Joy the Baker

Say “Hey Neighbor!” with homemade.  Nothing says “Hey!  I like who you are.  I’m glad we’re in the world together” like homemade chocolate chip cookies.  Nothing  helps makes the world a better place like letting people know they’re appreciated.  See how that works?  Spread the good.

Whole Wheat, if not little by little then lot by lot.  Sure, whole wheat flour has been all the rage for years now, but it hasn’t really touched my heart.  This year, approach whole wheat little by little.  Your belly might just welcome a whole wheat triple chocolate cake, emphasis on the triple chocolate.   

Vegan time?  A few less sticks of butter and eggs and milk might just do a body good.  Those Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies I made with Jill treated me right.  There should be more vegan baking in our futures.

Play.  Commit to playing in your kitchen.  Visit to one of those fancy food shops and buy yourself a treat.  Maybe something that you never played with in the kitchen before.  Get it home and get crackin’.  There’s something fundamentally awesome about playing with new ingredients in the kitchen.  It’s like getting that new color of Play-Doh for Christmas, and just about losing your mind. 

Give.  The best part of baking, aside from eating a brownie fresh from the oven, is being able to share your treats with others.  You might even consider contacting a shelter that might be able to take your goods.  That’s thinkin’.

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More later.

I know.  I’m such a tease.

I feel like I’ve had cupcakes coming out of my ears lately.  I probably have.  But there are worse things, right?

Friends… we need to talk.  It’s about me, and how I need a vacation.  And how I’m actually taking a small vacation, making my July 4th weekend extra long and glorious.  There will be a pool, a bikini, sunglasses and… mojitos.  I’ll take pictures and share, promise.    

Please allow me to leave you with these double chocolate and bright red velvet cupcakes.  Take good care of them while I’m gone.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!  Don’t eat anything I wouldn’t eat… 

Has the Baker had too many days off recently?  

Forgive me, but with such beautiful mild summer weather, I can’t bear to keep myself in the kitchen.  

With the spirit of summer under my wings, I took an overnight trip up to San Francisco to visit my darling sister.  She’s a bartender at Citizen Cake in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley.  

Citizen Cake is a great place to get a unique dish without staring at your plate, wondering what the the hell happened.  It’s a creative and still approachable culinary experience.

Powdered Sugar Dusted Donut Balls are served warm with a fresh raspberry and sugar glaze dipping sauce.

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I took this apple tarte tatin, that wasn’t so much a tarte tatin at all, to a lovely dinner party of Sunday night.  What was so fun about this tart was that I cooked the apples in a cast iron skillet with butter and sugar before I left the house.  I let them cook in the pan while I rolled out a 10-inch circle of pie crust.  I packaged up the cast iron skillet and the pie dough and we went to the dinner party.  After dinner, I heated up the apples on our hosts stove, and tucked the refrigerated crust over the slightly warm apples, then popped the whole thing in the oven for 30 minutes.  When the crust was browned and the juices underneath bubbling, I took the skillet from the oven, let it sit for a few minutes, then turned all of the warm apples and buttery crust upsidedown and onto a serving dish.  Everyone was super impressed, and I made their home smell like apple pie, which is just an added bonus.  This is the kind of dish that will get you invited for dinner again and again.

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Oatmeal with Candied Ginger and Walnut Cookies

Chocolate Chip Salted Cashew Cookies

I have a strong connection to my Kitchen Aid.  It spoils me.  It takes me on lavish Caribbean vacations, compliments my fashion choices, and yes… even mixes my cake batters evenly in the flash of an eye.  I have deep affection for this machine, which was in no way diminished by my choice to make cookies by hand.  There is something to be said for the wooden spoon technique.  It’s a baking fundamental.  My fantastic pastry teacher Chef Griswold taught me that good cookie dough shouldn’t have too much air whipped into it.  So a wooden spoon help decrease the amount of air and also helps ensure that the dough isn’t overworked by the powerful mixer.  It takes more time and elbow grease, but the result of hand craft and fantastic!

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