I’ve been baking a lot lately. A lot of bread. As summer quickly approaches I am furiously trying to finish up all of my recipe testing for the cookbook. I know that come July, when the heat and humidity set in, the last thing I will want to be doing is standing in my kitchen amongst cup of flour.
Ages ago, when I started this blog, I was not a baker. I have always loved baked goods, but baking was not my domain. It was too finicky, too time consuming. I never would have dreamt that I would become a baking instructor, and now am working on my second baking cookbook. But I have come to love the exactitude and the purposeful nature of baking. And I love the final product!
However, there are instances when I don’t have the time to contribute to making a baked good. Yet, I’m looking for [...]

I like cheesecake; but I don’t love cheesecake. So why am I presenting you with a cheesecake recipe, and imploring you all to make it? Because I guess it would be more fitting if this cake were called a cheese cake– a cake with some cheese in it.
This recipe is one that displays the wonderful alchemy that is baking. There is no crust to speak of, but once baked, the simple cake batter seeps up around the sides of the cake, creating a crust that is chewy and containing for the rest of the goodies in this cake. And what are the rest of the goodies? Rhubarb, of course!

When I originally found this recipe it called for blueberries– a solid fruit choice. But rhubarb has just hit the markets out here, and blueberries, well they’re still on some truck from California or Florida. And besides, I am one of those [...]

I teach a baking class at the local community college. The class is an introduction to baking, so I’ve taught the basics: biscuits, scones, shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate, brownies (chewy and cakey), pies, quiches, and now I’m getting ready to teach a short unit on cakes. So I decided to include a Swiss Roll– a rich chocolate sponge cake, rolled around a light vanilla cream.
To try it out, I made the roll last week. Gilding the lily, I decided to enrobe it in a shiny chocolate ganache. As I was applying the final layers of ganache, I stepped back to look at my handiwork, and that’s when I realized– I had made a giant Ho Ho.

And I couldn’t have been any happier!
I was not a Hostess kid, but I do remember snacking on the odd Ho Ho from time to time. I would bite off all of the “chocolate [...]

I wanted to start this post out lavishly quoting to you the lyrics of a Purim song of my youth. It is sung to the melody of “Roll out the Barrel,” but the words have been changed and this rousing rendition is entitled “Roll out the Megillah” (the scrolls on which the story of Purim are written). But you know what? I couldn’t find them! Anywhere! I  mean, isn’t that what the internet is expressly for?
I thought that everyone knew this song; that it was like, “I Had a Little Dreidel” or “Jingle Bells,” for my non-Jewish readers. But none of my Jewish friends have even heard of it. So apparently, unless you went to Temple Sholom, in the suburbs of San Francisco, in the eighties, this song is news to you. I have forgotten all of the lyrics in the last twenty-five years. But let me assure you, it [...]

Last Friday I went on local television to bake a pie– a Chocolate Raisin Pie. I think chocolate and raisins are sort of the perfect combination. I always eat the raisins with the chocolate chips out of the “bad-for-you” trail mix. (Which is really the only type of trail mix I like.) I love a Raisinet. And an oatmeal raisin cookie is always sublime with a few bittersweet chocolate chunks thrown in. So when I found a recipe for Chocolate Raisin Pie while doing research for the pie book, I knew I had to try it. I modernized the classic, and toyed with proportions, and arrived at a delicious dessert.
This pie is a perfect winter pie, it’s still fruity (from the raisins), but in a concentrated way. It’s rich, and moist, but the chocolate is not overwhelming. I hope you like it! You can find the recipe here.
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It seems like I don’t bake a lot of cookies around here, so when I do bake a batch, I want them to have a bit of everything in them. And apparently Joanne Chang, baker and proprietor of Boston’s Flour Bakery feels much the same way. (Although I suppose that being the baker at a bakery, means that she bakes a lot of cookies. But still!)

These cookies, called the Crunchy Lola Cookie, for no apparent reason except that they won the cookie-naming contest at the bakery, have almost everything that you want in a cookie in them. Yes, they’re chocolate chip, but they also have oatmeal, and sweetened coconut, and let’s not forget about the pecans. They could be called a Crunchy Kitchen Sink Cookie, it’s a little more descriptive.
I’ve made these cookies twice, once in California, where I actually bought the cookbook, and once here in Connecticut. Each time, [...]

It’s November, and Thanksgiving is early this year. If you’re anything like me, you’re already making mental checklists of everything you want/need (really, is there any difference?) to cook and bake for this holiday that beats all other holidays, culinarily speaking.
I’ll be baking a pie this week on local television. (For those of you who want to see the segment, I’ll link to it when it’s on-line.) In preparation for Thanksgiving, and since I now reside in New England, birthplace of the pumpkin in this country, I’ll be making the fall classic– pumpkin pie.

But this post is not about the pie part of pumpkin pie; it’s about the pumpkin. For those of you who have never roasted a pumpkin, I implore you to give it a try this year. Homemade pumpkin puree is richer, smoother, more pumpkin-y. It really is delicious– and so easy to make there is hardly a [...]

I am American. As if you didn’t know that from the title of my latest book, or the subheading of this site. But another way to tell my nationality is my undying love for all things peanut butter. THIS is the true way to tell when you are dealing with an American.

I ‘ve found that people of different cultures don’t really understand what all of the peanut butter fuss is about. Some even think it’s kind of gross– the horror! I have an Israeli friend who feels only moderately about the spread. There is an English friend of mine who detests the stuff, and her son, while born in England, has lived half of his life in the states– even he can’t stand peanut butter. What can I say, there must be something genetically amiss! I cannot imagine my childhood without peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. But, I will be [...]

Flaky, buttery, short, and golden brown– pie dough can be the thing that turns a pie from simply a good dessert to truly a great masterpiece. But dough seem to be the most intimidating process for many home bakers. Whenever I teach a class, or give a demo, there are always a multitude of questions about the ingredients, the process, and hints for making that pile of flour into a delicious dough. Undoubtedly, there are more than a few home bakers that will raise their hands, and timidly state, “I have made a pie before, but I just buy the pre-rolled, frozen crusts. Dough scares me.” I understand, but that’s such a shame. If you’ve gone through the trouble of making a filling, don’t you want to make the dough as well?
So I knew that I wanted to pay special care to the chapter on pie dough when I wrote [...]

My mom always made the best Rice Crispy Treats– me, not so much. It’s taken approximately 33 years to make a treat that rivals hers. I know, you’re probably reading this and thinking, just follow the directions on the back of the box, and there you go. But my mom’s are great– gooey, chewy, sometimes they have chocolate chips mixed in. Maybe it was just that I thought mine sucked, that made hers all the better.
Her recipe is not a secret. She would tell me that she just used more butter, a whole bag of mini marshmallows, and however much cereal she liked. And she worked fast. Getting the rice crispy goo into the pan in a speedy fashion was key.

So this week I decided to give the Rice Crispy Treat another try. But never one to leave well enough alone, I modernized the treat with the addition of brown [...]