By now, you probably know of our deep and abiding love for Vanilla Dream cookies. They’ve shown up in blogs, on Facebook, and have spawned plenty of spin-off recipes (see Chocolate Dreams).

Most of the time we just love to munch and crunch on them plain, or with a cup of java or cocoa. I personally love the texture of a Dream dipped in coffee, where the creamy coffee encourages the cookie to crumble delicately into a million pieces.

But we’re brave kitchen explorers, and know no bounds when it comes to playing with enhancing our food experience.

read the rest of this entry »

When I cooked store-bought gluten-free pasta for the first time, it was an unfortunate situation.

I boiled the water, tossed in the spaghetti, briefly stirred it, then walked away. When I returned to drain it, I had missed the timer by a minute or so, and my brown rice noodles had turned into a mass of pasta pudding.

If you’re eating gluten free, you’ve probably had it before: the sticky, pasty mess that’s the result of many cooked brown rice pastas out on the market. The mush in the pot. The inability to tell where the noodles begin and the sauce ends. Even a good glass of wine can’t redeem this disaster.

read the rest of this entry »

Ah, the giddy days in the kitchen. You know the ones, where you suddenly see Al Pacino’s face in your morning toast, or you sing “Heard It Through the Grapevine” while measuring out your raisins (complete with hand rolls, if you lived through the ’80s). I’m prone to juggling oranges and lemons and, …

read the rest of this entry »

Learn to bake.

Who knew those three short words could encompass such a huge world of possibility?

Take a virtual tour of our new Baking Education Center here in Norwich, Vermont. And join one of the first classes held there as we make the definition of comfort food –

Bread and soup.

read the rest of this entry »

For every summer issue of The Baking Sheet, I try to put together a meal that sings of summer. Usually it’s something with unusual or tropical flavors and spices. Typically, it’s a meal that’s best eaten outdoors on the deck or at a picnic table, with company.

This summer our regular feature, “When Company’s Coming,” sports the following menu: read the rest of this entry »

Got my hat, got my coat, I’m off to join the PED-PEW club.

Care to come along?

read the rest of this entry »

One dark, early February morning, I woke up from a sound sleep with these two words in my head:

Pretzel buns.

Had I read about pretzel buns in a food magazine? Seen them online?

Maybe they were somewhere on the Food Network (watching “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” being one of my favorite brain-candy pastimes).

Whatever their provenance, I was now seeing golden brown twists of dense bread, sliced into top and bottoms and cradling barbecued chicken.

That’s right, chicken. Because chicken had also been on my mind, seeing as it’s the #1 most searched for recipe term online.

read the rest of this entry »

There’s nothing like a good, hearty sandwich, is there?

Now, I’m not talking tea sandwiches. Those thin-sliced, crust-free triangles have their place; after all, you really can’t go wrong with egg salad on white bread.

But when you want a sandwich you can really dig into – a sandwich with body and bite, one that you struggle to get your mouth around, one that you need two hands to handle – delicate sliced bread just doesn’t cut it.

read the rest of this entry »

Did you know that Elvis’ favorite cake, one he enjoyed on his birthday AND at Christmas every year, was vanilla pound cake?

I grew up loving chocolate cake. Still do. But over the years I’ve also developed a great appreciation for vanilla cake, the dessert equivalent of your little black dress: simple, classic, goes with everything. And my very favorite vanilla cake is super-dense, golden pound cake. read the rest of this entry »

Mousse.

No, not the stuff you put in your hair.

And surely not the large, antlered animal drivers here in northern New England worry about meeting some dark night on the road.

I’m talking mousse, as in chocolate. And strawberry. And “easier than you think.”

read the rest of this entry »