First it was doughnuts iced with Nyquil, now it’s waffles covered with curry sauce. A further example of the escalating convergence of savory and sweet? Or just too many crystal methamphetamine lab fumes drifting into Willamette Valley? You be the judge. UPDATE: This on-the-scene report from Mary Sue: I live a couple blocks from Jace […]
READ ONSo what is “mechanical” leavening? What is the “mechanism” that results in rising vis-à-vis a microbe or some chemical reaction? In a word: steam. Though to be fair steam is the chief rising agent in any type of leavening. Microbes or chemicals may create the initial bubbles in, say, a loaf of sandwich or banana […]
READ ONSo as you can see we’ve got an entirely different kind of thing going on now. It’s an upside-down-style “cake” as I said, with peaches (which I couldn’t find fresh but bought in frozen slices) and bourbon-tinged caramel on the top. Plus it’s round. And you know, it works pretty well. I went back and […]
READ ONThe wife has been getting interested in women’s magazine’s lately. I can’t say I quite get why. She’s always seemed like such the intellectual type (she is, after all, a Ph.D). But then I guess I’ve always wondered why, when on the rare occasions I stay out late into the evening, I come home to […]
READ ONEverybody’s had the experience: you’re standing in a line, or sitting on a train or in a bus, and you share a laugh with a complete stranger. A comment about a politician or a movie star, or some scandal in the news, and suddenly you find yourself in a conversation. The first few moments pass […]
READ ONThose of you who are sick to death of the whole yeast and fermentation thing will be glad to know that the topic is winding down. But before I move on to the next type of leavening that I plan on talking about, I wanted to talk a bit about combining packaged yeast and wild […]
READ ONEvery time, and I mean every time, I rest bread dough overnight in the refrigerator, I’m put in mind of Claudine Pépin. That’s Jacques Pépin’s daughter for those of you who might not be familiar with her. She isn’t heard from much these days, but a few years ago it seemed as though her daddy […]
READ ON(It can’t be all that hard can it? I mean, they’re unicellular organisms.) One example of the way commercial yeast can be manipulated to brilliant effect is Peter Reinhart’s pain à l’ancienne. This is one of my go-to breads since it performs so well in a standard oven and is so darn easy to make […]
READ ONThe sale of sliced bread was banned by the United States Secretary of Agriculture on this day, January 18, 1943. The reason: World War II. At the time grain was considered an essential resource, critical to the war effort. Since sliced bread stales more quickly than unsliced bread, banning sliced bread helped curtail waste. Or […]
READ ONAre fortune cookies actually Japanese? Seems they might be. Oh, and your lucky numbers are 8, 12, 34, 67 and 93, by the way.
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