Category: baking

These Chocolate Chip Scones Will Satisfy Your Cookie Cravings

These chocolate chip scones are the ideal breakfast treat: They’re flaky, moist, and not too sweet. Think of them as a marriage of cream scones and chocolate chip cookies, complete with the tender texture you love in scones and the melt-in-your-mouth chocolate that comes with a great cookie. Serve them warm from the oven, with…


One Step to Better Pumpkin Bread

Quick breads should be moist but not soggy, so we often need to get rid of extra liquid in the batter. In some recipes, like zucchini bread, we squeeze all the excess water out of the shredded zucchini to avoid a soggy loaf. We can’t squeeze our pumpkin puree (that would be messy!), but cooking…


Tarte Normande: A Classic French Apple Tart With Local Flavor

Famous for its bucolic villages, lush apple orchards, and storied dairy farms, Normandy is a northern French region that produces exceptional apples, Calvados, butter, and crème fraîche—all of which collide in the delicious Tarte Normande. This iconic regional dessert features a sandy, buttery crust filled with juicy apple wedges, nestled in a Calvados-infused custard. It’s…


Brown Butter Zucchini Bread Is an Autumnal Delight

This version of zucchini bread is by far my favorite. Brown butter kicks up the flavor a few notches, and the crusty sugar topping adds an additional surprise. To me, this bread signals that autumn is upon us. It’s also a yummy way to use up any surplus summer squash. There is no need to…


Life Lessons—and Flaky Biscuits—From the Great Depression

My father was a child during the Great Depression. Though the Great Depression ended some 80-odd years ago, for those who lived through it, the effects still govern their choices and lives. For those of us who only know of the time period via history books, there are valid lessons we can learn and apply…


Applesauce Cake With Hot Rum Sauce Will Get You So Excited About Fall

It’s always fun to open up my grandma’s recipe box to find the perfect dish handwritten on an index card. And her classic applesauce cake jumped out at me as the ideal treat for fall. It’s made with all the warm spices we associate with the cooler months—cinnamon, cloves, and allspice—and there are chopped walnuts…


The Family Table: 4 Secrets to Grandma’s Unbeatable Brownies

Submitted by Megan Baker, Grants Pass, Oregon My grandmother and I have similar penmanship. Perhaps that’s why I pull out the index card containing her “Saucepan Brownies” recipe even though I’ve had it memorized for years now. I like looking at her writing. Growing up, my family would spend Sunday mornings at church and Sunday afternoons…


The Korean Sauce You Didn’t Know You Needed

Move over, Sriracha—there’s another must-have Asian sauce in town. It’s called gochujang, and until I tasted this brick-red paste, I didn’t know I needed it. Now I do, and I suggest that you do, too. Gochujang is a Korean condiment, and it’s a flavor bomb. It’s a sludgy, sticky, spicy paste made from chile peppers,…


Old Bananas, New Trick: How to Make Banana Bread Pudding

Banana bread pudding is a delectable new way to use up slightly ripened bananas and day-old bread. As an alternative to your go-to quick bread, this custard-based recipe—with all of the same flavors as its namesake—is an excellent brunch or dessert option for using up aging bananas. Although it’s exceptional on its own, a warm rum…


These Cheesy Rolls, Originally From Brazil, Are Easy to Make in Your Own Kitchen

Pão de queijo, cheese bread, are small rolls with crunchy exteriors and uniquely chewy, stretchy centers. Instead of using flour like most baked goods, they use a surprise ingredient: tapioca starch. Tapioca starch (also called tapioca flour) is made from cassava root, a plant native to South America, that has been ground into a powder….