Welcome to our special holiday series of blog posts, Holiday Baking Traditions. We’re very excited to bring you our versions of several cultural and regional holiday favorite recipes, the ones that families and friends turn to year after year.

These are the recipes that have to be on the table for the holiday meal, the ones that are eagerly awaited all season long. They speak to our ethnic upbringings, our traditions to pass on to the new generation. Some have crossed cultures over the years; some are less well known, but all are rich in history, meaningful to our community of bakers… and, above all, amazing and delicious!

Out of all of the Holiday Baking Traditions recipes this year, I found Lebkuchen to be the most daunting to approach. It certainly wasn’t the most technically challenging; in fact, it’s very simple to put together. No, this recipe for me was the first to bring up the  comment we knew we would get from readers more than any other…

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Do you remember your 10th birthday?

Big day, right? At last – double digits!

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In the dark of the knight the baked goods in the King Arthur Flour test kitchen have come alive to celebrate their favorite time of year with a festive song…

~~On the first day of Halloween, my true love gave to me…  An owl in a spooky old tree~~ On the second day  of Halloween…

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From “USA Today,” Sept. 27, 2010:

“PORTLAND, Ore. – Pumpkin lovers can relax: A nearly year-long shortage of the canned stuff is over. That means an end to the hoarding, rationing and even pumpkin profiteering that have been going on since heavy rain ruined last year’s harvest and caused a shortfall…”

WHEW! I’d been having serious worries about the absence of canned pumpkin in the baking aisle of my local grocery store.

I mean, for weeks I’d been heaving disappointed sighs every time I looked at the hugely expensive cans of organic butternut squash crowding the shelf where my favorite One-Pie canned pumpkin ought to be. read the rest of this entry »

These ladies have a secret.

Actually, a secret ingredient. MANY secret ingredients…

Want to know why they’re smiling?

Because every day, the ladies pictured above – Marie Amell and Kris Barry – join the rest of King Arthur’s manufacturing team to blend and pack the “secret” ingredients that go into our King Arthur Flour mixes.

Mixes that make sublimely delicious treats like these Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies.

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Whole wheat flour gives some people the baking willies. Their stories about baking a loaf of whole wheat bread range from “I made a brick,” to “This is the best loaf of bread I ever made.” One tool that may give you the edge is the Nutrimill electric grain mill, which grinds fresh wheat berries to produce the freshest tasting flour you’ve ever had.

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Crusty.

Chewy.

Whole-grainy.

If you’re a fan of these three yeast-bread characteristics, you’re going to LOVE this loaf!

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What makes sourdough bread rise?

Why, yeast – of course.

But how does sourdough bread rise even when there’s no yeast in the recipe?

Wild yeast – the stuff that’s floating in the air all around us.

After all, our frontier-settling ancestors weren’t packing Fleischmann’s RapidRise in their Conestogas.

They had to rely on their own homemade “brew” of fermenting flour and water, and the wild yeast it attracted: sourdough. read the rest of this entry »

These baking sisters are the third generation of a grain-farming family in Ohio. We met them earlier this month during the first week of our Traveling Baking Demos, when we kicked off the Fall 2010 season with stops in Ohio and Indiana. read the rest of this entry »

Looking for a fun new way to serve your mini cookies? Our special three step blog will show you how.

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