Once upon a time, there was a Baker’s Store in Norwich, Vermont. Now, this store had a rug on the floor that had been there since the building was built many years ago. And, like the rug in your family room, years of food spills, muddy shoes, and the day-to-day traffic of life and commerce had stained it, wrinkled it, and worn it threadbare. It was time for the rug to go—but how could The Store close for an extended period in the middle of summer, when all of the bakers from far and wide come to visit? The answer was—it couldn’t. (more…)

I haven’t been around the blog much in recent weeks, mostly because I was tearing around getting ready to get married, so I have a decent excuse, at least. This is my brother walking me down the aisle.

When Greg and I got engaged last summer, the FIRST thing I did, in true chef fashion, was write the menu for my wedding. I wanted food that reflected my culinary career and represented my family’s tastes. It went like this: (more…)

I have a thing about sandwiches.

I mean, I’ve always been fascinated by the bread-filling-bread dynamic, the happy marriage of stuffing and stuff-ee. What could be tastier than peanut butter and honey on oatmeal bread? Salty-nutty PB, sweet honey, nutty-sweet bread—see how they balance one another? (more…)

Remember when you used to clip recipes? I mean, the days when you’d take a pair of scissors and actually cut recipes out of newspapers or magazines? (Or, since I was usually too lazy to get up and find scissors, just rip-rip-rip around the edges, being sure none of the fractions in the ingredients got left behind.) (more…)

Last week in this location PJ confessed to her birthday vice: Pepperidge Farm Coconut cake. Well, today is PJ’s birthday, and I took advantage of her being out of the office last week to create my version of that cake so we could have it on hand as we serenade her properly on this momentous occasion. It had to be square, it had to be coconutty and moist, and in this case, it’s coming out of the freezer (where it’s been hiding) just like it does in the store!

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Savory scones? Not an oxymoron. Scones don’t have to be made with sugar and spice and everything nice. They can be made with smoky bacon, and cheese, and aromatic scallions… like these.

Reader Kathleen May recently wrote suggesting that I try to duplicate the over-the-top bacon, cheddar & scallion scones sold at the Atlantic Baking Co. (familiarly known as ABC), a bakery in Rockland, Maine, a town midway up Maine’s stunning 3,478-mile coast. Naturally, my competitive urges kicked in. Just as with Berger Cookies (“Baltimore’s Finest”), or Grùyere-Stuffed Cheese Loaves (“Hot Cheese Bread”), where I simply had to figure out how to do it yourself—these scones piqued my imagination. (more…)

I’m not a passionate cake baker. I mean, I’ll bake a cake, sure. And I bake a lot of birthday cakes here at King Arthur Flour, because how can you possibly work at a baking company and NOT have a candle-lit cake delivered to you, at your desk, on your birthday? (more…)

The New York Times is at it again. Yesterday, their Dining and Wine section included a lengthy treatise on one of my favorite subjects: Chocolate chip cookies. Beginning with a short history of this American icon’s birth at the Toll House restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts (where, serendipitously for a baker, I had my engagement dinner 32 years ago), author David Leite takes us on a tour of New York City’s best chocolate chip cookie sources. (more…)

“Mom, what’s for dinner?”

My first reaction, during these busy days of summer, is TAKEOUT. But having just gotten the first monthly bill for next year’s heating oil—OUCH—I know we’re eating in. Which is usually a pleasure; I like to cook. But not when the temperature in my kitchen is 92°F. (more…)

Quick, think of five baking aromas that bring you running to the kitchen to see what’s up. (And no, you can’t count “fruit pie filling burning on the oven floor” as one of them. We’re being positive here.)

My five?
•Brownies, in the minute before they come out of the oven;
•Garlic bread;
•Cinnamon anything; apple pie and oatmeal cookies in particular;
•Pepperoni pizza;
•Yeast bread. Any kind. Ciabatta, sticky buns, raisin-pecan rye… Anything made with yeast. (more…)