Birthday cakes should be layer cakes, and for the second time in as many years I found myself with cakes prepped, but the birthday gathering cancelled. Nestled in my freezer were three layers of lemon cake (baked last week; you’d never know they’d been frozen, and this is the secret to wedding cake construction across […]
I’d eaten tarte flambée years ago, at a restaurant in downtown San Francisco that no longer exists (though I believe that space now houses Kokkari). It really made an impression on me, because it was unlike anything I’d ever had before. A thin crispy crust smeared with something creamy, covered with bacon and onions, and […]
My friends in Paris had warned me that true French éclairs* were very different from the ones I make, which contain a vanilla bean pastry cream lightened with whipped cream, and are dipped in bittersweet chocolate ganache. The classic éclair does double duty with its flavor profile: a chocolate éclair has chocolate pastry cream, a […]
I seem to have failed at my blogging goals for December, but I did manage to bake a round or two of Christmas cookies this year. I have a standard cookie that the holiday would not be complete without, though we’ve never settled on a name for them. My husband alone can eat half a […]
Much has been made about the idea of “aging” chocolate chip cookie dough. A NYT article highlighting this very thing swept the web a few years back, and this practice has since become the new trend in the world of chocolate chip cookies. I made their sited Jacques Torres recipe, even using the prescribed cake […]
Chocolate chip cookies, like fried chicken, are another of those foods that everyone makes, but are hard to make consistently well. Even when I measure the flour by weight, I don’t think I’ve made the same cookie twice. In 10 years of professional baking, during which time I baked the same recipe again and again, […]
Over the Christmas holiday I spent time with my family in both Ohio and Michigan. Those among you who are football fans will recognize the potential conflict of interest here. As a native Buckeye, I actually resent Ohio State’s ubiquity and typically root for Michigan. I may be tried for treason after making this information […]
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