

Yesterday I baked buttermilk biscuits. They were yummy and I ate the whole pan. I would've made another batch today but Waitrose was out of buttermilk. I wish it came in reclosable containers, instead of little half-pint pots with a foil top. (It's also thicker here, I guess because they use whole milk instead of low-fat, but this isn't really a problem.)

Last night we went to see the HHGTTG film. It was OK, not brilliant. Problems:

1) Casting. I thought Sam Rockwell would be good as Zaphod, all giant grin and hyperactivity. Instead, I found him intensely irritating in a bad way. (Rather than the good way that Zaphod should be.) Mos Def was ok, not bad. Zooey Deschanel, OK. But NOT BRITISH!

2) Plot. The first book is a bit short on it even by HHGTTG standards, since it's only radio episodes 1-4. However, they took a bad tack with it. They added extra plot, rather than add bits from the 2nd book, presumably because the end of the 1st book is a good end-point (and incorporating later material becomes a problem: do you stick with the radio/TV timeline, use the book timeline, or what?) This would have been OK if the extra material had been funny, and too much of it wasn't. (Pointless journey to Vogsphere.) They also eliminated too many of the descriptive passages/jokes that made the book and radio series so good.

3) Zaphod's 2nd head. Nuff said.

4) Pointless Arthur/Trillian romantic bits. The whole point is that Arthur DOESN'T get the girl! (Oh, and Trillian was supposed to be incredibly clever and confident, and she wasn't in the film.)

Plus points:

1) Alan Rickman was perfect as Marvin.

2) Martin Freeman made a pretty good Arthur.

3) They did insert a few bits that worked, such as an explanation (albeit not a very good one) for why Ford takes Arthur. Douglas Adams simply worked from the assumption that the story needed a human, without bothering to insert an explanation for why he's there. And Ford turning up with a cartful of beer was a decent substitute for his argument with Mr. Prosser.

4) League of Gentlemen. (Speaking of which, got the trailer for the LoG film. Here's hoping it won't suck, as so many things made from TV shows are.)

5) Stephen Fry did a very good job as The Book.

I'm trying not to be too much of a sad fangirl. I wouldn't have minded changes if they had been funny and in the spirit of the book but too many of them weren't :(

One of the fun things about going to a United Synagogue shul is hat-spotting. Many US congregants, and most at mine, are not observant; they only wear hats for services rather than covering their heads all the time. Since they're only doing it out of respect, rather than a desire to cover every strand of hair, they feel free to wear fashionable stiff hats. And they often follow the British habit of wearing quite elaborate ones, with bits stuck on the front and wide brims and so on.

This week, I saw an all time winner. She was channeling Bjork at the Oscars. Only it was on her head, not her shoulders. I almost wished you were allowed to use a camera on Shabbat so I could get a photo. :-)