Waaaay back when my husband David and I began dating, after years of friendship, he told me that most of the people he was working with were very, very beige. Not that they dressed in tan tones, but rather that they lived in tan tones; not a colorful character in the bunch.

Of course I just had to ask if I was beige, too. ” No,” he said. “You’re…

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One of the most common queries we get via our Bakers’ Hotline is this:

“I hate discarding a cup of sourdough starter every time I feed it. Isn’t there something else I can do with it, besides just throw it away?”

Ah, we’re all thrifty New Englanders at heart, right? And I agree – it just feels wrong to throw flour (starter) in the trash bucket. Luckily, there’s plenty you can do with excess starter besides dump it. So here goes:

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Cinnapineapanana – wha…?

That would be cinnamon + pineapple + banana, all wrapped up in a tender, rich yeast dough. Topped with crunchy sugar, and baked to golden perfection.

This delightful bread was created by Ricardo Neves Gonzalez, a Brazilian bakery owner and regular contributor to the comments section of this blog. Way back at Christmas, Ricardo sent me photographs of an unusual-looking bread, which he called Jewish Strudel.

Ricardo explained that he makes challah dough, then tops it with different sweet fillings; the photo he sent looked like banana and cinnamon, though I seem to recall he also mentioned mango, as well…

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Go here…

…or here…

…or here.

All with one ridiculously tasty, cinnamon-stuffed (in more ways than one), iced or glazed (or not) tender-and-oh-so-tasty scone recipe.

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Now that November is a fact of life, rather than a somber cloud on the horizon, it’s time to accept it:  summer’s gone for good. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

After all,  autumn signals the start of the holiday baking season. And that’s a very good thing indeed. (more…)

“The frost is on the pumpkin.”

Sure, we’ve all heard that expression (haven’t we, class?) It comes from the title of a famous poem (well famous to us American lit. majors) by James Whitcomb Riley, a short bit of doggerel that begins like this:

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock…

I don’t know about the fodder being in the shock, but I sure am. I finally took my summer vacation last week, down on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Where the temperature was 20° below normal, the state was recording its earliest ever snowfall, and the frost was definitely on the punkin. (more…)

Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South, come the pilgrim and guest,
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?
- John Greenleaf Whittier

You know, I just HAD to print that 19th-century poem here, even though Thanksgiving is weeks away. And the recipe we’re making today isn’t pumpkin pie. Because, if you think you don’t like poetry, the verse above might make you think again.

Indeed, what DOES call back the past, like the rich pumpkin… sweet roll? (more…)

Oh, boy!

I was driving by the farmstand on the way to work this morning, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but my favorite sign of autumn:

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OK, class, today we’re going to make cinnamon monkey bread.

Never baked with yeast before?

Read on…

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As the year draws to a close

WAIT A MINUTE.

Never mind the nostalgic musing, that “year in review” stuff that everyone’s pushing at you right now. Let’s cut right to the chase: there’s no comfort food quite so comforting as something hot and yeast-doughy. (more…)