Tips and Tricks from the Professionals
Baking – General
The boiling sugar syrup froths and bubbles as the confident cook squeezes egg yolk into the pot. Suddenly, vibrant yellow strings of hardened yolk emerge out of the foam. The strings, called muttamala (literally “egg necklaces” in Malayalam), are then placed artfully on top of a simple steamed pudding made of egg whites whipped with the sugar …
On hot summer days, friends and families gathered at Indian cafes slurp down tall glasses of falooda using long, slender spoons. In any assemblage of this icy drink-meets-dessert, diners will find a tangle of rice vermicelli and basil seeds sitting in frosty, rose syrup–tinted milk. Pistachios, almonds, and ice cream often finish off the parfait, …
This container was the progenitor of pie, and barely edible. Medieval Europeans Didn’t Have Tupperware, They Had Pastry Coffins EVEN ON HALLOWEEN, PRYING OPEN the lid of a stiff, sealed coffin would be considered a ghastly endeavor. But in Medieval Europe, sawing the top off a well-executed coffin revealed something delicious, rather than disgusting. A coffin, …
Antwerp is the capital of chocolate, selling it in various shapes and flavors, ranging from little peeing boys (manneken pis) to more traditional shapes such as animals and happy faces. But one of the most popular shapes is a severed hand. As the myth behind Antwerpse handjes (Antwerp hands) goes, there once was a mighty giant called Druon …
For 17 years, Miyuki awed guests with her candy craftsmanship. JEFFCHRISTIANSEN/CC BY 2.0 AMEZAIKU IS THE TRADITIONAL JAPANESE practice of molding hot candy into artistic shapes before it hardens. This feat, traditionally accomplished by experienced craftsmen in front of a crowd, was once thought to be a fading art. But it’s been given a second life by social media and new …
Flying Monkey Bakery refers to their Pumpple cake as the “dessert equivalent of a turducken,” but one slice into the towering treat reveals an even more wild ingredient bonanza. For the unenlightened, a turducken is the potentially foolhardy feat of cooking a chicken inside of a duck inside of a turkey to make a layered …
Low-Carb Moist and Decadent Chocolate Brownies Makes: 16 servings Prep time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 35 minutes Ingredients wet mixture 3 free-range eggs 6 free range egg yolks ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons (165 g) Sola sweetener 6 tablespoons cultured buttermilk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract Melted chocolate mixture 13 ounces (370 g) no added sugar chocolate, chopped (lily’s premium …
Have you ever wished you could eat cake for lunch? With Sweden’s smörgåstårta, you can. Smörgåstårta literally means “sandwich cake,” and there is a very good reason for that, namely because it is. It is not made out of cream and dough, but instead of layers of rye bread alternated with various toppings such as egg, mayonnaise, …
During the Soviet regime, housewives could cobble together a simple dessert called muraveynik with limited ingredients and little technical skill. Russian home bakers simply piled inexpensive pantry staples into a small hill, which earned it the name “anthill cake.” The towering confection wasn’t really a cake in the traditional sense. It was made up of a basic …
ACCORDING TO KARL DE SMEDT, sourdough belongs to the entire world. Burbling away in refrigerators at his Puratos Sourdough Library in St. Vith, Belgium, are over 100 sourdough starters from around the globe. Each one has been chosen specifically for its renown, origins, and often, estimated age. In the video above, Atlas Obscura gets an insider’s tour of the world’s …
The soybean, or as the Japanese call it, edamame, is considered a staple of Japanese cuisine. From tofu to simply salted pods, many common Japanese foods incorporate edamame. And more often than not, these foods are savoury. Zunda is an exception. Flavoring everything from dumplings to mochi, this sweet and salty paste shows another side to edamame. …
Rich, dense, and usually cloaked in an armor of sprinkles, classic brigadeiros rely on three simple ingredients: condensed milk, cocoa power, and butter. Brigadeiros won their place in history, and their catchy name, as a fundraising treat that helped fuel Brazil’s 1945 presidential election, the first in which all women could vote. Popular lore holds that suffragists …
A red peach-shaped wagashi dominates this page. PUBLIC DOMAIN The Fabulous Design Manuals for Japan’s 19th-Century Sweets that range from elegant to surprisingly modern. Across Japan, recipes for elegant wagashi sweets made from adzuki beans, mochi, and agar-agar have been passed down over generations. But that wasn’t always the case. After culinary infusions from ancient China and the Portuguese, wagashi …
In the 18th century, children in Pennsylvania would inevitably find a two-for-one gift in their Christmas stockings. Each piece of clear toy candy, a sweet pioneered by German immigrants, lives up to its name. As the treats were shaped like trains, ships, or animals, children could play with them before eating. Once also called barley …
Assorted people pot pie facial features. COURTESY ASHLEY NEWMAN SPECTATORS HAVE LONG HAD A grotesque affinity for the fictional villain, Sweeney Todd, whose victims are ingeniously baked into human meat pies and sold by his baker accomplice, Ms. Lovett. But what happens when this Victorian “penny dreadful” serial takes a contemporary turn? Two oddities-loving artists have created …
For hundreds of years, children (and adults) in Japan gathered to watch their local amezaiku maker put on a show. Using bare hands, artisans mold hot rice syrup into fabulous shapes-on-a-stick, both lifelike and fantastical. Makers can add details using tiny scissors, pulling at the cooling taffy-like mass to create fins and wings. In the past, these …
<iframe width=”738″ height=”415″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bf8YTATPX4E” frameborder=”0″ allow=”autoplay; encrypted-media” allowfullscreen></iframe> Watch in wonder as this chocolate flower magically opens when you pour over the warm custard. It really is beautiful. Here’s the recipe : 1/4 of a batch of chocolate macaron recipe fresh fruit (raspberries, blue berries) Chocolate truffle, one per flower you could purchase these or make …
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