A long time ago, back in the days of Wheaties and toast, America’s taste in breakfast pastry turned naturally to muffins. Pop Tarts were the new kid on the block. Bagels had been out there forever, but only in urban pockets, where they were dense, chewy, and came in assorted varieties like plain and salt. I’m talking prehistory here, when your option for a cup of coffee was “regular” or “black.” Period.

Then came Starbucks, which in 1971 opened the first of its current 15,012 stores (in 44 countries) in Seattle. And the breakfast craze was on. Soon, Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte replaced the acrid black coffee so many of us forced ourselves to like in high school. And muffins and cinnamon rolls found themselves fighting for shelf space with… scones. (more…)

I reckon that right about now, you’re probably staring at the turkey carcass (here in the Northeast, it could be in the mudroom or the porch, because the fridge is so overstuffed, just like you feel….) and wondering, WHY did I think I needed a 23 pound bird???? Because you wanted leftovers. But how much turkey tetrazzini can a family face? Here’s my all-time favorite way to get another meal from that behemoth bird: Turkey and Dumplings.

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Ahhhhhhh…

If you’re reading this Thursday afternoon, you’re probably stuffed. With stuffing. With turkey. With good cheer of all kinds, from blueberry muffins first thing this morning, to Brie and Burgundy (beer?) preceding the Big Meal, to the main course itself: pumpkin bisque, the bird, biscuits, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, brown gravy, butterbeans… butterscotch pie and bonbons… whew, pass the bicarbonate! (more…)

One of our readers recently commented on our Tuscan coffeecake post, as follows:

“Panettone is a holiday must - it has been part of my husband’s holiday tradition since he was a child. I have tried to make it for the past 4-5 years for the holidays but it never turns out quite right. Often it is too dry. I asked my husband’s aunt in Italy for a recipe. Although she makes just about everything, she said that panettone is the one thing she buys because it is difficult to make correctly. Looking forward to your panettone recipe and any tips you may have! -desperatelyseekingpanettone.” (more…)

Hi. It’s me again. The laziest holiday cookie baker ever.

Well, not really lazy. I prefer to think of myself as LEAN. Not in physique, surely; I fight the daily battle, like so many of you out there. Eat, exercise, eat, exercise, a fulcrum in the center of a see-saw that seems always to be tipping, ever so slightly, towards “eat” and away from “exercise.” Especially during the holidays. (more…)

Maybe there was a time, long, long ago, when I actually enjoyed making cutout cookies. Perhaps I gleefully anticipated the rolling pin, flour all over the counter, cookie cutters, sticky icing, overturned bottles of food color, and crunchy red and green sugar underfoot.

If so, those happy memories are gone, disappeared like glad-handing politicians the day after an election. (more…)

Don’t you love it when you actually make up a recipe—all by yourself—and it WORKS?

That’s just what happened to me a couple of years ago, when I enjoyed a simple fruit-nut bread at a local Italian bakery. The bread itself wasn’t sweet at all; but it was packed with dried fruit, gilded with a light/crunchy sugar topping, and the entire package was simply out of this world. (more…)

When the turkey needs baking and the yams need glazing and the cranberries need saucing and the potatoes need scalloping and the giblets need gravy-ing—to say nothing of the in-laws needing fresh towels—and and and…

…the last thing you need to do is worry about making homemade pie crust, right? (more…)

Whole-grain ciabatta. Does this sound oxymoronic, or what? I mean, ciabatta is the queen of crusty white-flour breads; a baguette gone round-shouldered and soft-edged. It’s the epitome of light texture; the antithesis of the sometimes heavy, somewhat dense texture we associate with whole-grain breads. Whole-grain ciabatta—why go there? (more…)

So, here we are, sitting under the fluorescent lights because it’s already gloomy-gray outside at just 4:30 in the afternoon. We, the Web team here at King Arthur Flour, are still trying to “fall back” from Daylight Savings Time, getting used to the sun sidling low around the horizon each day before finally—resignedly—setting late in the afternoon. Before we even leave work. So that we trudge out to our cars in darkness. Sigh. (more…)