Bake from Scratch November/December 2022

PRESENTING: A MOST BEAUTIFUL HOLIDAY IN FRANCE France has always felt like my home away from home, and last year, I had the pleasure of making it my home for one blissful December. This issue is a love letter to that magical, magnificent time. Like a sweet travelogue, each story captures an element of my trip. I went to my friend Jane Bertch’s La Cuisine Paris for two of our Holiday Baking Retreats (La Cuisine Paris: A French Souvenir, page 91), an experience I always cherish. I was whisked away to the enchanting Christmas market in Strasbourg (Strasbourg: Capitale de Noël, page 69), where the merriment stretches from stall to stall. I baked with Jamie Schler at her hotel in Chinon (Chinon Charm, page 57), experiencing all the charms the Loire Valley…

RECIPE INDEX BARS AND COOKIES Iced Gingerbread Cookies 79 Molasses-Ginger Crinkle Cookies with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting 28 Raspberry-Apricot Linzer Cookies 86 Spiced Chestnut Snowball Cookies 112 Thick Molasses Spice Cookies 33 Vanilla-Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies 17 Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars) 64 BREADS Alsatian Stollen 61 Challah Cheesecake Buns 36 Chocolate, Cherry, and Hazelnut Bread 25 Cranberry-Orange Crescent Rolls 40 Gingerbread Streusel Mini Loaves 87 Julekake 39 Red Velvet Scones 90 CAKES Chestnut Gingersnap Cheesecake with Molasses Whipped Cream 54 Candied Chestnut Pecan Cake 55 Chocolate Chestnut Fondant 60 Italian Cream Cake 82 Mini Bûches de Noël 97 Peppermint Hot Chocolate Cheesecake 83 Traditional Madeleines 109 FROSTINGS, FILLINGS, AND GARNISHES Brown Sugar Diplomat Cream 11 Chestnut-Cocoa Whipped Cream 56 Chocolate-Chestnut Filling 55 Cinnamon-Turmeric Confectioners’ Sugar 55 Cream Cheese Frosting 82 Meringue Mushrooms 98 Molasses Whipped Cream 54 Orange Cream Cheese Frosting 28 Sugar Glaze 39 Vanilla Pastry Cream 44 Vanilla Whipped Cream 56 MISCELLANEOUS Cheese Dip 5 Chestnut Tortellini Dolci 55 Skillet Pretzel Bread with Cheese Dip 5 PASTRIES, PIES, AND TARTS Brown Sugar Paris-Brest…

HOLIDAY COOKIES WITH THE KIDS Baking batches of holiday cookies is certainly a group effort, and the Williams Sonoma Kids Bake and Create Cookie Set is the perfect starter pack for young ones looking to join in on the fun. From cookie cutters to pastry bags and piping tips, this set will inspire all the mini pastry chefs in the making. The high-quality tools are great for countless cooking and baking projects. Available at williams-sonoma.com, $99.95 TINS TO SHARE Half the fun of holiday baking is sharing your sweet creations with the ones you love. The Hawthorn Berries Set of 3 Round Cake Tins from The Bee’s Knees British Imports acts as the ultimate container set for storage and transport while also adding a festive flair. The tins measure 10, 9, and 8 inches…

BAKING BREAD FOR THOSE IN NEED LED BY CONGREGANT PAULA WEINSTEIN, VOLUNTEERS FROM TEMPLE ISRAEL COLUMBUS OF COLUMBUS, OHIO, HAVE BEEN BAKING AND TAKING CHALLAH TO JORDAN’S CROSSING, A COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER, SINCE NOVEMBER 2019. HERE, WE TALK WITH PAULA ABOUT ALL THINGS CHALLAH, HOLIDAY BAKING, AND GIVING BACK TO THOSE IN NEED. What is the significance of challah? Paula Weinstein: The term “challah” is most widely used to mean any bread used in Jewish rituals but is typically eaten on Shabbat (the Jewish sabbath, which runs from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday) as well as many major Jewish holidays. The traditional shape of challah is braided to form 12 humps, meant to signify the 12 tribes of Israel. What inspired you all to start baking for Jordan’s Crossing? PW: The Social Justice…

If there ever was a giving tree, the chestnut tree is it. Like the formidable oak tree, its tannin-rich wood provides durable, straight timber for carpenters building furniture, fences, and even ships. Those same tannins were used to hand-dye silks and leather. But where the chestnut proves most useful is in the kitchen. Encased in a prickly husk, the chestnut is one of the great jewels of the culinary world. Versatile and nutrient-rich, its mildly sweet meat has staved off famines and nourished generations of Europeans, Asians, Americans, and Arabs. In other words, wherever the chestnut has been cultivated, humanity has flourished. But why has this special tree nut endured as a sweet ingredient for bakers? First, we need to discuss the unique qualities of its chemical makeup. Unlike other nuts…

Once upon a time, molasses cookies reigned supreme as the holiday cookie of choice. In fact, molasses itself was the sweetener of choice for many bakers. Molasses is a dark, sweet, syrupy byproduct of the sugar extraction process. Juice is extracted from sugarcane or sugar beets, usually by diffusion or milling, and then boiled until the water evaporates and only a syrup remains. This boiled-down syrup is then placed in a centrifuge, which separates the raw sugar crystals from the syrup, with the remaining syrup then being packaged and sold as molasses or added back in with the sugar after it’s been refined to create brown sugar. Fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses also creates a spirited favorite: rum. There’s also the distinction between sulphured and unsulphured molasses. Unsulphured molasses…