The classic proportions for shortbread are 1, 2, 3: one part sugar, two parts butter and three parts flour. These days shortbread recipes are both sweeter and richer than that. Surprised? The below recipe, inspired by Cook’s Illustrated, boosts the sugar content by about 50% and the butter by about 25%, which is OK by […]
READ ONThis bread pudding doesn’t just look pretty, those toast points have a function: to make the dish something more than just a mass of wet, sweet bread. This bread pudding is actually crunchy in parts, and that keeps every mouthful interesting. Serve this plain or with a sauce of your choice. Caramel is a classic, […]
READ ONBecause so many bread puddings can get mushy, I like Gaston Lenôtre’s version the best. Not only is it classic Lenôtre — simple and light yet elegant — it delivers a range of textures from crispy to tender to soft. You’ll need: 6-7 ounces sliced sandwich bread, crusts removed and cut into triangles about two […]
READ ONI don’t go nuts on plating as you know. Yet I’m uptight enough to have an aversion to desserts that simply land on a plate in a heap. That’s what happens most of the time with tiramisu, since it’s normally made in a large dish. Try as you might to cut tiramisu into neat squares, […]
READ ONTiramisu bears a striking resemblance to English trifle, or at any rate the Italian-ized version of it, a preparation called zuppa Inglese, English “soup” or “stew.” Both involve spirit-soaked cakes, laid down in layers and covered with custard. The ladyfingers in tiramisu are soaked in espresso, but the principle is the same. It’s said that […]
READ ONThe more you eat, the more you want. It’s been the Cracker Jack slogan since 1895 and it’s still true. There’s a little bit of candy-making process to this never-fail treat, but it’s painless if you can lay your hands on a thermometer. First, we make the popcorn. Throw a few kernels in a 3-4 […]
READ ONWhat we have here is more like Cracker Jack than regular caramel corn, which is the way we roll in the Pastry household. Leave the peanuts out of you prefer, but be sure to add an extra teaspoon of salt to compensate. 1 ounce (2 tablespoon) vegetable oil 3.75 ounces (1/2 cup) popcorn kernels 5 […]
READ ONCall me skeptical that a mere cookie can solve our most intractable foreign policy problems, but heck, at this point I’d be willing to try just about anything. Chocolate-y, sweet and salty, they’re a guaranteed crowd pleaser at any international summit, piled in heaps next to the water pitchers on those long, shiny wood tables. […]
READ ONIt occurred to me that this would be the perfect recipe for a week devoted to the subject of salt. These tantalizingly salty chocolate cookies are a type of sablé (“sandy”) cookie originally created by Pierre Hermé. The recipe was translated to English by Dorie Greenspan, and appeared in her book Paris Sweets. There, Greenspan […]
READ ONTalk about something that brings me back to childhood. Taking a bite of these put me right back in Lillie’s kitchen, where my twin sister and I would watch her whip up meringue by hand on a flat egg board (she didn’t own a mixing machine of any kind). Lillie was an ample woman, and […]
READ ON