tv RTE News Six One PBS July 22, 2013 3:00pm-3:31pm PDT
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>> from the editors of cook's illustrated magazine, it's america's test kitchen with your host christopher kimball, featuring test kitchen chefs julia collin davison, bridget lancaster, becky hays, with adam ried in the equipment corner and jack bishop in the tasting lab. discover the secrets of america's foremost food testers and tasters, today on america's test kitchen. today on america's test kitchen, julia uncovers the secrets to the best peanut butter sandwich cookies. next, adam tests springform pans in the equipment corner. finally, bridget shows chris how to make the ultimate carrot layer cake. that's all right here on america's test kitchen. america's test kitchen is brought to you by dcs by fisher
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& paykel. america's cooks rely on innovation and culinary precision. dcs by fisher & paykel, offering premium indoor and outdoor kitchen appliances. >> and by kohler. inspiring home chefs to create a professional-level kitchen with innovative sinks, faucets, and cook centers. >> diamond crystal salt, for the professional chef and those who want to cook like one. from our family to yours, fresh from the field, foxy organic vegetables. cooking.com, an online retailer for the kitchen enthusiast. if it's not in your kitchen, try ours. wente vineyards. family owned, estate grown, sustainably farmed, since 1883. lee kum kee, providing authentic chinese sauces for the past 125 years. >> you know, a midlife crisis is always painful. and in my case it was really hard. i got a new hat, a new look, new glasses, even bought the bike
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and the messenger bag. i didn't fool anyone. but just like these tattoos don't make me a hipster, the stamp on the top of this cookie doesn't mean it's peanut butter. so let's go into the test kitchen with julia and figure out how to make a peanut butter cookie that tastes better than it looks. >> for the best peanut butter cookies, our goal was to capture the most amount of peanut butter flavor that we could find. and of course, we started by testing some other recipes. and pretty early on, it became clear to us that the most peanut flavor came from cookies that were sandwich cookies-- that is, two thin cookies with a creamy layer of peanut filling in the middle. so that's what we're going to make. and of course we're going to start with peanuts. this is one and a quarter cup of raw peanuts that we toasted and cooled. and we're going to grind them up in the food processor until they're pretty finely chopped, so that they incorporate easily into the cookie dough. all right, that looks pretty good.
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you can see here, pretty evenly finely ground. and that, of course, will deliver a bunch of peanut flavor. all right, so we're going to set these peanuts aside and start to work on the dough itself. now, this is flour. this is three quarters of a cup of all-purpose flour, which, when you think of it, isn't a lot for a cookie, but that works for us. since there's less flour in the dough, the dough's going to be a little bit wetter, so it will spread very thin. and having thin, crisp cookies is what we're after. we're going to add half a teaspoon of salt. we're going to add a teaspoon of baking soda, which is kind of an insane amount for such a small amount of flour. but that again is a good thing for us, because leaveners make the cookies rise, but if you have too much leavener, it'll deflate into a very flat, thin cookie, which is what we're after. >> so too much leavener means a thin cookie. >> that's right. >> okay. >> and we'll set this aside while we whisk together the wet ingredients and the peanut flavor. this is half a cup of creamy peanut butter. and to this we're going to add half a cup of white sugar, which gives you the crispness that you want. but a little bit of brown sugar. this is another half a cup of brown sugar. that of course helps bring out that peanut flavor.
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so a combination of the two works perfectly. three tablespoons of melted butter. and again, we want kind of a wet dough, so that it spreads really evenly. and this is three tablespoons of milk. and then we're going to add to this one whole egg. so if you compare this to a more traditional peanut butter cookie, this has less flour, less egg, which, of course, egg makes things cakey, and a little bit more liquid. so we're going after a very thin and crisp cookie. so we'll whisk this together. all right, and to this we're simply going to add the dry ingredients. >> so this is a real simple dump and stir, which i like, of course. >> me, too. all right, so you just want to fold the flour in. and then, of course, we're going to add our chopped peanuts. and if you see, this is a lot of chopped peanuts compared to the amount of dough. again, that delivers a really strong peanut flavor.
