Excerpt
Chapter One: Olive's Laws These are the rules we go by (in no particular order) and if you follow them, you'll find that your desserts will be that much better.
- Don't separate eggs with your hands. Go shell to shell.
- Eggs are large and at room temperature.
- Butter is unsalted.
- Brown sugar is light brown unless specified, and tightly packed.
- All nuts are toasted unless specified.
- Milk always refers to whole milk. If you use skim or low fat, your desserts will suffer for it.
- Use pure vanilla extract.
- Use parchment paper liberally. Don't sweat the expense, you can reuse it.
- Use the highest quality chocolate and cocoa you can find.
- Scrub lemons, limes, and oranges before zesting.
- Always have a perfectly clean bowl and whisk when whipping egg whites.
- Fruit should be perfectly ripe; cooking won't ripen a rock-hard pear.
- Ingredients should be at room temperature whenever possible.
- Don't use ultrapasteurized cream. Pasteurized cream is harder to find but well worth the search.
Copyright © 2000 by Todd English, Paige Retus, and Sally Sampson