Panna cotta occupies its own special spot in the dessert world, as a custard that that’s not really a custard. Oh sure, it may look a bit like a custard, it may feel a bit like a custard in the mouth, but in the end it’s what we moderns call, rather unceremoniously, a “gelatin dessert”. […]
READ ONPanna cotta might translate literally into “cooked cream”, but if I were running the universe, it would mean something more like “cream-love’s paradise”. Rich but also delicate, it can be served as-is in Zen-like simplicity, or enhanced with other dairy-friendly flavors. Panna cotta hails from Piedmont, Italy, which in and of itself is interesting. Italians, […]
READ ONBefore I got bogged down — really only inconvenienced — by the weather last week, I was hoping to get a two-fer of Italian desserts in: biscotti and panna cotta. I thought it was kinda cool that they both had the word “cooked” in the name. Panna cotta is of course a very different thing […]
READ ONI learned that falling, frozen tree limbs are nothing to be messed around with. One imagines a tree limb as a thing that falls slowly, or at least gives one ample notice before it goes (lots of cracking and creaking, et al). Not so. A heavy, ice covered limb is on the ground practically before […]
READ ONI’ve received notes from several of you that the biscotti dough is too dry. And indeed that can be the case, depending on how much moisture there is in your flour (or if you’re dipping and scooping it instead of weighing it). So, I’ve added another egg to the recipe. That should fix the problem. […]
READ ONI told you I like a lot of nuts. As you can see, there’s at least as much almond in these biscotti as there is cookie! Truly, you’ll be amazed at how easy biscotti are to make, and how little time they really take. Begin by whisking your dry ingredients together. Combine your sugar and […]
READ ONLost another bunch of emails from this last week — which I’ve been meaning to get to. In particular a long one from a gentleman who’s new to baking, but has been surprising his wife with some excellent cinnamon rolls. If you’re one of the people who’ve written and haven’t gotten a response, it’s not […]
READ ONThis from Sally C. on doughnut bread pudding. I just read your post about the New York Time’s recipe for jelly doughnut bread pudding. “Penny pinching” my … mmm butt! Have you BOUGHT jelly doughnuts lately? Fourteen would cost you the better part of $20. And a DOZEN eggs fer cripe’s sake! Holy moly. That […]
READ ONThe first machine for rolling ice cream cones was patented. By Carl Taylor of Cleveland, Ohio. Though I have to confess that at the moment I’m not really feeling much like ice cream. The snow, and especially the ice, is making the simplest out-of-doors tasks extremely difficult and time-consuming. The end result has been less […]
READ ONThere’s another popular myth out there, about how biscotti first came to America: with Christopher Columbus. Technically that’s right, if again you define a biscotto not as a cookie, but as anything that’s been baked twice. For Columbus, like all seafarers at the time (and many since) fed his crew with the naval equivalent of […]
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