Reader Bob T. writes in to ask: You wrote in a response last week that cocoa butter melts at about 89 degrees [Fahrenheit], yet in my experience it seems to get “melty” around 80, but then doesn’t seem to completely liquify until it’s much warmer than 90. Can you tell me why this is? I […]
READ ONThis is really a fun one, I think. It reminds me of my twin sister and I when we were children, on one particular occasion when our grandmother took us out for a fancy lunch at the Ritz Carlton. I can’t remember the circumstances very well, only that it was a weekday and we were […]
READ ONLet’s be honest, as bakers there are the sweets we’re supposed to love with a great passion (perfect éclairs and chocolate croissants, crispy, citrus-scented tuiles and Hermé macarons) and then the sweets we really do love with a great passion. This is mine, at least when the weather is warm: ice cold home-canned peaches just […]
READ ONAs far as Louisvillians are concerned, only those who live under rocks don’t know that it’s Kentucky Derby week this week. I’m not willing to go quite that far, myself, not being from here originally (I frequently failed to notice the Derby, many of those years while living in a high-rise). However I will issue […]
READ ONGot another good question over the weekend: Hey Joe! Tell me why it is that high-fat European-style chocolate bars are so much more expensive than comparable bars with more chocolate liquor in them. I’d think it would be the other way around. Oh my, no. In the world of chocolate making, by far the most […]
READ ONLOTS and lots of cookie chemistry questions in this week. Interestingly, several people asked whether (other than losing some of the caramelly flavor notes) there are any significant consequences to using all white sugar in chocolate chip cookies instead of the standard 50-50 white sugar, dark brown sugar mix. The answer is: oh my, yes. […]
READ ONTo add still more height to your already thick cookie, pretend baking guy Onofre set the oven a little too high that night, and turn the heat up to 400. This will firm the egg proteins on the outside of the dough ball faster, and bring spreading to a halt that much sooner. Of course […]
READ ONThis is a style of chocolate chip cookie most commonly produced at small, boutique bakeries, for reasons that have less to do with aesthetics than the way their operations run. That is to say, in bake shops you have people who mix dough, other people who handle dough and still others who bake dough — […]
READ ONDiscovered this one in my box when I got up this morning: Dear Joe, Why is it you say that high-fat chocolates are of “higher quality” when there are many very high quality high-cacao chocolates on the market today? Perhaps I should make a distinction here, since it’s true that a great many high-cacao chocolates […]
READ ONMy mailbox is often a little too eager to delete messages, so I don’t have the text of an excellent question that was sent in on Wednesday. It was basically this: why, once chocolate chips are baked (as in chocolate chip cookies) do they not firm up again completely? Logic seems to dictate, after all, […]
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