But since when did the Almighty ever ask for my input? Ze life, she has been a little nutty as of late, my friends. The very afternoon I left you, ten or so days ago, I received an urgent phone call that the wife was being rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Her pregnancy was […]
READ ONWith so much bakery yet unbaked, and so many presents yet unbought, I’m going to have to sign off a day early this week. But never fear, I’ll be back with bells on after the New Year, rarin’ to write some new crazy thing-or-other. For all the hard working bread and pastry makers pulling 18-hour […]
READ ONThis is a question that perplexed me for years, especially after several disappointing attempts to substitute powdered ginger tablespoon-for-tablespoon for the fresh stuff in stir-frys. The flavor difference was surprising, though not half as surprising as the “heat” blast that practically gave me brain damage. Indeed, a little goes a long way where powdered ginger […]
READ ONSo why does my humor seem to be turning to the morbid? I guess it was that reference to Hansel and Gretel. It brought to my mind one of my favorite gags from the faux-newspaper The Onion. It was just an illustration and a headline. The cartoon was a panorama of blood-spattered elves, wolves eating […]
READ ONIt’s not a sugared plum, in case that was your guess. Historically, sugarplums were just little sugar-coated whatsits (what were known up until the early 20th century as comfits). Maybe a caraway seed, a nut, a bit of a cinnamon stick, a raisin, or other little piece of dried fruit. Candy makers would cover these […]
READ ONHistory buff that I am, I can’t pass up a reference to sugar beets, especially since I was blathering about the Napoleonic wars only Friday. While chemists knew that it was possible to extract sugar from beets as far back as 1747, large-scale production of beet sugar didn’t occur until about 1813 in France. Why? […]
READ ONNot a whole heck of a lot to debrief after this week’s Sacher Torte-making escapade. The nice thing about making a “glaze” instead of a simple chocolate coating is that the candy component of the glaze (i.e. the syrup) makes it shiny regardless of how well you temper it. So you get all the fun […]
READ ONI know what you’re thinking: Everything I’ve ever heard about melting chocolate says you should never EVER let even a drop of water get into a pot of melted chocolate, so what’s this about heating chocolate along with a sugar-and-water syrup? It’s a very understandable concern. But the issue is one of proportion. Add a […]
READ ONYes, if couverture is for coating things, then why does the Sacher Torte recipe call for it in the sponge? The only reason I can think is because it contains quite a lot of fat, and fat creates the sensation of moisture — necessary in a cake that’s known for being a bit on the […]
READ ONWhile I’m on this subject, it’s interesting to note that yeast organisms perform the same action (i.e. creating invert sugar) when they’re mixed into a bread dough. Yeast as you know have to consume sugar in order to live and reproduce, but as I’ve frequently discussed, they’re not capable of “digesting” complex carbohydrates (the very […]
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