Calling all chocolate lovers, we want to talk about our favorite ingredient! If you love baking cookies, you may already have a favorite brand or variety of chocolate chips. But when it comes to pastry and candy recipes that showcase chocolate, the options can seem endless—and endlessly confusing. But that’s […]
Fats are an essential ingredient in baking, directly imparting flavor and influencing tenderness and flakiness in pie and tart crusts. Most pie and tart crusts need to be made with a solid fat in order to create their characteristic tender and flaky texture. The role of fats in creating crusts […]
Ganache, a creamy mixture of chocolate and cream, is an emulsion; that is, it contains both fat and water in a homogeneous mixture. Because fat and water do not mix easily, any emulsion can separate, which simply means that the fat portion and the water portion do not remain homogeneous. When […]
Deliciously dense cheesecake is a cross between custard, pie, and cake. It can seem troublesome—from cracking tops to dry crusts—but with a great recipe (we happen to like ours quite a bit!) and some patience, you can make a perfect cheesecake each time. 1. Making a crumb crust Crumb crusts […]
Sugar is the defining ingredient of candy making. It provides sweetness, bulk, flavor, mouthfeel, and preservation to candies of every description. Without sugar, there simply would not be such a thing as candy. In chocolates, the sugar is already contained in the chocolate itself, and we may add little or […]
Makes one 8-inch torte A torte is a European-style pastry typically made with layers of sponge cake, a jam or cream filling, and a frosting. These rich and complex desserts are often enjoyed in the middle of the afternoon, served with coffee or tea, rather than as a dessert following […]
Makes 24 large cookies
Makes about 2 cups
The Iconic Pecan Diamond Are they a cookie? A dessert? A bite-size pecan pie? Craig Claiborne of The New York Times called them the “sweet hallmark” of CIA, and they are. Pecan Diamonds have been a CIA tradition for nearly six decades. They were offered to guests with coffee at […]
Piping is often functional: use a pastry bag to transfer the mousse to the serving bowls, place the glaze in a piping bag to cover the cake. Precision is nice, but not always necessary. But if you are interested in creating detailed cakes, homemade chocolate bonbons, cute cookies, or delicate […]
Pastry bags and tips are great tools to have in the kitchen. They make it easy to add fillings to pastries and cakes as well as to shape doughs like pâte à choux uniformly. Cloth and vinyl bags can be washed and reused. Disposable bags are inexpensive and work equally […]
Makes 3 lb This batch makes enough puff pastry for a few projects, but the dough freezes well, so don’t hesitate to double this recipe. The key to puff pastry is taking your time to chill the dough between folds. If it’s too soft, the butter will ooze out of […]