Pastryscoop

Sometime added to cookies, cakes, and bread doughs, raisins are grapes that have been either dehydrated in a factory or dried naturally by the sun. Sulphur dioxide is added to golden raisins to preserve their light color. Dark raisins are air-dried for a longer period of time, which explains their more wizened appearance.

A Turkish anise-flavored brandy.

A sweet fruit native to the Malay Archipelago, which is similar in flavor and appearance to its cousin, the litchi. Removing the tough, outer skin reveals the fruit’s delicately flavored flesh and inedible inner seed. Rambutan are eaten out of hand or used to flavor drinks and frozen desserts.

A small earthenware dish, usually around three to four inches in diameter, used to produce individually sized portions of dessert. Custards and soufflés are often baked in ramekins.

A strongly flavored berry with many seeds that comes in black, red and gold varieties. They are in season from May to November.

To soak a dried or dehydrated food in water, juice or other liquid to restore it to its original consistency.

See cookie, refrigerator.

The French term for the cooling of bread or baked products after baking.

An enzyme that is taken from the stomach of a milk producing animal and added to milk to make cheese.

A vegetable that resembles celery in its appearance, aside from the intense pink or red color of its stalks. Rhubarb leaves are toxic, but the stalks may be used in sauces, jams, quickbreads, and pies. Because the fruit’s flavor is extremely tart, most recipes call for cooking rhubarb in a large amount of sugar.

Used in reference to those egg and sugar mixtures which must be beaten together until light and voluminous. The ribbon stage is the point at which the batter, when drizzled into the bowl from the end of the whisk, will leave distinct trails of batter on the surface of the mixture. These ribbons should remain visible for several seconds before disappearing back into the mix.

A finely grained flour made from white rice. Glutinous or sweet rice flour is milled from a shorter grained rice for use in Asian pastries.

A bread dough that contains a large amount of sugar or fats. The additives may include sugar, sugar syrups, eggs, fats, and milk.

Found in many Italian dessert recipes, a cheese made from whey or a combination of whey and skim milk. The cheese is soft, slightly grainy, and sweet.

“Sweetbreads” in French.

A sweet filled pastry, often shaped like a turnover, which is fried or baked until golden.

A cross between a cookie and small cake. The dough, which typically contains coarsely chopped dried fruit, is baked in small mounds which cause the cookie to take on a rock-like appearance.

The large crystallized pieces of sugar that result from the evaporation of concentrated sugar syrup.

In Asian cooking, sugar that has been cooked until it takes on a yellowish to light brown color. It is less sweet than ordinary granulated sugar and thought by the Chinese to offer valuable health benefits.

A candy that contains miniature marshmallows, nuts, and chunks of chocolate. Also refers to desserts containing the same combination of ingredients.

To use a rolling pin to flatten dough into a sheet or round of even thickness.

See cookie, rolled.

A pliable icing made from confectioner’s sugar, glycerin, glucose, gelatin, shortening, and water that can be draped over cakes to create a smooth, flawless finish. It can also be used to form soft candy centers.

A dark red apple speckled with yellow that has a mildly sweet flavor and firm flesh. This apple is great for baking.

The orange fruit of the rose plant, used to flavor jams, jellies, syrups, and teas.

Made by steeping rose petals in water. Rose water is used to flavor some Middle Eastern and Indian desserts.

A pastry made by immersing a rosette iron in batter then cooking it in hot fat. Rosette irons come in a variety of decorative shapes.

Referring to a thin sheet of gènoise or sponge cake that is filled and rolled into a jelly-roll shape. It is cut into individual slices for service.

The process of rolling dough into tight round balls for proofing or for final shaping.

A sweet, large cherry with pink skin and flesh, most often canned or used to make maraschino cherries.

Made by beating together egg whites (or meringue powder), water, and confectioner’s sugar. The addition of lemon juice, vanilla extract, and food colorings are optional. When dry, royal icing’s surface takes on a very glossy and smooth appearance, making it ideal for in ornamental writing, covering cookies, and molding decorations.

Bite-sized pastries made from cream-cheese dough that is rolled with a fruit, nut, or jam-based filling. They are a Hanukkah favorite.

An alcoholic beverage made from fermented and distilled molasses or sugar cane syrup.

Equivalent to the Italian biscotti and German zwieback, a yeast bread that is baked until golden, then sliced and returned to the oven until completely dry and crispy.

Milled from the cereal grass, rye flour is commercially available in light, medium, dark, and pumpernickel varieties. Due to low gluten content, it must be combined with a high-protein flour for breadbaking. Rye flour produces heavy, dense loaves that tend to stay moist for a longer period of time than those made exclusively from wheat flour.