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My husband gave me a copy of Bouchon Bakery as a gift in December, bringing my total collection of Thomas Keller Restaurant Group cookbooks up to four. After opening it, I wasted no time in diving in. The book approaches baked goods, both pâtisserie and boulangerie (with a little confectionery thrown in for good measure) in [...]

When I made my bisteeya, I used phyllo for the pastry, cutting it into rounds to layer the pie. But traditionally, bisteeya is made using an altogether different type of pastry known as “warka” (and, transliteration being what it is, sometimes spelled warqa, warkha or ouarka). The original method for making warka is to take [...]

While macarons may still be my favourite use for extra egg whites, financiers have recently become a close second. For one thing, they’re a lot less finicky than macarons – and while finickiness is much of the macaron’s appeal, sometimes you just don’t want to go to the trouble. Both are based on egg whites [...]

A recent Twitter conversation with Laura raised an interesting challenge: Is there any way to make a rhubarb compote that keeps the pieces of rhubarb intact? I’ve often found that cooked rhubarb disintegrates very easily, and I was pleased to know I’m not the only one. It was tempting to see what a temperature-controlled sous [...]

As a fairly indifferent bread-baker, I never really got on the no-knead bandwagon, a trend that’s been around for a while now. Usually when I bake bread, it’s one loaf at a time, and I knead it in my stand mixer. No-knead recipes were a solution to a problem I just didn’t have. This isn’t [...]

It’s a well-known adage that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So naturally, ever since getting my new Vitamix high-speed blender, I’ve been looking for excuses to puree things. One of the benefits of a blender like the Vitamix is the size of the container: no more “transfer to [...]

At my mother’s request (after she read my last post), I baked up some mincemeat tarts. Merry Christmas!

The Christmas season is a time of tradition, whether our own family traditions or wider cultural traditions that connect us with our forebears. Foods and drinks that are otherwise defunct come out of hiding to adorn festive tables, and people nostalgically quaff eggnog while partaking of goose and chestnuts, fruitcakes and mincemeat pies. I’ve always [...]

Even after the meal was over and the positive reviews were in, my trouble with the Eleven Madison Park gougères continued to bother me. Gougères are just pâte à choux (similar to the pastry used for cream puffs and éclairs), with the addition of some grated cheese. I’ve made pâte à choux several times before; [...]