Making the world a little sweeter one pastry tip at at time.
The History of Sweets by Paul Chrystal is a fun and detailed look at the history of candy and sweets with colorful old advertisements sprinkled all throughout the book. Chrystal did a great job researching not only the history of sweets, but detailing the UK …read more
Summertime is hot. It’s nice to cool it down with something cool and sweet like ice cream. How exactly National Strawberry Sundae Day is on July 7th is something I can’t find, but the fact that it’s on the first part of July is probably …read more
Wafer cookies – you know those types. The cookies that are thin and crisp and layer perfectly with ice cream for perfect little ice cream sandwiches or crumble up nicely over pudding. I didn’t realize this until I actually looked it up but July 3rd is National Chocolate Wafer Day. Probably the most famous ones are those flavored with a spot of mint and dipped in chocolate – Thin Mints Girl Scout cookies.
I found a recipe that is reasonably similar to the famous ones with a wonderful buttery flavor that pairs great with the chocolate and mint. I found this cookie from Tish Boyle’s The Good Cookie. It calls for mint extract but I always use peppermint oil, which to me gives it a greater punch of mint. It’s not a traditional wafer cookie as it doesn’t come from a drop cookie batter as most wafer cookies come from. Instead, these are rolled into logs and sliced thin right before baking. Another reason I like this recipe: they are super easy to make ahead and with a small disher you can make quick and easy mini ice cream sandwiches by the bucket load – perfect for a Fourth of July barbecue.
For a chocolate wafer cookie that is dropped and no mint added, see the recipe Chocolate Fudge Wafer Cookies.
So, enjoy your 4th of July holiday and make a quick batch of these. I guarantee you’ll be out before you know it.
These chocolate wafer cookies use unsweetened chocolate and are drop style. Use a small disher or ice cream scoop for consistent sized cookies. To substitute unsweetened chocolate if you don’t have any in the house, for each ounce use 3 tablespoons cocoa powder and 1 …read more
A really great read on the cocoa industry and how it has changed landscapes through deforestation and illegally grown cocoa. It is estimated that at least 17% of the worlds yearly cocoa harvest comes from protected areas. The World Cocoa Foundation’s (WCF) president, Mighty Earth’s …read more
A great study out of Gettysburg College’s Psychology department. Each participant was randomly asked to eat either a cracker or piece of chocolate either mindfully or non-mindfully. Researchers found that eating chocolate mindfully (focusing on the ingredient production) rather than simply eating without thinking produces an actual increase in a positive mood over other participants.
A fun study on the effect of chocolate and what it does to the people who eat it, but it also shows that mindfully eating a comfort food can better increase a positive mood over mindlessly snacking.
Abstract from The Sweet Life: The Effect of Minful Chocolate Consumption on Mood published via Appetite, Volume 108:
Chocolate consumption is anecdotally associated with an increase in happiness, but little experimental work has examined this effect. We combined a food type manipulation (chocolate vs. crackers) with a mindfulness manipulation (mindful consumption vs. non-mindful consumption) and examined the impact on positive mood. Participants (N = 258) were randomly assigned to eat a small portion (75 calories) of chocolate or a control food (crackers) in a mindful or non-mindful way. Participants who were instructed to mindfully eat chocolate had a greater increase in positive mood compared to participants who were instructed to eat chocolate non-mindfully or crackers either mindfully or non-mindfully. Additional analyses revealed that self-reported liking of the food partially mediated this effect. Chocolate appears to increase positive mood, but particularly when it is eaten mindfully.
Confectionery News called it ‘candy karma,’ and reported on how the participants were asked to eat mindfully – by holding the chocolate or cracker and thinking about the people who actually made the ingredients that were needed for production.
Sources:
Meier, Brian P. “The Sweet Life: The Effect of Mindful Chocolate Consumption on Mood.” Science Direct. Appetite, 15 Sept. 2016. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.
Gorgeous pain au chocolat! I love the design here. Swirls and circles. #bakinglove repost via @laurent13570 . . . #painauchocolate #croissants #pastrysampler A video posted by Renee Shelton (@pastrysampler) on Aug 27, 2016 at 3:32pm PDT +Renee SheltonTwitter: @121degreesCPastrySampler.com
Here’s a step by step video on creating a solid multi-colored chocolate lace wrap with a floral design. Julia M. Usher created this video, and in it uses untempered couverture chocolate. The video is below. But first, here are some handy tips if you are …read more
Thomas Schnetzler of Lindt tempers chocolate via the tabling method. The basic process is as follows. Heat the dark chocolate until it melts and reaches 48 degrees C. Cool down to 28 degrees C (by tabling method, below). Then heat it back up to 31 to 32 degrees, it’s working temperature. The texture of the correctly tempered chocolate will be thick, and will sit on the surface when dropped with a spoon or spatula back into the bowl.
Following suit with a review of The True History of Chocolate on the Pastry Sampler blog, I’d thought I’d talk about Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes for Old School Pastry, a little chocolate cookbook published in 1909 by Miss Parloa. It included Home Made Candy Recipes …read more