Author: joepastry

There are so many possible ways to go with chocolate chip cookie formulas it would take me weeks to go through them all. Extra-chewy, double chocolate, super chunky, double butter…a baker could get so lost in the forest of variations he’d never come out again. However I think it’s clear that all of them have […]

Due to an overwhelming number of recent requests (eight) for solutions to chocolate chip cookie problems, I am once again preempting my regular request list. How to explain the recent influx of questions — from as close as Indianapolis to as far away as Indonesia and Israel — other than there’s some sort of disturbance […]

Reader Bill asks: I noticed in the focaccia recipe you mentioned durum flour as an optional ingredient. Can you tell me why, and also where I might get some? Durum flour makes an excellent addition to focaccia (and many other breads) because it adds not only a more exotic flavor, but a very attractive golden […]

Ken, who goes to culinary school in Florence, Italy, weighs in on the subject of focaccia: Bell peppers, zucchini and tomatoes are all native to the new world. Especially the latter is probably the fundamental ingredient in “authentic” Italian cuisine. Thinking of the parallel development of pizza is especially pertinent. In terms of the potato […]

Make it into a sandwich. It’s not traditional, but what the hey, America is a nation that’s based on the principle of re-invention. I’m by no means the first one to think of this, but where is it written that a food has to be original to be delicious? Using focaccia for sandwiches just makes […]

Reader Seth C. writes in with a good question as to why the focaccia recipe below calls for either poolish preferment or starter. The answer is that the two — at least in my little corner of the bread baking world — work equivalently. Both (again, at least the way I formulate them) are made […]

For all you pistachio lovers out there (and I count myself as one…they’re pretty much my favorite nut) the bad news is that the FDA has recently issued a recall of some pistachios (specifically those made by the California-based Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella) due to risk of contamination by salmonella bacteria. (Wasn’t the peanut […]

Dana A. writes in with this observation about “authentic” focaccia: I’d be wary of anyone who claimed that it’s potatoes that make a truly authentic focaccia. Don’t potatoes come originally from the new world? And if they do, how is it possible that Etruscans ate them (unless they had space ships/time machines)? Though I wouldn’t […]