Bake from Scratch November/December 2020

editors letter

IF YOU’RE LIKE ME, THE HOLIDAY SEASON IS PRIME TIME FOR BAKING. The celebratory period seems ideal for icing cookies, frosting cakes, and rolling out dough. Maybe it’s the holiday state of mind or maybe it’s just the cold snap, but eitherway, I can’t wait to preheat my oven. Around this time last year, I was celebrating with an annual tradition: eggnog cocktails at Highlands Bar & Grill, one of my favorite restaurants in Birmingham, Alabama. There, I encountered one of their new pastry creations, a gâteau Basque pound cake. To my surprise, when I cut into it, no custard center oozed out. Instead, the cake had been made with the custard acting as its liquid base, meaning the batter baked into a solid, tender-crumbed cake that tasted of pure custard…

recipe index & resources

BARS AND COOKIES Chocolate-Dulce de Leche Bars 103 Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Pistachio Biscotti 105 Cream Cheese-Stuffed Vanilla-Peppermint Cookies 15 Christmas Sugar Cookies 40 Eggnog Nanaimo Bars 28 Gingerbread Custard Bars 62 Ornament Cookies 42 Pearl Sugar Ginger Cookies 104 Peppermint Custard-Stuffed Chocolate Cookies 61 Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Bars 21 Slice-and-Bake Holiday Confetti Cookie 103 Snowflake Cookies 46 Winter Tree Cookies 44 BREADS Cucidati Quick Bread 33 Eggnog Sweet Rolls 95 Gingerbread Loaf with Dark Chocolate and Spiced Crumble 33 Le Gibassier 5 Pull-Apart Milk Bread Wreath 94 Suikerbrood 54 Swedish Cinnamon Buns 53 White Chocolate-Peppermint Scones 96 CAKES Almond-Cranberry Cake 70 Basque Bundt Cake 11 Chocolate Coffee Mayo Cake 8 Gluten-Free Hummingbird Cake 85 Hot Chocolate Marshmallow Cake 68 Kugelhopf 110 Orange-Anise Basque Cheesecake 61 Pearl Sugar Streusel Coffee-Fruitcake 52 Pecan Pie Cake 72 Vanilla-Red Velvet Layer Cake 74 FROSTINGS, FILLINGS, GARNISHES, AND GLAZES Almond Buttercream 70 Basque Custard 11 Brown Sugar Buttercream 72 Chocolate Meringue Buttercream 68 Cream Cheese Frosting 74, 85 Creamy Chocolate Frosting 8 Eggnog Custard Filling 28 Eggnog-Rum Glaze 95 Honey-Ginger…

hot from the oven

MUST-HAVES FOR HOLIDAY BAKING AND BEYOND LOOKING FOR A FEW TOOLS AND COOKBOOKS TO BOOST YOUR HOLIDAY BAKING SPIRIT? SPICE UP YOUR LIFE WITH THIS SEASON’S PICKS, FROM SASSY SPRINKLES TO SPACE-SAVING COOKIE CUTTERS, PLUS NEWLY RELEASED TOMES THAT TACKLE EVERYTHING FROM BROWNIES TO MILE-HIGH BAKING. TRENDING TOMES ATTACK OF THE SNACK CAKE! Who says cake is only for dessert? Yossi Arefi’s latest cookbook, Snacking Cakes: Simple Treats for Anytime Cravings (Clarkson Potter, 2020), indulges readers by transforming cake into an anytime treat. The no-fuss, one-bowl recipes in this collection are delightfully simple to throw together, made with ingredients bakers likely have in their pantries and baked in basic pans. This cookbook is perfect for bakers who crave near-instant baking satisfaction. Available at amazon.com on October 27, 2020. THE CREATIVE BAKER’S DREAM COOKBOOK If Ruth Mar Tam…

baker spotlight

How did you first get into baking and when did you decide that a blog was the next step on your baking journey? LC: My mom had a cake-decorating business when I was a small child, so I remember her teaching me the basics, and I was certainly raised in a baking environment. Then, in 2014, I started working for a company that is very social, and I would bake things to bring into the office every day. It was so fun to have a captive audience, and I was definitely popular around the office for bringing in goodies! Over time, people encouraged me to start a side business, which is how the blog was born. I stuck with it for a while but realized I wasn’t interested in the business…

eggs

What came first, the chicken or the egg? It’s a question with no answer, the perfect example of a logic paradox. An easier question: what came first, the baker or the egg? For most of us, we became a baker once we laid our hands on an egg. No other baking ingredient holds so much potential, purpose, and possibility. One swift crack against the counter, and you’ve opened a door to untold adventure—or folly, if you’re not careful. We’re diving deep into this humble yet temperamental ingredient, from the protein-packed egg white to the rich golden yolk, to ensure that any time you reach for an egg, you understand its power and pitfalls. BUYING EGGS First things first: size. Most recipes—and every recipe developed and tested for Bake from Scratch—call for large…

eggnog nanaimo bars

What I miss most about my maternal grandmother, Megan Shackleton (née Lloyd-Jones), is her bubbly, full-throated laugh. When that magnetic sound was directed at you, it made you feel like the most winsome and interesting person in the room. Before she passed away, my grandma suffered a cruel battle with Alzheimer’s, descending into a painful fog of confusion. Many things about her changed and were lost, but some gems came to the surface: precious memories of her childhood in Saskatchewan, Canada, of her beloved brother, Bud, and their pet German shepherd, Princey. Grandma was a very proud Canadian, matched only by her pride in being a member of the Lloyd-Jones clan. Though I knew what her Canadian and family heritage meant to her, there was much I couldn’t understand or…