…you can still send me private emails as well if you’d like to submit questions in that form. On which note, reader Emily asks how long it’s been since I’ve upgraded the site. I’m a little embarrassed to tell you, Emily, because while I’ve changed the design to this or that degree the last couple […]
READ ONIt worked! I woke up this morning and it was a brand new me! Many, many thanks to the international Joe Pastry site implementation team, a staff of hundreds otherwise known as Greg and Jason. Thanks a million, gents. You’ve done a banner job putting together the bigger, better Joe. And just in time, too, […]
READ ONThe bad news is I won’t be blogging for the rest of the week. The good news is it’s because I’m trying to finally get the new version of joepastry.com up (truth be told, I’m also traveling a little on business). If all goes well with both the building and the traveling, I’ll be back […]
READ ONI need to wind this up lest joepastry.com turn into an Epiphany cake specialty site. God knows I’m oddball enough! But who knew there were so many cakes in this family? Reader Chana alerts me to an Irish specialty cake called barmbrack that typically has all sorts of little objects baked into it. It’s traditionally […]
READ ON…Claudine checks in from France with this: A Galette des Rois is a Pitiviers eaten at Epiphanie (on or around January 6th). I agree with Ed about the double egg wash and the scoring. That’s how I make mine too 🙂 As a variation, it is also made with a filling of stewed apples (compote […]
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The Pastry clan went to a big Epiphany party Saturday night, the official observance of the feast day at one of the two parishes we participate in (one’s a bit closer to our home, the other to our hearts). Since the church has a sizable hispanic population, I fully expected to find some king cakes there, and sure enough I wasn’t disappointed. There were several, both a rosca de reyes…
READ ONOne thing I’ve been wondering about over the last week is the tradition of putting a bean in a cake. Where did that come from? I haven’t been able to find anything on it. Jim Chevallier has apparently been doing a little research of his own and comes up with some interesting tidbits: Even as […]
READ ONReader Ed writes: The King’s Cake that you just made and posted pictures of, complete with swirling decorative cuts – is what I grew up calling a Pithivier. The only differences are – no bean, and we brush the top of the pastry with beaten egg yolk BEFORE scoring the pastry. The egg yolk glaze […]
READ ONReader Bronwym writes: Further to the age of Christmas celebrations, my stepmother used to have to work on Christmas Day as a young woman in Scotland in the 1930s. It was an ordinary working day, with the holidays being around Hogmanay instead. Something to do with dour Presbyterianism I suspect. Holy days ≠ holidays. For […]
READ ONI didn’t post a recipe for this since you only need three components: two ten-to-twelve ounce pieces of puff pastry, about two cups of frangipane and a beaten egg. Piece of cake, no? No. Not if you’re making your own puff pastry, since that’s a project itself. I encourage you to try that, but if […]
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