Got a question that basically asked: if biscotti are cookies, then where’s the butter? True, pretty much all cookies have some butter in them somewhere. But what’s butter’s primary job in a cookie? To add flavor, yes, but mostly to tenderize it. That’s a good thing for a cookie you’re simply going to pick up […]
READ ONThere are very few disadvantages to living in Louisville, Kentucky, but snowfall is one of them. Not for me, personally, since I’m a northerner born and raised. It’s what it does to the city. People absolutely panic. The “get your staples!” cry goes up (from folks who seem to think they’ll be home-bound by two […]
READ ONClassic biscotti are loaded with almonds, which is why they cost two bucks apiece at Starbuck’s. This recipe has plenty, about twelve dollars worth, so it may be a budget-buster for some of you (it was for me this week). Feel free to scale back on the nuts. You can swap out some dried fruits […]
READ ONWe’ll never know. One other very frustrating aspect of food history (just like most history) is that it pretty much runs out in the Western world when you get back to the Romans and the Greeks. The reason: because before them, nobody was very much good at writing things down. As a result, they (especially […]
READ ONLet’s get the word out there on the table right now: panis. Because that’s what I’ll be discussing this morning. I know, several of you sniggered yesterday at the word “coctum”, probably the same bunch that were chuckling at my pasties when I made them. I know you back-of-the-bus types, out to ruin everything that’s […]
READ ONBiscotti, or, um…biscotto, you mean? Why, “biscuit” of course, but in the British sense of the word, which is to say it means “cookie”. We English-speakers have the word, so do French-speakers (biscuit, pronounced bis-KWEE), Portuguese-speakers (biscoito), Spanish speakers (bizcocho) and even Greek speakers (biskoti). The term means slightly different things in all those languages, […]
READ ONA biscotto. There’s a little picayune, know-it-all tidbit you can use on friends and family, though they’ll certainly want to beat you to death with the nearest blunt object afterward. It’s right up there with, how’s that panino, Bill? Or, did you see that somebody spray-painted a gang sign on our garage wall? Such an […]
READ ONWhen it comes to my self-image as a son-in-law, I like to consider myself a reasonably good one. By no means perfect, but definitely in the upper quadrant in terms of overall respect and and even obedience (at least, you know, when it’s convenient for me). That said, when my mother-in-law sent in her request […]
READ ONSuch was the “chant” that Cornish miners were said to have exclaimed just prior to digging into their lunches. It will serve me as my farewell to the “tiddy oggie” (“potato pasty” in the Cornish vernacular) for a while, albeit with a tear in my eye. For it has been a delightful baking adventure, not […]
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