What? Not done with your holiday shopping? Yeah, neither are we. But we’ve been making lists — and checking them twice — and we’ve got some suggestions for the nice people on your list. Today, Chow Bella’s Gift Guide for the Baker. When we were kids, my sister and I…
Judging is hard. I’m not belly-aching about all the pie I had to eat or the cool apron and taffy I got at Saturday’s Pie Social. However, assigning a value to someone else’s work can be intimidating. Our job is to judge the pie, which is the culmination of their…
Is everyone ready to eat some pie? Pull out your stretchy pie-eating pants and get your forks ready. Pie Social is happening from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, November 16. We all have our own methods for pie making. Many tips and tricks are taught at the rolling pins of…
Two weekends ago, with the gorgeous Phoenix sunset and mountains as a backdrop, I got married. I married the greatest guy ever. A Southern version of Julia Child’s ever supportive husband Paul Child, he schleps my pastry equipment and supplies, does delivery runs for my business, treats my friends and…
From time to time, Chow Bella’s contributors challenge one another to a showdown: Make the best dish you can, using one common ingredient. This time (naturally), it was pumpkin. For the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing the results, and at the end, we’ll let you know who won. Today,…
Quiche, it isn’t just for breakfast anymore. Truth is, quiche can be eaten for just about any meal. Eggs, milk, perhaps a bit of sour cream, veggies, bacon or sausage, flaky pie crust. What’s not to love? Everyone has their own style and concoction for the perfect quiche, our two…
When I worked at Bouchon, autumn is when I would get the bitch work of processing hundreds of pumpkins. We would make pumpkin pies that were sold for charity, the proceeds donated to the local food bank. Awesome cause, lots of pumpkin prep work. Cases of pumpkins would arrive at…
Lost in nature. Quiet surrounds. Campfire blazes and crackles. Tents flap in the breeze. Chairs dragged closer to the fire as the wind picks up. S’mores appear. Beer flows. Camping. To some, this is heaven. To me, it is hell. There are some aspects I can appreciate. The beauty of…
Normally, we don’t see pavlovas popping up on dessert menus. In fact, the only place you may have seen this beauty is on the glossy pages of a food magazine. Perhaps you’ve dismissed the pavlova for its simplicity or it could be that you have never tasted the fabulous textures…
Tostadas appear on many a Mexican or Tex-Mex menu, fried tortilla swathed with beans, chopped meat, cheese or sometimes with ceviche. The word “tostada” in Spanish means “toasted,” harkening to the crisp tortilla that stands as the base. Tostadas dishes give new life to stale tortillas, where after frying they…
My grandmother, Gloria, should have lived to be 120. She didn’t drink soda, refused processed food, exercised, watched her salt & sugar consumption, and controlled her portions. While my siblings and I would stuff our faces at family picnics with hunks of rich sugary cake, she would eat a small…
The season for iced cookies is right around the corner. Your morning trip to the coffee shop, or strolling through the grocery store, will lead you to encounters with iced leaf cookies, fat orange pumpkin cookies with toothy smiles, and perhaps a festively colored turkey. Iced cookies aren’t my pastry…
For those who have seen calzones jotted on the bottom corner of your local pizza shop’s menu without ever trying one — what are you waiting for? A calzone is basically a pizza ready to devour on the go. Not to be confused with its cousin the stromboli, a calzone’s…
After the chocolate chip cookie search, a request came in for where to get an iced cookie in the Phoenix area. Iced cookies may not always be on the shelf at your local bakery, as they are typically iced up to celebrate holidays or occasions. I found three iced cookies…
Tarts tins. Ring molds. Loaf pans. Mini tart tins. Pastry bags. Pastry tips. All of varying sizes and shapes. Cake plates. Pie plates. Muffin tins. Madeleine tins. Bundt pans. Sheet pans. A multitude of small wares for manipulating fondant. Cannoli tubes. Chocolate molds. Silpats. Rolling pins. The list goes on,…
Mojito – white rum, sugar, lime juice, sparkling water, and mint. Refreshing on a hot summer’s day. Necessity when you are a prominent author sipping them in a Cuban bar called La Bodeguita del Medio. Cheers, Hemingway! Made famous by Ernest Hemingway, the birthplace of the mojito is suspected to…
The chocolate chip cookie is no fad. This beloved American treat is a go-to sweet treat, and cookies in the pastry case always sell. Chocolate chip cookies come in so many different shapes, sizes, thickness, sweetness levels, shades of browning, and textures. They are their own chemistry experiment, for as…
Gyros may not be the most beautiful, photogenic food, but nothing sends more happiness to our hearts and grumbles to our bellies than a moist, slightly crisp pile of meat on a warm pita that has been slathered with tzatziki. Both gyro places featured today boasted stints in Chicago, before…
You may think a pastry chef’s obsession with butter falls into the same category as Paula Deen deep-frying golden sticks or that annoying Julie girl in the Julie & Julia movie who closes the flick with the cloyingly symbolic gesture of leaving a pound of butter under Julia Child’s picture…
Like most chefs, I crave farm fresh eggs for my professional culinary needs as well as my hungry-belly needs. Have you compared the golden yolk of an organic free-range egg with that of a mass-produced egg? With the proliferation of urban farmers and backyard coops popping up, fresh eggs seem…
The breakfast sandwich. Made popular by the fast food industry, perfected and customized in small breakfast joints around the corner from home, this is a morning choice we want on our plate. A meal designed to be eaten on the go, it is that epic melding of eggs, breakfast meat,…
Lately, I have been filling out my farmers market forms, to get my pastry business a booth in some of the fall markets. Page after page of questions, rules, and regulations are mulled over with a glass of wine, but there is one that leaves me a little befuddled, pondering…