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>> mmm, smells good. >> it does, doesn't it? >> thank you. >> you're welcome. isn't that good? and that's it. so now we can portion this dough out onto baking sheets. and you only need a tablespoon of dough per cookie. and so you can just take a tablespoon measure. and this will make about 48 cookies, which translates to 24 sandwich cookies. and now if you make a lot of cookies and you have a set of these spring loaded scoops, a number 60 scoop makes also really quick work of this. and a number 60 scoop is about a tablespoon. and our last trick to getting really flat cookies, we actually have to manually press them down so that they're nice and thin and crisp. and so what you can do is with... you can wet your fingers a little bit. you can just press them down to nice flat cookies. and you want them to measure about two inches across. so i have a ruler here. i can just get one perfectly done, then use it as a guide for the others.
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>> there's no, like, bottom of a drinking glass or measuring cup trick here? >> yeah, you know, this dough is so wet that if you do that, it really just sticks. so you're better off just using some wet fingers. and here, i'm going to leave you to do the rest of these. >> i knew it. this is... >> i hope you were paying attention. >> department of things you don't want to do department, yeah. >> all right, i'm going to let you finish those while i scoop out another tray of cookies. >> all right, so there's that last one. now these trays are ready for the oven. we're going to bake them at 350 degrees for about 15 to 18 minutes. and we're looking for that they're very golden and very firm to the touch, because we want them to be nice and crisp. we'll switch and rotate those cookies halfway through baking. and while they bake, we'll portion out the rest of this dough. >> okay. >> so it's been just over 15 minutes. so the way to tell if these cookies are perfectly baked is, obviously they're evenly golden and very brown. but when you pick up the side of a cookie, you know it's very firm, and it's really baked through.
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and that's how you get very crisp cookies. >> normally with cookies, most other kinds, they should look half baked-- one of my favorite expressions-- because they'll continue to cook when they come out. but these you want to be firm. >> that's right. we want them to be very crisp. so we're going to let these cookies cool on the hot baking sheets for about five minutes to finish setting up. then we'll transfer them to the wire racks and let them cool completely. meanwhile we'll put these cookies in the oven. all right, so the cookies are all baked and fully cooled, and now it's time to make that creamy peanut filling. this is three quarters of a cup of peanut butter. and to this we're going to add three tablespoons of butter. and then we're going to put it in the microwave for about 40 seconds, until it gets good and soft. mmm. all right, so the butter's melted, and you can see the peanut butter is very soft in consistency, making it very easy to work with. now we're going to stir in a cup of confectioner's sugar. and of course you use confectioner's sugar because it melts really nicely. if you used granulated sugar, you'd taste those grains.
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all right, and that's it. here, you want to try a little? i know you do. >> oh, no, i don't want any. >> it's good, i warn you. isn't that good? all right, so what we're going to do is using a tablespoon measure, or again this number 60 scoop, which we happen to have, you're going to put it on the bottom of one cookie. and instead of spreading it around with a little offset spatula or a butter knife, we found it easy just to press it flat like that. >> oh, this has major cooking with the kids appeal. >> mm-hmm, it does. all right, so we're going to have a little assembly line going. i'm going to scoop the filling, and you are going to press it. >> once again, i have to do the hard work. >> mm-hmm. now, be gentle, because again, these cookies are very thin and crisp, and you don't want to snap them. all right, so after these cookies are all filled and sandwiched, we're going to let them sit and set for about an hour before we taste them. >> except for the odd cookie that might go missing. >> yeah, that always happens. all right, so these cookies have been setting for about an hour.
