baking questions and answers
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.
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.
What are your favorite bake-ahead recipes in Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes? Do you have any specific recommendations for storing baked goods?
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.
I have made your “forever brownies” many times from Baking Style. If I wanted to make this recipe as a “party cake” how could this be done?
The recipe for forever brownies (page 37) in my new book, Baking Style, Art, Craft, Recipes, is not only one of my favorite recipes, it’s a recipe that seems to have captivated both avocational and professional bakers alike. The brownie batter can be customized to include a generous stir-in of chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans), flaked coconut, chunks of candy, semisweet chocolate chips, bittersweet chocolate chips, or white chocolate chips. My sense is what you mean by “fancy up” the recipe is to offer the confection in an alternate shape other than a bar cookie. To do this, film a 9 to 10-inch round layer cake pan (2 inces deep) with nonstick oil spray, then spoon and scrape the batter into the prepared pan. (Any other single-layer ovenproof cake pan can be used, but be sure to choose one without too much detail otherwise the cake will be challenging to unmold.) Smooth over the top with a narrow offset metal spatula or flexible palette knife. Bake the sweet for 30 to 33 minutes, or until just set, and cool according to the procedure described in the body of the recipe. For serving, cut the dessert into pretty pie-shaped wedges. Serve with a tumble of fresh raspberries.
You baked all the recipes for photography in Baking Style and, as such, can you tell us what was the hardest recipe to style?
Though the process of styling baked goods for photography began to flourish in earnest with Baking by Flavor, and continued on with ChocolateChocolate, and Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes, I’ve always enjoyed creating recipes that look as good as they taste. It’s not easy! For Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes, the challenge was twofold–to bake the recipes in the order that they appeared in each chapter to facilitate the coordination of background materials and to capture their inherent lusciousness in a very primal way. The recipe that posed a real challenge for me to bake for capturing in an image was my brown sugar toffee cake. Cake, in general, seems to create visual problems for me and this simple but wildly delicious Bundt cake looks so basic–and I was not willing to prepare a more complicated version just to suit its appearance. A few days before the art session that included this sweet, I came up with the idea to present the cake with every other slice pulled out and, in the end, its look is one of my favorite baking images in the book.
Many readers have asked about the design details for Baking Style. This query was presented to my publisher (Natalie Chapman) and editor (Pamela Chirls) for commenting on the particulars. Please welcome both experts.
From Natalie Chapman: “Baking Style is a voluptuous book. The design is elegant, distinctive, stylish, and very pink. Curlicued rules and candy-stripes on the edges of text pages accentuate the allure of the recipes and photographs while complementing the cleanness of the design. The splendid full-page photographs show Lisa’s cookies, cakes, breads, muffins, and other baked creations aglow against a variety of pink and patterned backgrounds, and the endpapers dazzle the reader with eighty thumbnail-sized photographs of baking-related equipment and ingredients. The abundance of the interior is perfectly contained within a cover that’s at once understated and sensual. Unjacketed, printed on linen-textured material, the cover makes use of the same cursive but clean lines in the interior and adds some shimmer with silver metallic ink. The background color is, of course, a deep, almost shocking, pink. The overall effect is at once substantial and intimate, as only a printed book can be.” From Pam Chirls: “From pink to purple, a rich range of textures and tones became the showcase for Lisa Yockelson’s collection of cakes, cookies, and breads in Baking Style. Along with 80 four-color photographs of ingredients and equipment from Lisa’s pantry and cupboards printed on the book’s endpapers, the cover was designed to make a quiet statement of elegance, borrowing the fuchsia color, the graphic pattern, and the strong typography from the interior. The title is part of a creative seal, promising a personal baking journey for the reader.”
What was the most difficult recipe to develop in Baking Style?
Every single recipe In Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes has a story attached, oftentimes relating to its development. Over the years, a handful of recipes challenged me and presented sticky problems to be worked through for creating a baked good that sang with flavor and charmed with texture. A yeast dough became “over-anxious” and burst through its wrappings; a drop cookie dough puddled–mercilessly–on the baking pan; a tray of scones rose beautifully then flattened mysteriously. Such is the life of a baker. The recipe that tormented me until I got it right was almond macaroons in an embrace of flavor and texture (page 254): My goal was to arrive at moist, flavorful, and plump cookies–it took some some to achieve all three charateristics in one dough.
In Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes, there is a collection of chocolate chip cookies. What is your favorite recipe in that section?
