🍩National Donut Day 🍩is Friday!! Celebrated since the 1938.

#NationalDoughnutDay

John-Bryan Hopkins

Posted on May 31, 2018

Happy National Doughnut Day

 National Doughnut Day started in 1938 as a fundraiser for Chicago’s The Salvation Army. Their goal was to help those in need during the Great Depression and to honor The Salvation Army “Lassies” of World War I, who served doughnuts to soldiers.

Today’s Donut Fact:

1. The donut or doughnut is a deep-fried piece of dough or batter. It comes from the Dutch origin of olykoeck or “oily cake”. The two most common types of donuts are the flattened sphere (you know…the ones that are injected with jelly or custard) and the ring donut.
2.  Internationally, Dunkin’ Donuts has over 1700 locations in 29 countries and over 6,000 stores in 30 countries world-wide! In the U.S. there are over 4,400 locations across 36 states.
3. Krispy Kreme is probably best known for their fresh, hot, glazed, yeast-raised doughnuts. The company’s “Hot Doughnuts Now” flashing sign is an integral part of the brands appeal and fame.
4.  Jelly-filled and Chocolate frosted also rank as their top sellers. Coconut Crunch, although not a number one seller, still remains one of the over 52 varieties of donuts the chain produces on a yearly basis.
5. Americans consume 10 billion doughnuts annually. It really is too big of a number when you consider that as of 1997, there were 6,792 doughnut shops in the U.S. alone. In 2005, I can only imagine that the number of doughnut shops has increased dramatically. Unfortunately, 1997 was the last year that all overall statistics and data is available on this subject (or at least that I can find!).

Today’s Food History

• 1519 Andrea Cesalpino was born. An Italian philosopher and pioneering botanist. He concentrated his studies on fruits and seeds, and he classified them by logical principles, instead of supposed medical properties.
• 1882 Henry Seely of New York City received the first American patent for an electric iron.
• 1899 James Ricks patented a rubber overshoe for horses.
• 1907 Persil, the first household detergent, was marketed by Henkel et Cie of Dusseldorf.
• 1932 The Revenue Act creates the first gasoline tax in the U.S. (1 cent per gallon).
• 1933 The first drive-in theater was opened in Camden, New Jersey by Richard Hollingshead. It had nine rows of parking on ten acres, with room for at least 400 cars. Where’s the popcorn!
• 1944 Edgar Froese of the music group ‘Tangerine Dream’ was born.
• 1988 Three 50 pound snapping turtles were found in a Bronx, New York sewage treatment plant. They had probably been pets that were flushed down the toilet when very small.

How to Make the Flakiest Buttermilk Biscuits

This is your lucky day. Claire, our expert baker, is about to share with you her secrets to the flakiest buttermilk biscuit.

The good kind of flaky pic.twitter.com/jZm4i1WryE

— Bon Appétit (@bonappetit) April 11, 2018

5 Ways to Avoid Soufflé Sabotage, According to the World’s Best Pastry Chef

Sachiyo Kaneko / EyeEm/Getty Images

 

A little Grand Marnier goes a long way.

LANE NIESET

April 09, 2018

Mousse au chocolat, macarons, meringue—the French have a way of making these desserts seem effortlessly chic. Attend a dinner party in Paris and you’re sure to end the evening with a picture-perfect chocolate confection crafted by the host. In How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are, the stylish ladies behind the book joke that “there are as many recipes for chocolate cake as there are Parisiennes in Paris.” The trick to perfecting French pastries isn’t finding a recipe, though; it’s getting it right.

With a history stemming back to the 18^th century, soufflé stands as one of the country’s quintessential desserts—as well as one of the most complicated. This pastry can quickly fall flat, doing just the opposite of what its name suggests and crumbling like a sinkholerather than delicately rising from a ramekin like a mushroom-shaped cloud. To discover the art of crafting a soufflé that’s sure to keep its signature shape as you take it from pan to plate, we caught up with one of France’s experts in the field, Cédric Grolet, crowned World’s Best Pastry Chef by Les Grandes Tables du Monde in 2017, as well as 2018’s Best Pastry Chef by the Gault & Millau guide.

Grolet earned his pastry prowess in Paris at FAUCHON, a gourmet maison that’s as synonymous with France as fromage and baguettes, before rising the ranks to pastry chef at the Dorchester Collection’s Parisian Palace hotel, Le Meurice. At newly opened Le Meurice’s Pastry Boutique by Cédric Grolet, the chef is looking to give the everyday baker the same savoir-faire to create soufflés back home that are just as pretty as the ones gracing Paris’ patisseries, offering cooking demos that reveal the secret ingredients—and techniques—behind some of France’s most famous desserts.

We polled the prized pastry chef on how to avoid a few common faux pas that are instant soufflé sabotage for five quick tips that’ll have you whipping up this quintessential French pastry like a pro in no time.

Age your eggs

Eggs are one of the main determining factors when it comes to soufflés quickly crumbling in the oven. Of course you want fresh eggs, but they shouldn’t be straight-from-the-chicken fresh. Grolet recommends aging egg whites before beating them with an electric whip so they’re stronger in taste. “We cover the eggs with food film and leave them outside for 24 hours at room temperature,” he says. “This way, the egg white is much less fragile and it prevents from falling.”

Never start with sugar

“Every time I eat a soufflé I come across the same problem—it’s always too sweet,” the chef says. One quick adjustment: Avoid adding sugar at the beginning of the baking process. “You have to finish with sugar at the end, so you should never put sugar at the beginning,” he advises. If you’re making a savory soufflé, the idea of less is always more also comes into play here. A strong cheese will overpower your soufflé and cause it to crumble. Two of Grolet’s go-tos: Parmesan and Gruyère.

Master the the art of buttering

“Always butter the cake mold in the same direction, from bottom up, which will make it easier to take the soufflé out of the mold,” the chef advises.

Skip standard pastry cream

Instead of using pastry cream as the base for his soufflés, Grolet uses cornstarch and orange juice, combining these ingredients with sugar and Grand Marnier before folding in the egg whites. “Soufflé was originally made with alcohol and citrus, so I find that soufflé works very well with Grand Marnier, which has a slight taste of citrus,” the chef explains, adding that it reminds him of his grandparents, who used to serve him a small glass of Grand Marnier after a Christmas meal.

Balance timing and temperature.

The trick to mastering both sweetness and temperature? It’s all in the timing. Temperature depends on the size of the mold, so if you’re using a larger ramekin, you’ll want to go with a slightly lower temperature. At Le Meurice, the chef says they bake soufflés in four-inch molds at around 320 degrees for seven or eight minutes before browning them in a four à sole, or baking oven, at 430 degrees to achieve a slight crust while still maintaining a soft interior.

“What I like is that it is slightly half cooked in the middle so that it’s still a bit elastic, but on top it is barely browned,” he says. Since most of us non-pastry pros probably don’t have a four à sole sitting in the kitchen, a ventilated oven is the next best thing to achieving that crispy finishing touch on top. “A good soufflé has a perfect temperature and is light and not too sweet,” Grolet says. “After eating a soufflé, it should never feel too heavy.” Perhaps soufflé is part of the secret to the French Paradox after all.