Just Baking

I was recently introduced to a new potential superfood, chia seeds.  Like most people, my first reaction was chia what?  Is that the same as a chia pet?  In a way, yes.  Chia pets are grown using the chia seeds, but as it turns out, these tiny little bits of food pack quite a bit […]

We admit it, sometimes our sweet tooth gets the best of us. We love our muffins, cookies, cakes, and other baked sweets. But baking encompasses so much more than that. There’s a whole world of dishes beyond breads, pastries, and desserts that are baked as well. We here are Just Baking […]

Take one look at the pictures of the ornately decorated cookies and cakes in Confetti Cakes by Elisa Strauss (with Christie Matheson), and you would expect them to take some work to complete. After I read over the book’s recipe for “Fruit Cookies,” I knew I had to be prepared for a good few hours of baking and decorating. So, I set aside Saturday to tackle the fruit cookies, hopefully, in the end, to produce a finished product as decieving as Ms. Strauss’s.

I began sometime in the afternoon, starting out by gathering the various ingredients needed for the sugar cookie recipe Ms. Strauss provides.

Recently, while visiting our friends in North Carolina, we were privileged to have dinner at Magnolia Grill, one of Gourmet magazine’s top restaurants of 2006. After appetizers, entrees, and desserts, we can now all enthusiastically attest to its goodness. As an added bonus, I was treated by our friends to a signed copy of […]

Not butter per se, but the kind of butter you use.  The answer, in short, is yes.  I never really gave it much thought, to tell you the truth, just grabbing what I have on hand in the refrigerator.  Maarten Steenman, who is the owner and pastry chef of La Tulipe Desserts in Mount Kisco, […]

Doughnuts or donuts. However you spell it they are tasty. They are not something one should make a regular diet out of, but in moderation they won’t kill you. I don’t believe I’ve had a doughnut in a few years so it seemed like now was as good a time as any […]

I’m sure that every parent can relate to this familiar conundrum: Your child’s birthday is fast approaching and it is your duty to supply the best cake they have ever forked into their mouth, but there isn’t a single thing that they want. Chocolate doesn’t suit them and vanilla is too plain; Fruit flavors […]

So, Sweetie, I Quit to Bake Cupcakes - Sick of the corporate world and the 9-to-5 (if you’re lucky) grind? Quit and become a baker. The New York Times examines the phenomenon of people who switch gears in their life and becoming bakers. I have to admit, the thought has crossed my […]