The one piece of specialized equipment that éclairs require is a pastry bag and tips. Now, I’ve used many types of pastry bags over the years, from cheapie little paper doo-dads to elaborately-stitched European wunderbags. The conclusion I’ve come to: nothing beats a Ziploc for its combination of versatility and price. Just clip one of […]
READ ONI can’t stay away from Peeps, which, I know, means there’s something deeply, deeply wrong with me. The trouble is, I find the idea of popping the little speckled birdies in my mouth more fun than actually eating them. I think it’s because no matter when I get mine, they always seem a little (or […]
READ ONOf course if it were only cornstarch, milk, and sugar that went into pastry cream, all we’d need to do is put the pot on the stove, turn on the gas and stir. But there is the somewhat (and I mean only somewhat) tricky matter of the eggs, which require that we do some tempering. […]
READ ONOne of the main pleasures of pastry cream, at least to me, is that it’s not actually as rich as it seems. It’s mostly milk thickened with a few egg yolks and lots of corn starch, which is what’s primarily responsible for it’s thick, though not overly heavy, mouthfeel. A nice change of pace from […]
READ ONOne of the things I hear most from readers is: “I’d love to be baking with you Joe, but they just don’t let inmates into the kitchen without a work pass.” The other thing I hear most often goes something like this: “Joe, I’d love to bake more, but I have a hard time getting […]
READ ONA recent comment pointed out that there’s no sauce recipe to go along with the deep-dish pizza crust. My goof. Here it is (I’ll also put it with the main recipe for future reference): 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 clove garlic, finely minced 1/2 small onion, diced 1 teaspoon dried oregano flakes 1/2 teaspoon dried […]
READ ONI’ve owed a good friend a batch of éclairs for quite a while now, and darnit, it’s time I delivered. I’ve also had a few requests of late for instructions on how to make pâte à choux, which is of course the light and puffy dough that éclairs are made from (to say nothing of […]
READ ONLater this coming week I’ll be heading back home to Chicago for a few days, and I have a pretty good idea what I’m going to do once I get there: eat. Top of the menu: pizza, especailly Gino’s East Pizza who’s crust recipe I’m within a hair’s breadth of cracking. I know I’ve got […]
READ ONPies, especially portable little hand pies, go back so far in human history, it’s nearly impossible to say when or where they first showed up. As I mentioned at the beginning of the week, they’re just one of those foods that seems to have sprung up independently, all over the world…some ideas are just that […]
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