america's test kitchen

Cooking With Christie:

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Inspiration: I enjoy make-ahead-meals. When coming home after a long trip, contending with a head cold, or simply suffering from brain fog — these freezer staples can be a lifesaver at dinner time. When, for reasons I don’t fully comprehend, it gives me a boost to put something on the table that’s slightly fancier than a tuna sandwich and a side of fruit. 

However, there’s one make-ahead-meal I’ve consistently struggled to make work — enchiladas. 

I’ve tried a half-dozen recipes, and they all had the same problem — the flour tortillas lose all their texture and become an overly soft, slightly slimy mess. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still edible, but it’s not necessarily a pleasurable palate experience.

Yet, I’m unwilling to give up on my dream of make-ahead enchiladas.

Then, just a few days back, whilst perusing my cookbook library looking for inspiration, I came across another, new-to-me version of make-ahead enchiladas. 

The book I found this recipe in.

And this version gave me hope.

Why? It calls for the sauce to be frozen separately from the pan of enchiladas. Moreover, you cook the tortillas and filling first — then — add the sauce and cheese. Thus, allowing the tortillas to crisp up before adding the wet ingredients.

Trying not to get my hopes too high, I started cooking….and…drumroll please…they turned out great! There was just a tad bit of sogginess, which I’m reasonably certain can be eliminated on the next go round! 

Woot! I’m definitely going to make these again!

The spices I used in the sauce, my MacGyvered pan set up when I ran out of space in my two pyrex dishes, and a glimpse of the fillingI used before rolling up the tortilla.

Helpful Hint From Me to You: This recipe calls for the chicken to be cut into strips. A perfectly fine method, however, I found it works better if the thighs are left whole during the initial cook, then shredded. This allows you to roll the tortillas tighter around the filling — which helps ward off soggy tortilla syndrome. 

Second, you can add more veggies than called for in the recipe. This not only allows you to stretch the filling even further, but also helps hide said green bits from the picky eaters in your life. Though again to ward off that dangerous moisture, if you’re using fresh veggies, pan-fry them first. If you decide to use a frozen veggie blend: Defrost them in the microwave first. Then, either use a slotted spoon or simply dump them onto a paper-towel-lined plate to remove the excess moisture. Either method works, but just remember to add them to the chicken after you’ve shredded it.

Agatha Christie’s Canon of Characters: Admittedly, it’s a bit difficult to see any of Christie’s sleuths making enchiladas. That being said, I think Captain Hastings, after his stint of living in Argentina, might appreciate the heat and texture of this dish!

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025

Cooking With Christie: Trying Something New Adjacent

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Inspiration: Honey-Wheat Dinner Rolls

Endeavoring to improve my bread game, I decided to try these honey-wheat dinner rolls. A tad trepidatious, as this style of roll was one I absolutely loathed eating back in grade school; I still decided to give this recipe a go — mainly because I couldn’t recall WHY I disliked them.

In the past, I’ve struggled with consistently producing golden brown well-risen rolls. Pull-apart rolls, in particular, pose an even bigger challenge. 

I had no clue why….until now.

Turns out the reasons for my floundering was, of course, self-inflicted. Thanks to America’s Test Kitchen’s book, Bread Illustrated, I discovered that not only was I not putting enough of the raw dough balls into the pan when getting ready to bake them. (Apparently, their personal bubble is much smaller than mine.)

I also discovered I was using the entirely wrong kind of yeast! 

Never once did it cross my mind that instant or rapid-rise yeast differs from regular old active dry yeast. However, I did discover, through trial and error over the years, that my bakes always seemed to come out better when I bloomed the yeast first and then added the rest of the ingredients. I’m unsure why I finally twigged to the discrepancies between types of yeasts while reading the ingredient list this time, but I did. Thus, I’m passing on my slightly mortifying ‘aha!’ moment in case it helps someone else.

Other than still blooming the yeast first, as I’d no rapid-rise yeast in the house, I followed the recipe to the letter. And, as you can tell from the pic above, the rolls turned out great! 

