Bake from Scratch March/April 2018

WANT TO HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT, TOO? Well, consider this issue of Bake from Scratch the “icing on the cake” to your baking wish list! OK, enough with the cake puns . . . for now. I want to tell you about my favorite peanut butter cake, the one my sister-in-law bakes. She brought it to the first Christmas I spent with my husband’s family, and now I request it every time I see her (because she won’t share the recipe)! I knew we needed to recreate it so I could indulge as often as I like. The recipe appears on page 36, and it’s fabulously crave-worthy! In addition to our Peanut Butter Cake, this issue features our “mix and match” cake and icing collection (starting on page…

BEN YUSTER Ben Yuster is a food photographer based in Tel Aviv, Israel. He has been published in numerous magazines and books in Israel, Belgium, and the United States, shooting features for international publications like Belgian publication Foodprint and Time Out Tel Aviv. Ben has also been the main photographer behind marketing campaigns for brands like Coca-Cola and Unilever. When not in his studio, Ben is globe-trotting, constantly on the search for his next shot of edible inspiration. Favorite Birthday Cake: “Anything with hot, melting chocolate that you can add ice cream to on the side. Classic, corrupt, perfect.” KAREN PALMER Karen Palmer’s food writing career reaches back more than a decade. She’s written about food and cooking in San Francisco, New York City, and her current hometown of Los Angeles. Karen is the…

THE FEARLESS BAKER (Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017) by Erin Jeanne McDowell Tackling the “how” and, more importantly, the “why” of baking, Erin McDowell’s The Fearless Baker is all about building up confidence and expertise for seasoned and fledgling bakers alike, supplying them with the tools and techniques to help face their baking phobias head-on. Whether your anxiety is baking pie, laminating pastry, or whipping up the perfect sponge cake, Erin’s reference book will help you ace the basics so that you can boldly begin experimenting on your own. CAN’T WAIT TO MAKE: Chocolate Palmiers, a demystified version of the famous puff pastry cookie with countless buttery layers, done up in sweet cocoa form. THE TAARTWORK PIES COOKBOOK (Page Street Publishing, 2018) by Brittany Bennett Blending her grandmother’s Dutch method for pie making, lovingly called Taartwork,…

This chocolate-swirled chiffon cake let me see my mother in a whole new light. During my childhood, my mother, Florence, was always reserved, quietly cooking or cleaning our tiny apartment in the Bronx. When I was five, she came home from the grocery store with a new cookbook, How to Win Compliments for Your Cooking: The Wesson Oil & Snowdrift Cook Book (1950), which cost 25 cents at the time. We were kosher, and it was hard to be creative with those dietary restrictions back then. Since this cake calls for the use of oil and not butter, it was fair game. My mother was just an average cook, but she became the master of this marble chiffon. Whenever we had company over, she would emerge from the one-person kitchen carrying…

If you’re anything like me, your first memory of coconut was in one of those fun-size Mounds bars—not necessarily the prized pick of your Halloween haul, but a sweet, sticky, chocolate-coated treat nonetheless. Perhaps you later graduated to thick, custardy coconut cream pies, snow-white coconut cakes, or chewy, rounded macaroons. My memories of coconut veer toward the homey, like the Magic Bars my grandmother used to make for the holidays, a square concoction slathered with sweetened condensed milk and sprinkled with chocolate chips and a flurry of shredded sweetened coconut. So, you’ve undoubtedly seen packages of that shredded sweetened stuff in your grocery store’s baking aisle, but let’s back up for a second. What exactly is a coconut, anyway? To confuse matters slightly, in the most technical terms, it’s actually a fruit,…

STRAWBERRY BASIL SCONES Makes 12 Welcome the year’s first haul of strawberries with these tender basil-scented scones. Sprinkle with sanding sugar for a breakfast that sparkles. 4 cups (500 grams) all-purpose flour ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar 1 tablespoon (15 grams) baking powder ¾ teaspoon (2.25 grams) kosher salt ¾ cup (170 grams) cold unsalted butter, grated 1 cup (147 grams) diced fresh strawberries 2 tablespoons (4 grams) chopped fresh basil ¾ cup (180 grams) whole milk 2 large eggs (100 grams), divided 1 tablespoon (15 grams) heavy whipping cream Garnish: sanding sugar 1. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add cold butter, tossing to coat. Cover and freeze for 15 minutes. Stir in strawberries and basil. 3. In a small bowl, whisk together milk…