Pastry Chef Jenny McCoy Launches Mixes at Crate and Barrel
Product Description: Brooklyn NY based pastry chef Jenny McCoy has come out with a line of mixes to be sold at Crate and Barrel. 12 different mixes will debut between now and November 2014 including cookies, truffles, brittles, bread pudding, crisps, buckles and the this Almond Cobbler Mix that we tested.
Ingredient List: The box of Jenny McCoy’s Almond Cobbler Mix contains two airtight sealed packets – Pouch 1 for the fruit filling and Pouch 2 for the cobbler pastry. The ingredient list on the outer box/label does not differentiate what ingredients are in which packet. List is as follows: Unbleached Wheat Flour, Natural Sliced Almonds, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Almond Flour (Blanched Almonds), Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Cornstarch, Baking Powder, Sea Salt, Baking Soda, Natural Flavor, Ground Vanilla Bean.
Test Kitchen Overview: The mixes come in simple brown boxes with minimal but elegant labeling. Pretty enough for gift giving but not overdone. The inner packets are clearly labeled as seen above. The kit allows you to choose whatever fruit you like; we chose a mixture of blueberries and peaches, but this would be just as good with fall apples or pears. We liked the ground vanilla bean, which was quite apparent even in the raw mixture. The instructions call for 8 cups of fruit, which seemed like a lot (see Cons below). We also found it interesting that the instructions call for buttermilk or heavy cream. These two liquids are not usually thought of as interchangeable within a pastry mixture, but both worked. We liked the buttermilk better as it had a lighter texture and a bit of a tang, which we found favorable. We preheated the oven, prepped our fruit, mixed it with Pouch 1, scraped it into a prepared pan, combined Pouch 2 with butter and buttermilk, topped our fruit with the cobbler batter and the whole dessert was ready to go into the oven by the time it came to temperature. About 30 minutes later we had a warm, homemade dessert ready to eat. The almond components and vanilla bean distinguish this cobbler from other run-in-the-mill preparations.
Pros: Sophisticated yet simple packaging, easy directions, high quality ingredients, tasty end product. Easy to customize with fruit of choice. As said before, love the almond and vanilla together. You can choose to make the cobbler in one dish or make individual servings as seen below. We used Lodge mini cocottes in enameled cast-iron.
Cons: Jenny calls for 8 cups of fruit. We liked her pastry so much we would have liked less fruit so there would be a higher proportion of cobbler batter. Next time we will try 6 cups of fruit.
Suggested Use: Great for host/hostess gift, tucked into a gift basket or kept on hand for a last minute cobbler if you don’t usually have the raw ingredients on hand.
Where to Buy: Through Crate & Barrel.
Price at Time of Review: $9.95 per box
Have you tried this product? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Bakepedia received this product as a gift for review. All opinions are the reviewer’s own.
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