…that pasties are synonymous with mining? Indeed they are. The Cornish, you see, are some of the world’s great miners. Tin mining, in fact, drove the economy in Corwall until the industry collapsed in the 1800’s, forcing many of the county’s inhabitants to flee for greener pastures. Of course they carried their pasties with them, […]
READ ONI saw these on an episode of Good Eats this week and was intrigued. Also, my wife’s colleagues have been complaining that I’ve been ignoring them lately. These individual, portable pastries should get me back in their good graces: Pocket Pies And since I’ve barely begun to scratch the merest surface of this bread, I […]
READ ONBeing a good baker means being at least a little (or a lot) uptight. The vast, vast (did I say vast?) majority of baking errors are a direct result of bad measurement. Either via a lack of willingness, or a lack of proper tools. If it’s the former, you might as well just drop this […]
READ ONThis week’s MediaPost Publishing Insider reports: It’s happening already. Waiters at New York City restaurants are starting to introduce themselves to customers by saying, “I’m a blogger–I’m just doing this while I wait for my big break.” Of course, this in no way means I’m not going to be a pastry blogging billionaire. Joe Pastry […]
READ ONA good friend up in the Twin Cities had this to say about the Joe Pastry pizza crust: A friend of mine tried it out this weekend and he loved it. He’s been experimenting with pizza recipes over the last month or so and he said your crust was the best by far. What can […]
READ ONThat’s a pretty darned good hot cross bun recipe, all things considered. Start-to-finish you can get the whole thing done in 3 1/2 hours, icing included. And the results are…pretty darned good. All the aromatic spices, combined with the chewiness of the high-gluten flour, gives the buns and old-world quality that’s quite satisfying, especially for […]
READ ONFriday is hot cross bun day, at least as long as it’s Lent, and so I’m after the Gale Gand recipe this morning. The only big disappointment so far is that the recipe wasn’t given in weight measures. I used a standard 5 ounces-to-the-cup conversion, but ended up using at least a third again as […]
READ ONI’ve been talking a lot about fat content lately, and taking some guff for what a couple of critics have said is an open endorsement of fat consumption. That is absolutely correct. I do endorse fat consumption, and without apology. Human beings need fat in their metabolism, and I see no better way of getting […]
READ ONContrary to what I insinuated in one of yesterday’s posts, I was discerning in my choice of this week’s recipes. For the brioche in particular, I wanted a recipe that employed a sponge as opposed to a plain vanilla straight dough method. The reason, because I really do value that extra bit of depth that […]
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