Dorie Greenspan might be the most famous cookbook editor in the world,
which impresses a few people besides myself. She now has a column in
Parade magazine, the daffy, oddly liberal Sunday supplement that
features Walter Scott, and the wonderfully named Mailyn von Savant.
The magazine has gone wobbly since the death of Shiela Lukins and back
of the book fixture James Brady. Parade might be a mixed media
alternative mashup of Barney Miller and the Saturday Evening Post,
with its table of regular contributors walking onstage and offstage
like characters in a familiar situation comedy. Lukins was one of the
founders of The Silver Palate and handled the foodwriting. Now
Greenspan has been parachuted in. She seems better suited to the
NYTimes Sunday Magazine or Gourmet but this may be steadier work.
Does Pierre Herme agree with baking tips like “Stockpile piecrusts in
the freezer.

1. Dorie Greenspan on December 9th, 2009 at 8:30 am

   Thanks so much for the kind words – I truly appreciate your praise.

   I just wanted to mention something about freezing that you and your readers might find interesting. In the pastry kitchen, the freezer is considered a tool that’s as indispensable as a mixer.

   And when it comes to piecrusts and tart shells, the freezer is your best friend. Not only because you can stockpile crusts and have them for that proverbial rainy day, but because freezing crusts before baking them actually improves them.

   When you freeze a piecrust or tart shell, you’re giving the gluten that was activated when you mixed and rolled the dough a chance to relax. The result is that you increase your odds of having a crust that doesn’t shrink and you’ll get better texture.

   Again, my thanks — Dorie