Aren’t you glad that dark chocolate has evolved into one of those foods that’s supposed to be good for you?

I sure am. I loveloveLOVE chocolate. Not all chocolate, mind you. Milk chocolate? Ho-hum. White chocolate? To me, that’s an oxymoronic concept; I don’t go there. But semisweet? Now you’re talking. And bittersweet? So long as it balances nicely between the bitter and the sweet, I’m good with it. (more…)

Twenty years ago, King Arthur Flour was a regional flour company. Beloved by New Englanders, we weren’t known outside the Northeast.

These days, King Arthur Flour can be found on supermarket shelves in all 50 states. We’re the top-selling organic flour in the country, as well as #1 in sales for whole wheat flour and bread flour. And our unbleached all-purpose? Well, we’re #2 to Gold Medal, but we’re gaining ground fast. And you know what they say about being #2—we try harder! (more…)

Do you ever stand in the aisle at the supermarket and say, “Hey, I could make that!”

I do that a lot—especially these days, when it seems the price of everything from a box of crackers to a pound of eggplant is starting to mirror the GNP of, say, Algeria. French bread? Sure, I can make that. Chocolate chip cookies? Not a problem. Rotisserie chicken? Light the grill! Granola bars? Uhhhh…. (more…)

Attention, class—how many times do I have to say this?

Whole grains don’t have to taste whole-grainy.

Whole grains can actually taste good. No, make that GREAT. (more…)

Have you ever made pita bread? It’s a great example of the Endless Quest for Success that baking can sometimes be.

Most of the things I bake are pretty reliable. If they’re not, I stop fussing and move on. But there are two things I bake that are a roll of the dice every single time: Popovers, and pita. (more…)

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 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…)

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…)