The chance to bake sourdough bread in a 185-year-old, wood-fired brick oven is a baker’s dream. Even if you never get such an opportunity, I have some bread-baking tips that will help you create beautiful fresh loaves from your home oven. About 5 years ago I was invited by a friend to bake at the home…
baking
Creme Brulee Shortbread
Creme Brulee Shortbread – Buttery Shortbread topped with a crispy, crackly caramelized topping. I love to bake because I love to share goodies from my kitchen. It would be no fun to bake a big batch of cookies and eat them all by myself (hmmm, or maybe it would be). For the holidays I like to create gift boxes filled…
Apricot Frangipane Tartelettes & Asti-Pair Dessert & Wine
Apricot Frangipane Tartelettes are the perfect pairing with sparkling wine. In the words of the singular Julia Child, “Wine is part of the food chain…there’s not anything evil about it. It’s part of the food.” There is a reason I love that woman! We have a great group of friends we call our “wine group”. The group…
Sour Cherry Pie with a Lattice Crust
Sour Cherry Pie just might be the greatest of all fruit pies! I love all pies, especially fruit pies. (I know, I know, you’re probably thinking, “shut up already about pie”.) I waited more than 10 years for this pie. Seriously, I planted my sour cherry tree over a decade ago with visions of…
Overnight Rye Bread
Start the night before to have fresh bread for lunch. Overnight Rye Bread can be made with a sourdough starter or a quick starter. Although I thoroughly enjoy baking bread, I don’t do it as often as I would like. In a perfect world (the one where I can eat as much as and whatever I’d…
Dark Chocolate Ganache – An Essential Recipe
One perfect bite – One recipe of Dark Chocolate Ganache and the truffle-possibilities are endless. I love chocolate. I don’t necessarily love all chocolate desserts. I’m not one of those people who prefer chocolate everything. If I’m going to eat chocolate, I’d rather have a simple square of really great dark chocolate than almost any other…
Short Dough – An essential recipe
Call it what you will, Pâte Sucrée, Pâte Sablée, Short Dough, Sweet Dough, Tart Dough, this is a versatile dough perfect for lining the pan for your favorite tart or for making cookies. This is a basic recipe that’s great to have in your collection and it comes together in minutes. A little less sweet than a sugar cookie…
Baguette made from a Beer Mash Starter
I’ve heard beer referred to as “liquid bread”. With this in mind, I decided to make a beer mash starter, which is composed of grains and yeast, just like bread. Disclaimer: I’ll be the first to tell you that I am not a master bread baker. There are bakers who have devoted their career to understanding…
Vanilla Layer Cake
This is the quintessential vanilla layer cake, only better than ever. There are a few special touches that make this cake the best vanilla cake you’ll ever taste. The last post in our “Cake 101” series is not centered on a recipe, but rather illustrates how to assemble a professional looking layer cake. I’ll start by saying…
Rhubarb Pie
Pure Rhubarb Pie just might be my favorite fruit pie of all. I love the tart-sweet flavor and beautiful pink color of the fruit filling. In my recent “Perfect Pie Crust” post I ended the article with a paragraph about the importance of patience in baking. Had I taken my own advice I might not have…