As the “mother” of all four chocolate chip (and chunk) recipes, it’s difficult to choose a favorite! In Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes, my goal was to annotate diary entries with recipes that, historically, have a story attached to them. Each of the four recipes reflects a different sort of baking experience. The recipe for my melting for chocolate chip cookies (page 474) is, perhaps, the most traditional, with a balance of granulated sugar and light brown sugar. A caramelly version can be found in when chocolate chip cookies go butterscotch (page 475). The batch of cookies containing pools of bittersweet chocolate, the melty, lush: empowered-with-bittersweet chocolate (page 476), takes the classic flavor to a new level. In the packed-with-chips department, wild ones (page 477) could possibly be my favorite, for the cookies combine chewy centers with crispy edges. The recipe for wild ones was praised in Publishers Weekly on October 17 and can be found here.
a reader writes in: “Have made several more recipes from your Baking Style, each one a hit. I see your recipes call for bleached AP flour but most of my other recipes call for unbleached. How important is it to use bleached AP flour or can I use unbleached in your recipes and still get the same results?”
The recipes in Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes were created and conscientiously tested with the ingredients and methods outlined in each sweet or savory baked good. Unless specified in a particular recipe, exchanging/replacing/deleting ingredients or changing the method will largely result in an unintended result. The general answer to the question is that it’s important to use the type of flour called for in each recipe. Please refer to page xiv of Baking Style and look over the paragraph that begins with “Flour provides structure to a batter or dough and works with the fat and liquid to develop and achieve a textural ‘crumb.’” The explanation continues on to reveal the differences among several types of flour–and, most importantly for this question, offers the notation that unbleached flour contains an “elevated” protein content; the texture of many batters or doughs would be compromised if bleached flour is replaced with unbleached flour. To ensure that my recipes work as intended, it would be wise to use bleached all-purpose flour as stated in each recipe.
The brownie recipes in Baking Style sound really good. Of all of them, which recipe is the easiest to bake in advance? Can you describe the best way to store them?
This brownie-centered query touches on my all-time favorite bar cookie. There are several brownie recipes in my new book, Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes, that have become the go-to favorites of many. At this time, my in-house staple recipe from Baking Style happens to be the confection brownies (page 178)–it’s a delight! This type of bar cookie is really quite easy to make, no matter the formula, but I’m particular about providing careful instructions for preparing the ingredients, mixing, and baking in order to produce the fudgiest, chewiest brownie. I like to use melted butter in the tepid state (to advance its chewy baked texture); use a variety of chocolate-based ingredients to build flavor; use a small amount of leavening; and bake the brownies until they are just set in a 325 degree F oven. All of the brownies in Baking Style may be made in advance. The best way to store them for any length of time is to cut the big block into sections, then wrap those securely and arrange in food-safe, self-sealing freezer-weight bags before refrigerating or freezing. This trick helps to keep the brownies fresh and moist.
My tradition every holiday season is to make a food gift. This year I have chosen your muesli. Can you explain how to make this in quantity–can I double the recipe?
One of my preferred holiday food gifts is a crunchy mixture that includes rolled oats and various other flaky things and seeds, and muesli, my favorite way is at the top of the list. The basic recipes yields six cups. It contains rolled oats, rolled spelt flakes, rolled wheat flakes, pumpkin seeds, cashews, and sunflower seeds. A honey and oil mixture gets poured over the collection of goodies, and it all gets spooned onto and scattered over a prepared baking pan. At some point during the process, wide-flake coconut is incorporated and tossed about, then the whole concoction is baked until everything is golden. Cooled and crumbled, the muesli is light but sturdy. The mixture can be customized to reflect personal preferences–nut heavy or nut-less, big-on-coconut, loaded-with-seeds, all-rolled oats, spice-scented. The core recipe can be doubled successfully, keeping the following suggestions in mind: use 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon honey, 1/2 cup plain vegetable oil, and 4 teaspoons vanilla extract; divide the mixture between 2 large rimmed sheet pans (each pan measuring 13 by 18 inches), each lined with a sheet of ovenproof kitchen parchment paper and filmed with nonstick oil spray; bake the sheet pans of muesli on the upper and lower third level oven racks, exchanging the pans from top to bottom and bottom to top halfway through baking; and store the mixture in 1-quart jars with tight-fitting lids, leaving 2-inches of headspace at the top of each jar.
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