Joe PastryBaking Techniques, History, & Science2015-10-12T17:57:45Zhttp://joepastry.com/feed/atom/WordPressjoepastryhttp://joepastry.com/?p=188142015-10-12T17:57:45Z2015-10-12T17:57:45Z0joepastryhttp://joepastry.com/?p=188102015-10-08T21:58:17Z2015-10-08T21:57:20Z0joepastryhttp://joepastry.com/?p=188052015-10-05T22:05:13Z2015-10-05T22:05:05Z2joepastryhttp://joepastry.com/?p=188032015-10-05T13:45:34Z2015-10-05T13:45:34Zfalse berries — that it flops over, bananas pointing upward. It's this upward growth in defiance of gravity that gives bananas their characteristic curve.
Each flower can have up to 20 clusters of fruit (called "hands" in "the business") and each cluster can have up to 300 individual fruits (you guessed: "fingers"). Considering that each banana can weigh 8 ounces or so, that's a whole lot of starchy fruit. On which note, we talked below about how apples convert starch to sugar as they ripen. Bananas do the same thing but at a much more impressive rate. In an unripe banana the ratio of starches to sugars is 25-1, but by the time they fully ripen that ratio has completely flipped, to 1-20, which is why Mrs. Pastry lets hers ripen until they're practically black. What a sweet tooth that girls has!]]>0joepastryhttp://joepastry.com/?p=187992015-09-30T19:50:31Z2015-09-30T19:48:16Z
Funny thing on this blog, there are two types of posts that get lots and lots of attention: extremely complex pastries like Opera cake, and extremely simple preparations like vanilla pudding. Lately I've thought it might be fun to create a new category of one-off posts covering very simplest of sweet and after-dinner pleasures, so simple in fact that no preparation might be needed at all.
The apple conversation this week got me thinking about this, a classic old-timey combo, one of my late grandfather's favorite autumn snacks: Cheddar cheese and Granny Smith apples. The sharper the cheese... ]]>8joepastryhttp://joepastry.com/?p=187882015-09-30T14:25:09Z2015-09-30T14:21:32Z6joepastryhttp://joepastry.com/?p=187792015-09-29T16:04:37Z2015-09-29T16:04:37Z
Reader Deb asks if it's necessary to sift the flour for an upside-down cake, or whether a vigorous whisking will suffice. I advise a full sift myself, for cakes especially, but everywhere lightness counts: biscuits, sponges, pancakes, tea breads, the list goes on.
It's true that some modern bakers consider sifting to be little more than a ritual, and an outdated one at that. I disagree, though I will admit that sifting isn't nearly as critical for the home baker as it once was. ]]>6joepastryhttp://joepastry.com/?p=187752015-09-23T15:32:06Z2015-09-23T15:28:15Z8joepastryhttp://joepastry.com/?p=187722015-09-22T22:48:08Z2015-09-22T22:47:46ZAntoine Carême. Indeed Carême published recipes for several glazed gâteaux renversés, as he called them, in his Royal Parisian Pastry Chef cookbook, which is dated to the 1830's.
So the idea is not very new and indeed probably came to prominence in the 1880's with the rise of tarte Tatin, the famous upside-down apple tart made from sliced apples, caramel and puff pastry. The dish was "invented" at the Tatin Hotel in Lamotte-Beuvron, but its fame soon spread and was being made everywhere in Paris by the turn of the century. ]]>0joepastryhttp://joepastry.com/?p=187692015-09-22T19:43:55Z2015-09-22T19:43:55ZHang on a second Joe, this is almost identical to a famous Brazilian cake called Bolo de Banana. The small difference is that we add cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the topping. Did Mr. Colicchio rip us off here?
As far as I know Marianna, no. But I sure like the idea of adding spices to the topping. I'm going to put that into the recipe. Thanks! ]]>2