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oh. >> i'm just going to eat. you can... you provide the audio, i'll provide the visual. >> mmm. >> mmm. >> that's a good cookie. >> oh, man. that was really good. mmm. you know most peanut butter cookies that are not sandwich cookies, they're so dry. and they end up not having a lot of peanut flavor. they're moisture-sucking. >> that's right, yeah. this has real peanut flavor, and i love that creamy peanut layer in the middle. >> i've never had a peanut butter cookie half as good as this. so the secret to peanut butter sandwich cookies that taste like peanut butter, starting with a thin batter and some ground peanuts, baking them until nice and crisp, and then doing a filling with butter and peanut butter, and warming it in the microwave, then adding the confectioner's sugar so it's nice and spreadable. so there you have it, from america's test kitchen to your kitchen, a great peanut butter sandwich cookie that is worth its name in every bite.
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it would seem to me that designing a toothbrush or a springform pan would be relatively simple, because they have fairly limited uses. but it turns out that is not the case. over the years we've tried many springform pans. they leak, they don't have flat bottoms, after a while they don't actually go together very well. so i'm back in the equipment corner with mr. ried to see if we actually have one that is well designed and does what it's supposed to do. if only, chris, if only. springform pans are the go-to pans when you're doing a cheesecake, a mousse cake, some tortes, some coffeecakes. and the reason is that the sides attach to the bottom, and there's a buckle that will release the side. so you can lift it up and off, and your cake is left right on the pan, easy to get out. it's been about a decade since we last tested springform pans. this pan here was our winner from the last round. we gathered four new competitors. the price range was $13.50 to about $50. st testing that they were all
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leaking is because you bake a cheesecake in a bain marie, which is a water bath. we tinted the water with green food coloring, baked the cheesecakes, unmolded them, and inspected the bases. the worst pan had a green ring around almost the entire base of the cheesecake. even the best pan, there were spots that added up to about a third of the cake. so they all leaked. i'm going to cut to the chase. this time we tested cheesecakes again. they all leaked again. because they all leaked, we decided to judge them just on the design. and there were a couple of features that made a difference. one is how the bottom is designed. i'm going to take this off again. we like to have a nice flat plane on the bottom so that you can slide a spatula under the cake and slide the cake off onto a cake plate. sometimes you can even cut the cake into wedges and serve it right from the base. the alternative there is to get a base like this that makes it really hard to get neat slices of cake off, or the whole cake off.
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so that's not good. another thing that we really liked were the handles on this one. makes it easy to lift in and out of the water bath. we also liked that it had a clear bottom, so that if we wondered how the browning was going, we could just lift it up and look and see how deeply it was browned, whether it was ready to go or not. in the end, it was our old winner that won this round also. this is the frieling handle-it glass bottom springform pan. not inexpensive. it's 50 bucks. but, you know, the leaks were minimal, it's got all the right design features. if you want to spend a little less money, we have a runner up, a best buy. that's this one, which is the nordic ware nine inch springform pan. it's only $13.50. you don't get the handles, but it did a pretty good job. it's got a nice flat bottom. we did learn something during this, though. we have a new little trick for keeping the leaks and the water out of your cheesecakes and your bain marie. what we do now is we take the springform pan with the cheesecake batter in it, put it in a slightly larger cake pan, and then put this whole thing in the bain marie.
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and that ensures that no water gets in. >> so even though they still leak, we do have a workaround. the winner was the frieling, at $50, glass bottom with handles. but for $13, you can buy the nordic ware, which seems to me a great best buy. >> i love carrot cake. i've always loved carrot cake. it's probably the ultimate sheet cake. but what happens when you want to take a sheet pan cake like carrot cake and dress it up into a nice four-layer cake, make it worthy of a special occasion? turns out you can't do that. the cake is so moist, and it's got all these carrots in it. sometimes it has raisins or nuts. you try to cut it, especially horizontal cuts to make multiple layers of cake, it's just going to catch every single nut, every single piece of fruit, every single carrot. it's going to be a mess. and then you've got the cream cheese frosting, which is super soft and delicious to eat. the frosting is so soft it falls off the sides. it's not good. so... >> this is a big mountain to climb. >> this is actually a huge mountain to climb. but we think carrot cake is worth it.
