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 […]
READ ON…is rosca (or roscón) de reyes: a “kings’ ring.” Though it looks quite a bit different than a French kings’ cake it functions much the same. It contains a little trinket inside that diners search for. The main difference that I can gather is that in many Spanish-speaking cultures, especially those in the New World, […]
READ ONIf diet is a way to measure how stressed out we all are, 2010 must have been a very stressful year indeed. Have a look-see at the list of Food Network‘s top recipes for last year. Mac and cheese, roast chicken, lasagna…there’s even a recipe from Rachel Ray for “late night bacon.” I mean, how […]
READ ON…in case I forgot to mention it (which I did). No, the finished cake post isn’t ready yet.
READ ONHere’s something kinda cool from SonRidge: an anti-microbial pastry bag. It was especially handy for me this week since I was piping an unbaked frangipane, and that means raw egg (which, at least in the US, can carry certain health risks). What properties does the bag have that make it anti-microbial? Silver ions, which…well they…honestly […]
READ ONFrequent contributor Jim Chevalier poses an interesting question about laminated doughs: are there as many classes of them in France as there are in the States? He comments that as far as he knows the French have only “leafed pastry” (pâte feuilletée) and leafed pastry with yeast (for croissants). Here on the site I refer […]
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