Category: Baking

Egg Bites

An easy breakfast treat. Can be prepared ahead of time and reheated as needed. Preheat oven to 350°. Select a large six-cup muffin pan and, if needed, lightly grease it. (I generally use a silicone muffin pan without buttering it.) Add a tablespoon or two of fillings to each cup. Some choices include: Add the

Vegetable Pot Pie

Prepare a filling by cooking a variety of vegetables; in one recent batch, I included: In a large pot, melt half a stick of butter and add the vegetables incrementally and cooking until things are mostly cooked, but turn the heat off before they’re fully cooked so that they can finish in the oven. Delicate

Easy Baked Pasta

A simple choice for times when you want something more than just pasta, but don’t have the time to make a lasagna. Turn the oven to 375°. Select a two- or three-quart casserole dish (such as a 9x12x2″ glass baker). Combine the pasta and tomato sauce and stir together. Layer half of the pasta into

Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients: Potatoes, onion, butter, cream, flour, Parmesan, pepper, salt. Options: ham, garlic. Method: Cast-iron skillet; medium hot (350ºF) oven for over an hour. Pre-heat oven (and pan, while you are collecting your ingredients). Butter bottom of skillet. Slice onion, cover bottom. Slice potatoes (mandoline if you have one), layer. Sprinkle with flour, parmesan, salt, pepper,

Ginger Jubilee Cookies

This was the surprise winner of this year’s Christmas baking: a dense cookie with a rich flavor, suitable for dunking in coffee or nibbling with your after-dinner adult beverage. Adapted from Joy of Cooking. In a double boiler, over simmering water, mix 2/3 c honey, 1 c sugar, and 2 oz butter. When combined, thoroughly

Focaccia

I wish I had known twenty years ago that we could have home-made focaccia as often as we wanted and with just fifteen minutes of effort. Start by making a basic no-knead bread dough: this step takes less than ten minutes. In a large bowl, mix three cups of all-purpose flour, a teaspoon and a

No-Knead Bread

I tried to bake bread one or two times in my twenties, failed horribly, and then didn’t try again for twenty years. I might have waited another decade if it wasn’t for the disruption of the Covid lockdown, when getting a fifty pound bag of flour delivered seemed like a more sensible choice than going

Enchilladas

Like all of the “ethnic” foods I cook, this dish doesn’t make any claims to being particularly “authentic,” but it is tasty and filling. Once you learn the technique, you can ring changes on it with different fillings and varieties of sauces. See also the recipe for Enchilasagna, which uses the same kinds of ingredients but

Buttermilk biscuits

Preheat oven and cast-iron frying pan to 450ºF. Mixing bowl, large fork: 300g. cake [or Southern all-purpose or biscuit] flour 1T baking powder 1T sugar 1t salt Stir together. Pastry cutter: 1 stick (4 oz). butter 1c. (8 oz.) buttermilk Cut butter into dry ingredients. You can mash with a fork or use your fingers,

Shortbread

1 lb. butter 2 c. superfine sugar 2 c. rice flour 2 c. flour Cream butter & sugar together, mix in flours well. Turn dough out onto a baking sheet or press into a baking dish, 3/4” to 1/2” thick. Prick with fork. Chill at least 30 min. Bake in moderate oven (375ºF) for 5