Petits Fours Foundations
The classic cake base for the petit four is a sponge cake called génoise. Named for the city of Genoa (an important city in the history of French cuisine — even thought it’s in Italy), génoise, due to its light texture and pliability, is the base cake for a wide range of pastries — especially […]
READ ONWhat Exactly is a “Petit Four”?
Well we all know it’s a small, roughly cubical cake, covered with a glaze of some kind. The name in French literally means “little oven”. As for where that name comes from, or what it refers to, nobody actually knows. “Little things you put in the oven” is one possibility, though it’s important to note […]
READ ON“I was born in a log cabin…”
As mentioned, petits fours have a long and distinguished history in the Pastry family, and are the subject of numerous family anecdotes. None however are more revealing the one about yours truly when I was a mere cupcake, somewhere in the neighborhood of two years old. Seems one night I managed a break-out from my […]
READ ONKnow What This Is?
It’s a gumdrop tree. Favorite of little old ladies everywhere, except most of those are made of cheap green plastic and have had gumdrops stuck on them since 1959. This one is a deluxe mirror-finish aluminum model, given to us by my aunt for Christmas this year (her own auntie had one of the originals). […]
READ ONChristmas Cheer, Pastry Style
This week I’m planning to make what may be the ultimate Pastry family Christmas treat: petits fours. I know what many of you are thinking: huh? What can I say? Ever since I was a tike, there has been a box of Nieman Marcus (alternately Marshall Field’s) petits fours under the Pastry tree. It’s a […]
READ ONDoing As the Romans Did
Last week I mentioned briefly that while ginger was known to the Romans, they didn’t actually eat it, preferring to use it as a medicine. It turns out they weren’t exactly crazy in that regard, since modern science has proven that ginger does indeed have medicinal properties. Now, I should insert here that I’m not […]
READ ONCan I Use Fresh Ginger in My Gingerbread?
You can, though you probably don’t want to. It’s not that fresh ginger is more pungent, it’s not. The reason: because fresh ginger contains more gingerol compounds, which, even though they are closely related to the capsaicin found in chillis and the pepperine found in pepper, are what are responsible for fresh ginger’s bright, enlivening […]
READ ONCelebrity, Food & Politics
As longtime readers of joepastry.com know, politics is about the last thing I like in my food. Today the Wall Street Journal has a good essay on the rise of activism in the world of celebrity chefdom. Check it out. You’ll be agog, like I am, at the things Anthony Bourdain is willing to say […]
READ ONThe Pastry Family Cookie Decorating Party
…was a success! Lots of solid entrants this year, including an office-casual Santa in a green sweater, a number of fine snowmen, avante-garde ornaments and a virtual forest of decked-out trees (notice also my little gingerbread baker on the bottom right in full kitchen attire). They’ll be tough to give away, especially if little Josephine […]
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