Editor’s Note: Welcome back to Out of the Box! As you know, we’re all delightful, layered individuals. Like cakes. Like delicious German Chocolate cakes.
Kelly baked this cake. Kelly is some kind of kitchen witch, and I want her powers.
This month, please enjoy a delectable post on the joys of baking. Spoiler: Kelly McCarty loves to bake, and after you read this post, if you don’t crave a cookie by the time you’re finished reading this, my hat is off to you, good soul.
Books are my first and truest love. My mother claims that I enjoyed being read to as a six-month old baby. However, my passion for baking is a close second. Although my late grandmother, June, was a wonderful cook and baker, I never baked anything until I was about twenty-five. I have taken to it with a vengeance. My cookbook collection has managed to collapse my shelves—twice—in the middle of the night, of course. I joke that I’m the girl all the guys want—to be their grandmother. My Christmas cookie baking extravaganza is getting out of hand. I plan for it year-round and I’ve pinned over 250 cookie recipes to my Pinterest. No one will ever stop being friends with me in December.
Last Christmas, having baked more cookies than I have friends and family, I decided to be a good citizen and take some cookies to the local police station. One would think the police would be against taking candy from strangers but it is a small town. Nobody was in the police station’s lobby, so I picked up the phone, thinking that it would page someone in the building. I actually called the 9-1-1 dispatch center…about cookies. It’s debatable as to whether or not they considered that a waste of police time. They were really good cookies.
Whether you’re a beginner or an expert baker, I hope you will enjoy reading about my top baking recommendations and influences.
Image from Sally’s Baking Addiction
This is my number one go-to baking blog. I find myself wanting to say, “My friend Sally…” and I have to remind myself that my favorite bloggers don’t know who I am and are not my actual friends. Do you need a pie for Thanksgiving? Muffins for Mother’s Day? Cookies for a Christmas party? My girl Sally McKenney has got you. Sally’s thoroughly detailed recipes with tons of photos make this an excellent choice for novice bakers. I’ve never had one of her recipes not turn out right. I can’t finalize my Christmas baking list until Sally has done her Cookie Palooza, which is ten days of new cookie recipes posted in December. I own all three of her cookbooks—Sally’s Baking Addiction, Sally’s Candy Addiction, and Sally’s Cookie Addiction. They’re totally worth the price but there any many fantastic recipes on her blog. I personally recommend Peppermint Mocha Cookies and Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake.
I need to bite the bullet and just subscribe to Bake from Scratch magazine instead of letting its issues tempt me from the grocery store magazine rack every single month. This magazine is all about the art and craft of baking, with luscious photography and both sweet and savory recipes. Their recipes do tend to be a bit more advanced and often require offbeat ingredients like black cocoa or Gruyère cheese. I experienced one of my worst baking travesties ever when I tried to make their Milk Chocolate Layer Cake for my father’s birthday. The recipe called for untoasted sesame oil and I accidentally bought toasted. The result was so disgusting that I had to throw it in the trash. The fact that I’m still in love with the magazine after this tragedy should tell you how wonderful it is. If you want to get all their recipes in one place, there are several cookbooks including The Bread Collection, Bake from Scratch: Volume One and Bake from Scratch: Volume Two. However, I find that half the fun is daydreaming about visiting the various bakeries from across the country profiled in the magazine. I want to go to Winterlake Lodge in Alaska, Bottletree Bakery in Oxford, Mississippi, and Jane the Bakery in San Francisco, if anyone wants to send me plane tickets.
The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook by Cheryl and Griffith Day
My love for cookbooks is comparable to how Gollum feels about the ring in The Lord of the Rings. I certainly don’t need any more cookbooks, not with so many great recipe blogs on the Internet, but I want them, the precious. If I had to choose just one, I would pick The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook by Cheryl and Griffith Day. The Days are living my daydreams as the proprietors of an old-fashioned bakery in Savannah, Georgia. The cookbook features Southern classics like Hummingbird Cake, Red Velvet Cake, and Banana Pudding (with homemade cookies) but is also innovative, with recipes for Guava-Sweet Cheese Turnovers and Creole Brownies. My personal favorites are the Blueberry Buckle and Lovely Lemon Loaf. Now that I own a stand mixer, I need to tackle their Cinnamon Sticky Buns with caramel topping and cream cheese icing.
