The ladyfinger operates under a slew of aliases. It’s gone by the name of boudoir biscuit, long finger, Naples biscuit and trifle biscuit. In France it’s known as biscuit à la cuillère or “spooned” biscuit, supposedly because the batter was originally shaped by hand with a spoon. I have no idea whether or not that’s […]
READ ONAs with most classic pastry preparations, ladyfinger recipes tend to be fairly consistent. This one might have an extra egg yolk, that one a little more vanilla, but overall they tend to be quite similar. The only major area of disagreement you’ll find between them is the type of flour they call for. Some demand […]
READ ON…by regular contributor Jim Chevallier. Check out his latest paper on the subject of 18th century French bread-baking here.
READ ONI was going to write about how to modify ladyfingers before putting up the tutorial, but I think it’ll be easier to show the recipe first, then talk about adjustments. Ladyfingers are a lot easier to make than this series of photos might make them appear. They require a few steps, but the batter is […]
READ ONThis is a fairly standard ladyfinger recipe that produces a nice general-purpose cookie. It’s quite similar to other sponge cakes like génoise, except that it contains no butter. You can of course mess with this basic formula to create different effects, and in the next couple of posts I’ll tell you how. 4 eggs, room […]
READ ONAnd here I went to a big NASCAR race in Indianapolis this weekend. I was just starting to feel masculine again! Sheesh.
READ ONI used to be a beekeeper — an urban beekeeper — back in my old neighborhood in Chicago. The missus and I kept several hives on a rooftop on the Northwest Side and had the time of our lives doing it, except when we got stung a lot, obviously. But then the days of getting […]
READ ONIt may not be traditional, but I can tell you how it tastes: phenomenal. The assembly goes like this: roll out your puff pastry to about 1/4″ thickness and cut out your crusts. You want the circles to be as big around as the outside lip of the ramekin molds. Once they’re cut, store them […]
READ ONOnions are sweet little bulbs. In fact they’re unusually so, only their sweetness is hidden in the form of long chains of fructose molecules. Unadulterated, those fructose chains don’t register as sweet sensations on our tongues because our taste buds don’t have receptors capable of recognizing them. Add to that the fact that they’re disguised […]
READ ONTwo inquiries from readers overnight, as to whether I suggest any particular type of heirloom tomato for this week’s project. I’m very glad for those questions, because they give me just the opportunity I wanted to re-post this 2009 feature from the Washington Post, which as far as I’m concerned should have been nominated for […]
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