Allie reinmann

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Use your fingers on opposite sides to hook the center of the foil and parchment. Bring about an inch forward to overlap the bottom. Then press it down into a crease. Use your fingers to press the pleat and crease the paper and the foil together. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Now you have a pleat so your pudding can release steam without popping the seal. Flip the sheet over so the parchment is face-down and arrange it over your pudding bowl so the crease is in the center. Clamp the foil down tightly all around. The pudding bowl is covered, the lid is sealed with string, and there is an optional string handle. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Use the kitchen string to go around the edge of the bowl twice. Make sure it’s as tight as possible without ripping anything. Tie the string. Now you can go around the bowl and trim all but an inch of the overhanging foil and parchment. Tuck the foil under to contain the parchment and press it against the bowl to tidy it up. You can make a little “handle” of string if you want, but this is optional. Just thread more kitchen string across the bowl, anchoring on the string you used to seal the foil. Be careful it doesn’t pull the main string off though. It can help later when you need to pull the hot bowl out of the pot.Steam itTo steam the pudding, you need to have something at the bottom so the bowl isn’t touching direct heat. That could be a steamer basket if you have a short one, but keep in mind that the lid has to close tightly once the pudding is added. I didn’t have a steamer basket short enough to do the trick, so I used the ring of a mason jar lid. Put the pudding on top of your steamer (or jar ring), and use a kettle to pour hot water down the side of the pot. You want to pour in enough water to come up the sides of

The bowl about an inch, or halfway up the side. Take care that the waterline does not come up to your foil lid. My steamer "basket" is a mason jar lid's ring. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann The first thing I did was immediately pour water on top of my foil lid. That was awesome. (Don’t do that.) Luckily my lid was secure so I mopped it up and then carefully added water to my pot. I covered it with a lid and snapped the heat on. I started on medium heat and waited about five minutes until I heard the water boiling. Then I lowered the heat down to a low flame. I only wanted a simmer. As long as it’s steaming, we’re in good shape. I set my timer for five hours, and got on with my day. I used a kettle to pour water into my steaming contraption. All it needs now is a lid. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Keep in mind that you don’t want the pot to boil dry, so after an hour open the lid to see if you need to top up the water. If your lid is tight, you might only need to top it up once or twice. My lid was kind of loose. I could always see steam escaping out the edge. I kept my water kettle full and hot so once an hour I could top up the water level. Once the time was finished, I turned off the heat and took out the pudding to cool on a wire rack. There’s not a good way to check if your pudding is done. You shouldn’t open the top because it would be hard to seal back up again if it needed more time. But I wasn’t worried. Frankly, if it’s not cooked through in five hours then something is wrong with that cake and more time won’t fix it. The finished pudding has risen fully, is slightly pulling away from the sides of the bowl, and is not soggy. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann After cooling it for about 20 minutes,

This crescent dough technique is the key to quick and easy pigs in a blanket. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Pigs in a blanket seem like easy comfort food because the recipe only requires two ingredients, but no one tells you that you’ll be cutting and rolling sticky strips of dough around wet, slippery dogs for 45 minutes. Forget all that nonsense: There’s an easier way to make pigs in a blanket, and it uses the crescent roll dough as more of a blanket than ever before.How to make easy pigs in a blanket with crescent doughHere’s how it works: Unfurl your dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and divide it into two strips lengthwise, along the perforation. Pinch up the diagonal perforations to seal them. If you bought the kind sold as a single sheet, first, brava, because I rarely find them in stores; and second, use a knife to cut it in half lengthwise, leaving you with two long rectangles. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Line up your piggies along the bottom edge. You can see nine dogs in the picture above, but later I squeezed in a few more per strip; 10 or 11 dogs will fit across the final dough with about a half-inch of space between them. Now it’s time to make a decision: You can wrap the dogs completely in pastry, in which case, you should place them so they are inside the line of the dough. You can also leave the end of the mini weenie out of the blanket. Both preparations have their merits: The fully wrapped dogs bake up tender and soft, and hold in the juices of the sausage, while the peek-a-boo variety are a little drier, and have a pleasant chew, because they’ve been exposed to the oven’s direct heat. Top: Chopstick pressing between the dough, bottom: pressed, sliced, and beginning to shape. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Starting in the middle, pull the far side of the dough up and over the dogs. (Covering them completely? You’ll have to give it a stretch.) If your dough rips over the perforations, pinch and press it back together—it’s forgiving stuff. Next, use a chopstick, your tiny pinky finger, or the butt of a paring or butter knife to firmly press the dough between each weenie to seal the two layers together. Cut through this sealed spot. If you’re making pull-apart dogs, like I