Chef's Blog, Chef's Notes Plus

Conquer Pie Dough

For many home bakers, creating a flavorful, tender pie or tart crust is a fearful and challenging process filled with questions. How is it that some home bakers consistently produce flaky, crispy, and tender crusts or shells while others consistently find this task so daunting? As pie and tart dough […]

Chef's Notes Plus, Family Fun

Cooking with Kids: Tarts and Crafts

Pies are for every day, as far as we’re concerned. But, there are two times of the year that pies get their moment in the spotlight: Thanksgiving (apple pie! pumpkin!) and summer, when there are berries and stone fruit, like peaches and cherries with pits in the middle, perfect for […]

Chef's Blog, Chef's Notes Plus

Cooling Cakes

In baking, every step matters—from mixing to baking, but just as importantly, cooling! While we often romanticize baked goods fresh from the oven, most baked items like cakes (and yes, breads!) are best once cooled. Baking is a series of chemical and physical reactions spurred by the heat of the […]

Breakfast and Brunch

Corn Muffins

Makes 2 dozen muffins These are classic corn muffins, perfect for toasting on a griddle with some salted butter or to dunk in a hot bowl of chili.

Side Dishes

Cornbread Dressing with Sausage and Green Chiles

Cornbread dressing (or stuffing, if that’s your style!) is a southern specialty that we love beside a tangy cranberry sauce and turkey, whether it’s roasted, fried, or grilled. We put poblanos and jalapeños in ours, but other green chiles, like serranos or hatch, will work great, too! Check out this […]

Pies and Tarts

Cornmeal Pastry Dough

Makes one disc, enough for one 9-inch single-crust pie This crispy cornmeal crust was developed to be used for both savory and sweet pies. It is especially good paired with stone fruit pies and galettes—just be sure to purchase a high-quality, stone-ground fine cornmeal for the best flavor. Sweet Cornmeal […]

Cakes, Desserts

Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes about 2 1/2 cups Lemon zest is a typical addition to cream cheese frosting, and we love it paired with carrot cake cookies, lemon cake, or sugar cookies. If you don’t feel like it will suit the rest of your recipe (maybe with Devil’s food cake, for example), you […]

Breakfast and Brunch

Cream Scones

Makes 12 scones These scones develop a wonderful texture if the dough is frozen overnight. Freeze individual scones, and then bake as many as needed straight from the freezer to accompany breakfast, brunch, or dinner.

Chef's Blog, Chef's Notes Plus

Creamy Recipes, Made even Better!

Some of the most decadent and delicious dishes we all love are milk-based. Scalloped potatoes, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, ice cream! All are flavored or fortified with a heavy pour of milk, cream, and/or butter. And while a creamy sauce is sort of perfect already, the most fool-proof way […]

Desserts

Crème Caramel

Makes 6 servings Crème caramel is a dessert that produces its own sauce, as long as you are patient with it. After the custard bakes, it needs to cool long enough for two things to happen: the custard must become firm enough to unmold, and the caramel underneath the custard […]