Feel like eating a cookie? But want something simple, with only a few ingredients? Shortbread cookies are what you should be looking at. You can make this cookie style with as little as three ingredients. Mix flour, butter, and some…
We eat strawberries in summer, Brussel sprouts and kale in winter. Chocolate Easter eggs in the weeks before Easter and pumpkins in autumn. We eat pepernoten (a Dutch cookie) in the month of November. Almond paste fits well in that…
You boil pasta, noodles, and gnocchi. You bake breads. But, as is typical for food, definitions aren’t that straightforward. Some breads are boiled, not just baked. That chewy, slightly tougher structure than a light bread in a bagel? Boiling the…
Sugar definitely is one of the most complex and fascinating ingredients in the kitchen. It sweetens your food, but can also be used to create a whole lot of different textures and structures in your food! Sugar helps thicken a…
It smells nutty, almost vanilla-like, buttery, and just generally delicious: brown (or burnt) butter. It requires only one ingredient and just a little bit of patience. That simple process unleashes a series of chemical reactions which all contribute to the…
Have you ever seen those profiteroles or cream puffs with a speckled decorated top? The pattern on top almost looks like dried out earth, with a lot of cracks and spaces in between the darker spots of decoration? Note only…
Choux pastry truly is a little piece of magic. It starts out as a small little ball of dough, but turns into a light, airy and fluffy hollow ball in the oven! It makes delicious profiteroles, éclairs, cream puffs and…
So many cuisines have dishes that are made with super thin pastry. The very thin dough can be used for making anything from Middle Eastern baklava, Greek spanokopita, German strudel to Indian samosas. They’re all made with phyllo, or the…
Have you ever been left with egg whites after making a recipe that calls for egg yolks only? And not feeling like making crispy meringues from the oven, again? Good thing there are other options such as these soft and…
A rice pudding, isn’t that just a regular, simple dessert? Nothing special or fancy? After making a rice pudding the other day (for testing The Turkish Cookbook), and of course, making several steps along the way, I thought the contrary:…
If you’re an avid follower of Masterchef Australia (as myself), you’re probably familiar with the ‘death dish’ (although it’s less of a death dish in the more recent seasons): risotto! On this cooking competition, more than one contestant has either…
Creme brulee is definitely one of the more decadent, luxurious desserts out there, while still being widely available. It’s a soft and silky creme on the inside covered with a crispy brown sugar top. Creme brulee can be finicky to…