A Life in Baking, Pastry, and Libations.
Unbalanced and under~seasoned desserts: A sweet dessert is not always a good dessert. Sweet is a taste, not a flavor, that sometimes needs to be balanced with salt or acid if one is expected to keep eating… and enjoying. Not offering the dessert menu /desserts listed on separate menu: It’s hard to sell food... Continue Reading →
During the course of my research, I come across interesting tidbits that don’t always fit into the course of my writing. This doesn’t make them any less worthy of sharing so I am posting these randomly interesting links into a section titled “Pastry Round-Up”. (Opusculum) How to Make Chocolate: written by renowned pastry chef and creative director... Continue Reading →
Food trends are a funny phenomenon. While some trends seem spectacularly silly in retrospect (hello, bone broth and paleo diets!), other trends, like organic food, morph into staples of our culinary conversation and help us connect to the food world at large. Food trends can fundamentally change the way we eat. I couldn’t buy coconut... Continue Reading →
“Panettone, the Italian part-bread, part-cake monstrosity that is…inevitably on sale for a knock-down price right up until spring…tastes like Gandhi’s flip-flop after three months in the desert.” --Julie Bindel A most unfortunate description of the Italian Christmas bread that relegates it to the lowly ranks of American fruitcake and German stollen—stale, dry and with little flavor.... Continue Reading →
Flexi-chocolate is also known as pliable ganache or pliable chocolate. (Pliable chocolate is not the same as modeling chocolate, a blend of chocolate and glucose syrup that is also referred to as plastic chocolate.) Texturally, this ganache feels like a creamy chocolate gel but melts readily in the mouth. Like many modern culinary techniques, pliable chocolate... Continue Reading →
Elements: chocolate mousse, chestnut dacquoise, sautéed chestnuts, bitter chocolate sauce, cocoa nib crumble, chestnut-honey gelato, micro-marigold blossoms. Concept: Chocolate and chestnuts are a classic European dessert pairing, particularly in Italy. In America, chestnuts are best known as a stuffing sidekick on the Thanksgiving dinner table. How could I best introduce Americans to it? Pair it... Continue Reading →
Buttery. Salted. Caramel. 