Bake from Scratch September/October 2018

I CAN ALWAYS TELL IT’S AUTUMN from the spicy, buttery scent of pumpkin bread baking in my oven. The aroma is back and the wait is over, bakers. Fall baking is all about the harvest, that big bounty of squash, apples, pumpkins, and pears. This year we’re representing more than just the usual suspects. We’re gettin’ figgy with it, adding fresh, dried, and poached figs to some of our favorite fall baked goods. Then we show some much overdue love to the Concord grape with bars, cake, and one showstopping focaccia. But don’t worry—all the autumn stars get their due, from a braided Pumpkin-Date Babka (page 112) to Apple-Cranberry Pull-Apart Bread (page 77). Whatever else you’re craving you’ll find packed into one of our seasonal fall sheet cakes, like our warm,…

MARK WEINBERG Mark Weinberg is a food and interiors photographer based in New York, New York, where he lives with his wife and two kids in a 704-square-foot apartment. In his tiny kitchen, Mark has baked over 250 pies, his favorite baked good. He photographs for advertising and editorial clients including Food52, West Elm, Target, and Garnet Hill. Bundt cake or sheet cake? “Bundt cake. I’m not a frosting lover, so I like that most Bundts only have a drizzle—or none at all!” ALIA AKKAM Alia Akkam is a food, drink, travel, and design writer who loves covering the intersection of these different worlds. She has written for outlets like Hospitality Design, Playboy, and The Wall Street Journal. A native New Yorker, she now calls Budapest, Hungary, home and is smitten with the Euro…

SISTER PIE (Lorena Jones Books) by Lisa Ludwinski This cookbook from the beloved pie-focused bakery Sister Pie, based in Detroit, Michigan, pulls double duty. The first half of the book serves up a master class on making pie, from mixing together a rich and juicy filling to weaving buttery piecrust. In the second half, you’ll find the rest of the goods, with unusual highlights like Peanut Butter Paprika Cookies and Salty Malty Chocolate Scones. CAN’T WAIT TO MAKE: Salted Maple Pie, a favorite dish of Sister Pie regulars, which packs a sweet and salty punch in the form of a traditional chess pie. RED TRUCK BAKERY COOKBOOK (Clarkson Potter) by Brian Noyes Located about an hour outside of Washington, D.C., in Marshall, Virginia, the quaint Red Truck Bakery offers a blend of small town warmth and…

Years ago, while I attended McAllister College in St. Paul, Minnesota, far from home and family, every time I got a package slip from the campus post office, I knew it was THE cookies. They were Aunt Helen’s famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, the ones I grew up baking with my mom and grandmother. That comforting crispy-on-the-outside, gooey-on-the-inside texture recalled generations of baking, smelling a blend of vanilla, butter, and chocolate in the kitchen as they baked up. While they represented a piece of home, my friends in college quickly fell for them, too. Soon it became quite the ado; we’d gather in my dorm, eating cookies and talking the night away. The cookies’ namesake, Aunt Helen, was my great-grandmother’s identical twin sister and best friend—I’ve never seen a picture of…

An hour to go until noon, and a line has already formed at Jane the Bakery with a dozen people, the same number as the stools inside the cavernous space. Office colleagues compare notes on the smoked salmon brioche and the crispy Matcha Knot; two women, freshly scrubbed from the Korean spa next door, eye the shelves brimming with sesame-encrusted baguettes and bouncy sourdoughs. A kindergarten-age girl in a sundress twirls and points at the glass and wood pastry case that runs 24 feet long, and declares to herself: “I will have a cookie.” Not “want” but, resolutely, “will have.” In December 2016, this expansive bakery, the third and latest of the Jane brand, opened in Japantown, a mile west of the skyscraper-packed downtown of San Francisco, California. It has quickly…

Oats are a secret weapon for bakers in the know. Want to take your chocolate chip cookie from basic to bold? Oats bring nutty chewiness to the party and amp up both the flavor and texture. Need your next streusel to sing? Stir in some oats, and watch your muffins and coffee cakes go next level. And every fruit filling in the land of crumbles wants some toasty oats to snuggle under. This powerhouse grain has been sustaining people for millennia. Oats are one of the healthiest and most nutrient-dense grains you can eat, with plenty of fiber and protein rounding out the vitamins. But the best thing about oats is their delicious flavor. And they are simply an amazing ingredient for baking. They can also be a bit confusing, though.…