And I finally recalled why my younger self disliked them. 

It turns out, even back in the day, I didn’t like the extra sweetness the honey gave the roll, especially when served next to a savory dish. 

Changing It Up: The next time I whipped them up, I swapped the honey out for Barley Malt Syrup, which not only has a similar consistency to honey, but it’s not nearly as sweet. Moreover, its malty taste pairs well with wheat. 

The second iteration was definitely an upgrade! (In our household at least.)

From Me To You: If you use the King Arthur Climate Blend Wheat Flour in these rolls, be prepared to add a touch more AP flour or bread flour to the dough. Otherwise, the dough is too loose and sticky to form proper rolls and looks nothing like the nice dough ball pictured in Bread Illustrated. No clue why, but so far, it’s happened every time I’ve made this recipe.

Christie: Though I don’t think these rolls are quite posh enough for Poirot, I can easily see Hastings cleaning the last remnants of stew or soaking up the last bit of soup broth left in his bowl!

(Sorry, I don’t have link to the recipe. ATK charges for the bulk of their recipes, so either you can purchase Bread Illustrated, subscribe to their website, or try a similar recipe from someplace else. I will say ATK’s Bread Illustrated is absolutely fantastic and worth purchasing if you’re new or an experienced baker!)

Cooking With Christie: Cupcakes!

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This Week’s Recipe: Red Velvet Cupcakes & Cream Cheese Frosting

Inspiration: Another birthday girl at my husband’s office asked if I could whip up some red velvet cupcakes for her special day if it weren’t too much trouble. After a quick trip to the shops for a tub of sour cream, the only ingredient missing from my pantry, I set about whipping up said sweet & tangy treat. 

My favorite bit of making the cupcakes! Adding the red dye infused chocolate to the pale batter.

Hunting for a recipe, I found a great one from America’s Test Kitchen’s The Perfect Cake Magazine from a few years back. (Click here for the recipe.) 

The Magazine where I found the recipe.

Christie: I thought A Murder Is Announced was a great choice, as there was a birthday party within the narrative! Plus, I think Miss Marple would’ve enjoyed whipping this cake up after it crossed the pond during/after WWII, of course.

P.S.: Sprinkles make everything fancier, when room temperature butter, cream cheese, and sour cream is a tad to warm to keep the frosting tip’s definition!

Cooking With Christie: The Best Compliment my Bakes have Ever Received!

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This Week’s Recipe: Lemon Bars

Inspiration: Sticking with the recent lemon theme, I decided to make some lemon bars for a going away party. And the recipient, who originally hails from Maryland, gave me the best compliment my bakes ever received by calling them, “Slap Your Momma Good!”

She loved them so much that after one taste, she secreted the entire pan away (which was a-o-kay as I’d baked them for her) and took them home to (maybe) share with her husband.

This recipe isn’t for the faint of heart. It requires nine eggs, 12 tablespoons of butter, and 6-8 lemons, amongst other ingredients, to make. When making the lemon curd, you also need to constantly stir it as it bubbles over the heat; otherwise, you risk burning it. You also need to make sure to have all the ingredients out and prepped when you stick the crust in the oven, as it is critical to pour the curd onto a hot crust!

Where I first found the recipe.

But, my-oh-my, is the effort worth it!

Helpful Hint: The recipe calls for one to bake these in a nine-inch square pan. For a better ratio of filling to crust, I suggest one use an eight-inch pan instead. It requires a few extra minutes in the oven. However, it is utterly worth it!

Christie: Whilst these bars look humble, I believe the divine lemon taste would easily win Poirot over! I can also see Miss Marple asking Cherry, her live-in girl-of-all-jobs, to whip up a pan of these bars on a special occasion!

Cooking With Christie: CAKE!

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This Week’s Recipe: Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake

Inspiration: Recently, one of my husband’s coworkers left for greener pastures, and he asked if I could bake one or two things for their going away party.

