As with most classic pastry preparations, ladyfinger recipes tend to be fairly consistent. This one might have an extra egg yolk, that one a little more vanilla, but overall they tend to be quite similar. The only major area of disagreement you’ll find between them is the type of flour they call for. Some demand [...]
July 28th, 2010
Another great addition to the field of baking history…
…by regular contributor Jim Chevallier. Check out his latest paper on the subject of 18th century French bread-baking here.
July 28th, 2010
How to Make Ladyfingers
I was going to write about how to modify ladyfingers before putting up the tutorial, but I think it’ll be easier to show the recipe first, then talk about adjustments. Ladyfingers are a lot easier to make than this series of photos might make them appear. They require a few steps, but the batter is [...]
July 28th, 2010
nectarine brown butter buckle
I have to apologize in advance: this is a coobook reject. I know! “A reject?!” you’re probably thinking. “Now why would I want your rejects?” Because this is a delicious reject; it failed because I decided to go in another direction, such a different direction that about the only thing the other one has in [...]
July 27th, 2010
Ladyfinger Recipe
This is a fairly standard ladyfinger recipe that produces a nice general-purpose cookie. It’s quite similar to other sponge cakes like génoise, except that it contains no butter. You can of course mess with this basic formula to create different effects, and in the next couple of posts I’ll tell you how.
4 eggs, room [...]
July 27th, 2010
Next Up: Ladyfingers
And here I went to a big NASCAR race in Indianapolis this weekend. I was just starting to feel masculine again! Sheesh.
July 27th, 2010
No Questions this Weekend
I used to be a beekeeper — an urban beekeeper — back in my old neighborhood in Chicago. The missus and I kept several hives on a rooftop on the Northwest Side and had the time of our lives doing it, except when we got stung a lot, obviously. But then the days of getting [...]
July 25th, 2010
summer succotash with bacon and croutons
[Er, croutons not pictured.] Here’s the thing: If you told me you were serving succotash with or for dinner, I’d inwardly groan. People, I’ve had all sorts of succotash — a summery stew of corn and lima beans, often with tomatoes, yet still so bland that no added butter or cream saves it for me, [...]
July 24th, 2010
Tomato (Mini) Tarte Tatin
It may not be traditional, but I can tell you how it tastes: phenomenal. The assembly goes like this: roll out your puff pastry to about 1/4″ thickness and cut out your crusts. You want the circles to be as big around as the outside lip of the ramekin molds. Once they’re cut, store them [...]
July 22nd, 2010
Caramelizing Onions
Onions are sweet little bulbs. In fact they’re unusually so, only their sweetness is hidden in the form of long chains of fructose molecules. Unadulterated, those fructose chains don’t register as sweet sensations on our tongues because our taste buds don’t have receptors capable of recognizing them. Add to that the fact that they’re disguised [...]