It’s tempting to blame modernity for the abomination that is the bran muffin. Dry as dirt (though nowhere near as tasty) bran muffins have been impossible to get away from since at least the late 70’s. There’s an artisan bake shop not two blocks from here that sells only one kind of muffin — one […]
READ ONThe American-style muffin, as distinct from the English muffin, evolved around the time of the Second Industrial Revolution, which is to say the time when North Americans really got into the industrialization act (the second half of the 19th century). This was the golden age of American baking, when cast iron home stoves — complete […]
READ ONThere are certain cynics out there, most of them European pastry chefs and New York Times food writers, who claim that the blueberry muffin is the only real contribution the New World has made to the global (and when they say that they mean European) baking tradition. The entire idea is preposterous of course, since […]
READ ONAn anonymous email came in late last evening from someone claiming to be a representative of New Metro, manufacturer of the BeaterBlade, a product I expressed skepticism about in the below post, Scrape-O-Matic. I couldn’t tell anything about the sender because the email originated from a commercial ISP (Time Warner), apparently from a server in […]
READ ON“Overmixing” is a term that’s generally applied to batters versus doughs. It means that the mixture has been agitated to the point that the gluten in the flour has been developed. Most often it’s pancake batters and muffin batters (things made via the muffin method) that are said to be overmixed, though cookie and cake […]
READ ONYesterday I left off talking about the differences between cakes and muffins. But why talk when I can show? Let’s start with a small wedge of cake, cut cross-wise to reveal what’s under the hood: We have a few larger holes here, but notice how small and regular most of the rest of them are. […]
READ ONWhile I’m on the subject of requests, I’ve had six or eight of them over as many months for muffins. Since muffins are just about my all-time favorite breakfast food, I think it’s high time I blogged about them. The timing is good too, since blueberries are out here in Kentucky (or at least they […]
READ ONHELLACIOUS traffic the last two days, much of it from Stumbleupon.com. I’d love to know where/how I’ve been referenced, but every time I try to track the referrals back, all I get is an advertisement. Would any of you Stumbleuponers be so kind as to enlighten me as to what or whom I owe this […]
READ ONThis is a standard, easy, workingman’s ganache, great for baking applications. Ganache (pronounced ga-NAHsh) is most commonly a 50-50 combination of chocolate and heavy cream (by weight). Known as “soft” ganache, this is the kind that is typically used for toppings and drizzles, or whipped to make cake fillings. Heavier “firm” ganaches (say, 2-1 chocolate […]
READ ONLost of interesting stuff in the news lately, some of it even sane. On the one hand we have some point-counterpoint from the Los Angeles Times on the subject of local foods. Though it’s not really point-counterpoint since both authors claim to be big local foods supporters, one argues that locally-produced foods offer no concrete […]
READ ON