Introducing the Secret Ingredients That Promise to Elevate Your Kitchen Game
Skip the grocery store, make these essentials from scratch, and amaze your guests with your skills (recipes included).
Grocery stores are convenient; sometimes the frantic pace of life calls for picking up a tub of frosting and a boxed cake mix.
These cheap, pre-made products litter the store shelves to the point where most of us don’t think twice about using them.
But what do we sacrifice by saving a few minutes?
Incredible shelf life? That tub of frosting will keep in your pantry for years. Is that a good thing?
Cost? Perhaps, but powerhouse staples like flour and sugar tend to be economical in the sense that they are the base for many recipes.
Taste? Certainly not. Just as no one would mistake tomatoes grown in a backyard garden, for grocery produce. Cooking from scratch is unmistakably better.
I’m not advocating for spending an entire Sunday in the kitchen stirring pasta sauce and making noodles from scratch, though the result would be amazing. Start small instead with these simple recipes. Often it’s just one ingredient that is needed.
Frosting, secret ingredient — confectioners’ sugar
Since this article began by attacking pre-made frosting, let’s start there. Icing or frosting, whatever you call it, is so easy to make it’s a little embarrassing to buy it.
A simple buttercream frosting will take about ten minutes and uses four ingredients. Five if you count a pinch of salt. The single hardest step is to put out the butter ahead of time so that it softens. Either a hand mixer or stand mixer will work for this recipe.
Buttercream Frosting
This recipe is enough to frost 12–16 cupcakes or a thin layer on a 9×13 inch sheet cake.
- 1 cup butter, room temperature. Unsalted is preferred.
- 4 cups confectioners’ (powdered) sugar
- 1/4 cup heavy cream, half-and-half, or whole milk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- salt, just a pinch
- With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, the heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to medium-high speed and beat for 2 full minutes. Add up to 1/2 cup more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin or another tablespoon of cream if frosting is too thick. Add a pinch of salt if frosting is too sweet.
- Use immediately or cover tightly and store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer.
Pie crust…secret ingredient — Crisco shortening
I avoided making pies, my favorite dessert, for ages because I thought pie crust was tricky.
Let me assure you, it isn’t.
The very first time I attempted a pie crust, I didn’t use any fancy equipment, and it turned out perfectly. Scores of pie crusts later, I invested in a pastry blender to save my wrists, but a fork will work just fine.
I use all-purpose flour and the result is a light and flaky crust. Having made crusts with both butter and Crisco, though I prefer to use unprocessed food when possible, butter is an absolute beast to incorporate into the flour. Here is where the soft oiliness of Crisco shines.
This pie crust freezes beautifully. In fact, I think it improves the taste.
Pastry for 2 Crust Pie:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup Crisco (shortening)
- 5 to 7 tablespoons ice water
Spoon flour lightly into a cup. Level off. Sift flour and salt together in bowl. Cut in Crisco with pastry blender until mixture forms particles slightly larger than grains of rice. Sprinkle with ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Toss gently with fork until all particles are uniformly moistened and will barely stick together. Shape mixture into a ball. Divide into two equal halves. Roll out each 1/2 on lightly floured pastry cloth.
Makes 1 (9-inch) double crust.
When transferring the dough to the pie plate, I recommend lightly rolling it around the rolling pin and then unfurling the dough once you have it positioned over your plate. If it tears while transferring, just squish it back together. Nobody will see the bottom crust, and the taste will be divine.
Preserves, secret ingredient — fruit pectin
Why did I think this was difficult? Making preserves always seemed like an arduous process involving large batches, steaming mason jars, and the threat of botulism. The idea never occurred to me that I could simply whip up one batch and stick it in an old jelly jar.
Once I realized this, the joy of making my own preserves opened up. Only one weirdo ingredient is needed, fruit pectin, and it can be purchased in bulk. But pectin is the key to thickening your preserves.
Normally now I would attach a recipe, but honestly, I don’t use one. Here’s what you do:
Heat a decent amount of fresh or frozen fruit, I find cherries thicken particularly well, in a pot. As the fruit begins to simmer and release juice, I start to smash up the big pieces with a potato masher. A pestle would also work. Leave a few chunks of fruit though, that’s what makes the preserves tasty.
Once the fruit has started to soften, add an obscene amount of sugar, a package of pectin, and seriously, that’s it.
I usually need a cup of sugar, it looks horrible going in the pot, but is needed to thicken the preserves. Besides, when you think of the typical dab of preserves normally eaten, the amount of sugar doesn’t seem so bad.
Feel free to get fancy with your preserves. I find that elderberry syrup pairs well with peaches and dried rose petals compliment strawberries.
Your single batch of preserves should last for a few months in the fridge, depending on how fast you eat it, and the taste will be of fruit instead of cloyingly sweet sugar.
Once you start making your own, a new world of “I can make this” opens up. The trick is to start small, keep it simple, and let the flavor speak for itself.
