No More German Food Jokes

Looks like the new wave of German chefs, not unlike like Rommel’s fifth panzer division, really means business. My only question is, when the Germans once again go storming across the Maginot Line, what will they be after? Haricots verts?

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Is it Pudding or is it Cake?

Looking down below at my first attempt at Woodford pudding, it’s reasonable to wonder: isn’t this pudding actually some kind of cake? And indeed this pudding is very cake-like. Which is to say it’s floury and crumbly, characteristics we Americans are unaccustomed to seeing in our puddings. For us, a pudding is a custard-type concoction. […]

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Call it a “Unique Fixer-Upper Opportunity”

Well, here’s how my first attempt at Woodford pudding turned out. A fallen, sticky brown cake-like object. Good though. Or at least the wife liked it. She said that with all the jam flavor, cinnamon and nutmeg, it tasted “like fall”. To me it was a bit of a blast from the past, since I […]

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Joe’s R&D Department

So I’ve been asked to contribute a pastry recipe to a cookbook that’s coming out next year, on the subject of local and regional foods. Very flattering. Except not being from Kentucky (at least originally) I don’t have anything like that handy, not that I’ve developed myself. Sure I could try and do some new […]

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Brick Oven Update

For those of you who may be wondering why it is I haven’t talked about bread much the last six months: I’ve been waiting on my brick oven. For those of you who’ve been wondering why I haven’t talked about my brick oven much for the last five months: I’ve been lazy. Well, that and […]

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Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Now this is what you might call your more conventional pound cake. It even measures up right: 5 ounces of eggs, 5.25 ounces of flour, 5.25 ounces of sugar and 6.5 ounces of butter. Not precisely an even amount of each, but close enough for Joe (Rose Levy Berenbaum likes her pound cake a little […]

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Savory Meets Sweet

The convergence of savory and sweet flavors continues in the pastry world, this time in my old home town. I don’t know how long this trend will last, though I do know that it’s a phenomenon that’s not just limited to high-end restaurants. A variety of major-label cookie, cake and frozen dessert manufacturers are even […]

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