A Life in Baking, Pastry, and Libations.
Bread, the staff of life. All sorrows are less with bread. We pray for our daily bread. Bread has been instrumental in sustaining the diets and wages of rural peasants and the urban poor throughout history. Large swathes of the world’s population depend on bread for sustenance which made the bread supply a concern of... Continue Reading →
"The free bread basket is off the table." Breaking bread before the meal begins is a social more that transcends the globe and dates back thousands of years. Not surprisingly, tampering with ‘the staff of life’ has led to many bread riots, some of which fomented the early stages of the French Revolution. In today’s... Continue Reading →
I created this rose as one of several pieces for a culinary competition. I used three different bread doughs to sculpt and assemble the final piece but pate morte (“dead dough”) was my favorite decorative bread medium to work with. Because it uses no yeast or diary, pate morte is easy to shape and lasts... Continue Reading →
Parker House rolls are a traditional American bread that was developed at Boston's Parker House Hotel (now the Omni Parker House) during the 1870s. As the hotel never bothered to trademark the recipe or the name, the roll has become the standard bearer for soft dinner rolls with international cooking tomes and American bakeries boasting their... Continue Reading →
It’s hard to imagine what cakes and biscuits would taste and look like if they were made without baking powder, but in fact, baking powder is a recent innovation that did not make its first cookbook appearance until the 1850s. Sourdough or yeast, along with a helping of dregs from the wine casket, was the... Continue Reading →
Buttery. Salted. Caramel. 