pastry
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How to Fool Your Family With a Store-Bought Pie Crust
The holiday season is the perfect time to lie to your family. Whether it’s “no presents this year,” or giving everyone an extra slice of the “low-fat” cheesecake, I know you have your reasons. Now we’ve got a whopper to lay on your annoying pastry chef cousin: “This crust is from scratch.” Here’s how to…
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When You Can (and Can’t) Substitute Mayo for Butter in Baking
Of all the suspicious ingredients to add to cake batter, mayonnaise is certainly at the top of the list. Known for adorning meat-laden sandwiches and turning everything from eggs to Jell-o into a “salad,” mayo doesn’t seem like a customary ingredient for brownies, yet here we are. Yes, baking with a scoop of mayonnaise can…
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How to Clean Your Filthy Pastry Brush
Pastry brushes are essential kitchen tools, even if you’re not much of a baker. In addition to applying egg (or mayo) washes to breads and pastries, you can use them to apply a slick sheen of mustard to a leg of lamb (to help the seasoning stick), baste a roast, or paint a whole chicken…
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Do You Really Need to Chill Your Pie Dough?
Everyone knows that a chef’s kiss-worthy pie crust requires cold butter, which is why most recipes recommend chilling the dough twice: Once after mixing, and again after assembling the pie. The downside is that rolling out cold dough sucks, so you’ll have to wait for it to warm up first (or smack it around a…