cooking with American shortcuts

[tielan]

The down side of a lot of American recipes is that they have 'shortcuts' that aren't available in other countries.

Graham cracker crumbs? Nope.

Sugar cookie mix? Nope.

Cherry pie filling? Nope.

And then once you add up all these NOPE items, the calculation begins: can you substitute with something else?

TBH Graham cracker crumbs is the easiest thing for me to substitute. The Arnott's NICE (pronounced like the Italian city) biscuits are our preferred cheesecake crumb crust. But Sugar cookie mix? Those may be available, but not easily and I wouldn't know where to start. Same with cherry pie filling - would blended, pitted cherries do? How liquid would it need to be?

Pumpkin pie filling? Don't make me laugh. You're not even talking about blended up pumpkin flesh, you're talking about pumpkin-flavoured custard which is an entirely different kettle of fish!

A stick of butter? Welp, that's unhelpful in other countries. As it turns out a 'stick of butter' is about 100g. Probably closer to 110g.

*sigh*

Comments

[scribblemyname]

Pumpkin pie filling!? You can't just buy that here either. Unless you want the blended up pumpkin flesh only.

[conuly]

Can't you? Sometimes I have trouble finding only puree, all I can get is pie filling. Which is useful when I want to make pie, I guess, but somewhat less useful when I want to make pasta sauce with pumpkin mixed in.

[scribblemyname]

The puree is easy to get here in fall. The only time you MIGHT find any filling is right before Thanksgiving, maybe, but in general, I only see puree.

[tielan]

Blended up pumpkin flesh would be easier. At least I can make an educated guess that that would be baked pumpkin.

[conuly]

When we use pumpkin puree we're using puree from pie pumpkin. It's denser and less watery than many other varieties of pumpkin. Instead of using pumpkin like you buy in the store, I'd try butternut squash if you can get it - that's closer to the right texture.

[tielan]

I'm not sure what 'pie' pumpkin is - we don't have anything that's designated 'pie' pumpkin here. What we have are butternuts (yellow skin, a bulb at one end) or kents/japs (blue-green skin, sometimes mottled, like a round cushion). Or the blue-grey pumpkins that have just been labelled 'grey pumpkin'.

(We don't tend to call it 'squash' - 'squash' are small yellow UFO thingies.)

Although these days I mostly grow my own pumpkin or swap for pumpkins that others have grown. Right now, I have one and a quarter blue/grey pumpkin. Also a really long one in the same family called a trombocino - although this is only about a foot and a half long.

One of the links above recommended baking the pumpkin twice - once to get it soft, the second time to reduce the liquid in it.

Maybe I'll do that tomorrow...

[conuly]

As I understand it, all winter squash are essentially varietals of the same plant.

[wpadmirer]

Sugar cookie dough is easy to make - it's basically flower, eggs, and sugar. I could find you a recipe.

Cherry pie filling is cherries in a heavy, sugary syrup. You could probably make it by adding blended cherries with a lot of sugar (or sugar syrup) to a bowl of cherries.

A stick of butter is 113 grams.

[wpadmirer]

Sugar cookie recipe:

Cream butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and baking soda; gradually beat into creamed mixture.

Hope this helps. I'd forgotten vanilla.

[tielan]

It's a bit short of measurements, but I guess I could improvise.

[wpadmirer]

D'OH!

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

[tielan]

:)

Pumpkin pie filling substitution

[raine]

https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/38226/using-fresh-pumpkin-as-a-substitute-for-canned

Hope that helps. Also look at the article that's linked in the site above.

Re: Pumpkin pie filling substitution

[tielan]

Ooh, helpful! Thanks.

[theladyscribe]

Cherry pie filling is made from sour/tart cherries with lots of sugar and possibly gelatin. If you've never had it, it's tangy-sweet with a slightly sour bite (though it's more sweet than sour). You could probably substitute cherry preserves - add some liquid (water, white wine, or cherry juice) to it if the preserves are very thick. You can also make your own by cooking pitted sour cherries + sugar into a syrup and adding gelatin or pectin to thicken it a bit.

[tielan]

It's more the frustration of having it advertised as "easy [insert easy thing here]!!" and then discovering that half the ingredients are not 'easy' at all, but complex, multi-step processes.

[copracat]

Yeah, sour cherries have a very short season in Australia - pretty much three weeks in January - are smaller than grocer-sold sweet cherries and are a bugger to pit due to being small.

Oh, and you can't buy them in supermarkets or grocers. You have to go to the farms, or find a farm that delivers. The people I get them from deliver on one day in January.

[tielan]

See, these things I did not know. I only know that you can get sour cherries imported in a jar, and have never seen them otherwise in the shops.

[conuly]

If you can get pumpkin puree you can make pumpkin pie filling by adding... oh, milk, an egg, some sugar, vanilla, and some spices. I'm gonna say ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and a hint of allspice.

A stick of butter is exactly a quarter pound, or eight tablespoons (where "tablespoon" is a precise measurement - 16 tablespoons make one cup, two cups make one pint, each tablespoon is made of three teaspoons.)

[tielan]

...it's the right season for pumpkins around here... :D

[deird1]

So very frustrating. I usually restrict my online recipes to the Taste website for exactly that reason.

[tielan]

Yeah, that is the advantage of Taste....

[eggsbenedict]

Just one visit to Costco! :)

But yeeeah this is why I have a reliable handful of sites I tend to cook from.

[tielan]

Ooh, costco!

(If you go at some point, can you get me some pork ribs, american style, for smoking?)

[eggsbenedict]

I didn't renew my membership but a friend (who you've met) joined up, so she's already offered to take me with her - I'll let you know when we're going. :D

But if you want those ribs, you can get those at the meat market near our place too! Maybe we can go one weekend?

[tielan]

The problem is that what's labelled as "american style ribs" is not what actually BBQs well - there's a whole layer of meat and fat on top of the ribs in actual American style BBQ ribs that, in Australia, gets carved off and turned into the 'short cut bacon' that we're so fond of. What's left is 'ribs' but not the meaty kind that Americans would recognise and which would do really well in a BBQ smoker.

However, apparently you can get racks of ribs at costco that still have the layer of meat and fat that hasn't been cut off... Hence my question. :)

(I mean, I could still come out one weekend! >D)