SCALES

If pastry chefs didn’t measure ingredients on scales, cakes and desserts would be different every time. One tart would rise well, and another would remain dense. The cream would sometimes be liquid and sometimes dense and unsweetened. You could forget about portioned and small desserts (cupcakes, macaroons, marshmallows). For cupcakes, an extra gram of leavening agent would blow up the cupcake, and for macarons, an extra drop of water would turn the brownie into a scone.
Therefore, a pastry chef’s rule of thumb is to measure all ingredients on a scale. Any electronic scales will do.
MANUAL OR PLANETARY MIXER

For beginner pastry chefs, I suggest using a hand mixer. It will perfectly cope with making biscuits, and whipping cream. It will be more difficult to whip meringue and marshmallows (compared to a planetary mixer), but it is also possible. In recipes, I try to use a hand mixer. I do this to show that you can make almost anything with a hand mixer.
In my practice, I use both a hand mixer and a planetary mixer. If I need to mix a biscuit and some cream, I use the hand mixer. If I make a large amount (cream, dough) or marshmallows, or meringue, I whip with a planetary mixer. I know that choosing a good planetary mixer is not easy. So I interviewed students, added my experience, and prepared a detailed review for you on how to choose a planetary mixer.
The most important things in choosing a mixer are a higher power, metal whiskers, and the ability to change speeds.
OVEN

It’s ideal if you have an electric oven. For biscuits and muffins, the convection mode is suitable for baking cheesecakes, eclairs, and pasta – top-bottom mode. Usually, for biscuits, you should set a temperature of 170-180 °C. If macarons, then lower. For cheesecakes around 100 °C, and for… Read more

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The history of the cookie

 
Scientists think that the first cookie appeared about 10,000 years ago, around the same time the first bread was baked. Of all the variety of confectionery, it is the oldest. It is known that one of the ancient cookbooks calls a cookie a small piece of dough that was kneaded for another pastry. These scones served as an indicator of how hot the oven was in the place where they were placed for inspection.
The first cookie – as we are used to seeing it – appeared in the 8th century BC. It was made in Iran and was unsweetened because they didn’t yet know sugar. Maybe that’s why this product was not popular, but with the advent of sugar, the situation has changed. The cookies got a second life, and people loved them. Iranian craftsmen were famous for their skill in baking sugar cookies using wheat, rice, corn, and other kinds of flour.
The popularity of cookies began to gain momentum during the Muslim invasion of Spain. The war served to trade in the Crusades. Over time, the East and West established trade, taking over Northern Europe as well. People liked the cookies very much, and soon they were carried by many merchant ships – they were very easy to transport and also provided a lot of profit.
Today we enjoy eating modern cookies with tea, coffee, and cocoa. Confectioners offer us cookies with different fillings, shapes, and colors, glazed and unglazed. Recipes are constantly being modernized, and new ones are appearing.
About the origin of the word “cookie”

Cookies got their name from the Dutch language – “koekie” in translation means “pie” or “small.” Also, some nations have their own words for naming this confectionery. So, the English and Australians eat biscuits, the Spaniards eat galettes, in Italy, the cookies are called by… Read more

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