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. (more…)

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? (more…)

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. (more…)

“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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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). (more…)

It all started with an innocent cookie contest. “Vote in Our ‘08 Presidential Cookie Bake-Off!” shouts the headline on parents.com, online home of American Baby, Parents, and Family Circle magazines. “Call it the sweet side of politics—for the last four presidential elections, we’ve asked the candidates’ better halves to share their favorite cookie recipe, then asked readers to vote for the best. So far your ballots have been spot-on in terms of predicting who’ll end up in the White House—every winning spouse has moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue soon after…” (more…)

I did something I don’t often do last night. I sat down to a juicy burger for supper.

Let me amend that. I often have a hamburger for supper. A nicely browned or grilled patty, lying beside a healthy stir-fry of gingered green beans, maybe a salad, perhaps some grilled zucchini. No bun; just protein. I’m trying to keep my carb count low. And working all day here in the King Arthur Flour test kitchen, forcing myself to sample fudge brownies, and buttercream-iced cupcakes, to say nothing of cheese-stuffed focaccia… well, you can just imagine. Kermit says it’s not easy being green; for us test bakers, it’s not easy being lean. (more…)