Ode to a Matzo Ball
I’ve never understood the appeal of a matzo ball. No great beauty, the spongy dough ball just sits there, taking up space in an otherwise nice bowl of chicken soup.
Los Angeles food writer Helene Siegel is the author of 40 cookbooks, including the “Totally Cookbook” series and “Pure Chocolate.” She runs the Pastry Session blog. During COVID-19, she shared Sunday morning baking lessons over Zoom with her granddaughter, eight-year-old Piper of Austin, Texas.
Los Angeles food writer Helene Siegel is the author of 40 cookbooks, including the “Totally Cookbook” series and “Pure Chocolate.” She runs the Pastry Session blog. During COVID-19, she shared Sunday morning baking lessons over Zoom with her granddaughter, eight-year-old Piper of Austin, Texas.
How Zoom cooking classes liberated a new breed of students and their teachers
Cook outside of the screen.
(Micah Fluellen / Los Angeles Times; Getty Images)
By Iris Schneider
Print
In the last 14 months, we’ve had to get creative about finding new ways to be together and learn new things. Those of us lucky enough to have a strong internet connection and a working computer have triggered an explosion of virtual get-togethers and classes as we do Pilates in our living room, immerse ourselves in college-level courses or fill our fridges with sourdough starter.
Cooking has occupied countless hours of mental energy as well as screen time, whether it involves teaching geographically distant grandchildren how to bake, taking private lessons, making Thanksgiving dinner with family or joining 316 other bakers-in-training who want to learn how to make flaky biscuits.
Les Madeleines
Los Angeles food writer Helene Siegel is the author of 40 cookbooks, including the “Totally Cookbook” series and “Pure Chocolate.” She runs the Pastry Session blog. During COVID-19, she shared Sunday morning baking lessons over Zoom with her granddaughter, eight-year-old Piper of Austin, Texas.
Los Angeles food writer Helene Siegel is the author of 40 cookbooks, including the “Totally Cookbook” series and “Pure Chocolate.” She runs the Pastry Session blog. During COVID-19, she shared Sunday morning baking lessons over Zoom with her granddaughter, eight-year-old Piper of Austin, Texas.
We are a family of cookie lovers. Strawberry thumbprints, apricot coconut haystacks, butterscotch blondies, marbled pinwheels, petit cheesecakes, chocolate espresso drops, chocolate chips you name it, we love them all. Still, I was surprised when my granddaughter, Piper, requested a madeleine for our next Pastry Session. So precocious!