It’s blog posts like this that make me think Russell van Kraayenburg should have named his blog "Chasing Brilliance" instead of Chasing Delicious. The site is a focused, clean blog dedicated entirely to baking and desserts. The photos are bright and inspired, capturing the true essence of the cake, cookie, bread or pudding at hand.
One of my favorite components of Chasing Delicious is actually the Kitchen 101 series, a growing collection of posts that explores the "fundamentals of cooking and baking," as so eloquently described by Russell. In Kitchen 101, you'll find volume conversions, mass and volume equivalents and, most recently, an incredibly detailed and well-organized post about using eggs in baking.
Russell explains the composition of eggs and how to use them to achieve flavor or color, binding or leavening, even thickening and glazing, respectively. He shows you how to take an egg white from just that to French meringue and then even thicker, to Italian meringue. Did you know that acid supports structure in egg whites? Adding a few drops of lemon juice just before whisking will ensure that your whites will peak in no time.
And just when you thought there was more than enough egg love to go around, Russell provides you with substitutions for every type of egg function: binding (ground flaxseed), leavening (baking soda or powder), thickening (agar agar) and glazing (soy milk).
Did I mention that Russell compiles all of his amazing how-to tips in these great Kitchen 101 posters that you can order prints of to use in your home kitchen? Yes everyone, the man has thought of everything.
Now you can probably see why I think this blog should be called "Chasing Brilliance." Russell has taken all of the guesswork out of the most common kitchen hurdles.
Next time you have a cooking or baking question, follow it all the way to Chasing Delicious. You're sure to find the answer you're looking for right there.