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and what we found out was pretty amazing, okay? i'm just going to use a grater here. you can also use the slicing disc on your food processor. we're going to use four carrots for our recipe. now, the problem with the carrots is their shape. when you try to slice through the cake, you always end up getting these hunks of carrot that stick to the knife. all right. now, we need to measure out two and two-thirds cup carrots. so we're not going to skimp on the carrot. >> and these are fairly substantial slices. >> that's right. so two and two-thirds cup. we tried a few different things with the carrots. we tried cooking them until we were basically making baby puree. but we really liked those nice pieces of orange in our cake. we also tried grinding the carrots, but you really couldn't tell there were carrots in there. so there's a magic ingredient in our dry mixture that's going to solve all of our problems. we're going to start off with one and three quarter cup of all-purpose flour. that's one and a half teaspoons of ground cinnamon, three quarter teaspoon of ground nutmeg. got a little bit of ground clove, a quarter teaspoon. and i've got a half a teaspoon
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of salt. this is our leavener. this is two teaspoons of baking powder. and this is a pretty heavy cake, so it needs quite a bit of leavener to really lift it up and make it a nice light cake, suitable for layers. but that's not the only leavener we're going to add. this is a teaspoon of baking soda. now, baking soda's going to do a couple of things. it's going to help really color the cake. it's also going to provide an environment in the batter that helps to soften the carrots. >> a lot of heavy lifting going on. >> that's right, a lot of heavy lifting. so i'm just going to mix all this together. >> so bridget had mentioned that she added baking powder and baking soda, which is a little unusual, especially that amount of baking soda. it has another benefit in the cake. that is, it softens the carrots. all vegetables have cells, and they're bound together by pectin. by adding baking soda, which is alkaline, the opposite of acidic, it creates and environment where that pectin starts to break down, and the cell walls break down, too. so during baking, in an alkaline environment, you actually get soft carrots, which makes it much easier to eat, and also much easier to cut through.
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>> so now we can make the rest of our batter. this is one and a quarter cup of packed light brown sugar. and darker brown sugar has a lot of molasses flavor. it's going to kind of mask the spices. so we'll go with the light here. and i've got three quarter cup of vegetable oil. pretty traditional for carrot cakes. that's what gives it nice moisture, too. three eggs for structure. and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. just whisk all this together, get out any lumps from the brown sugar. now we can go ahead and add the carrots in there. again, that was two and two-thirds cup. and we're going to add, instead of raisins, two-thirds cup of currants. currants are tiny. they're going to slice nicely. we're not going to have to worry about them tearing as we cut the cake. we're going to switch over to a spatula here. just mix these in. that's a lot of carrots. >> i was going to say, this looks like a surfeit of carrots. a heyday of carrots. >> we put the carrots in carrot cake. all right, chris, if you wouldn't mind, go ahead and dump that dry mixture in there for me.
