I was very lucky as a boy to live two doors down from the neighborhood baking queen. Her name was Lillie Lundstrom, a second-generation Swede whose cakes and cardamom rolls are still the stuff of legend on Lincoln Street. One of her lesser-known creations was this recipe for apricot bars, which takes the American concept […]
READ ONWhen you’ve got a hold of a quality lemon bar, you know it. Last night the missus took a bite of one of these and said: “it’s like I’m sitting under a lemon tree in the springtime, and the sun is shining on me.” That’s about the size of it. Start by laying out all […]
READ ONA great lemon bar should have a no-nonsense tart-sweet curd filling above and a flaky-yet-firm short bread crust below. The two together create an experience that approaches religious. The secret to lemon bars isn’t in the ingredients per se (a top-notch lemon curd filling is defined more by what you leave out of it than […]
READ ON7-Layer bars (aside from “dirt” pudding) are my favorite guilty pleasure. You can throw these together in as little as a few minutes provided you have all the ingredients on-hand. I find a parchment-lined baking sheet is the easiest when it comes to de-panning 7-layer bars. You’ll want to trim two sheets so they’ll lay […]
READ ONIt isn’t too hard to figure out how these bars get their name. They’re made by applying a series of seven ingredients to a baking dish and binding them together with a can of sweetened condensed milk (thank-you 1950’s America!). The recipe goes like so: 4 ounces (1 stick) butter, melted 5 ounces graham crackers, […]
READ ONI tend not to make a lot of bundt-style cakes, but I might need to change my habits because this was excellent. It didn’t take long for the girls, the missus and I to polish it off. Little 2-year-old Joan, who likes cake but has never been passionate about it, loved it so much she […]
READ ONSince this week will be largely based on my interview with Rose Levy Beranbaum, it seems only appropriate that I make something out of the new book, Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. I put it to Rose to give me the assignment. I was secretly hoping that she’d have me do one of the more opulent recipes, […]
READ ONToasted coconut is one of pastrydom’s most beautiful sights, I think. These shaggy cookies resemble French macarons only in name, however they are a true pedestrian delight, at least if you like coconut. I think they deserve the royal treatment. Start by tossing your sweetened and unsweetened coconut together with the salt. Next — and […]
READ ONA combination of sweetened and unsweetened coconut creates the ideal texture for these macaroons, neither too dense nor too dry. The cream of coconut (drastically reduced coconut milk) provides the deep coconut flavor. Find cream of coconut either in the baking section of your supermarket, the international food section or the cocktail mixes section (it’s […]
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Foodies have come to revere the macaron the way Catholics do the communion wafer. Therefore it only seems fitting to open this tutorial with a prayer. As we prepare to undertake this mystery, let us acknowledge our failures and ask the Lord for pardon and strength. Amen.
Now then, to business. What I’m about to demonstrate is the classic French method for making macarons. There’s another method, called the “Italian” method because it employs Italian meringue. The French method, I think, is more straightforward if not as adaptable for incorporating exotic flavors.
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