Bakers who tackle French recipes get stumped by the sugars, which don’t necessarily correspond to the sugars available elsewhere. All supermarkets in France carry white granulated sugar and there’s often unrefined sugars, such as cassonade, which grocers stock and are widely-available. In America and elsewhere, bakers often have to do a bit of hunting around to find the corresponding sugar. French brown sugars are quite…
One of the least expensive, and most effective, things you can do to improve the taste of your cakes, quick breads, cookies, and muffins is to switch to aluminum-free baking powder. Baking powder is a leavening agent, and it’s usually called for in recipes where there are alkaline (as opposed to acidic) ingredients. In actuality, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is one of the ingredients in…
Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream If you think making caramel is difficult, it isn’t. In fact, when you made your toast this morning, half-asleep, you caramelized something! Enjoying a cup of coffee made from freshly roasted beans, baking a cake or a batch of oatmeal cookies, grilling tofu, and chugging a beer are some of the other benefits we gain from caramelization. I’ll be doing…
The French like chocolate as much, or even more, than the rest of us. That includes Clotilde Dusoulier, who writes the blog Chocolate & Zucchini. If you’re a reader, you’re privy to her charming stories about her life in Paris accompanied recipes. And you’ve also likely heard of her book: Chocolate & Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen. Turning the pages and reading about her life…
With all due respects, the first time I met Sherry Yard, I was squirming in my seat. I was sitting in the originally Spago, in West Hollywood, overlooking the city of Los Angeles. The room was filled with celebrities, but I remember getting special treatment. I arrived in my best; a well-tailored Italian wool suit that I hoped made me fit in a little better…
Several of you had asked about how to avoid cookies from spreading out during baking, which can be rather vexing…especially when you’ve gone through all that trouble of getting the counter all covered with flour, then rolling ’em out, and cutting them into all those nifty shapes. So here are some tips…
Since I’m on an Italian fling here, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to interview Nick Malgieri, whose fabulous recipe for Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies I recently featured on the site. Nick is one of the most knowledgeable bakers in the world, frequently hobnobbing with such luminaries as Pierre Hermé and Dorie Greenspan, swapping recipes and baking techniques. I can’t tell you how…
Here are some helpful tips to prevent cookies from spreading: Don’t Overbeat the Batter Far too many recipes advise bakers to simply “Cream butter and sugar until smooth”. So many people just turn on the mixer and go check their e-mail. When you beat butter and sugar, those little crystals of sugar create air pockets between the butterfat. The more you beat, the more air…
Paris has some of the most amazing pastry and chocolate shops in the world! I’ve written up many of them and you can browse through my archives to find out more about them: Paris Pastry Shops. A recommended book for visitors is The Pâtisseries of Paris: A Paris Pastry Guide, which lists many favorites, along with addresses and specialties.
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