"The cookies ranged from ehhh to scrumpdiddleumptious." starbucks.com Stopped by a Starbucks lately? You may have noticed, or tasted, something new. In an effort to take on a more wholesome image and win back customers, the company has introduced a new and improved selection of food items under the campaign "Real food. Simply delicious." This means a revamping of all their baked goods (no artificial flavors, artificial trans fats, artificial dyes, or high-fructose corn syrup), and the launch of several new items, like the Vivanno smoothie and Protein Plate (cheese, hard-boiled egg, whole-wheat bagel, grapes, apple slices, and peanut butter). At a recent media preview, I tasted some of the "improved" baked goods on offer at Starbucks nationwide....
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Evil Mad Scientist has a detailed guide on making edible googly eyes for cupcakes, cookies, and other baked goods. The trick lies in using edible gelatin capsules cut down into eye domes, with jumbo round sprinkles as pupils. Sprinkles go in the cut-down capsules, and capsules are affixed to an appropriate substrate: It "needs to be sturdy, so that it can support the rest of the eyes, light in color, and completely dry and free of oil. At the same time, it needs to be soft enough that we can press the gelatin capsules into it." Whoppers cut in half seem to make an ideal substrate. For the complete how-to, step into the EMS laboratory....
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Flo Fab's piece yesterday in the New York Times on two kinds of serious E-baked goods, by Seth Greenberg and Florian Bellinger respectively, started me thinking about the incredible number of E-Bakeries cropping up all over the world. I understand it takes far less capital to sell on the web, but I for one miss the incredible smells that greet and envelop customers in a bricks and mortar bakery. That said, I know Seth Greenberg's schnecken (mini-sticky buns) are amazing (no website yet. They can only be ordered by calling 646-290-9204) ditto Bellinger's macaroons (I have eaten far too many of both). But what are the E-Baked Goods other Serious Eaters love and crave? I'm partial to the incredibly flaky...
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