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thank you so much. we just want to fold this until it's nicely incorporated. all right, so now we need to put this in our pans. and we want to make a four-layer cake, nice and dressy. well, we could put it in two nine-inch round cake pan layers, and then try to cut it horizontally. but that's pretty much a living nightmare. we don't want to cut this cake horizontally. it still is going to catch the little pieces of carrot, still going to catch the currants, and it's just a really tender cake. so we don't want to do that. but what we are going to use here is our standard rimmed baking sheet, which is perfect. it's going to create one giant thin layer that we can just cut to make multiple layers. and this measures about 13 by 18. and i'll use an offset spatula just to smooth this out into an even layer. since it's a nice thin even layer, it's pretty much going to bake evenly. so we're not going to get that giant dome right in the middle. all right, so that looks beautiful. time to put this in a 350 degree oven. and because it's so thin, it's only going to take about 15 to 18 minutes to bake. all right, so i think it is time
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for the cake to be checked. it's been about 15 minutes. when i put light pressure on the top, it springs back, so i know it's done. what i want to do is let this sit here on a wire rack for about five minutes. let that firm up just for a few minutes. and then after that, i'm going to invert it onto a wire rack, and then i'll reinvert it onto a second wire rack. we'll let it cool completely before we frost it, and that's going to be at least 30 minutes. all right, chris, this is the reason we're here. it's cream cheese frosting. it's one of my favorite frostings. it's so tangy and soft and creamy. but for a special occasion cake, that provides a few problems. it's too soft, and if we cut back on the amount of cream cheese, it's not tangy enough. we're going to fix all that, and you're going to love this frosting. >> this recipe has more problems to overcome than anything we've ever done. >> i love recipes like that, though. all right, so we're going to make a pretty traditional cream cheese frosting up to a point. now, this is 16 tablespoons of unsalted butter, three cups of confectioner's sugar, two teaspoons of vanilla extract,
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and a quarter teaspoon of salt. and we're actually going to use 12 ounces of cream cheese. so that's a reduction in the amount of cream cheese that we're adding. because cream cheese gets softer and softer the more you mix it and the more you add. so we were looking for something a little bit tangy. we tried adding yogurt or buttermilk or other things to up the tang, but they were all too wet. of course, they made the frosting too runny. but buttermilk powder, a third cup of it added, is going to add lots of structure to this frosting and give that great almost cream cheesy tang. all right, so i'm going to put this on low, we're going to mix everything until there are no more butter lumps, no more sugar lumps. that's going to take about two minutes. all right, so that looks great. nice and smooth. now it's time to add the 12 ounces of cream cheese, a piece at a time. cut it into 12 pieces. this is cold cream cheese, and that's also going to help us with frosting the cake. if it's too warm, it'll actually become almost liquidy. so you don't want that. and the reason we didn't start the frosting with the cream cheese, the more and more that you mix cream cheese, it loses frosting.
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so we're going to add it towards the end here. what do you think, chris? >> i think i'm here for a reason. >> that looks beautiful. >> and we'll need to eat that. >> oh, yeah. there you go. >> really? >> yeah. >> for me? >> yeah, just for you. >> you care, evidently, after all these years. >> that's right. all right, so i'm going to switch sides over here for you, because it's time to assemble the cake. it's all nicely cooled. important to cool the cake completely before you frost it. so we want to cut this into four layers. we want to keep the parchment on the layers. that's going to make it easier for us to move it around. so we need to score through the top, and then i'm going to make a deeper cut to get through that paper backing. and this way, all right? so we scored it. make sure we get through that paper. all right, so i've got a little cardboard square here. actually it's a rectangle. it's six by eight. we cut it up from a round cake round. i want to anchor the back. so i've got a little piece of masking tape. that kind of sets things in place. we're going to take one of these
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cake layers and put it right on that bottom rectangle. now we can peel off parchment. we want two-thirds cup of frosting. and these plunger styles measuring cups make it so easy. and goes right on top. just going to take an offset spatula, and i'll work this frosting out into a nice even layer. now, see, if we wererying to make a layer cake with just regular frosting, i wouldn't even be able to do this. it would almost be soupy. we'll keep moving, placing the second layer on. each time you just want to make sure that the cake is lined up and even. so i'm just going to press gently. another two-thirds cup of frosting. and because there are four layers, we're not putting a huge amount of frosting in between each layer. even for me, that would just be too much frosting. another layer, even it out. i'm just going to put a little smidge here where i had a low point in the cake.
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that's all right. last one on top. i do want to frost the top, make it look nice and pretty. so we're going to need a full cup. oh, mommy, this looks so good. all right, so we'll just make some pretty swirls and swoops on top. that's another reason to love these kinds of cakes-- if you mess up, nobody knows. all right, so now i'm going to use the rest of the frosting to get on the sides of the cake. now, i could not do this with a regular frosting. and here's the other good news. it doesn't matter if i get any crumbs on the sides there. all right, so obviously we need to cover up the sides. and here's where the nuts come in. so these are two cups of toasted and chopped pecans, and i'm just going to lift this up over a sheet pan. that way any of the nuts that don't stick to the cake will fall back into the pan, and we can continue to use them.
