baking Archives - A Way To Garden

recent cookbooks to savor (and win!), with ali stafford

margaret — Sat, 08 Jan 2022 22:36:34 +0000

DID YOU MAYBE get, or give, a cookbook or two for a holiday gift? Well, hopefully you can make room on the shelf for another couple of good ones. Our expert guide who’s been browsing and cooking from the latest crop is Alexandra Stafford, aka Ali, who has some goodies to share—perfect fodder for another January of sticking close to home as I know a lot of us are again with cooking as one of our mainstays of comfort and creativity. Ali Stafford, author of the essential cookbook “Bread Toast Crumbs” and creator of the website alexandracooks.com, is here to highlight some of the recent cookbook titles that she’s finding irresistible. They range from topics like cooking more vegetable-centric meals, to creative use of grains, and yes, even more ideas for delicious cookies. Plus: Giveaways! I’m giving away two of the cookbooks we discussed, and Ali is giving away a membership in the semester of my Virtual Garden Club that begins January 13, 2022. Enter to win by commenting in the box at the bottom of the page…and then click over to her lace and do the same to double your chances. Read along as you listen to the January […]

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cookies, snacking cakes, pies & more: 5 new books to bake by, with ali stafford

margaret — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 20:13:13 +0000

YES, APPARENTLY more people gardened in 2020 than ever. And even before the holiday season was upon us, as it suddenly is, everyone was baking more than ever in this oddball year, too—and it seems publishing baking cookbooks at a prodigious rate as well. So today we’re going to virtually bake together, or at least talk baking—like whether you should blind-bake that pie crust before filling it, plus ideas for goodies from cookies to snacking cakes, too. When Alexandra Stafford, author of the book “Bread Toast Crumbs” and creator of the website alexandracooks.com, has visited the podcast before in recent years, we’ve usually talked vegetable cookery or soups, because we’re both big soup-makers. But 2020 is no normal year. And so what the hell? Let’s bake. Plus: Comment in the box at the bottom of the page for a chance to win one of the books we’re featuring—all five will be given away here to five readers. Then head over to Ali’s website for a chance to win each book, too (details below). Read along as you listen to the November 30, 2020 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future […]

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clafoutis batter, universal solvent of fruit dessert

margaret — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 08:44:42 +0000

I DON’T BAKE MUCH THESE DAYS, BUT IN ANOTHER LIFE I was the Queen of Pie (and even baked all my bread, too). Even though I rarely cut or rub cold butter into flour for a crust any longer, I’ve found a shortcut to homemade fruit dessert that’s served me faithfully since I hung up my rolling pin. No surprise that I attribute the find to my old friend Martha Stewart, who taught me many things—including clafoutis, a simple, custardy backdrop to the peaches that are looking good around now. I love clafoutis (kla-foo-tee), a humble French concoction that’s like a Huffy-Puffy or Dutch Baby or German pancake–whatever you call it, that’s my favorite Christmas-morning food. But the clafoutis is sweeter and has fruit inside. If you have 3 cups of fruit and some kitchen basics like milk and eggs and flour, you can make this dessert very last-minute, even just as you sit down to eat the main course, another selling factor. Easy, yet quite impressive. Though clafoutis is traditionally made with cherries, as it was in the recipe Martha shared in her must-have 1995 cookbook, “The Martha Stewart Cookbook: Collected Recipes for Every Day” (affiliate link), I’ve come […]

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