Author: joepastry

Jam is simply a cooked mixture of fruit and sugar. It is distinct from what we in America call jelly, since jelly is a thickened mixture of sugar and fruit juice only. Most jams start out as a roughly 50-50 mixture of sugar and fruit by weight. By the time they’re cooked, however, that proportion […]

As I mentioned yesterday, the primary purpose of jam — other than being a spread of almost unspeakable pleasure — is to preserve fruit. For sugar, as I have oft written, is as lethal to microbes as salt…albeit in a slightly different way. Salt kills microbes by osmosis, literally extracting water from them through their […]

We’re smack in the middle of the berry season here in the Midwest, which means — at least in the Pastry household — the boiling water canner is being put through its annual paces. It’s the glory and the curse of a temperate, continental climate that its fruiting flora produce more delicious edibles than its […]

Here’s one key observation I’ve made after months of fiddling with my new brick oven: these things get really, really hot inside. So hot in fact that a cheerful round of bread dough can be transformed into lump of smoking, blistered ash in as little as eight minutes. But what else to do but risk […]

…in my brain, caused the accidental deletion of a slew of unopened emails. So, if you sent me an email over the last ten days or so and didn’t get a reply, please resend.

I didn’t get back after it yesterday like I promised. What can I say, vacation was busy and I needed to catch up. Today, however, it’s game on.

We’ll be closing up shop at Joe Pastry world headquarters for the next week or so. Back on Monday the 14th, tan, rested and ready. Happy 4th to all!

The wife seems to be generating as much mail as I am with her muffin post. Here’s a good one from reader and mother Jo-Lee: Bravo Mrs. Pastry! With regards to the blog entry you wrote about kids and eating. My children (5 and 1) sound exactly the same as yours. I have thought about, […]