Bake from Scratch March/April 2023

WELCOMING A SPRING FULL OF CELEBRATION As winter comes to a close and we shift into sweeter, sunnier days, we bakers begin to reap the rewards of the first seasonal strawberries, fresh herbs, and bakes fit for a spring celebration. With this issue full of flavors and features both familiar and new, we can’t wait to revel in all the fun that spring is sure to bring. We start this issue with one of my favorite golden ingredients, browned butter, in our From the Test Kitchen feature. We share every tip, trick, and tool for getting a beautiful beurre noisette every time. And speaking of the test kitchen, we couldn’t be more excited to show you our new home base and state-of-the-art test kitchen space, housed in our new office that we…

RECIPE INDEX BARS AND COOKIES Give Cookies 24 Strawberry Pretzel Thumbprint Cookies 62 BREADS Brioche à Tête 45 Brioche au Sucre 47 Brioche Loaf 44 Chèvre and Herb Quick Bread 102 Essential Brioche Dough 42 Greek Pita Bread 72 Ham and Gruyère Crescent Rolls 5 Herbes de Provence No-Knead Bread 102 Hummingbird Scones 109 Resurrection Rolls 38 Roasted Strawberry Bread 61 Sage Browned Butter Biscuits 100 Tsoureki 37 CAKES Banoffee Cake 79 Blackberry Lime Cake 33 Carrot Cake 79 Easter Hot Fudge Pudding Cake 113 Lemon Snacking Cake with Lemon Glaze 113 Milk Chocolate Sheet Cake 84 Southern Coconut Cake 83 Strawberry Layer Cake 64 Strawberry Pecan Coffee Cake 63 FROSTINGS, FILLINGS, GARNISHES, AND GLAZES Blackberry Coulis 34 Blackberry Italian Buttercream 34 Browned Butter Frosting 79 Caramelized Bananas 80 Coconut Swiss Meringue Buttercream 83 Cream Cheese Frosting 79 Cream Cheese Glaze 62 Honey Syrup 107 Lemon Glaze 113 Pecan Streusel 64 Vanilla Bean Buttercream 64 Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze 109 Whipped Chocolate Frosting 84 MISCELLANEOUS 9-Layer Chinese Scallion Pancakes 69 Cheesy Corn Arepas 68 Roasted…

INSPIRED EARRINGS Test kitchen assistant Becca Cummins wore a pair of these earrings during our 2022 Birmingham Baking Retreat, and it was love at first sight. KIKAY, a Los Angeles-based brand owned by duo Bella and Quinn (friends of Becca’s), started as a small business run out of Bella and Quinn’s college housing and has grown to become so much more. Each earring and accessory is made by hand, and the bold, beautiful designs are sure to wow. I Could’ve Dropped My Croissant!, made to look like a set of boulangerie-ready croissants, and Mix It Up, which allows you to wear your most tried-and-true kitchen accessory, are two designs we absolutely love. AVAILABLE AT: kikay.shop A BAKERY ADVENTURE ABROAD Reflecting on visits to see her brother in Barcelona, Spain, editorial assistant Christina Fleisch reminisces…

How did For Goodness Cakes begin? Candice Dominguez-Sundquist: It started back in 2016 when our cofounder Jaime Lehman delivered four bakes to her local agency. Since then, we’re up to more than 25 chapters across the country. [The Portland, Oregon, chapter] is actually new, so we just had our first birthday, and we’re really excited to be here. We did over 400 [cakes] in our first year coming out of a pandemic. So, it’s wild, and it also speaks to the need. We wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t a need. It’s great and amazing and also a little bittersweet because we know that these kids are in need of this. They’re so excited and so grateful because it isn’t about the cake, per se. It’s [about] being acknowledged. Somebody is…

FIRST OFF, WHAT IS IT? Butter is made up of milk fat, water, and milk solids. Most American butters sit at about 80% milk fat, 18% water, and 2% milk solids. European-style butters are required to contain 82% milk fat or higher, which means that they’ll ultimately have a lower water content. When you brown butter, you’re doing two things. First, you’re cooking off all the water. All that bubbling and fizzing that occurs when you’re making browned butter is the water cooking out and evaporating. Because European-style butter contains less water than American butter, it’ll typically cook a little quicker. And second, you’re browning the milk solids. The browned milk solids are what give browned butter its signature golden hue and nutty flavor. THE TOOLS The Pan: You’ll want to use a…

Family can go far beyond the family you’re born into, and Mary Haskell’s story of finding a lifelong friend who became a part of her found family sounds almost serendipitous looking back. Give Cookies are what I call a legacy recipe. It was given to me by my best friend Martha Keith Butler. Martha’s story of the recipe is that it was given to her mother, Alice Lloyd Adamson Keith, by a friend. Now, Alice was born in late 1880s or early 1890s, as I recall, so this is a forever recipe. Martha was born and bred in Nashville, Tennessee, moving to Memphis, Tennessee, for husband Bill’s State Farm job. From there, they moved to Bloomington, Illinois, where we became friends through our church and, as she once remarked, “like the…