Category: recipe

Roasting “Sugar” Pumpkins for Bread

Zoë François 4 Comments

oatmeal pumpkin bread

It is nearly Thanksgiving and there are pumpkins in everyone’s shopping cart, generally in a can. If you want a real treat, that is easy and will have you wanting to skip the canned isle in the grocery store, try roasting your own pumpkin. Baking the pumpkin caramelizes the sugars and makes for a sweeter puree than boiling. You’ll want to start with a “pie” or “sugar” variety and avoid the BIG Jack-o-Lantern pumpkins which are great for carving but are too watery to eat their flesh. Once you have roasted your pumpkin you can use 1 cup for Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread on p. 100 of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, the rest is for your favorite pie recipe. Read More

Zoë on KARE 11 Saturday Show

Graham Leave a comment

Zoe on Kare 11 with Belinda JensenThis week Jeff and I were on the KARE 11 Saturday morning show with Belinda Jensen to promote our book and mix up our dough in front of her viewers. I admit I was a bit nervous, more than a bit, but Belinda made us feel like we were just chatting in her living room. Everyone at the studio was so kind and after our 5 minute TV debut they swarmed around the table of bread and devoured everything we brought. They have our “Master recipe” on their website. Eric Perkins was there as well and he grabbed a “sticky pecan caramel roll” between every segment.

Read More

Baking Bread with 4 Boys

Graham 2 Comments

4 boys bakingThis weekend my boys had their friends over and we baked bread together. When you put dough in the hands of 4 boys under the age of 9 things get very creative! We used the “master recipe” from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day to start and then they used their fingers, rolling pins, cookie cutters and let their imaginations go wild. They shaped it into everything from snowflakes to Pokemon characters. They had as much fun eating the bread as they did baking it! Read More

Let’s talk about Pie Dough

Graham 2 Comments

I recently got an email from my friend Doris who wrote about her Peach pie woes. The experience of making it had been anything but “easy as pie.” It got me thinking about pie and how that old adage came to pass? Really, for whom is pie all that easy to make? Most people give up at the crust, it is hardly ever as tender or flaky as those you can buy at the bakery, and the fillings are always too runny or too bound up with starch.

I want to demystify pie making for Doris and anyone else who has fond memories of homemade pies but haven’t found a recipe that satisfies. First let’s talk about the dough. In the end it isn’t the recipes that will make or break the pie, so much as the technique used in dealing with the ingredients. I’m going to make a pie with you and show step by step how to deal with the rather simple list of ingredients: Butter, lard (or vegetable shortening), flour, ice water and a touch of baking powder to insure you don’t have a leaden crust. Read More

Blowing up popover pancakes with Sasha

Graham 15 Comments

popover with jam and powdered sugar

One of my first adventures in cooking was when I was 8 with my friend Sasha. We lived together on a commune in central Vermont. Despite the fact that there were dozens of adults living with us we were given freedom to roam, often unsupervised. This laissez-faire attitude allowed us the luxury to bake with wild abandon and make up recipes using just about everything we could find and reach. The fact that we were both 8 years old meant everything we made had to be sweet. This is where my love of “pastry” was born.

Read More

Caramel Apple Cake

Graham 4 Comments

Here is my favorite apple cake adapted from a recipe my friend Laura gave me, she got it from a friend who in turn got it from a friend. That is how the best recipes are, shared and made personal with little changes. Enjoy this cake and please let me know if you have made some fabulous change I should know about! Read More