What does this photo have to do with pastry? Nothing, but I’m running this show. We had a great day at the state fair yesterday, and those two little cocks were among the highlights. No more than nine or ten inches tall, they were amazingly loud. So much so that little 1-year-old Joan had to […]
READ ONA wise guy associate of mine, on reading the bread project for the week, said what basically amounts to: “Now you’ve gone and done it! You’re gonna have a hard time flapping your fingers on the subject of toast all week!” Not true in the least, for toast is an endlessly engaging topic. Well OK […]
READ ONThe great pioneer in specialty retail baking, Mrs. Field’s, is filing for bankruptcy. Too much darn competition these days, so they say. But they deserve an awful lot of credit for literally reinventing the retail baking category. Hats off to you, Madame Field!
READ ONGot this question over the weekend: Why can’t you just leave [the pie crust mix] in the bag to mix it with the water [and vinear]? What about if you use the 2.5 gal food bags from hefty? …accompanied by this cryptic little aphorism/threat: Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons…for you are crunchy […]
READ ONRather an accommodation with the realities of commerce. I’ve started running ads on the site. What can I say? I thought I’d give it a try and see if I actually made any money. If I pull in the expected $0.63 this month, I’ll take it down. Weigh in if you have an opnion, for […]
READ ONThe same basic rules for peach pie apply to all double-crust fruit pies. For double-crust pies are made by a slightly different method than open-faced pies. Unlike open-faced pies, double-crust pie crusts are not “blind”-baked (i.e. partially baked without the filling inside). Thus extra measures have to be taken to prevent the bottom crust from […]
READ ONReader Nancy wrote in yesterday to say: Hey Joe, I love your blog. Don’t you want to charm your readers even more by mentioning the term “coffin” for a crust? And indeed I do, for I neglected to mention that in Medieval and especially Renaissance Europe, the big, thick tupperware-like pie crusts I blogged about […]
READ ONWhat an appalling waste of pastry that terrible film was. A nightmare, really. But that’s not what I’m here to discuss. I wish to re-frame pie, not as a European food (for indeed Continentals eat very little pie nowadays), but as the ultimate colonial baked good. Granted, Americans collectively eat a lot less pie than […]
READ ONYou know the feeling. You get it when you take a bite of a pie from one of those big chain restaurants. It’s tender, it chews OK, but once you swallow it there’s that lingering film on your tongue and in the inside of your mouth. It’s fat, more specifically vegetable fat (oil), that’s been […]
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