Making the world a little sweeter one pastry tip at at time.
Cannolis – they inspire both hunger and fear: hunger as they are crispy tubes filled with a sweetened cream filling, and fear as they have to be made and fried just right or else you’ll end up with a hard, greasy shell. Cannolis are one of those …
The St. Honoré tip is by far the most requested of the specialty pastry tips I carry. It looks like a large plain tip with a v cut in the front. And if you have ever had this dessert, you would understand its elegant appeal. …
I was going to talk about a Tres Leches cake but thought about the Trois Frères cake, too. Completely different cakes, but both revolve around the number three. So, I decided to talk about both. Tres Leches Cake As the name suggests, this Mexican dessert is …
A friend asked me recently if couverture and chocolate were interchangeable terms. They are not (chocolate is a general term; couverture is premium chocolate with a specific amount of cocoa butter inside) but this made me think of other pastry terms that were vague or …
Today is National Peach Cobbler Day. My go-to recipe for peach cobbler at home comes straight from the pages of Southern Living Magazine. I was a fan of the magazine long before my big move to the South, and have yet to try a recipe …
What is eau de vie? It is a fruit brandy that is clear and unaged. These brandies are good for all kinds of desserts, such as sorbets or fruit dessert sauces. For more about eau de vie and a list of popular fruit brandies, read …
We all know baking something at the proper temperature is a good thing. But how do you convert a temperture in Celsius if it is in Fahrenheit, or in Fahrenheit if it is Celsius? A simple conversion can be done online through the many different …
Think flowers, think vegetables, think…bugs? On my Old School Pastry blog, I’ve found different recipes that were done by confectioner’s long before commercial food coloring was available to the masses. How to Make Yellow Food Coloring (Saffron) How to Make Green Food Coloring (Spinach) How …
In Old School Pastry, read about courmarin and tonka beans – they were once used in creating imitation vanilla flavor.
Use isomalt as you would sugar. Isomalt is a chemically-produced sugar substitute perfect for candy-making as it creates a more humidity- and moisture-resistant product. When it is being boiled, it doesn’t need any anti-crystallizing ingredients as it does a great job of resisting crystallization on …
Invert sugar is used to help prevent the crystallization from occurring, among other things. Read more about invert sugar from PastrySampler.com.
I’ve received lots of orders, and lots of questions about that bag in recent weeks. For those of you still wondering what a ‘striper bag’ is, it is an insert placed inside a pastry bag – that has two separate pockets for different colors of …
I am selling my restaurant. How can I get the most money for it? (Food & Beverage Restaurant Services Buying or Selling a Business) Renee Shelton.
For those of you who have never used feuilles de brick or phyllo dough before, I found Marmiton.org’s comparison does a great job of explaining it. http://www.marmiton.org/Magazine/Tendances-Gourmandes_brick-filo_1.aspx The whole site is in French, and if you cannot read French, then use Google’s translate bar, it’ll give …
What is wheat dispearance? If anyone has read any food commidity report or opened up an industry news magazine, that term often pops up. Often mislabled and confused with other terminology, I found a great definition/explanation which comes from the book: Wheat Production, Properties and Quality by W. …