Yeah, foam is a crazy new fad. Afterall, no chef was making any food with “foam” ten or 50 years ago. Right? Well, no. Wrong. Foam in cooking, baking and beverages is everywhere. Sometimes it is obvious like a nice froth on a cappuccino. Other times, like in this dessert, it’s a bit less recognizable. […]
French Laundry: ‘Coffee and Donuts’ Read More »
Francisco Migoya from the CIA (the Culinary Institute of America, not the other CIA) is a superb pastry chef and judging from his books, an excellent teacher. He has 3 books and I got a hold of two of them so far, Elements of Desserts and Frozen Desserts. While I have many high end, modern
Pear, Caramelized Genoa Bread, Chocolate Veil Read More »
This is a vegan gelato and I was going to label this entry as Vegan PB&J Gelato, but somehow this misses the point and emphasizes the wrong thing. This is a delicious intensely flavored gelato that happens to contain no eggs or dairy! The good people from the Modernist Cuisine books set out to make
Modernist Cuisine: PB&J Gelato Read More »
I love it when a book never disappoints, whether I am doing a complete verbatim recipe or in this case using it for a template and making parts of a recipe. The book I am talking about is of course the French Laundry Cookbook. This lovely plate of confections is based on the recipe for Chocolate
French Laundry: Chocolate Cakes and Gelato with Toasted Hazelnuts and Syrup Read More »
Sticky Toffee Pudding, a classic British dessert, has quickly become one of our favorite sweet dishes. The first time we tried it was at Feast restaurant in Houston where they make an outstanding version. It’s gooey, rich and sweet with deep mildly bitter toffee flavor. Feast’s version has become our gold standard and none we’ve
Sticky Toffee Pudding, Rum Ice Cream, Caramel Read More »
From the title of this recipe one would not know what to expect. Is it a hot chcolate drink? Just warmed chocolate? Honestly it sounds a bit boring. Boring, though, this recipe is not! Without waxing with no end about the nuances of this dish I have to say that this dessert from Alinea is
Alinea: Chocolate, warmed to 94 degrees Read More »
When I think of Texas fruits, two immediately come to mind, ruby red grapefruit and peaches. That’s fairly narrow thinking, since Texas is so huge and offers a large variety of climates and vegetation. It’s those two fruits that always pop to mind though. Recently on a road trip outside of Houston, I noticed a
Peaches and Cream, Streusel and Cherries Read More »
These ingredients cannot be more complementary. They are delicious on their own and they work great together in a dessert. This dish has been in the works (i:e I first thought about it) about a year ago in Jacksonville, FL. I was working on a project there and a friend of mine mentioned he had
Candied Apple, Bacon, Brown Butter, Coffee and Maple Read More »
Pastry chefs have been using this method for making quick sponge cake for years. As far as I know Albert Adria invented it years ago at El Bulli in Spain. I saw him “cook” it in a microwave on Anthony Bourdain’s “Decoding Ferran Adria“. I’ve never managed to give it a shot because until recently I did not have
Instant Sponge Cakes Read More »
This dessert tasted great. The flavors worked perfectly. It had some very nice textures. If only that coconut foam cooperated, it would’ve looked as good as I had planned as well. At some point I wanted to also include a banana component in this dish but I did not have the proper ingredients, so no banana.
“Kit Kat”, Chocolate Gelato, Peanut and Coconut Read More »