Frozen treats of one sort or another have been with us for a minimum of 3,000 years. The earliest of these were what we moderns would call “ices”, nothing more than fruit pulp mixed with shaved ice or slush. The cold stuff was either snow that had been brought down (quickly) from a mountain top, […]
READ ONMy week of toast postings (Post Toasties?) went over like a proverbial lead balloon. That’s OK, I can live with it. Toast just isn’t sexy. The good news is I’ve got the perfect thing up my sleeve perfect for you late summer Labor Day sweet tooth types: ice cream. Yes, it seems I’m always flirting […]
READ ONSeems the downturn in the US economy hasn’t had much impact on dessert ordering in the nation’s restaurants. Quite the reverse in fact, at least according to USA Today. Seems pastry, at least at the restaurant level, may be a recession-proof career choice.
READ ONSo what would you get if you took some very eggy, buttery brioche, cut it thick, dipped it in a custard of eggs, cream and sugar, fried it up in butter and served it dusted with powdered sugar? One mighty happy family is what. Talk about a breakfast worth climbing out of the rack for, […]
READ ONGot this question in the in box from my good friend Hans: I ate a lot of french toast growing up. By that I mean bread dipped in eggs with a touch of milk then onto the griddle like a pancake. Good, but ordinary. Then a couple of years back I was in New Orleans […]
READ ONIt’s interesting to note here that quite a lot of mental energy has been expended (mostly by British scientists of course) trying to answer the question as to why, when you drop a piece of toast, it always lands butter-side down. Most of us would just chalk the phenomenon up to Murphy’s Law, yet several […]
READ ONWhat does this photo have to do with pastry? Nothing, but I’m running this show. We had a great day at the state fair yesterday, and those two little cocks were among the highlights. No more than nine or ten inches tall, they were amazingly loud. So much so that little 1-year-old Joan had to […]
READ ONA wise guy associate of mine, on reading the bread project for the week, said what basically amounts to: “Now you’ve gone and done it! You’re gonna have a hard time flapping your fingers on the subject of toast all week!” Not true in the least, for toast is an endlessly engaging topic. Well OK […]
READ ONThe great pioneer in specialty retail baking, Mrs. Field’s, is filing for bankruptcy. Too much darn competition these days, so they say. But they deserve an awful lot of credit for literally reinventing the retail baking category. Hats off to you, Madame Field!
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