I’ve done remarkably little cooking over the holidays, and even less baking. This is simply a consequence of the happy busyness of the season—and because luckily other people are baking and cooking for me. But there are so many excellent holiday traditions that revolve around recipes. And I do seize the chance, when I have it, to make old favorites (cinnamon rolls and sugar cookies) and attempt new, festive-sounding ones (gingerbread brioche and miniature peppermint chocolate layer cakes).
Read moreLEOPARD BREAD
“Dough is ready!” my mother would call to us. My sisters and I would drop whatever we were doing and rush into the kitchen—elbows out, prepared to claim our spot. The kitchen in our old yellow farmhouse was small but cozy: graying white tile, a white formica kitchen table, and a white refrigerator humming in the corner papered in school notices and birthday invitations and our art. We’d crowd in, kneeling on the mismatched chairs around the table. The focus of all this chaos: an oversized beige ceramic mixing bowl with a navy stripe around the top, filled with bread dough.
Read moreGINGER ALMOND BISCOTTI
There are a lot of nice things about being home, and particularly being home in the wintry days of Christmas. My sisters and I were all at the farm (where we grew up and my parents still live); these days, Christmas looks a little different than it did when we were growing up. Most notably, there are two babies now and a two-year-old. They’re the focus of everyone who walks in the room, and they make the holidays feel more full and joyful than ever. There are also men now, whereas growing up the house was just women women women and my dad. (He is very, very used to the company of lots of ladies, but I do think he secretly thrills every time he walks down to the basement now and finds his sons-in-law drinking beer and watching football.)
Read moreCHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT BUNDT CAKE
Merry merry! I’m here to wish you happy holidays. I’m also here to offer a recipe that’s too festive not to be making this week: chocolate peppermint bundt cake. But let me pause here and defend this cake’s rightful place in your kitchen year-round. I appreciate eating seasonally (and that’s a topic for an entirely separate set of musings), but that’s an ethos to follow when you’re thinking about buying ingredients: strawberries in summer, kale and potatoes in winter, and so on. But SPOILER ALERT I am about to let you in on a little secret that will set you free (kidding, hyperbole) and open new worlds (and by ‘new worlds’ I mean ‘lots of pints of Americone Dream’).
Read moreGINGERBREAD BRIOCHE
The scent of warm bread fills the kitchen. There's sugar and spice too—cinnamon and sugar and a hint of festive, fragrant flavors like nutmeg and cloves. I sniff the air. “Butter,” I think, picturing myself early as I methodically sliced two sticks into pale yellow pats and dropped them into the bowl of my stand mixer. A faint yeastiness hints at what’s rising inside the oven: a gorgeously browned brioche loaf, prettily domed with a curved surface as the hillocks of pale dough puff in the heat.
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