Do you have any idea how easy it is to make a tender, tasty muffin? It’s “easy as pie.” A real “piece of cake.” Both of which expressions puzzle me, because neither pie nor cake is anywhere near as simple to bake as a dozen muffins. Popovers can be problematic; brownies might burn. Even cookies are more complicated. But muffins? Give me a bowl and a spoon, and I’ll produce a dozen steaming muffins faster than CNN predicts a winner next Tuesday. Which should be about 6:10 a.m., Eastern time. (more…)

Chocolate and peanut butter have a truly symbiotic relationship: each brings out the best in the other. While Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have the corner on the combination in candyland, bakers can create a classic of their own. Our version is called Magic in the Middles. It was born when we were working on the Cookie Companion; one of our readers/customers plaintively asked us if we had a recipe for a cookie like this, and PJ went to town on the idea. She was extremely successful. (more…)

Ah, here we have it, one of the Great Mysteries of Life: where does the name Monkey Bread come from?

You’ve got monkeying around. And monkey wrench (as in don’t throw one in). Monkey business, monkey on your back, more fun than a barrel of… colder than a brass. For some reason, monkeys make their way into the popular lexicon WAY more often than other members of the Animal Kingdom. I mean, how often do you hear anyone say “giraffe in the middle,” or “armadillo see, armadillo do”? Point taken. (more…)

Every once in awhile you meet a person (or a recipe) with perfect poise; no matter the topic (or occasion), these all-around champions strike just the right chord with their audiences. These encounters inevitably leave one feeling enriched by the experience. It’s a pleasure to spend time in their company. This dish is just that kind of recipe. (more…)

Ah, autumn! The frost is on the pumpkin.

And the frosting is on the pumpkin cake. Cream cheese frosting, to be precise.

What is it about rich, thick cream cheese frosting that sings so beautifully with anything pumpkin? I mean, they go together like movies and popcorn. (Or October and political ads.) There’s just something about the slightly exotic, mildly spicy taste of pumpkin, and the temptingly tangy, sumptuous and creamy flavor of cream cheese that simply says YES to my taste buds. (more…)

So, I’m plowing through my inbox this fine frosty October afternoon, and I see an email from my mom. The subject line reads like this:

Fwd: FW: Really quick choco…

Well, of course I can guess the rest of “choco…” So how can I resist seeing what this “really quick chocolate” something is?

I open the email, and it’s obviously one of those messages that’s being forwarded around the world and will be opened by a million people by nightfall. You know, like one of those JibJab videos or the latest Obama/McCain/Palin/Biden jokes. Here’s what the email said: (more…)

Halloween is one of the fastest-growing holidays in America, in terms of dollars spent. What used to be an exercise in creative reuse of on-hand materials for costumes (my older sister drew a body-sized peanut on an old pillowcase one year, cut holes for her head and arms, and went as a Goober) and parties (my brother is famous for Halloween parties with honest-to-God bobbing for apples: each contestant is timed with a stopwatch) has become a blockbuster for the local party store.

If you’d like to get back to the make-your-own fun style of doing things, allow me to propose making some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. (more…)

Earlier this week, King Arthur Flour was named one of the Top Small Workplaces in North America by the Wall Street Journal and Winning Workplaces. This is a real honor for our company, a wonderful indication that we’re on the right track with the open and supportive corporate culture we strive to foster here.

As an employee-owner, I have the pleasure of coming to work in a place where I feel respected, where my contribution is valued, and where I see caring demonstrated every day in interactions with customers and employees alike. So you know what? Honored as we all feel, I’m not really surprised to find out that King Arthur Flour ranks so highly. (more…)

Hard times demand hard solutions. And I’m not talking any $750 billion bailout. For the price of just about 2 gallons of gas, you can bake a big, warm, cinnamon-y coffeecake, a slab o’ happiness that’s guaranteed to take everyone’s mind off of Wall Street AND Main Street, and focus it instead on something a lot more palatable: comfort food. (more…)

I don’t know the secret to never-fail popovers. Do you?

If so—if you’re happy with your popovers—read no further. Who am I to mess with your good thing? If you can reliably produce towering, golden, buttery popovers, leaking steam from their eggy (but mostly naked) interior, then you don’t need any help from King Arthur.

But if your popovers are more akin to a wet sponge—you know, squishy and sodden—or if they capriciously blow up like a balloon one day, and lie sullenly in their pan the next—then read on. (more…)