The theme of the gathering: When life gives you lemons…

Not one to say no when given a chance to bake, I hit my cookbook library and found (amongst others) America’s Test Kitchen’s recipe for a Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake! What first drew me in is that it’s glazed — not frosted. Since I needed to complete another four bakes that day, I found this an attractive feature, and it turned out beautifully on the very first try!

One of the keys to baking a cake from scratch, I learned from the Great British Bakeoff and repeated in the instructions — you need to make sure your butter, buttermilk, and eggs are all at room temperature when you start assembling the batter….then recall you’ve set them aside. Since it takes A WHILE for them to reach the requested ambient temp.

Ask me how I know.

Fortunately, since I was whipping up all kinds of other stuff, this step didn’t prove a problem….for once.

As for the required cake flour, don’t let that intimidate you — if you sift 1 cup of regular all-purpose flour twice, then take out 1 Tablespoon, you’ve got one cup of cake flour.

Helpful Hint: You don’t need all the glaze the recipe calls for. If you halve this portion of the recipe, you’ll still have more than enough to thoroughly coat your cake top!

Christie: Tangy, lemony, and not overly sweet. I can see Tuppence baking this cake as a treat for Tommy and their kids on a random Saturday in Spring!

(Someday I’ll manage to consistently put the right book in my baking photos….But today’s not that day.)

Cooking With Christie: Pumpkin Spice Icebox Cookies

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Inspiration: I love baking holiday cookies for everyone I know –even tangentially….and my mom has a friend, who has diabetes, to whom mom invited for Christmas Eve dinner. Not wanting to leave her out of the Great Holiday Cookie Swap, I modified (ever so slightly) a recipe just for her.

Instead of making Butterscotch Cookies for her….I made Pumpkin Spice cookies using sugarless pumpkin spice chips, rather than the butterscotch, and a 1-to-1 brown sugar substitute. (Made by Swerve, in case you’re interested — it works beautifully. The only thing is, it takes a touch longer to cream with the butter, so keep that in mind.)

The recipe’s from America’s Test Kitchen cookbook: The Perfect Cookie.

The cookies turned out great!

FYI: These are icebox cookies, meaning you roll the dough into a large cylinder, then slice them to the thickness you want — after refrigerating the dough overnight. When you take the dough out from chilling, the sucker is SOLID, so you’ll need a very sharp knife, and make sure to slice them no smaller than a quarter of an inch thick: any thinner and they turn out wonky.

Learn from my mistake!

Christie: Honestly, I can see Tuppence making these for a friend or neighbor who needs a touch of sweet whilst recovering from a cold!

Cooking With Christie! Sour Cream Lemon Cookies

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Inspiration: Thanks to a sale on lemons a few weeks back, our fridge’s fruit drawer overflowed with this citrus staple, which is all well and good until you need to start using them up! So with that in mind, I made one of my husband’s all-time faves — Lemon Sour Cream Cookies.

With a subtle tang from the sour cream and an acidic hit of the lemons, this recipe is excellent. This particular one comes from America’s Test Kitchen’s The Perfect Cookie cookbook. (If you like making cookies, this book is well worth the money as I’ve never had a recipe of theirs fail — despite my best efforts. And no this is not a sponsored post, I just love this book.)

And I didn’t tweak a single thing!

Christie: These aren’t fancy cookies per se, but if the icing was piped on with care or sprinkles added on artfully, I can see Poirot indulging in one or two of these cookies as they aren’t overly sweet, and the sour cream is just unusual enough to make them interesting!

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This Week’s Recipe: Kid-Friendly Bread and Butter Pickles

Inspiration: This year, we planted several cucumber vines in our garden. Which, of course, led to a large number of fruit ripening all at the same time at the end of summer…So I decided to make pickles!

Surprisingly, I didn’t adjust the recipe a jot. And by using a recipe designed for kids — it was easy to follow and turned out beautifully the first time!

Christie: Again, I think any of Christie’s detectives would enjoy these sweet pickles. I can also see Miss Marple or Tuppence making these in their kitchens!