I hesitated at first to do Bavarian cream because I’ve had so many bad experiences with it. No, not making it. Eating it. For Bavarian cream is a much abused substance in the baking world. So often it has so much gelatin in it that it comes off like JELL-O pudding. Thankfully, pastry chef Laura […]
READ ONThat’s right, and it was invented by a Frenchman. At least, so it’s said, by Antonin Carême himself. So the story goes, Carême created his own charlotte after seeing the baked version in England, where he worked for a time starting in 1815. On his return to Paris he produced an unbaked version he called Charlotte à la Parisienne. But that shortly changed when he accepted a position on the staff of Tsar Alexander and relocated to St. Petersburg, and it’s been charlotte russe ever since.
Is it true? Who knows? But it makes for a good story.
READ ONLike “cake”, the term “charlotte” can be a bit hard to define, as there are so many different types and styles. They aren’t really pastries as such. Rather, they bear a much closer resemblance to bread puddings and trifles. Like trifles, they’re usually prepared in deep molds. They can be either baked or unbaked. The […]
READ ONBribe my two little girls to clean up their room, that’s what. I couldn’t believe the mess in there this morning! Who do they think I am, the butler? Sorry, I just had a brief attack of Middle Aged Dad. Make a charlotte is what I think I’ll do. My challenge will be to figure […]
READ ONThe ladyfinger operates under a slew of aliases. It’s gone by the name of boudoir biscuit, long finger, Naples biscuit and trifle biscuit. In France it’s known as biscuit à la cuillère or “spooned” biscuit, supposedly because the batter was originally shaped by hand with a spoon. I have no idea whether or not that’s […]
READ ONAs with most classic pastry preparations, ladyfinger recipes tend to be fairly consistent. This one might have an extra egg yolk, that one a little more vanilla, but overall they tend to be quite similar. The only major area of disagreement you’ll find between them is the type of flour they call for. Some demand […]
READ ON…by regular contributor Jim Chevallier. Check out his latest paper on the subject of 18th century French bread-baking here.
READ ONI was going to write about how to modify ladyfingers before putting up the tutorial, but I think it’ll be easier to show the recipe first, then talk about adjustments. Ladyfingers are a lot easier to make than this series of photos might make them appear. They require a few steps, but the batter is […]
READ ONThis is a fairly standard ladyfinger recipe that produces a nice general-purpose cookie. It’s quite similar to other sponge cakes like génoise, except that it contains no butter. You can of course mess with this basic formula to create different effects, and in the next couple of posts I’ll tell you how. 4 eggs, room […]
READ ONAnd here I went to a big NASCAR race in Indianapolis this weekend. I was just starting to feel masculine again! Sheesh.
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