A blog about food, history, data visualization, and more
One of my summer dessert favorites is zucchini bread, something that could be called zucchini cake if it was baked in a shallow cylindrical pan instead of a loaf pan. It’s something I seem to only bake in the summer when zucchini is at the farmers markets, even though it would take an exceptionally skilled […]
At the 2016 International Food Blogger Conference, a sample from the California Fig Advisory Board reminded me of an X File. Not the famous X-Files TV show, but something far less mysterious and far more delicious. The X file that I remembered is about an X-shaped cookie for which I have a file on my computer. […]
Pie Making Machine, US patent 2,200,347 My post about pie crust making with coconut oil promised a recipe for the crust; this post delivers it. The foundation of the recipe is something from Cooks Illustrated that was posted at Serious Eats. The recipe has quantities suitable for a two-crust pie, but since you might not […]
When I have two cups of milk in the refrigerator that is getting close to going bad, I often fall back on a stove top pudding recipe I found on Epicurious a few years ago. It’s perfect as a “use up milk” recipe, as it comes together in a hurry and the dry ingredients are […]
It makes me happy when a baking recipe has ingredient weights so I can use my scale for accurate and neat measurement. It’s so much easier to add ingredients by putting the mixing bowl onto the scale, pressing the tare button, and then adding what I need, instead of getting out (and dirtying) multiple measuring […]
The classic “flourless cake” is a dense and decadent confection — often oozing with molten chocolate — made from dark chocolate, butter, egg yolks, sugar and beaten egg whites. But you can take the flourless cake in another direction, one that is light and airy, by relying on the magic of egg whites to stabilize […]
(Updated 11/24/16: Fixed broken links) The 2008 Scharffen Berger – TuttiFoodie Chocolate Adventure had over 900 entries submitted, and my entry was a twist on the black and white brownie, that classic combination of a brownie base and a cheesecake topping. I went on an “adventure” with the recipe by I adding cardamom powder to the […]
I tried the apple-quince tart again last weekend, using what I learned from the previous attempt. This time I sliced quince and apples thinner and was much more careful about how I placed the fruit on the tart — instead of arranging the apples and then haphazardly dropping the quince on top, I alternated apple, […]
To celebrate apple season, I like to bake the apple galette in Rose Levy Bernabaum’s Pie and Pastry Bible. I first discovered the recipe in the Washington Post when it accompanied a review of the newly published book (1998). Since then, I’ve made it many times with great success. The crust is always crisp and […]
[Updated with details on the ideal type of baking dish for this dessert and additional sugar sprinkling] A lot of cooking magazines go onto the shelf or into the recycling bin never to appear again. But the May/June 1998 Saveur has been a phenomenal exception. Two of the recipes have become mainstays in my kitchen. […]