I have a thing about sandwiches.
I mean, I’ve always been fascinated by the bread-filling-bread dynamic, the happy marriage of stuffing and stuff-ee. What could be tastier than peanut butter and honey on oatmeal bread? Salty-nutty PB, sweet honey, nutty-sweet bread—see how they balance one another? Read the rest of this entry »
Remember when you used to clip recipes? I mean, the days when you’d take a pair of scissors and actually cut recipes out of newspapers or magazines? (Or, since I was usually too lazy to get up and find scissors, just rip-rip-rip around the edges, being sure none of the fractions in the ingredients got left behind.) Read the rest of this entry »
Last week in this location PJ confessed to her birthday vice: Pepperidge Farm Coconut cake. Well, today is PJ’s birthday, and I took advantage of her being out of the office last week to create my version of that cake so we could have it on hand as we serenade her properly on this momentous occasion. It had to be square, it had to be coconutty and moist, and in this case, it’s coming out of the freezer (where it’s been hiding) just like it does in the store!
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Savory scones? Not an oxymoron. Scones don’t have to be made with sugar and spice and everything nice. They can be made with smoky bacon, and cheese, and aromatic scallions… like these.
Reader Kathleen May recently wrote suggesting that I try to duplicate the over-the-top bacon, cheddar & scallion scones sold at the Atlantic Baking Co. (familiarly known as ABC), a bakery in Rockland, Maine, a town midway up Maine’s stunning 3,478-mile coast. Naturally, my competitive urges kicked in. Just as with Berger Cookies (“Baltimore’s Finest”), or Grùyere-Stuffed Cheese Loaves (“Hot Cheese Bread”), where I simply had to figure out how to do it yourself—these scones piqued my imagination. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m not a passionate cake baker. I mean, I’ll bake a cake, sure. And I bake a lot of birthday cakes here at King Arthur Flour, because how can you possibly work at a baking company and NOT have a candle-lit cake delivered to you, at your desk, on your birthday? Read the rest of this entry »
The New York Times is at it again. Yesterday, their Dining and Wine section included a lengthy treatise on one of my favorite subjects: Chocolate chip cookies. Beginning with a short history of this American icon’s birth at the Toll House restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts (where, serendipitously for a baker, I had my engagement dinner 32 years ago), author David Leite takes us on a tour of New York City’s best chocolate chip cookie sources. Read the rest of this entry »
“Mom, what’s for dinner?”
My first reaction, during these busy days of summer, is TAKEOUT. But having just gotten the first monthly bill for next year’s heating oil—OUCH—I know we’re eating in. Which is usually a pleasure; I like to cook. But not when the temperature in my kitchen is 92°F. Read the rest of this entry »
Quick, think of five baking aromas that bring you running to the kitchen to see what’s up. (And no, you can’t count “fruit pie filling burning on the oven floor” as one of them. We’re being positive here.)
My five?
•Brownies, in the minute before they come out of the oven;
•Garlic bread;
•Cinnamon anything; apple pie and oatmeal cookies in particular;
•Pepperoni pizza;
•Yeast bread. Any kind. Ciabatta, sticky buns, raisin-pecan rye… Anything made with yeast. Read the rest of this entry »
Ah, focaccia!
While you bake I like to waccia.
I’m so glad I gaccia–
My dear focaccia…
OK, blame it on the upcoming long weekend: it’s got me feeling footloose and fancy-free already. What better way to celebrate summer than with an ode to my favorite flatbread, focaccia? Or, make that doggerel, rather than ode. Whatever. I just had to sing this simple bread’s praises. Read the rest of this entry »
Did you know July 9 is National Sugar Cookie Day? Looking ahead, July 11 is National Blueberry Muffin Day. And the 12th? National Pecan Pie Day. Alas, you already missed National Clams on the Half Shell Day (March 31) and National Cheeseball Day (April 17). But don’t despair; if you can hang on till September 14, you can join the celebration for National Cream-Filled Donut Day—and there’s NOTHING more exciting than that. (Except perhaps National Bicarbonate of Soda Day, December 30). Read the rest of this entry »
