Having just finished a rustic, though still rather refined, French treatment of apples, I think I’d like to do something a bit more…oh, I don’t know quite how to say it…”folksy”. Fall weather seems to bring that out. So what about some apple fritters this week? Oh yeah, that’s the stuff.
READ ONThe wife loves to tease me about my dreams. Why? Because nine times out of ten they’re the most boring internal narratives anyone has ever heard of. Mrs. Pastry wakes up most mornings reeling from some wild escapade she’s been on. I’m always a good audience for the whatever-it-is, asking questions and offering up half-baked […]
READ ONI got a very interesting email on this subject recently, from a pastry student by the name of Zach. It reads: An interesting phenomenon has been occurring in class for the last 2 weeks. We are making apple tarte tatins with granny smith apples. These granny smiths seem to have been picked a bit too […]
READ ONThis is a very important question where Tarte Tatin is concerned. Pick the right apple and the result is a glistening, golden presentation of cooked apples on a rich, crispy base. Pick the wrong one and you get a smear of applesauce on a sodden slab of dough. The difference can be that dramatic. In […]
READ ONThere are a few variations on this very simple recipe, most of which have to do with how you prepare your caramel, and what size pieces of apple you employ. I’m a member of the make-your-caramel-first-and-don’t-use-gigantic-apple-pieces contingent. We have strong representation in Washington and a muscular lobbying effort. I like to make the caramel before […]
READ ONCulinary history, you mean? A lot of the myths you routinely hear about the history of food come, interestingly enough, from the legendary Larousse Gastronomique — which, if you don’t own, you might seriously consider picking up. It’s the grandaddy of cooking encyclopedias. Its focus is, of course, French food and ingredients, and it’s chock […]
READ ONTarte Tatin has a somewhat odd history, having supposedly been invented in 1888 at a hotel owned by two spinster sisters (the Tatins) in the town of Lamotte-Beuvronin, just south of Orléans in north-central France. It’s full and proper name is tarte des demoiselles Tatin, or “The Tatin Spinsters’ Tart”, but here in the states […]
READ ONHaving made a freezer-full of buttercreams this last week I have to say I’ve had enough of my mixer for a while. The good news is that I now have enough buttercream to see me through the holidays. Also, by happy coincidence, my advertiser, Foodbuzz, sent me a check for $50 yesterday, which will just […]
READ ONHaving made a freezer-full of buttercreams this last week I have to say I’ve had enough of my mixer for a while. The good news is that I now have enough buttercream to see me through the holidays. Also, by happy coincidence, my advertiser, Foodbuzz, sent me a check for $50 yesterday, which will just […]
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