Reader Sarah from Vancouver writes: LOVE your gingerbread house …. are you not going to DECORATE it?!?!? I feel like we’ve waited so long and now all of a sudden, it’s buche de noel time! No Mini-wheats thatched roof? No candy cane eaves-troughs? No Jr. Mint patio? What’s up with that? Great point, Sarah. In […]
READ ONMost of us know how to whip sugar and egg whites together, but since this multi-purpose meringue requires an extra folding step, I thought it would be worth a few photos. First, you’ll need to sift the powdered sugar and flour together: Easy. Now set that bowl aside. Place your egg whites in the bowl […]
READ ONHaving tried quite a few French meringues, I can say I prefer Roland Mesnier’s version hands down. Not only is it good and sturdy, it actually has flavor beyond mere sugary sweetness. When I made meringue mushrooms out of it, the missus wouldn’t believe that I hadn’t added any additional flavorings. It’s that complex and […]
READ ONReader Laura asks: I thought marzipan was almond paste with more sugar added. Correct? If so, then what would the ratio of nuts and sugar be for making almond paste instead of marzipan? Another question: I have always used my mini food processor for grinding nuts. Is a spice grinder that much better at doing […]
READ ONReader Neha asks: Why are we always asked to remove something from heat and then stir in vanilla extract? Is it something to do with the alcohol? But that doesn’t make sense, because there’s so little of it! I’m confused. That’s a very good question, since it comes up a lot in recipes. The reason […]
READ ONIf you mean the cake, reader Henry, it doesn’t have a very long history. Certainly, it dates no further back than the late 1800’s, probably to the the turn of the last century. The ever-resourcesful Jim Chevalier did some of his usual sleuthing yesterday, and found no printed references that date back before the first […]
READ ONA simple uncooked marzipan is a very easy thing provided you have a coffee grinder handy to pulverize the nuts. You’ll need to do the grinding in small batches, obviously. I think it took me four batches, but all of maybe five minutes. After you’ve cleaned out your grinder, add the nuts… …and grind continuously […]
READ ONI went most of my adult life thinking I didn’t like marzipan. Then I made some from scratch and realized what a fool I’d been. There are two ways to go about making marzipan. You can do the simple mix-and-stir method using powdered sugar, ground almonds and egg white, or you can do the slightly […]
READ ONThere won’t be a need to put much in the way of recipes up this week, since the main components of the cake are already on the blog. You’ll need: – One recipe génoise, prepared jelly roll style (but no jelly) – About half a recipe of Swiss meringe buttercream, flavored with a shot of […]
READ ON