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so i'm just going up in an upward motion here. >> so we could really call this, i think, special occasion carrot cake for idiots. it's very easy to do, but it ends up looking great. >> spectacular. >> yeah. >> now we've got to let this chill for an hour. i'm just going to let the layers become a little bit more solid, the frosting become a little bit more solid. so we're going to put this in the fridge for an hour. you've been a really good boy. you've waited for an hour. >> well, actually, i haven't been. well, i ate a good part of that frosting. >> that's true, but i still had enough for the cake. so are you ready to eat it? >> i'm ready. >> all right. so... mmm. all right, and then we'll make nice thick slices. that's beautiful, and you can still see all those layers in the cake. >> you know, i've been doing this now 32 years. >> yeah? >> and there are moments like these, make it all worth it. >> all worth it, yep. >> absolutely. mmm. >> (sighs) >> there's nothing left to say. i mean... >> the cake is so moist, but
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that cream cheese frosting knocks it out of the park. >> so now bridget has reinvented the carrot cake, and the secret was to start with big pieces of carrots and some baking soda, which softened them during baking. and bake it not in round cake pans, but in a big sheet pan and cut it into four layers. and the cream cheese frosting was also unique. we cut back on the cream cheese, but added some buttermilk powder for tang and also for giving it some substance. so there you have it, from america's test kitchen to your kitchen, a carrot cake good enough for a wedding or a birthday. >> or your birthday. >> or every day of the week. delicious. by the way, you can get this recipe, all the recipes from this season of america's test kitchen, testing results, tasting results, and watch selected episodes of this program. simply go to our web site, americastestkitchentv.com. and you'll definitely want this recipe. >> heck, yeah. >> let us help with dinner tonight. visit our web site any time for free access to this season's recipes, taste tests, and
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equipment ratings, or to watch current season episodes. log onto americastestkitchentv.com. >> the complete america's test kitchen tv show cookbook includes every recipe, tasting, and testing from all 13 years' shows, including this season. with over 850 recipes, it's our most comprehensive collection ever. the cost, $29.95-- ten dollars less than the cover price. you will also receive this four dvd set, a $39.95 value, featuring all 26 episodes from this season, at no additional charge. to order, call 1-800-831-8315, or order online at americastestkitchentv.com. >> america's test kitchen is brought to you by dcs by fisher & paykel. america's cooks rely on innovation and culinary precision. dcs by fisher & paykel, offering premium indoor and outdoor kitchen appliances. cooking.com, an online retailer for the kitchen enthusiast. if if it's not in your kitchen, try ours.
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two fine constellations are side-by-side in the south -- hook-tailed scorpius on the right, and sagittarius to its left. modern star charts usually show sagittarius as a teapot. it's an eye-catching pattern, even though none of its stars is super bright. but sagittarius means "archer," and the bow and arrow are easy to picture if you visualize the stars that way. according to ancient greek tradition, the bowman was either the centaur chiron, or the satyr crotus. this is tony flanders from "sky & telescope" magazine, wishing you clear skies and great views. >> brought to you by... manufacturers of telescopes and binoculars. maybe you have some energy-
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saving appliances, like an energy star-rated washer and dryer. but what about your tv? chances are it's on more than your washer, dryer, and kitchen appliances combined. did you know that if half of us in the u.s. replaced our regular tvs with an energy star model, the change would be like shutting down a power plant? you can find the energy star on everything from standard to high def to the largest flat-screen your heart desires. ow that makes sense. gcgcww
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hi, i'm rachel. come and join my friends alex, leah, and hopkins for signing time! leah uses american sign language. we'll teach you some. come sign with us. ♪ there's singing time and dancing time ♪ ♪ and laughing time and playing time ♪ ♪ and now it is our favorite time ♪ ♪ signing time! ♪ it's signing time! with alex and leah ♪
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