Friday night is pizza night and so last evening I trotted out my usual Chicago-style crust. Complimentary as the wife was, it was obvious that I’d once again fallen short of the ideal (Gino’s, Gino’s, Gino’s). And as if I wasn’t dispirited enough afterward, I got an email from one of my oldest friends, a […]
READ ONConcerning the final stage of puff pastry, the rolling and folding, I’m pretty much in agreement with the author of this week’s recipe. Yet I think it’s important to emphasize the “why” of the butter envelope and the initial roll, because this is the really critical point in the recipe. So you’ve got your giant […]
READ ONThere are more than a few stories about how puff pastry evolved. An oft-cited one involves a Renaissance pastry chef by the name of Claudius Gele whose sick father was prescribed a diet of water, flour and butter by his doctor (the doctor was later burned at the stake for not knowing what the hell […]
READ ONIn sharp contrast to the first step of puff pastry making, step II is where you get to really get in touch with the inner Neanderthal. It’s the butter block stage. The recipe instructs us to put room temperature butter into a food processor with a small amount of flour and blend it. Once the […]
READ ONAlmost every puff pastry recipe I know calls for equal amounts of butter and flour (by weight). They only vary in the amount of salt or lemon juice they use, or in the case of this recipe, by the types of flour used. In my experience, you don’t need to worry about cutting down the […]
READ ONBeing new to the South (I actually think of Louisville as being only South-ish), I was naturally blindsided when a local friend asked if I’d ever heard of salt rising bread. Some sort of odd Appalachian delicacy, I assumed. On investigating it a bit I’m fascinated, since it’s a type of bread that’s leavened by […]
READ ONConsistent measurement is the key to consistently great baking. Sadly, the great error that nearly all baking recipes make is in listing ingredients, especially DRY ingredients, by volume instead of by weight. Baking is a precision sport. It therefore demands precision measurement. A scooped cup of all-purpose flour can vary anywhere from 3 to 6 […]
READ ONAll those home bakers seeking to produce a baguette equal to the one they had in Paris last summer may need to scale back their expectations a little. Not because Americans aren’t capable of making excellent baguettes (we are), but because there are a few factors of the baguette-making process that we in the New […]
READ ONI had a look at the poolish a little while ago and…yikes! Only nine hours had passed and already the thing was domed, bubbly and rarin’ to go! So I went ahead and mixed up the dough. It’s supposed to rise for two hours before being shaped, which means the loaves will be finished some […]
READ ONI changed the source for the puff pastry recipe I’m going to do this week. I was planning to get very democratic and go with this recipe from About.com that seemed serviceable. However, I’ve since visited King Arthur Flour’s web site and found a far superior one. So that means I’ll be doing two King […]
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