diary
deluxe
If I had some understanding–a clue, even–as to why, over the last few weeks, my mixing bowl was repeatedly filled with varied cornbread batters, I’d tell you. It’s probably simply an extended craving which takes hold and continues until the next one grabs me.
Cornbread. Once again. How duplicative of me. Yet, how wonderful that I am so repetitious. People Who Love to Bake, this one is a deep-dish wonder, and different from my blue corn cake that weakened my knees not too long ago. You’ll love it for its deluxe qualities of depth and richness. Slices sit so pretty in a bread basket. The crumbs are irresistible. Leftover slices, if it’s possible to have them, toast well.
I’m inclined to prepare a meal around this quick bread–tall and mighty. The formula boasts an authoritative use of corn meal and lush dairy staples. This one is for the go-to recipe file.
cookies, adored
In my cookie-baking pantheon, the distinguished chocolate chip rules supreme. Nearly any twist or turn of it intrigues me–chewy, crispy, thick, thin, jumbo, regulation-size, or petite.
Here’s the latest, a dreamy cookie with a caramelly profile, one that’s loaded with chips and a full three teaspoons of vanilla extract. The texture? Chewy, with crispy edges. The cookies are just a little thick. Using cool eggs and cool butter creates a firm dough that scoops into high mounds. On baking, the hillocks of dough slump (perfectly!) and collapse into shapely cookies with wonderfully crinkled edges: I love The Slump.
I think of these brown sugar chippers as Saturday Afternoon Cookies because baking them on a weekend afternoon has long been a household tradition–a custom worth passing along.
sweet and savory baking notes
delicious bites of baking information
May 18 -
baking style diary Recipe Tracker: I’m cornbread-ing again, and a deluxe version is wooing and wowing me–coming soon in a diary entry.
May 17 -
To reply to visitors of baking style diary asking about adding chopped nuts to the lush whole wheat soda bread dough from Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes, I would recommend using coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans.
May 16 -
Baking Style Tracker: Once again, the recipe for my lush whole wheat soda bread from Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes that appeared on The Splendid Table site is available here.
i have a baking question
ask Lisa a baking-related question
Q:
What is the best way to prepare cookie dough ahead of time? I like to serve cookies that have not been lying around in a container for a few days but am unsure of how to work the dough into my schedule.
A:
Certain types of prepared cookie dough can be refrigerated or frozen to bake off for future enjoyment. Just recently, I put together another batch of brown sugar chippers with the understanding that portions of dough would be stored in the freezer (my freezer “pantry” sort of thing going on) and baked-to-order sometime in the not-too-distant future. I did the same with a double recipe of my joy of toffee cookies. (Both recipes are available to bakers far and wide on this blog.) The ingredients in each “creamed” cookie recipe combine to create a dough stable enough to endure a rest in the freezer–the elements that contribute to this stability are a respectable amount of butter, the correct balance of sugar and eggs, and enough flour to promote and develop texture. Over the years, I have found that the best way to store this type of drop cookie dough cookie dough is to divide it up into the portion size called for in the recipe, freeze the plump scoops until firm, wrap them two to a package, and tuck them into a self-sealing freezer bag or sturdy lidded container. You can bake the pre-formed dough scoops directly from the freezer or refrigerator-cold.
Q:
What are your favorite bake-ahead recipes in Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes? Do you have any specific recommendations for storing baked goods?
A:
This is an excellent question–and one particularly appropriate for our modern schedules. In Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes, I can point you to a few of the recipes: apple cake, maple butter glaze (page 53, and following page), dirty cake (page 137), exquisite cake (page 140), confection brownies (page 178), cheesecake deluxe (page 213, and following page), morning butter slice (page 260), moist and chewy fruit slice (page 322, and following page), and butter and sugar cookies (page 347, and following page)–among other recipes. For storage, be sure to follow the directions specified in the recipes, keeping in mind that using good storage containers is essential to maintaining that all-essential freshly-baked quality–purchase sturdy containers, with tightly fitting lids–and cool the particular sweet completely before storing.
about the author
Lisa Yockelson is a baking journalist and three-time award-winning author of Baking by Flavor, ChocolateChocolate, and Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes. Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes was published last fall by John Wiley & Sons and received the 2012 IACP cookbook award for the best baking book in New York City on April 2, 2012.
book report
read about noteworthy cookbooks
Cookies at Home with The Culinary Institute of America, by Todd Knaster (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011), $34.00
The content of Cookies at Home with The Culinary Institute of America follows a traditional model, arranged by form (“Drop Cookies,” “Bar Cookies,” “Rolled, Cut-Out, and Sliced Cookies,” Molded, Stenciled, and Shaped Cookies,” and “Piped and Twice-Baked Cookies“), then veers slightly to savory recipes in an ingredient-based category (“Savory Cookies“). How-to chapters round out the volume along with concluding back matter (“Glossary,” Resources,” and ”Template“) and the overall presentation is a competent look into cookie-ing devoted to the home baker.
Cooks looking for familiar flavors and textures will be rewarded. Chocolate Chip Cookies (page 47), Peanut Butter Cookies (page 49), Gingersnaps (page 53), Turtle Bars (page 101), and like treats appear in the book along with cookies that move beyond the classics, such as Agave-Peanut Butter Granola Bars (page 110), Cinnamon Bun Cookies (page 122), and Jalapeño-Cheddar Zaleti (page 181).
Two recipes, Rocky Road Cookies (page 59) and Fudge Brownies (page 86), were selected for baking because, well, I was in my usual must-have chocolate mood. The procedure for the Rocky Road Cookies required air-drying miniature marshmallows overnight before incorporating them in the dough, a technique that relieved the baked cookies of one of my favorite characteristics–a slightly gooey, luscious-sticky pull to the inside of a baked cookie (suggestion: use them as is, right out of the bag)–with this in mind, the batch of cookies would make a good cookie-jar item. Fudge Brownies, made with cake flour, turned out fudgy, as promised.
Cookies at Home with The Culinary Institute of America is an approachable primer, and offers an uncluttered foundation for learning the basics.
Pretty Cupcake Kit by Shana Faust and Elinor Klivans (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2011), $19.95 and Princess Cupcakes by Chronicle Books Staff (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2011), $17.99
Nearly any sort of cake batter can be spooned into and baked in single serving containers, but cupcake-size treats win out for their undisputed charm.
Introduced into The Universe of Cupcakes are two delightful boxed sets: Pretty Cupcake Kit and Princess Cupcakes. The former contains cupcake papers in mostly-pastel colors, decorative flag cupcake picks, and a booklet containing a few recipes. The latter holds cupcakes papers in the colors of springtime (pink, pale green, lavender) and fairly firm paper crowns to wrap around the base of frosted cupcakes. Each would make a sweet gift, alone or paired with a few enhancements–like sprinkles or a pastry bag-and-tip set.
Aspiring cupcake artists of all ages will get a jump start on the decorative aspect of cupcake-ing by dovetailing the colors of the liners with a few special effects by tinting creamy frosting to match the hue of the papers, finding jimmies to match, and customizing the treats with a theme in mind.
Craft meets baking in the Pretty Cupcake Kit and Princess Cupcakes.