The ingredients barely change between pastry types. What changes is the distribution of the fat before baking, and everything else follows from that single decision. Here are fifteen.
1. Fat…
Two things are moving in opposite directions the whole time: heat going in, and water coming out as steam. Which one is winning at any moment determines what the food…
The central fact is that honey contains far more dissolved sugar than water can normally hold, and very little water at all. Almost every peculiar thing about it follows from…
Every grain is built the same way: a protective outer layer, a starchy interior and a small oily part that would have become the plant. Everything below follows from which…
A pan is a heat-delivery system and a moisture-management system at the same time, and every difference between one and another is a difference in one of those two jobs.…
Thickening means making a liquid resist flowing, and there are only a few ways to do that. Everything below is one of them, and every failure is that mechanism being…