This is something else you hear an awful lot about in regard to macarons. What we call “aged eggs” French pastry chefs simply call “eggs”, since they tend not to refrigerate theirs. They just get them very fresh, use them relatively quickly, and order more. Here we’re a little more uptight about maintaining egg freshness, […]
READ ONMacarons wouldn’t be macarons if they weren’t fussy things. Though they are at their core very simple little cookies, a variety of things can go wrong during their preparation, preventing them from achieving the Platonic ideal. Me, I don’t see why that’s the end of the world. However I confess that if mine didn’t come […]
READ ONMy favorite crème brûlée is a very pain one, with just half a teaspoon of vanilla extract added. After that, it’s crème brûlée scented with orange, like this one right here. Like an English pudding, crème brûlée somehow manages to pull off a sense of grandeur while still being an incredibly simple thing to prepare. […]
READ ONThere’s a lot of tittering going on in elite pastry circles about crème brûlée these days. Just like molten chocolate cake, it’s an item most restaurants put on their menus solely out of obligation — something for country rubes and tourists who want to feel sophisticated dining in the big city. Right this very minute […]
READ ONHere’s something I’ve learned about Bananas Foster: it doesn’t photograph well. But then what did I expect when I spooned hot caramel sauce over ice cream? The real visual magic of this dish happens during the preparation. As soon as it’s plated, it begins its transformation into a melty mass of sweet, rummy goodness. No […]
READ ONIt’s nothing you can’t get off the Brennan’s web site, but then I try to make joepastry.com a one-stop shop. I generally cut this recipe in half, which is plenty for 2-3 people. ½ stick butter 1 cup brown sugar ½ teaspoon cinnamon ¼ cup banana liqueur 4 bananas, cut in half lengthwise, then halved […]
READ ONThis photograph is but a peek into the irretrievable past. How so? Because I’ve eaten all these already. Don’t judge me. I might even make them again this weekend. I’ll start by preheating my oven to 300 and preparing a baking pan as in the previous brownie recipe. Then I’ll combine my dry ingredients in […]
READ ONDorie Greenspan calls these her “French” brownies, not just because she invented them while living in Paris, but because her point of departure was French fondant (which on that side of the pond is a kind of cake). All that is beside the point to me, as I consider this recipe to be the highest […]
READ ONYes, pretty much all old-school brownie recipes had nuts in them. If you don’t like nuts, just hang on, I’ll put up a recipe without them. These are about as moist a brownie as I like. Some recipes have so little flour in them, they might as well be fudge. Not being a fudge person, […]
READ ONHere’s a recipe for brownies that’s not so far off from early brownie recipes, save for the fact that it has a good deal more chocolate. I confess I mostly swiped it from Dorie Greenspan, but if you’re going to steal, why not steal from the best? The woman is deeply serious about brownies. Her […]
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