Table of contents for Fall 2016 in Bake from Scratch

WITH WARM SUMMER DAYS behind us, it’s time to enjoy autumn’s cool breezes and one of the most anticipated baking seasons of the year. Can’t you just smell the delicious baked goods that will come from your oven? We are here to up your fall baking game with new favorites that are full of the comforting flavors that this beloved season is all about. We’re excited to share our interview with the celebrity of caramel, William Werner, who uses this classic fall ingredient to elevate his pastry case at Craftsman and Wolves in San Francisco. Then, turn to “The Pantry” on page 27 for our list of the best cinnamons to stock up on for your fall baking. September ushers in the grand German celebration of beer—Oktoberfest. So how could…

BREAKING BREADS By Uri Scheft Uri Scheft, the baker behind the celebrity-status chocolate babka at Breads Bakery in New York City, is bringing a different side of his baking knowledge into the limelight in Breaking Breads: A New World of Israeli Baking (Artisan Books). Drawing from his Israeli heritage, childhood love of freshly baked bread, and global travels, Uri makes the international classics, such as seed-studded challah and tomato-topped focaccia, and lesser known European, Israeli, and Middle Eastern breads—like Jachnun and Cheese Bourekas—accessible for the home baker. With a mix of recipes and tips, dramatic photography, and step-by-step how-tos to creating beautiful loaves, braids, and rolls, this cookbook is truly a bread baker’s guide to Europe and the Middle East. CAN’T WAIT TO MAKE: Kubaneh, a rich Yemenite bread that…

Vietnamese Cinnamon Sticks World Flavorz Spice & Tea Company Play with these pungent sticks by sticking them in your coffee or grating them onto hot cereal. worldflavorz.com; 2 ounces for $5 Chinese “Tung Hung” Cassia Cinnamon The Spice House Rich, spicy, and a little thick, this cinnamon works best blended into foods. thespicehouse.com; 2 ounces for $6.15 Korintje Indonesia Cinnamon Penzeys Heady fragrance, mellow taste, and slightly sweet—great for adding as a last-minute topping. penzeys.com; 2.2 ounces for $5.95 Indian Cinnamon Sticks Kalustyans Strong-tasting cassia with biting aroma and slight bitterness; good for tea and in savory applications. kalustyans.com; 2 ounces for $4.99 Organic Ground Ceylon Cinnamon Frontier Co-op Mild flavor with a tangy, sweet aroma; the perfect addition to light pastries or bread. frontiercoop.com; 1.76 ounces for $6.49 Saigon…

CINNAMON-SUGAR DOUGHNUT BUNDT CAKE Makes 1 (10-cup) Bundt cake Cider gives this cake its robust apple flavor. To get the full effect, be sure to reduce the cider until it is thick like syrup—this isn’t a step you want to skip. 6 cups apple cider 1 cup (230 grams) unsalted butter, softened 1¼ cups (256 grams) granulated sugar, divided 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 large eggs 3 cups (420 grams) all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons (12 grams) ground cinnamon, divided 1 teaspoon (6 grams) kosher salt 1 teaspoon (4 grams) baking powder ½ teaspoon (3 grams) baking soda ½ cup whole milk 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar 1 large McIntosh apple, peeled and chopped (164 grams) ½ cup (72 grams) confectioners’ sugar 1 tablespoon water 1. In a large saucepan, bring…

IF YOU THINK PRETZEL MAKING SHOULD BE LEFT TO THE PROS, THINK AGAIN. THESE RECIPES ARE AS SIMPLE AS THEY COME, AND THE RESULTS ARE NOTHING SHORT OF SPECTACULAR. TOPPINGS Sometimes we like to mix up what we put on our pretzels. Here are two spice blends that are sure crowd-pleasers. But don’t be afraid to play around with the flavors you like. DUKKAH BLEND Makes about 1 cup Dukkah is an Egyptian spice blend that pairs so well with a salty, malty pretzel. Leftovers can be used to spruce up any dishes that need a little oomph. ½ cup (60 grams) pine nuts ¼ cup (35 grams) sesame seeds ¼ cup (19 grams) coriander seeds 2 tablespoons (18 grams) cumin seeds 1 teaspoon (6 grams) kosher salt 1 teaspoon…

Cheesecake is the stereotypical bad boy of the dessert world: gorgeous without trying too hard, and addictive with an uncertain past as alluring as its taste. Typically made as a luscious cheese-based filling with a cookie crust, and sometimes swirled or topped with chocolate or berries, it’s one of the most recognizable desserts in the country. While many people believe that this decadent treat originated in New York City—and understandably so, as it is the Big Apple’s signature dessert—accounts of cakes made of cheese date back to ancient Greece. One of the first recorded recipes, dated in the first century and called “libum,” is a far cry from the creamy cake we know today. Calling for two pounds of “well crushed” cheese mixed with flour and a single egg, this…

