Cream horns. Boy do people ever overdo it with cream horns. You see them stuffed with all kinds of crazy things: custards, curds, puddings, cream cheese, marscapone, jams and mousses. What ever happened to the cream? But then what ever happened to the horn? Why are nearly all cream horn shells made from puff pastry […]
READ ONSome wise guy (actually gal) has already pointed out that hot cross buns are not a pastry per se. Alright yes, Miss Know-It-All, you’re technically right. The textbook definition of a pastry is a sweet or savory that uses unleavened dough, like puff pastry, tart crust, strudel dough and the like, as a base. That’s […]
READ ONI have to confess I chose this week’s recipes, in part, because they were funny. Not the recipes themselves exactly, but the foodie-on-foodie conflicts they apparently inspired. These days you see, every consumer web site wants to be “interactive”. They want to be down with their peeps. Or at least want their peeps to believe […]
READ ONMy hundred little cangrejitos just left the kitchen on the way to the Afro-Cuban art thingamajig. I hope there’ll be some actual Cubans there who’ll be able to tell me if I got close or not. All those who’ve been following the blog the last few days may remember that cangejitos are these things, little […]
READ ONYou won’t be surprised to discover I have strong opinions on rolling pins. I have lots. But the two I turn to the most are my simple Chinese rolling pin (which looks like this only longer), and my big heavy conventional pin. The big one has a 15-inch cylinder which I really like for rolling […]
READ ONI don’t know why the significance of the pairing of apples and honey in this week’s pastry recipe didn’t strike me before. The combination is of course eaten the night of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, to bring blessings in the upcoming year. It was the unusual choice of honey that got me interested […]
READ ON…is simplicity itself: Puff Pastry Apple Tarts with honey glaze. It’s a fantastic illustration of the kind of baking feats that can be achieved with just one or two carefully selected ingredients, and of course an ample stash of puff pastry in the freezer.
READ ONYou’ll have to forgive my excitement, but it’s my first one. I’ve gotten so used to seeing all those little zeroes at the bottom of the posts, I never check for them. This one came from a good friend (and world-class chef) by the name of Tim Coonan, in regard to the (possible) Arab origins […]
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 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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