Rode hard, put away wet.
Note to self: no more “vacations”, because they’re killing me. A little baking should put a some steam back in the ol’ stride, though. Single parenting and business trips are for the birds. It’s good to be back!
READ ONCategory: Pastry
On Buttermilk Substitutes
Reader Jud writes:
There are several favorite baking recipes of mine that require buttermilk. Inevitably, I have to make a trip to the store to buy fresh buttermilk if i want to use one of them. I’d like to be able to substitute powdered buttermilk that has been rehydrated. My problem is that there appears to be two types of powdered buttermilk at stores – the kind I apparently mistakenly just bought, which makes a thin “sweet buttermilk” drinkable variety (my wife tells me this is what buttermilk originally was) – and the kind that is a powdered version of the sour buttermilk we find in store dairy cases.
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Mexican Getaway
No, not me: Mrs. Pastry. She’s on a research project in Mexico City all week. What a time for my biggest client to demand a presentation! So I’m packing up the girls and we’re hitting the road for Chicago. I figure I’ll do the talking, my 7-year-old can run the powerpoint and my 4-year-old will […]
READ ONMaking Gâteau St. Honoré
Every so often a pastry comes along that makes even the most jaded sweet-eater throw down his fork, stomp his foot and shout out loud:
my GOD that’s good. Gâteau St. Honoré is that pastry. Yes, you may think you know what it tastes like: cream puff dough, pastry cream, meringue and caramel. But I’m telling you friends, until you actually prepare and serve one of these you won’t understand the impact that all those components can have when they’re delivered together. The uninitiated are always, always stunned.
Making Chiboust
Call it chi-BOOST, call it she-BOO, it’s a sweet, light and delicate filling either way. Pastry cream lightened with Italian meringue is what it is, and it works well in just about any context where you want a large volume of filling, but don’t want to overwhelm the eater with richness or heaviness. A Paris-Brest is a good example, or a Gâteau St. Honoré. Bear in mind that chiboust — like most meringues — doesn’t like humidity. And while it can be piped, pipe it only through large-bore nozzles, since constriction and pressure causes it to deflate and go runny. Here I have about a cup of the firmer of the two pastry creams that are up on the site.
READ ONChurch of the Sacred Spatula
St. Honoratus (and/or the urn containing his relics) was well-known by 1202. That was the year a baker by the name of Renold Theriens donated a plot of land in Paris so that a chapel might be built in the saint’s honor. Though I haven’t seen anything to back this conjecture up, it seems that this was the time that Honoratus became formally associated with baking.
READ ONThe Amazing, Colossal Baptist
Reader Mara writes in to ask: what’s happened to all the saint relics from the Middle Ages? Are they in museums? Do you guys trade them or sell them to each other?
Oh goodness me, no. In fact there’s a special sin on the books for that very thing: paying money — or trading for — sacred objects or spiritual services. It’s called simony, and it’s the only sin I’m aware of that’s actually named for a person. Simon Magus was the fellow’s name, a magician of sorts from the days just after the crucifixion of Jesus. He observed St. Peter and St. John laying their hands on believers and imbuing them with the Holy Spirit. Seemed to him like a pretty good racket — something he could charge a good buck for — so he offered to pay Peter and John in exchange for teaching him the trick. You can judge for yourself how well that worked out for Simon.
READ ONHow did St. Honoratus get famous?
Getting canonized doesn’t automatically make you famous, just so you know, all of you out there who aspire to the honor. Catholicism has too many saints for that. How many are there? More than 10,000 (nobody knows the exact number…there’s never been a head count). So suffice to say that only a very few saints’ names roll off the tongue of your typical Catholic. Just ask St. Guy of Anderlecht, patron saint of sheds and outhouses, St Gertrude of Nivelles, patron saint of suriphobia (the fear of mice) or St. Fiacre, patron saint of STD’s. None of them have popularly-celebrated feast days or fancy sterling silver medallions. What a rip.
READ ONWas there a real Saint Honoré?
Yes there was. To most people outside France he’s known as St. Honoratus of Amiens. He’s the patron saint of bakers and confectioners (also florists, millers, candle makers, chandlers and oil refiners). For those of you who didn’t grow up Catholic and don’t know what patron saints are, they’re the people you call on when you need someone to intervene on something small, something you wouldn’t want to pester The Big Guy with. Like when you’re putting a soufflé in the oven and company is due. St. Honoratus, pray for me. Sorta like that.
READ ONWhat’s chiboust and how do you pronounce it?
Shi-BOOST is, I believe, the correct pronunciation. It’s a simple mixture of 3 parts pastry cream to 1 or 2 parts Italian meringue. The two are gently folded together and the resulting cream is used mainly as a filling for large pastries like Paris-Brest or Gâteau St. Honoré. It’s usually piped, but only through large nozzles since lots of pressure has a way of breaking it.
Chiboust was supposedly invented by a pastry chef of the same name, who supposedly lived in Paris in the mid-1800’s. Supposedly. By no coincidence whatsoever it is he who is credited with inventing Gâteau St. Honoré. Why did he call it that? Because his shop was on Rue St. Honoré. Supposedly. However that’s all I know and I can’t find a thing that’s authoritative on the mysterious M. Chiboust. Anyone who does know something about him, please weigh in.
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