Swiss meringue and temperature
I’m on an ongoing quest for the perfect meringue—I sort of have a thing for egg whites, as you may remember. This time, we put the fluffy white stuff on top of cupcakes and cover it in more chocolate for…
Egg wash is magical
When I worked in pastry and we cycled through endless trays of egg-washed burger buns, it felt miraculous every time we pulled out the perfectly golden, shiny rolls out of the oven. Occasionally we missed one in the rush to…
Extra yeasty: the pre-ferment
Before we get to the science, I need to defend my recipe. I called my dad earlier this week to wish him a happy birthday, and he immediately moved on to more pressing issues: these scones take too long. King…
Collagen and gelatin
I went on a pork broth spree last weekend, making a couple different batches to compare starting with roasted and non-roasted bones. I expected the flavor and color differences, but the texture threw me: the broth from non-roasted bones set…
Biscuits: flaky vs. fluffy
Yes, we’re talking about butter again. You can’t really avoid it in baked goods (at least, I don’t want to), so we may as well embrace it and make it work for us. It sort of blows my mind that…
Laminated biscuits
No, it doesn’t mean we cover them in plastic. Laminating in the kitchen refers to folding buttery pastry dough to create flaky layers–think puff pastry and croissants. As usual, it’s all about the butter. We want it cold and in…
Salad dressing in a blender
I’m often a very lazy salad dressing maker, to the point that I usually just drizzle the salad with some oil and sometimes vinegar if I’m feeling fancy. (Maybe this is why I don’t eat a lot of salads.) But…
When heavy cream lightens
I’ve eaten an incredible amount of chocolate pudding in the last week and a half. There were the initial tests, then the one that turned grainy overnight, the one that was way too thick, and the one that my moving…
Why use brown bananas for baking?
I’m usually pretty particular about my bananas, preferring a slight green just at the stem for less sweetness and a firmer bite. But when it comes to baking, the browner the better. It may take some patience—the bananas I got…
Starch and potatoes
There’s a lot more to potatoes than meets the eye, and the choice of which potato to use in a recipe can have a huge impact on the results. The most important variation comes in the form of starch, the…
