Bake from Scratch September/October 2019

IT’S FINALLY FALL! I bake all year long, but fall remains one of my favorite baking seasons, and this issue is packed with every reason why. September is National Biscuit Month! In celebration, we’re partnering with White Lily to deliver the kind of biscuit info you crave. White Lily has long been the only flour I reach for when baking endlessly tender biscuits, and I’m excited to be sharing one of my favorite biscuit recipes on page 18. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter, PreHeat, at bakefromscratch.com so you can get biscuit wisdom delivered straight to your inbox. We’re also celebrating the release of the Downton Abbey film on September 20. I’ve been a fan of the series since it first aired in 2010 and am so excited for the…

WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED TO SEE IN THE UPCOMING DOWNTON ABBEY MOVIE? “ Since I worked on the film, I’m looking forward to seeing all the details that each department created come together on the big screen. It will be a visual feast! ” Lisa Heathcote Food Stylist London, England FAVORITE WAY TO USE AUTUMN PEARS? “Caramelized pears! I poach Conference pears in honey and butter and then fill them with caramel and top them with vanilla ice cream and sliced almonds. It’s my go-to when loved ones come to visit. ” Cédric Grolet Executive Pastry Chef, Le Meurice Paris, France BEST BAGEL YOU’VE EVER HAD? “It was made by Jason Kaplan at Maury’s Bagels in Los Angeles. It was just the way I like it: toasted, smothered in cream cheese, and topped with California tomatoes and lots…

BOURKE STREET BAKERY: ALL THINGS SWEET (Murdoch, 2017) by Paul Allam and David McGuinness “My friend surprised me with this book by Paul Allam and David McGuinness, the guys behind the Australian bakery empire Bourke Street Bakery. I immediately fell in love with the casual style and rustic look of the pastries—I bake their carrot cake recipe on repeat. I’m such a huge fan that I traveled to Sydney, Australia to visit the original Bourke Street Bakery in Surry Hills. The pastries taste just as good as they look in the book.” Available at amazon.com. MATFER BOURGEAT SCRAPER “A French manufacturer of baking tools for professional chefs, Matfer Bourgeat is behind my all-time baking favorite tool: the Matfer Scraper. Matfer nicknamed this tool the racle tout, which means ‘scrapes everything’ in French, and for…

As the dough bakes into golden swirls and the meringue gets toasted on top, bulochki permeate my kitchen in Seattle, Washington, with the soul-warming fragrance of sweet bread. That smell takes me back to the Saturday mornings of my childhood in Lithuania, when my mother baked these Russian rolls made with our local farmer cheese as a way of kicking off the weekend. She’d get creative by rolling the dough into swirls and spreading a loose meringue on top. Once baked, the meringue rose up from the pastry to give it a bit of sweetness and irresistible crunch. I always had them with a cup of black coffee on the side, taking my time to savor every bite and slowly sip the coffee. When my husband and I moved to Seattle…

Cédric Grolet’s signature pears aren’t picked from any orchard known to man. Coated in an ethereal golden sheen, these pears look as though they were plucked from the same celestial orchard growing the apples that tempted Atalanta, the mortal huntress of Greek mythology. Slice into the lustrous exterior and you’ll reveal the pear’s white chocolate shell and pear mousse filling while a river of fresh pears cooked in pear compote and herbs flows onto your plate. Each element of this pastry harmonizes to capture the complexity of a pear’s flavor: delicately sweet, slightly tart, and subtly earthy. It’s the ultimate expression of a pear in pastry form. It’s only one in Cédric’s seasonal lineup of desserts inspired by apples, lemons, and every fruit in between. And it’s the reason his…

It’s one of the great pleasures of baking, watching golden, viscous syrup slowly drizzle from spoon to bowl. The beauty and tastiness are apparent—but what’s really going on inside this lovely liquid? Coming in a number of shades and hues, from translucent to pitch black, syrup can be a tricky ingredient to incorporate into your baking because each variety comes with its own set of rules and guidelines. They have differing levels of sweetness, acidity, and longevity—but if you take the time to embrace their individual quirks, you’ll quickly learn how to add complex layers to your baking. Long before refined white sugar reigned supreme, syrup was the sweetener of choice. Honey has been used for thousands of years in creating sweet baked goods, from the earliest forms of cheesecakes found in…