Butter is one of the foundations to goodness in baking. I knew of an aspiring chef who had a pair of the coolest hands and was rejoicing about said temperature difference because it allowed her to handle puff pastry with greater ease. :)
December 17, 2008
Butter Holds the Secret to Cookies That Sing
By JULIA MOSKIN
WHEN home bakers get out the mixer and the decorating sugar at this time of year, visions of perfect-edged cookies and shapely cakes dance in their heads. But too often, the reality — both for the cookie and the baker — is ragged, fallen, and fraying around the edges.
“I’ve cried many times at 2 a.m., when the cookies fall apart after all that work,” said Susan Abbott, a lawyer in Dallas who tries every Christmas to reproduce her mother’s flower-shaped lemon cookies, though she rarely bakes during the rest of the year.
( Read more... )
December 17, 2008
Butter Holds the Secret to Cookies That Sing
By JULIA MOSKIN
WHEN home bakers get out the mixer and the decorating sugar at this time of year, visions of perfect-edged cookies and shapely cakes dance in their heads. But too often, the reality — both for the cookie and the baker — is ragged, fallen, and fraying around the edges.
“I’ve cried many times at 2 a.m., when the cookies fall apart after all that work,” said Susan Abbott, a lawyer in Dallas who tries every Christmas to reproduce her mother’s flower-shaped lemon cookies, though she rarely bakes during the rest of the year.
( Read more... )