I first heard of Michael Ruhlman by way of Anthony Bourdain when I was reading through some of Bourdain’s engaging books. Anthony wrote a great introduction to one of Michael’s books: Ruhlman, Michael. The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef’s Craft for Every Kitchen. New York: Scribner, 2007. Anthony Bourdain is a trained and experienced … Read More →

This post is about a proof of concept experiment. The results were magnificent. All cakes are not created equally. In fact, most bakers differentiate their cakes based on inequality: different ratios of basic ingredients and different techniques used to mix them. Angel food cakes don’t include any butter or egg yolks or chemical leavening – … Read More →

So I guess fruitcakes aren’t en vogue these days. I get it, commercial fruitcakes are pretty nasty. And they seem to have spawned a whole culture of hate surrounding the colorful goofy preserved fruits that typically adorn fruitcakes. Don’t hate, people! But I have enjoyed homemade fruitcakes that practically wallowed in their own moist dense … Read More →

This quick holiday snack-y food is simple and fast. Toasted pecans that are sweet, salty, and mildly spicy all-at-once. They taste great. The recipe I use is adapted from the recipes of Emeril Lagasse and Alton Brown. Ingredients: 1 lb. – Pecan Halves 1/2 tsp. – Cumin 1/2 tsp. – Cayenne Pepper 1/2 tsp. – … Read More →

Here’s my take on cheese sticks/straws – a great instamatic throw-together crowd pleaser. Once again, there is no recipe, just a combination of good quality ingredients. Ingredients: A package of puff-pastry sheets, some melted butter, and some cheese. The go-to cheese is usually grated Parmesan. Manchego would work well. I used a combination of Parmesan … Read More →

I tend to agonize over weights and measures and ratios in recipes. For many of the things I bake, little details can be important – and I like to understand how everything works. But things don’t always need a lot of thought or time to be amazing. Here’s my take on butternut squash, which enjoyed … Read More →

The holiday season is upon us and I decided that I wanted to try making some fudge for gifts. When I researched the issue, I was intrigued by the simplicity and odd variety in the recipes – recipes that were usually paired with staunch warnings about how fiendishly difficult fudge is to make. As it … Read More →

In a previous post about how to think about bread, I discussed the importance of the hydration of bread dough relative to the structure of the final baked bread: “The amount (by weight) of liquid in bread dough, expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight, is called the “hydration” of the dough. The … Read More →

Warning – Warning – This Post Is Incredibly Long – Warning – Warning Some 25+ years ago, when I was living in Connecticut, I started baking bread for the first time. I was introduced to the Zen of bread by way of The Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown. After working my way through … Read More →

The next stop on my Arkansas Black Apple Express was apple fritters. While there may be a ton of recipes that appear wildly different, most fritter recipes show a fundamental underlying similarity. In simplest terms, an apple fritter is a fried sweet batter with apples – but this one approach can yield dissimilar results. Some … Read More →