There was so much to talk about on the ice cream front I didn’t have time to get into ice cream makers (much). The wife and I own the basic countertop model, a plastic Cuisinart that does pretty well. There are others to be sure, but the Cuisinart seems to be the in-home standard. The […]
READ ONBy measuring it of course. All you need are a couple of graduated containers, a pyrex pitcher-type deal for measuring the progress of starters, and a rising container or two for the finished doughs (only not that big…gallon-sized is plenty). You can find them at any restaurant supply shop in pretty much all sizes. I’ve […]
READ ONArtisanal bread bakers, let’s be honest, the can be a little…flaky. Crunchy. Granola. You know what I mean. As a group they’re a hugely enthusiastic bunch, and more often than not make amazing bread. But when I hear one say something like I feel about my starters the way most people feel about their children, […]
READ ONThe Chicago-Style, Gino’s East, deep-dish cornmeal crust conundrum has finally been solved for good. I’ve been vexed by the toughness of the crust the last few times I’ve made it, and I know that in pie-type crusts, water is the source of that toughness. The crust recipe as it’s stood these last several months contains […]
READ ONYou may remember from two or so years ago where a Japanese specialty retailer debuted the square watermelon for Christmas (yes, they celebrate Christmas there, mostly as a commercial holiday). Nothing artifical, the melons were simply grown in wood frames. Well, now one of the British grocery giants, Tesco, has coopted the idea and is […]
READ ONThere are those fish proteins I mentioned. Just last night Mrs. Pastry called my attention to a TV ad for Breyers’ new Double-Churned ice creams. Breyers is of course one of the Unilever brands (others are Klondike, Good Humor and Popsicle) that uses the proteins in their products. The very first image in the ad […]
READ ONOne thing that you may have found revealing from this week’s discussion of ice cream is the way in which naturally ocurring chemical compounds can sound synthetic. Talk of “emulsifiers” and “stabilizers” gives the impression of industrialized food, when in fact what these words really describe is a role. A “stabilizer” can be simple table […]
READ ONThe only down side I can see to Grandma Reese’s machine-free ice cream recipe (below) is that it’ll take quite a long time to freeze, and in that time quite a few large ice crystals will form. I can, however, think of one thing a person without an ice machine can employ to freeze a […]
READ ONClearly it takes a balance of all the ingredients I’ve talked about here to make the perfect ice cream. Too much sugar and you get a gooey cream syrup. Too much air and you get insipid fluff. Too much fat and you get a tongue-coating, greasy mess (plus you risk churning the whole mix into […]
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