Entries tagged with 'baking'
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"Paula's face smiled up at me from the packaging, her familiar gray bob frozen into place, her lips shellacked with frosted pink gloss." [Photographs: Lucy Baker] Last week, in Ed's Brooklyn Star review, Ed deemed chef Joaquin Baca's biscuits "probably the best in newly biscuit-crazed New York." This so-called biscuit craze isn't limited to the Big Apple: all over the country people are harkening back to a time when food was simple, unfussy, and honest. Out with the fusion and small plates, in with the fried chicken and family-style menus. It's no wonder then that the humble biscuit is having a renaissance. Is there a more modest, straightforward food out there? I don't think so. Of course, biscuits are a...
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[Photographs: Blake Royer] It's astounding these days the number of apples you can find at a market. No longer does the Red Delicious—which I remember as the quintessential lunchroom apple—hold the only place in the supermarket aisle. Pippin, Jonagold, Golden Noble, Winesap, Pink Lady, Schmidtberger Reinette—every name makes my mouth water with anticipation. It used to be you bought a bag of Granny Smith apples when you wanted to bake, and you added enough sugar to counteract their tartness. But now which apples are the best for baking pie? Certainly, not all of them are good for that purpose. There are many great eating apples, whether tart, sweet, mild, or fragrant. But would the same apples I love to...
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Focaccia by ElizabethS. [Photograph: The Manhattan Food Project] For last week's Weekend Cook and Tell we challenged all of you to break out the yeast and flour and try your hand at bread baking. Who knew that so many of you are such accomplished bakers? Here are some of our favorite fresh-baked responses: ElizabethS made good use of her free time by attempting to replicate the perfect focaccia she ate on her Italian honeymoon. This upside-down tomato basil bread was avaryne's first attempt at bread-baking and the results were sinfully delicious. hmw0029 made a light oat bread with pumpkin puree and sunflower seeds for the week's sandwiches....
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"Everybody should have a go-to pie dough or tart dough that they do in their sleep," says Pim Techamuanvivit (aka Chez Pim), who recently came out with a cookbook called The Foodie Handbook. Here she shows us her go-to, which really does look ridiculously easy. Making a pie crust from scratch always sounds intimidating but this approach is more like playing with Play Doh that happens to turn into a deliciously flaky, buttery crust. (And you can do it straight on the countertop. No bowl required.) Pim finishes it off with frangipagne (she blends the almonds herself, avoiding almond meal) and fruit for a rustic galette. Become a pie dough expert in four minutes, after the jump....
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"A perfect glass-of-milk kind of snacking cake." [Photographs: Lucy Baker] Many would argue that gluten-free is the new cholesterol-free, fat-free, or carb-free. That is to say, it's the latest diet trend. Maybe gluten-free products are currently having their glitter moment, but there is no denying the facts: as many as three million Americans have celiac disease, and the number of gluten-intolerant people is even greater—about one in 133. That means they cannot comfortably digest gluten, the main protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. Can you imagine a life without pasta? Or warm crusty bread? Cereal? Fortunately you don't have to. Right now, markets are stocked with gluten-free versions of many favorite foods, including waffles, pizza, and even beer. Out...
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[Photograph: Robyn Lee] Since it's never too early to start talking pumpkin pie, here's a question: the milk part. The piemakers over in Talk are split as to what kind of milk should go into the filling. While some recipes skip milk altogether, others range from whole milk to sweetened condensed to evaporated to even coconut milk. Usually the answer has something to do with whatever your mom or grandma did. Anyone especially passionate about a certain type of milk? Related Sweet Melissa's Ginger Custard Pumpkin Pie Cook's Illustrated's Pumpkin Pie Dorie Greenspan's Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie...
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"Even the dot was delicious!" Sprinkles, the wildly popular cupcake bakery that started in Beverly Hills, has been touted by many celebrities including Jon Stewart, Bobby Flay, and Oprah, and featured in countless publications (like Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and the Los Angeles Times.) While other cupcakeries, such as New York's Magnolia, stick to classic flavors like vanilla and devil's food, Sprinkles offers up more than twenty inventive varieties including chai latte, coconut marshmallow, and ginger lemon. Distinguished by their signature dots, these sweet little confections are arguably the most famous dessert in Hollywood. Recently, Williams-Sonoma paired up with Sprinkles to create a line of cupcake mixes, so even if you don't live in 90210 territory you can still...
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[Flickr: the_girl] Rather than picking just one book for this week's Cook the Book, we went with five. What do they all have in common? Pumpkin, butter, miscellaneous other ingredients, and an oven. Basically our goal this week is to make you eat more pumpkin desserts. We rummaged through our cookbook library to find some favorite recipes: Pumpkin Walnut Cranberry Quickbread from The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread, Pumpkin Whoopie Pies from Baked, Ginger Custard Pumpkin Pie from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book, Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes from Paula Deen's The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook, and Spiced Pumpkin Muffins with Pepitas from Cowgirl Cuisine. Win a Cookbook We are giving away one copy of each of the...
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Mary Lake-Thompson Pumpkin Latte Harborside Bakery Harvest Pumpkin Quick Bread [Flickr: KnaPix] [Photographs: Lucy Baker, unless otherwise noted] Coffee aficionados come in all shapes and sizes—from those who slurp only the finest Sumatran blends, to those who will settle for nothing less than a perfect dry cappuccino with a creamy cloud of foam. My boyfriend stocks our freezer with trays of coffee ice cubes (to avoid the dreaded watered-down effect). There are also those java connoisseurs who turn up their noses at specialty coffee drinks. Let me say right now: I am not one of them. I grew up in Massachusetts, birthplace of the Dunkin' Donuts Coffee Coolatta. My very first date involved a mocha Frappuccino. I have a sweet...
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Of all the celebrity chefs, how many of them are from the dessert world? I am wracking my brain to come up with at least one celebrity pastry chef, and I've got nothing. Mario handles the Italian front, Rachel takes care of meals for harried moms, Ina brings a reserved classiness to the table, Tom acts as mentor and judge for aspiring young chef—but what about sweets? Everyone loves dessert, so why do pastry chefs get the shaft? In the spirit of bringing pastry chefs into the realm of food royalty, I would like to hereby nominate Karen DeMasco for the title of celebrity pastry chef. DeMasco's desserts have been a big hit here at Serious Eats for a while,...
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