Just Baking

Amaranth is a grain that has been cultivated in Central and South America for thousands of years. At one point the Spanish explorer Cortez tried to eradicate it with little success. Amaranth is starting to be cultivated in other areas. It is high in protein and has the amino acid lysine. […]

Is there nothing more fun than being able to replicate a recipe that your Mom made when you were growing up? Given that I now make bread on a weekly basis I wanted to get my Mom’s recipe for bread that she made for us when we were young. To date, all the bread I […]

I was looking for a cookie I could bake for a Super Bowl party. I wanted something that was hearty and could hold its own with the various dips, hors d’œuvres, and brownies. These cookies are perfect. Filled with almonds, peanuts, coconut, and raisins, there’s a little something for everyone here.
These are also great as […]

Waffles and chocolate. What could be better except maybe chocolate waffles?
That was my thought when I tried King Arthur’s Flour Whole-Grain Chocolate Fudge Waffle mix (which now comes packaged as a pancake and waffle mix).
The mix was quick and easy to prepare. It calls for melted butter or vegetable oil, eggs and milk. Everything else […]

Over last weekend, I decided it was time to try making a boule (a round) instead of the loaves I’d been trying out, which have been sandwich loaves, batards or baguettes.  Unfortunately, I didn’t leave myself enough time to make the pain l’ancienne from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice that I want to make.
Instead, I turned […]

So, with Parents coming over on Saturday I thought I was pretty much all set in the prep department as I grabbed a rootbeer and walked over to the couch to settle in and play Nofriendo for a while.  From out of the back room, Steph walked in to find me monkeying around. “Do you […]

As I’ve started getting into this bread baking thing, I’ve been reading a lot.  My current book is The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart.  It’s got a lot of great info in it.  But even before that, just reading on the blogosphere, I have been getting the urge to use sourdough instead of yeast.  […]

Before I attended the “Pies and Tarts” class at the local Sur La Table, I had never made my own pie crust; I’ve always used ready made pie crust. Well since I started baking seriously, I know I better get a handle on making my own pie crusts, so this class came up at a […]

Rhubarb, when it sets its mind to it, can be a thing of beauty.  Red satin ribbons of seductive flavor – teasing first with tartness and then appealing to you with a mellow finish.  But it’s also a fickle food, sometimes showing up in defiant shades of green and pink and only half-heartedly delivering on […]

Bread pudding, in some form or another, has probably been around as long as man has been baking bread. Thought to be first made by thrifty cooks as a way to use stale bread, bread pudding may have started from simple and plain roots but over time it has developed into the decadent dessert we […]