Breads

Need some rolls for your Thanksgiving table? These Hokkaido Milk Bread Rolls are wonderful. The original recipe for these rolls comes from the King Arthur Baking site (here), although King Arthur Baking gives credit to Yvonne Chen, author of the cookbook 65 Degrees C. Bread…

Do you have an undiagnosed case of mageirocophobia?  That would be a fear related to some form of  cooking. If you do, you are not alone. People have all kinds of specific phobias about food and cooking. Apparently, there are people who are afraid of…

Homemade bread. It’s having a renaissance if you haven’t noticed. You have only to look at the nearly-empty flour shelves in your local grocery store to know that people are baking. Bread flour isn’t the only baking ingredient in short supply; don’t even think about…

  When life gives you lemons… No! Wait. I already used that line in the last post. Let’s start over. Here’s a better (and more gentle) lede: A hot cup of tea. A warm slice of banana bread. Golden sunshine streaming through the window and…

OK. I’ll admit it. I’m usually the first one to reach for the bread basket. Apparently, I’m in good company. Bread is the most widely consumed food in the world and maybe the oldest. Food historians believe that humans first baked flatbreads as long ago…

This Persimmon Nut Bread recipe comes from James Beard. Beard shaped American cooking for 40 years. He wrote two dozen cookbooks, wrote a weekly syndicated cooking column, operated an eponymous cooking school in Greenwich Village and lived an altogether colorful life. In 1990, Carl Jerome,…

I guess I have always lived in a scone desert. I never tasted one until I was an adult. Always seemed meh to me. Then, this scone came along. Wow. My late-in-life discovery of scones made me wonder about the origins of scones. It turns…

We are enjoying the first glorious days of spring here in Southern California. Plants are budding and the sweet little birds are singing their sweet little songs. I have a Black Phoebe in my backyard who is entertaining me and Juliet with  swoops and other…

OK. It’s no polar vortex, but it is cold, dark and rainy here in SoCal—window-rattling thunder, too. My nerves are noticeably jangled. Sweet Juliet, with plaintive break-your-heart “Mom: Make it stop” eyes,  is hiding among the folds of her favorite blanket. No question. We’re quite…

  I made biscuits the other day. It sounded like a good idea but I ended up hating them. B-o-r-i-n-g.  Even a generous pat of Kerrygold butter couldn’t bring them to life. OK. I’ll admit that it may have been me. I am in my…