A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenburg
I’m a complete sucker for memoirs with recipes and A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenburg, creator of the blog Orangette, is my all-time favorite. Molly started writing about food after dropping out of grad school and her life and recipes are a lot more relatable than similar books written by award-winning chefs or New York Times restaurant reviewers. Whether she is writing about how she hated drinking milk as a child (Chocolate Cupcakes with Bittersweet Glaze), falling in love for the first time with a French student (Tarte Tatin), or the death of her beloved father (Dried Fruit Pie), each chapter concludes with a recipe. A Homemade Life is not exclusively a baking book and includes numerous vegan recipes that aren’t my style at all but I love the writing enough to forgive the salad recipes. French-Style Yogurt Cake with Lemon was elegant and delicious and the no-bake Fruit-Nut Balls were a huge hit when I included them in my Christmas cookie giveaway.
Kids Baking Championship
I know most bakers love The Great British Baking Show the best. Although I’ve enjoyed the episodes I’ve seen, I have a terrible time remembering when it comes on and I am a tacky American who needs more excitement in my baking competitions. I watch all of Food Network’s baking championship shows but my favorite is the Kids Baking Championship, where ten kids between the ages of 10-13 compete for $25,000 and the title of Kids Baking Champion.
Baker Duff Goldman and actress Valerie Bertinelli serve as hosts and judges. They’re both charming and sweet with the kids. The show isn’t patronizing. The kids frequently make things I can’t, like homemade éclairs and macarons. The challenges, like making a unicorn cake or turning a savory food into a dessert, are difficult. I can also sympathize with the breakdowns the kids have in the kitchen. I’m not even going to lie—when eventual Season Three winner Aidan ran over to whip Kaniyah’s cream because she was struggling and crying, I teared up as well. I also find that the show’s compelling drama and cute kids somewhat negate family members exasperated, “Are you watching cooking shows again?” complaints.
My Grandmother
These Apple Square aren’t a traditional cookie but they were a mainstay of my grandmother June’s Christmas baking. Although she passed away in 2013, June is very much my greatest baking inspiration. She once sternly cautioned me not to stick my fingers or any utensils in the food processor while it was running. I was twenty-seven and a college graduate at the time. I am pleased to report that I still have all of my fingers. June’s coconut cake recipe, which is just a box mix doctored up with a frosting of Cool Whip, sour cream, powdered sugar, and frozen coconut, has gotten more rave reviews than scratch-made cakes I spent hours on. The greatest compliment that my baking has ever received was, “I haven’t had a cake like this since my grandmother was alive,” since I know how hard it is to live up to the memory of Grandma’s baking.
June’s Apple Squares
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups fresh apples (peeled and thinly diced)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons yeast granules
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 1/2 cups black walnuts (can substitute regular walnuts or pecans)
6 ounces butterscotch morsels
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In small bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, yeast granules, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.
In large bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vegetable oil.
Add dry ingredients, beating well.
Stir in diced apples and walnuts.
Pour into greased 9x13x2-inch pan.
Sprinkle butterscotch morsels over the top of the batter.
Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.
Assembling the perfect platter of Christmas is one of my life’s ambitions. I try to have a good mix of flavors but I’m partial to chocolate and citrus and not a big fan of ginger. I feel like this is a goal that I can strive for but never truly achieve, because there will always be new and exciting recipes. If you have a favorite cookie recipe, please share it in the comments.
Featured image by Neven Krcmarek on Unsplash.
*drools on keyboard at work*
Sally’s Baking Addiction has helped me out in a pinch for recipes, especially since I am *not* a cook or baker with any skill. What a lovely, mouth-watering post!