My good friend Jenni over at Pastry Methods and Techniques had this to say about the NRA and pre-made pastry: Last time I went to a restaurant show, I thought the same thing. And I was working somewhere where we did make everything from scratch. I find the trend disheartening. I’m with you; I hope […]
READ ONI could go home to my doughnuts now. Or, I could stay a little while longer and also go to the National Confectioner’s Show, also known as the All Candy Expo, which is also going on in Chicago right now. Well, what would YOU do?
READ ONOne of the things that struck me about this year’s NRA was how little baking and pastry gear was on offer compared to the sheer quantity of pre-made, ready-to-ship bread and dessert. Every other aisle seemed to house a different par-baked bread company or fudgy dessert/cheesecake maker. This makes sense, of course, since there are […]
READ ONI didn’t hang in quite as long today, but long enough to see some truly outrageous blender demonstrations from Blendtec. Not since the Bass-O-Matic has a blender been this much fun. In other news, I came across the Demarle booth, where the Silpat folks had all sorts of interesting new pastry molds to demonstrate. This […]
READ ONI admit that compared to past restaurant shows I’ve been to, this year isn’t a barn-burner, but there’s still more than enough good stuff to make it worth the trip. Given the topic of the past week — doughnuts and frying — I was particularly interested to see this new piece of gear: The new […]
READ ONIn order to excel at things like doughnuts, fritters and cannoli, it’s important to understand the process of frying. As I’ve mentioned previously, good frying is really more like steaming, but why would that be so? It all comes down to this simple maxim: oil and water don’t mix. In the case of frying, the […]
READ ONWell folks, it’s happened again. I’ve been diverted — back to Chicago to the National Restaurant Association (NRA) trade show that’s happening here. I have to say that as NRA’s go, this one is a little sedate, but it’s still a great time. I’ll put up some highlights for groovy baking gear, probably in the […]
READ ONDoughnuts were of course known as “oily cakes” among the Dutch back in the day. And believe it or not, that was meant as a term of endearment. As happy as the Dutch were to fry in oil at one time, however, it’s believed that well before they ever brought their proto-doughnuts to our shores, […]
READ ONNot if they’re done right. For when frying is done properly, at the right temperature and with reasonably fresh oil, the effect is more akin to steaming. How is that, exactly, Joe? Again we’re back to the issue of heat. Properly fried food cooks so quickly (in about a minute and a half), there’s very […]
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