apricot [ap-ri-kot, ey-pri-] noun

Image courtesy of Melissa’s

Prunus armeniaca. A luscious, small and golden stone fruit colored in a blush of deep orange or red, used fresh, canned and dried in the bakery kitchen. Apricots are at their best in North America from May through July. Choose fruit that yields to gentle pressure and emits a sweet aroma. The outer skin is velvety while the flesh is slightly juicy and rich in texture and flavor. Apricot stones (pits) usually come away from the flesh quite easily.

Bakepedia Tips

To ripen, simply place several apricots in a paper bag, seal it tightly and store at room temperature. Recipes often recommend that apricots be peeled. Simply blanch the whole fruit briefly in boiling water for about half a minute, gently remove with a slotted spoon and immediately plunge into a bowl of ice water. The skin will slip off easily. Dried versions are available sulfured (colored bright orange) to preserve their hue, while unsulfured dried apricots are a dark brown russet shade. Blenheim apricots are our favorite dried variety, as they are particularly vivid orange in color, richly flavored and greatly enhance baked goods visually and in their taste. Known for centuries in China, Armenia and India, many are now grown in California, Australia and Turkey. Canned apricots come in either heavy syrup or fruit juice. The latter is quite handy to have on hand and they work wonderfully in tarts. (To come: video of blanching and peeling).

apple slicer [ap–uhls slahy-ser] noun

Some apple slicers simply core and cut and the apple into wedges (image above is a KitchenAid brand), which is a quick way to cut up an apple for snacking.

Bakepedia Tips

The Spiral Apple Slicer is a very old design and we wouldn’t dream of making an apple pie without one. They peel, core and thinly slice the apple in one step. Some have a suction cup base, while others utilize a clamp. The rest of the action remains the same.

apple juice [ap–uhl joos] noun

The juice of the apple, typically filtered and pasteurized. Unsweetened apple juice is easy to find, but check the label as some brands might add sugar.

Bakepedia Tip

If called for in a recipe, we prefer to use the unsweetened version.

apple corer [ap–uhl kawr-er, kohr-] noun

A hand tool that easily removes the core (with seeds) from the apple. The open end of the cylindrical tool is placed over the apple’s center, inserted and twisted to remove the core, ready to be sliced, diced. An apple corer can be used for pears as well.

Bakepedia Tips

This picture below is of a Cuisipro  apple corer, which improves upon the typical tool by adding a mechanism to help release the core after it is removed.

apple cider [ap–uhl sahy-der] noun

An unfiltered, unpasteurized beverage made from apples with a cloudy brown appearance, its flavor depending on the variety of apples used. Some producers will use a single apple variety, although most use blends. If buying directly from an apple orchard, they most likely change the apples as the season progresses, tinkering with blends to make the best-tasting drink.

Bakepedia Tip

Apple cider must be refrigerated and is best consumed as soon as possible.

Anjou pear [an-joo; French ahn-zhoo] noun

Image courtesy of Melissa’s

Also called D’Anjou. A pear variety with a rounded bottom and a very short neck. Typical Anjou pear skin is greenish-yellow, but there are Red D’Anjou pears as well. This fruit is juicy, sweet, and fine-textured, refrigerating very well when still firm. They are available year round in North America with fresh harvests arriving in stores in September.

angelica [an-jel-i-kuh] noun

Angelica archangelica. Also called garden angelica or wild celery. This biennial plant can grow to six feet in height and has yellow/green flowers, thriving in damp soil and found near rivers and ponds. It grows wild in Finland, Sweden and Iceland, among other countries of that region, and is cultivated in some areas of France.

Bakepedia Tips

In the food world, this plant is used to flavor liqueurs such as Chartreuse and Bénèdictine. Its bright green stems are often candied and used in cakes and confections for flavor and decoration as well. It has a strong, distinct taste that can be slightly bitter, so it is usually used as a background flavor or part of a more complex combination of flavors.

angel food cake pan [eyn–juhl food keyk pan] noun

A deep, gently flared cake pan with a center core, with average dimensions of 10 in. x 4 in. The pan is usually aluminum and often has “feet,” which aid in the traditional cooling process of placing the cake upside down. See angel food cake.

angel food cake [eyn–juhl food keyk] noun

A light, fat-free cake baked in a special tube pan (see angel food cake pan). This dessert is typically made with egg whites, cream of tartar, sugar (granulated or confectioners’), salt, cake flour and vanilla extract.

Bakepedia Tips

Beaten egg whites provide the loft for the cake and the pan is always ungreased so the egg-white-heavy batter can climb up the deep sides of the pan. To prepare, egg whites are beaten with part of the sugar until stiff, but not dry. Dry ingredients (usually including the remaining sugar) are folded in. The cake will only fill the pan about halfway, as the air beaten into the egg whites helps the batter double in height during baking. Some pans have “feet” that allow the cake to cool upside down. This preserves its loft by preventing the cake from falling down onto itself. Lacking feet, or in lieu of using them, many recipes suggest to slip the center tube over a sturdy bottle with a slender neck. This will suspend the angel food cake upside down in an alternate way (Insert image of inverted pan on bottle).

amaretto [am-uh–ret-oh, ah-muh-] noun

An amber-colored, almond-flavored liqueur made from almonds or apricot kernels, sometimes both. With apricot kernels, high quantities of the benzaldehyde chemical inside the kernels give the beverage its distinct almond flavor. Disarrono Amaretto Italian liqueur, which uses apricot kernels instead of almonds, is a very popular brand that claims the original version dates to 1525. This amaretto liqueur is available at BevMo.com.

amaretti [am-uh–ret-ee, ah-muh-] noun

Italian macaroon cookies often made from almond paste, sugar and egg whites. When homemade, they can sometimes be chewy, other times crisp. Amaretti means “little bitter things” in Italian, and although they do not taste bitter at all, it is likely in reference to the bitter almond flavor that gives them their unique flavor. A popular commercial brand is Lazzaroni Amaretti di Saronno, which comes in a distinctive red tin (shown). The ingredients are listed as sugar, apricot kernels (20%) and free-range egg white. Apricot kernels contain a high level of benzaldehyde, a chemical that tastes like bitter almonds and gives the cookie its characteristic taste.

Bakepedia Tips

The classic Lazzaroni Amaretti di Saronno cookies are wrapped in pairs in a very lightweight patterned paper. These wrappers float when burned and this is a tradition for many aficionados of this cookie. Fold the paper into a long cylinder and stand it on end on your dessert plate and light the top. It will burn down to the bottom and then Whoosh! It will gently but quickly float up into the air. The whole process doesn’t even create any ashes, as the paper is so fine. Take care, of course, and make this an adult-supervised activity. It’s very cool and kids love to watch. (Video to come.)