Bake from Scratch May/June 2019

THE TROPICS AWAIT… This issue embraces the restorative power of tropical tastes, from a creamy, dreamy pie roundup to a collection of recipes highlighting one of the greatest ingredients to come from these warmer climes: vanilla. Our cover star, the Guava Jam Cake (page 17), is inspired by Bahamian resident Angelika Bacchus’s love for the local guava duff, a jammy steamed pudding that always gets drowned in a rich butter rum sauce. Then there are the blondies, an epic bake-your-own-adventure feature (page 67) that offers three perfect base recipes and six creative variations. Plus, we’re diving into the history of the Hawaiian bun (page 107), that addictive bread roll that’s always a welcome sight at the dinner table. And, yes, there’s plenty of rum cake—five recipes, to be exact. I can’t…

FAVORITE TROPICAL FRUIT TO BAKE WITH? “Bermuda bananas are the best I’ve ever had because they’re sweeter than the rest. I love making banana bread with them.” “Guava! It’s super fragrant but has a mild flavor—kind of like a cross between strawberry and pear. I use it in cakes, curds, and pastry cream!” “I love loquats. During the winter, they’re everywhere in Bermuda. I add some to my rum cake after soaking them in black rum and Gosling’s Bermuda Gold Liqueur.” GO-TO RUM COCKTAIL? “Nothing beats a classic daiquiri. It’s refreshing in that it has no frills, and it’s equally tart and sweet—just like I aspire to be.” “The Dark ’n Stormy, but only when it’s made in Bermuda. They have perfected it there.” “Jumby Bay’s signature Rum Punch. My husband and I…

RECIPE BINDER “Everyone should have a collection of heirloom recipes that are personal to you. I have a recipe binder my mother put together for me of all the things we’d make together growing up. The cake and cream cheese frosting recipes we use at Flour Shop are actually my mother’s that she put in the binder. Those recipes are so meaningful to me.” THE POWER OF SPRINKLES (Abrams, 2019) by Amirah Kassem “No matter the occasion, when you’re taking a cake somewhere, you want to know it’s your best. My cake book makes sure of that. It helps you master an essential cake recipe and teaches you how to decorate it in 28 different ways. And if you make a mistake, cover it in sprinkles!” Available at powerofsprinkles.com. EXPLOSION MIX AND RAINBOW POLKA DOTS…

THE REDO GUAVA JAM CAKE Makes 1 (8-inch) cake This pillowy cake is our homage to the Bahamian guava duff. Because it’s more widely available in grocery stores, we used guava paste instead of fresh guavas to make the jammy filling. ¾ cup (220 grams) guava paste*1 tablespoon (15 grams) water¾ cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, softened1¼ cups (250 grams) granulated sugar2 large eggs (100 grams), room temperature1 teaspoon (4 grams) vanilla extract2¼ cups (281 grams) all-purpose flour1½ teaspoons (7.5 grams) baking powder1 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt½ teaspoon (1 gram) ground cinnamon¼ teaspoon ground allspice1¼ cups (300 grams) sour cream, room temperatureConfectioners’ sugar, for dustingButter Rum Glaze (recipe follows) 1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter an 8x3-inch round tall-sided* cake pan; line bottom of pan with parchment paper, and dust sides with flour.…

There’s a fragile millisecond of resistance when you bite into The Bakery at Fat Rice’s pastel de nata (egg custard tart) and your teeth meet the brûléed top. It dissipates instantly as you descend through creamy, lightly sweet egg custard before tearing into the flaky, croissant-like shell. Sort of Macanese by way of Portugal, it’s a pastry greater than the sum of its parts—at once dead simple and elusive with baking alchemy. You’ll wonder how the team consistently achieves this result in a single bake. “It was a seven- or eight-year process,” says Abe Conlon, chef and co-owner with Adrienne Lo of the Chicago pastry shop attached to Fat Rice, their relentlessly thronged Macanese restaurant. They first made egg custard tarts while hosting X-marx, their underground supper club that predated Fat…

Before agriculture, before civilization even, there was flour. The common denominator to many baked goods is a 35,000-year-old ingredient in the making. Hidden within the Italian Grotta Paglicci, home of famous paleolithic cave paintings, scientists found a smooth stone used for one spectacular purpose: grinding grains to make flour. What the rudimentary flour was used to createflatbread? porridge? paste?—is still up for speculation, but it confirmed that flour was part of the diet of even the most primitive humans. It’s a magical ingredient we became even more devoted to when refined flour met the first strains of natural yeast. Call it texture, crumb, or chew—all of the tactile pleasure to be had in your baked goods begins with flour. But what makes a boule a chewy delight also makes for a…