A heavy workload and an upcoming block party are combining to make fancy pastry an impossibility this week. Still the kids need something sweet this weekend, don’t they? Caramel and candy apples seem like just the ticket. Let’s do it!
READ ONThe holiday baking season is upon us, friends. It’s time to lock and load!
READ ONThat ain’t a dance move, it’s an economic indicator — a measure of the total volume of cacao ground to powder to meet North American chocolate demand (other parts of the world issue their own quarterly “grindings” reports). The total grind was up 8.25 percent to 131,974 metric tons in the third quarter of this year, and that’s good news for chocolate sellers. The bad news is
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For all those who find potato gnocchi too heavy, and let’s face it they really can be, choux gnocchi are the perfect solution. These little pillows of flavor go great with roasted meats. They also make an excellent course on their own tossed together with split cherry tomatoes or roasted root vegetables. That of course is just the beginning of the utility of choux gnocchi, just use your imagination. Because they freeze so well, they make a great last-minute addition to virtually menu regardless of the season. If you can stir and simmer you can make them easily.
READ ONNicholas Stohrer? Yes you probably do, reader Penelope. He was the pastry chef to Marie Leszczynski, wife of King Louis the XV of France and daughter of (once) King Stanislas Leszczynski of Poland, supposed inventor of the baba au rhum. Good memory!
READ ONReader Paul writes in with a very interesting choux question:
Rather than the milk vs water thing, what about alternatives to butter? We make our choux paste with butter, but our pate brisee with shortening for a more neutral, puffier crust. Would it do the same thing for choux? As far as I’m concerned, choux paste, like brisee, is more of a filling delivery system than a confection in its own right. Making it neutral allows the filling to take center stage. Before I go off on a testing tangent what are your thoughts, Joe?
A fascinating idea, Paul. There’s no reason I can think of that shortening wouldn’t work in choux, though you’d want to scale it down by 15% since butter is about 15% water and you don’t want to weigh the batter down any more. On the functional impact, my feeling is that there won’t be too much in terms of texture. The finished puffs will probably be a bit more rigid since you’re losing some milk solids.
READ ONMy favorite thing by far on the internet these days is Thug Notes, a sort of street hoodie’s Masterpiece Theater. It’s funny, but unlike the purely comic Drunk History there’s an important point being made beneath the jokes and crass language. Specifically, that great literature is neither dull nor hard to understand. Further, it explores themes that anyone can find interesting. How can you not love a show where the host says things like: Now you just ain’t been goin’ hard in the paint unless you realize how this play captures the ambiguity of modernity. Dr. Sparky Sweets deserves a whole lot more attention.
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“The nun” is a choux pastry classic that’s said to date back to 1725, the year Nicolas Stohrer opened his eponymous pastry shop on Rue Montorgueil near the famous Les Halles market in Paris. The shop is still there, and the crew is still making the nun (“la religieuse”) albeit in different colors and styles now. The traditional nun is choux with a coffee pastry cream filling, decorated with chocolate fondant and buttercream piping, no doubt meant to resemble the brown cotton-and-muslin habit and coif of a nun. Since I went to Catholic school and was taught by nuns, I’ll do it the traditional way so as not to get into any trouble.
READ ONReader Gregory has been out picking persimmons and wants to know what causes the sour, pucker-y taste you get when you bite into one that isn’t quite ripe. Gregory, that’s a really great question. Tannins are responsible for that. They don’t have a taste or an aroma, rather they create a physical sensation known as “astringency”. It happens when phenolic compounds in the tannins combine with proteins in saliva. Little friction-inducing clumps of protein and other debris are created where ordinarily there is smooth lubrication. For the eater, it all adds up to a puckering feeling of dryness in the mouth, which can be downright off-putting.
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OK, maybe not “cracklins”, those are the marvelous crispy, porky bits you get when you do this. Though I suppose my choux puffs would be terrific with some of those, no? Choux Kentucky style! Actually, what I’m talking about is choux crowned with disks of a cookie-like dough, a hyper-sweet topping known as craquelin in France.
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