Bake from Scratch July/August 2019

SUMMER IS STILL ONE OF MY FAVORITE TIMES TO CRANK UP THE OVEN. The season offers the sweetest, most flavorful produce, and our July/August issue is packed with the most delicious ways to use those juicy berries and fresh stone fruits. Starting on page 45, we dedicate an entire feature to baking with blueberries and blackberries. For a savory summer pick, look no further than the Tomato Sourdough Focaccia on page 11 (our cover star!). We’ve also got enough thumbprint cookie recipes to last you the whole summer, from the Southeast Asia-inspired Pineapple-Ginger Thumbprint Cookies (page 96) to our Cherry Buttercream-topped cookies (page 97) packed with delicious pecans from our new test kitchen partner Sunnyland Farms. We’re also taking a deep dive into sourdough (page 33), offering all the insider…

BEST BAKED GOOD YOU’VE EVER MADE FOR A BAKE SALE? “Snickerdoodle Blondie Brownies. Blondies alone are incredible, but add a cinnamon-sugar topping and it’s game over. ” BEST BAKED GOOD YOU’VE EVER MADE FOR A BAKE SALE? “Mixed berry pie made with fresh berries! My recipe, obviously. ” WHAT IS YOUR DESERT ISLAND THUMBPRINT COOKIE? “Growing up in Florida, I spent summers picking fresh strawberries with my family. What we didn’t eat straight from the field got made into jam and spooned into thumbprint cookies. ” FAVORITE THING TO BAKE WITH FRESH SUMMER BERRIES? “When fresh berries are in season, you’ll find me making biscuits to make a quick berry shortcake! ” WHAT IS YOUR DESERT ISLAND THUMBPRINT COOKIE? “A peanut butter cookie filled with milk chocolate ganache. I can’t think of a better cookie to consume while island-bound.…

SIMPLE CAKE: ALL YOU NEED TO KEEP YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN CAKE (Ten Speed Press, 2019) by Odette Williams Bake up comfort from scratch with this love letter to cake by Odette Williams, the apron designer who founded OW Brooklyn. With 10 uncomplicated base recipes, 15 toppings, and Odette’s favorite combinations of each, this book will inspire you to mix and match these homey recipes to fit every craving and celebration that comes your way. THE NEW PIE: MODERN TECHNIQUES FOR THE CLASSIC AMERICAN DESSERT (Clarkson Potter, 2019) by Chris Taylor and Paul Arguin Champion pie bakers and PhD-holding scientists Chris Taylor and Paul Arguin take traditional pie to a whole new level with their collection of blue ribbon-worthy recipes that make the most of today’s tech. Take their apple pie with…

When I was growing up, no one in my home made from-scratch sweets. I celebrated every birthday with a Baskin-Robbins mint chocolate chip ice cream cake, and my brother and I happily ate packaged treats from the grocery store. When we visited my grandmother’s house, though, she had freshly baked goods on offer from the moment we arrived until we departed with wax paper-wrapped chocolate chip cookies and challah in tow. Of all the treats my grandmother baked for us in her tiny galley kitchen, it was her chocolate sheet cake that I loved the most. Served with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar, it was the moistest cake I’d ever had. As a child, I never thought to ask my grandmother what made her chocolate cake so fudgy and dense. Years…

As our nation’s capital, Washington, DC, is inevitably associated with political intrigue and power, but it’s also a place of patriotism, compassion, and heart. The latter three come to life at Dog Tag Bakery. A stark white building with a bright blue awning, this conspicuous Georgetown neighborhood bakery specializes in offering warm service and even warmer baked goods. Visitors will be struck by two things immediately. The first is the mod chandelier that glitters not with crystal but with cool metal, a collection of about 3,500 dog tags, each one representing a $125 donation from a patron. The second is the million-watt hospitality. Chances are that the affable person who hands you a sugar-crusted scone or buttercream-frosted cake has already served you in a less direct yet much more powerful way.…

Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It sounds like a baker’s incantation—and in many ways, it is. In actuality, this elongated mash-up of Latin and Greek (which translates roughly to “sugar fungus of beer”) is the scientific name for baker’s yeast. This microscopic fungus breaks down starch into simple sugars and then devours those same sugars and expels carbon dioxide and alcohol—all with the kind of mindless efficiency signature to single-celled organisms. Through this tasty process of fermentation, yeast creates flavorful, air pocket-rich bread. Lest you take the miracle of leavened bread for granted, know that this chemical reaction has taken more than 5,000 years to comprehend and master. Yeast has been around much longer than humans—give or take 350 million years—but the first use of wild yeast in bread likely occurred 5,000 years…