Chef's Blog, Chef's Notes Plus

How to Read the Label on Chocolate

Calling all chocolate lovers, we want to talk about our favorite ingredient! If you love baking cookies, you may already have a favorite brand or variety of chocolate chips. But when it comes to pastry and candy recipes that showcase chocolate, the options can seem endless—and endlessly confusing. But that’s […]

Chef's Blog, Chef's Notes Plus

How to Roll Out Pastry Crust

To roll pastry dough, lightly dust a cold work surface, the top of the dough, and rolling pin with bench flour (an unmeasured bowl of all-purpose flour used to flour the dough and work surface). Press the dough from the center, roll it out in one direction, and then roll […]

Chef's Notes Plus

Ingredient ID: Cultured Dairy Products

Buttermilk, yogurt, sour cream, and crème fraîche are all dairy products that have a characteristic sour and tangy flavor due to the addition of a bacterial culture or lactic acid. After the addition of the culture, these products are heated, allowing the bacteria to convert the sugars to lactic acid, […]

Chef's Notes Plus

Ingredient Spotlight: Matcha

It’s been years since matcha became a buzz word, popping up around the U.S. in lattes, smoothies, ice cream, you name it. Matcha wasn’t new then (check in with Japan circa the 13th century) and certainly isn’t now, which speaks to its value as more than a passing wellness trend. […]

Chef's Notes Plus

Is Butter Better? Choosing the Right Fat for Pie Crust

Fats are an essential ingredient in baking, directly imparting flavor and influencing tenderness and flakiness in pie and tart crusts. Most pie and tart crusts need to be made with a solid fat in order to create their characteristic tender and flaky texture. The role of fats in creating crusts […]

Chef's Notes Plus

Keep it Simple with Pumpkin Purée

Despite the abundance of pumpkin-flavored foods at every turn, we spend surprisingly little time handling actual pumpkins. After all, as proponents of “homemade is best,” an apple pie starts with apples, a cherry pie starts with cherries. But a pumpkin pie starts with…a can of pumpkin purée? Using prepared pumpkin […]

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Lace Nut Tuiles

Makes about 24 tuiles The name for these delicate stenciled cookies means “tiles” in French. They are traditionally shaped to look like the terra-cotta tiles used on roofs throughout the Mediterranean. The batter is soft enough to spread in a thin layer. You can spread the batter into simple circles […]

Desserts

Lemon Buttermilk Cake

Makes one 8-inch layer cake If you make the cake layers ahead of time, wrap them tight and keep them refrigerated. Wait to soak the cakes with the syrup until you’re ready to ice the cake. Ingredients Cake 3 1/4 cups (1 lb 4 oz) all-purpose flour 1 1/4 teaspoons […]

Chef's Notes Plus

Make a Fruit Crisp Without a Recipe

Sometimes you just need. dessert. NOW. And when that moment strikes, there is one easy solution: Make a fruit crisp! Call it a crisp or a crumble, but the bones are the same. Fresh or frozen fruit baked under a crispy, crumbly, slightly sweet topping made from the most basic baking […]

Chef's Blog, Chef's Notes Plus

Making Biscuits

The technique used to makes biscuits and scones is known as a rubbed dough method. Instead of soft batters that drop easily from the spoon, biscuits, scones, and soda breads are made from a stiff dough that can be rolled and cut. Keep Ingredients Cool Any liquids or fats that […]