Every laminated dough, be it puff pastry, croissant, flaky pastry or Danish, begins its life as a thick slab of butter encased in a dough “envelope”. This 3-layer dough-butter-dough package is then flattened and folded however many times it takes to get the number of layers the maker is after. A folded flaky pastry for […]
READ ONI mentioned in last week’s post on the mechanics of, er…mechanical leavening that steam is the force responsible for the heavy lifting in laminated doughs. Steam of course comes from water, which means the more water in your laminated dough the better. Or so one might be tempted to think. Lots of moisture in a […]
READ ONIt’s been a high-output week here at the Pastry household. One of the things I didn’t mention is that it was little Joan Pastry’s birthday a few days ago. A good time was had by all, though I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the cake. Don’t get me wrong, it tasted […]
READ ONThe French claim to having invented puff pastry may not be credible, but at least it has the virtue of being entertaining. So the story goes, it was created by a baker’s apprentice by the name of Claudius Gele in 1645. That was the year, apparently, that Claudius’ father took sick, and was prescribed a […]
READ ONFirst it was doughnuts iced with Nyquil, now it’s waffles covered with curry sauce. A further example of the escalating convergence of savory and sweet? Or just too many crystal methamphetamine lab fumes drifting into Willamette Valley? You be the judge. UPDATE: This on-the-scene report from Mary Sue: I live a couple blocks from Jace […]
READ ONSo what is “mechanical” leavening? What is the “mechanism” that results in rising vis-à-vis a microbe or some chemical reaction? In a word: steam. Though to be fair steam is the chief rising agent in any type of leavening. Microbes or chemicals may create the initial bubbles in, say, a loaf of sandwich or banana […]
READ ONSo as you can see we’ve got an entirely different kind of thing going on now. It’s an upside-down-style “cake” as I said, with peaches (which I couldn’t find fresh but bought in frozen slices) and bourbon-tinged caramel on the top. Plus it’s round. And you know, it works pretty well. I went back and […]
READ ONThe wife has been getting interested in women’s magazine’s lately. I can’t say I quite get why. She’s always seemed like such the intellectual type (she is, after all, a Ph.D). But then I guess I’ve always wondered why, when on the rare occasions I stay out late into the evening, I come home to […]
READ ONEverybody’s had the experience: you’re standing in a line, or sitting on a train or in a bus, and you share a laugh with a complete stranger. A comment about a politician or a movie star, or some scandal in the news, and suddenly you find yourself in a conversation. The first few moments pass […]
READ ONThose of you who are sick to death of the whole yeast and fermentation thing will be glad to know that the topic is winding down. But before I move on to the next type of leavening that I plan on talking about, I wanted to talk a bit about combining packaged yeast and wild […]
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