John Kraus still remembers the moment he fell in love with pastry. It was a bite of brioche that did it. “I was walking through one of the Queen’s rose gardens one summer morning on my way to The Dorchester in London, where I was working in the kitchen,” says the award-winning pastry chef, then a gangly 19-year-old from rural Kentucky with no prior professional experience in baking. “I tasted that first brioche from a place called Pâtisserie Valerie. I had seen the phenomenal pastries served with afternoon tea at The Dorchester, but it was in this moment, surrounded by all of these magnificent, delicate flowers, eating this magnificent, delicate pastry, that I was truly blown away. I knew I had to devote my life to this art.” Two decades…

I FIRST MET NAN KOHLER at a grain conference. In a room packed with wheat breeders, grass seed farmers, and bakers, Nan introduced herself as a miller. Not a baker who occasionally tried making flour, or a grass seed farmer who needed to figure out how to get their product to market, but a miller, plain and simple. She told me about Grist & Toll, a small milling operation that she’d opened in 2012 in Los Angeles. I’d never thought about how flour is made or the technicalities of turning a seed into the stuff I bake with. I knew immediately that I wanted to visit Nan at her mill. A few months later, I rounded a corner in the heart of Pasadena and parked in front of Grist &…

THERE AREN’T MANY THINGS CALLED “BOOT CAMP” THAT SOUND FUN TO ME. I’m more of a “café-and-coffee” man than a “boots-in-the-mud” kind of guy. But when I heard about The Culinary Institute of America’s Pastry Boot Camp, I knew it was a match made in pastry heaven. No pre-dawn wake-up calls, no push-ups, no whistle-blowing instructors, and the only thing feeling whipped at the end of the day is the cream. I spent five days learning hands-on tips and tricks from the masters and seriously upping my baking game. That’s the boot camp for me! As soon as I arrived on campus, I was already starstruck: The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is where so many of the country’s greatest chefs got their start, creating food that’s both delectable and…

MYSTICAL, MAGICAL CINNAMON This spice helped push Europe’s expansion into Asia. It caused wars between the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English as they fought to gain control of Ceylon’s (now Sri Lanka) cinnamon supply. It’s the ingredient that gives the holidays a nostalgic aroma. And it remains one of the most important tools in a baker’s pantry. But how did a little strip of wood become a major league player in the world of cooking? The simple answer, it smells darn good. Cinnamon also helps things taste better, enhances other flavors, and historically has covered the unpleasant aspects of spoiled food. No wonder the spice has been used for thousands of years on just about every continent. “Cinnamon is the kind of spice where a little goes a long way…

Camas Country Mill JUNCTION CITY, OREGON | camas.squarespace.com Run by Tom & Sue Hunton, second generation grass seed farmers who are on the forefront of changing our grain economy. They grow and mill grains that are bred for flavor, nutrition, and sustainability. Carolina Ground ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA | carolinaground.com After 14 years as a baker and owner of Natural Bridge Bakery, Jennifer Lapidus saw a need for better flour and started Carolina Ground. She and her team source their grains exclusively from the South and stone mill them paying special attention to keeping temperatures low to preserve the grain’s flavor and nutritive profile. Farmer Ground TRUMANSBURG, NEW YORK | farmergroundflour.com A cooperative enterprise in upstate New York that considers itself a “micro-mill” that focuses on quality rather than quantity. They…

KHOBZ Origin: Egypt | Pronounce: Khobz with kh sound made in the back of the throat “If California was an island in the eastern Mediterranean, what would it be like?” That’s Azhar Hashem’s vision for her restaurant, Tawla, where she is joined by Chef Joseph Magidow, formerly of Delfina. Tawla’s menu focuses on the home cooking of Greece, Turkey, the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Cyprus, Egypt, and Jordan), and Iran. Nowhere is Azhar’s intention more felt than in the simplest of dishes on Tawla’s menu: the bread. “Khobz means ‘bread,’ and references the thin pita that people are used to here,” she says. “Ours is a little thicker, like a hybrid between a traditional Egyptian khobz, which is a Levantine-style dough coated with wheat bran, and a Parisian baguette,…

Flip through the pages of Luisa Weiss’s Classic German Baking (Ten Speed Press, 2016), and the origins of some of America’s most familiar baked goods—doughnuts, Danish, bagels, pretzels, and coffee cake to name a few—become apparent. Deeply rooted within a centuries-old food culture, the recipes and techniques from Germany and its neighbors have become a cornerstone for baking across the world. “With the enormous immigration of Germans into the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries, many German baking traditions were infused into American ones,” says Luisa, who’s gained a mass following from her food blog, The Wednesday Chef, and her monthly food column in Harper’s Bazaar Germany. “That’s why so many American baked goods are direct descendants of traditional German desserts.” In Classic German Baking, Luisa, who was…