The Christmas season and the holidays always seem to cause a little bit of stress around our house and so I always like to try and have some holiday solutions if you will. We call them holiday hacks.
You come across a recipe that calls for cake flour. Did you know that you can substitute all-purpose flour, one cup for one cup, and a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch? So if a recipe called for one cup of cake flour, you would take two tablespoons of all-purpose flour out and add in two tablespoons of cornstarch, and you would have your own cake flour.
Also recipes this time of years have self-rising flower. Self-rising flour can be made with one cup of flour, a teaspoon and a half of baking powder and a half a teaspoon of salt.
Another thing that I think is really important for people to keep in mind, it's really really helpful when you're making candy, is to do an altitude adjustment.
At higher altitudes we don't need to bring our candy to as high a temperature. So one way to figure it is two degrees for every 1000 feet above sea level, you would subtract off of your candy recipe.
So for example, if I'm at 4500 feet in altitude, that would be nine degrees because it's two degrees for every thousand feet that I would subtract off. So nine degrees off of my candy recipe.
A lot of times this time of year would get really good buys on citrus. To keep your citrus better longer, store it in an airtight bag in the refrigerator and that helps.
Then also on all of your berries, if you'll do a rinse of three parts water to one part vinegar, you'll be amazed at how long your berries will keep.
I hope these have been a couple of tips that will be helpful for you in easing the burden of the holidays and maybe even saving you a dollar or two.
