You know the revolution’s over when…
The food might not be organic, but when it comes to the Whole Foods/Starbuck’s aesthetic, everybody’s trying to get in on the act.
READ ONAuthor: joepastry
If only…
As abundant as locally-produced produce, meats and cheese can be, there is almost nothing in the way of locally produced flour. Which is a pity. Once upon a time, most towns had mills, usually grist mills for corn, but often flour mills for local wheat. Nowadays of course virtually all milling is industrial. Part of […]
READ ONLocal vs. Organic
I put up a post under this title for a few minutes yesterday, but thought better of it since I really didn’t have time to form any coherent thoughts. I still don’t, but even given ample time, I’m rarely coherent. That of course has never stopped me. My core question is this: in an age […]
READ ONAlmost Forgot…
To put up the link to the site that got me going on scones this week, Miss Eagle and her Great Aussie Scone Fest. (Hat tip: The Old Foodie. Thanks O.F.!)
READ ONWhy are American scones triangular?
This is a really good question. On the one hand an argument can be made that they’re that way because the triangle is the original, most authentic shape for a scone. That’s true, since the original Scottish scones were fairly large, flat cakes, cooked on griddle, then sliced into sections like a pizza. Yet there’s […]
READ ONIt Begins.
Well, it’s happened. Wal-Mart has announced a new, major push into organic foods. Depending on where you come down on the purported virtue of organics, this is either the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning. It most certainly marks the end of the heyday of organic farming. And by that I […]
READ ONThe Gino’s-Style Pizza Crust
Well it was a big weekend here at the Pastry household. After some 9 tries this past winter, I finally busted the Gino’s, or at least Gino’s-style, deep dish corn meal pizza crust. I say Gino’s-“style” because it’s almost certainly not the actual recipe. But it is darned close. And I can say for certain […]
READ ONA Little of the Pizza Pie
As threatened, I’ve taken all the yeast out of my Chicago-style corn meal pizza crust recipe this week, going for a straight pie dough approach. I’ve got a good feeling about this, so if you’re in the mood to experiment with me this weekend, please feel free to join in.
READ ONCombatting Dough Creep
A comment came in from my friend Sally C this morning asking whether anything can be done about pizza dough that doesn’t want to roll out. This is a typical problem with high-gluten doughs, but it does indeed have a solution: time. You may recall from my previous posts that gluten networks are made up […]
READ ONJames Beard Awards Announced
The winners of the annual James Beard Foundation Awards were announced this week. The winner in the Baking and Desserts book category was Richard Bertinet for his book Dough: Simple Contemporary Bread. I must confess that beyond not having the book, I’m not familiar with Richard Bertinet either. What I do know is that he’s […]
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