2021 Baking Highlights
2020 was the year I dove headfirst into sourdough bread on a random whim and cooked more than I ever had before. Inspired by cookbooks, my job, and the produce and food community around me, 2021 was the year I leaned into my culinary curiosities and grew as a baker. And what a fruitful year it has been! I started incorporating inclusions in my bread, I made various curds from different fruits, I made my first tiered cake for a friend’s birthday, and my “food ideas” notebook continues to fill up with baking fantasies I can’t wait to bring to life. This year, I shared a lot of my baking with folks and I’m so thankful for those opportunities. If you’ve eaten anything I’ve baked, just know that your support means the world to me!
And while improvement and discovery are evident in most of the things I cooked and baked this year, what lies ahead- all the knowledge to acquire and practice to be had- is what really excites me.
So here is a round-up of some of my favorite things I’ve baked this year and the recipes that left the biggest impressions on me as a baker and an eater. I’ll try to include recipes where possible so y’all can have a go at them too!
The Technical Challenges
When people ask what I like most about baking, one of the first things that comes to mind is that I like using my hands to build, mold, and create. Baking can be very technical, and while that is sometimes the most challenging aspect of it, it is also the most gratifying. I’ve always been a visual learner, drawn to creative outlets like drawing and ceramics, so it’s no wonder the crafty challenges of baking are what I like the most. All that to say, some of my favorite bakes from this year were the most technical! Tartine’s Morning Bun (above left) recipe probably tops the list of non-bread bakes for me- I can’t get enough of laminated pastries with warm spices and citrus. Hand laminating is always a fun and rewarding challenge and these buns are just the best. It’s absolutely a recipe I’ll keep in my back pocket for special occasions.
Another technical group of bakes I did this year was pies. I’d never made my own pie crust until this year! I was always so intimidated by them, but I had this urge to do it after following Erin McDowell for several months on Instagram and being amazed by all the pie possibilities. I made five pies this year: Berry Apple-Butter Pie with All Butter Crust, Nectarine, Blueberry, Cherry Pie with a buckwheat crust (above right, recipe from Tartine), Peach Pie with Brown Butter Cinnamon Streusel, Tahini Pumpkin Pie with Black Sesame Crust (recipe from Pieometry by Lauren Ko), and a Caramelized Honey Pumpkin Pie (recipe from Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz). I loved playing with crust designs on these pies, especially trying to mimic Lauren Ko’s visually stunning patterns! I also attempted some lattice designs as well as cut-outs. I can officially say I am no longer intimidated by pie dough, just excited to keep experimenting with new fillings and designs.
Flour Explorations
One of my new year’s resolutions for 2022 is to learn more about flour. This last year was the beginning of that education, thanks to some great books and the baking and grain community on Instagram. Living close to flour mills Red Tail Grains, Lindley Mills, and Carolina Ground inspired me to learn more and play around with different types of flour, as well as opened my eyes to the fact that flours and grains are no different than other forms of seasonal, regional produce. I baked with rye, buckwheat, and spelt for the first time this year, making breads, cookies, cakes, and pies. But the recipes that made a lasting impact on me were two rye cookie recipes: Aaron Hutcherson’s 100% Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies (above right) and Claire Saffitz’s Thrice Baked Rye Cookies (above left). The rye flour in the chocolate chip cookies gave them the most unique and unexpected flavor: earthy-sweet, contrasting wonderfully with the sweetness and bitterness from the chocolate. Top them off with flaky salt and you’ve got a great cookie. The thrice baked rye cookie recipe introduced me to the idea of toasting flour before using it to make dough. Not only does this add complex flavor to the cookie, but it also inhibits gluten development which makes the crumbliest, most tender, perfect cookie you can imagine. The recipe suggests using flours such as spelt or buckwheat for variations, something I am eager to try!
The Community Bake
This year, I had the opportunity to bake a dessert for an event at the farm I worked and lived on when I first moved to North Carolina. I felt so grateful for the chance to make something so many people would eat and hopefully enjoy while celebrating fall at the farm. This job challenged me, as it was my first large-scale bake! I decided to make lemon bars with a brown butter, spelt shortbread cookie base. My goal was to use local ingredients when possible- flour from Lindley Mills in Graham, NC and eggs and a grape jelly topping from Woodcrest Farm. I learned a lot from the process, some lessons more obvious than others such as, make sure to triple check that you have all the ingredients you need before starting, and that using different baking tools will result in different end products, while using the same tools will result in similar end products, and (perhaps most important) you cannot rush baking. Sometimes you just need to be in the weeds, mess up, and work through obstacles to really learn what you need to learn. While I certainly was nervous about successfully executing this bake, I was so excited to contribute to a community event with my food. The sense of community and ability to connect with others over food is one of the things I love the most about baking. I’m forever grateful to the folks at Woodcrest Farm for asking me to be a part of their event.
Favorite Loaves
My favorite thing to bake is sourdough bread. Thanks to beautiful bread books lent to me by coworkers or thoughtfully gifted to me by friends, I had endless inspiration for loaves this year. Honorable mention goes to Honeyed Spelt Oat Levain and Sweet Potato Levain from Sarah Owens, as well as Tartine’s recipe for a Whole Wheat Loaf. But there were some breads that really floored me with their flavor. First place would have to go to the Walnut Loaf (top right) I made using Tartine’s Country Loaf variation. I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something so wonderful that happens when lightly toasted walnuts are baked into sourdough bread. While the dough ferments, a chemical reaction occurs that tinges the dough slightly purple, making the loaf even more magical. The recipe recommends adding walnut oil for a more intense flavor- something I’m excited to try in the future. Another Tartine Country Loaf variation I loved was the Sesame Loaf (top left). I used hulled and unhulled sesame seeds and really enjoyed the blast of earthy, toasty sesame flavor in each bite. I rolled the loaves in seeds as well, creating a delicious crust. Inspired by one of my favorite loaves at work, I purchased some beautiful wheat berries from Red Tail Grains and mixed them into Tartine’s Country Loaf (bottom right). I’d like to take a moment to give a shout out to the Country Loaf recipe in Tartine Bread, as it’s such a great base for so many different flavors and very easy to riff on. Not found in Tartine Bread is another favorite from the year, the Lumberjane Loaf (bottom left), a recipe from Sarah Owens’ award-winning sourdough baking book appropriately titled, Sourdough. I improvised a little with this recipe, as I didn’t have millet and swapped in walnuts for pecans, but was blown away by the first bite. Full of nuts, poppy seeds, and apricots, the bread tasted like a luxurious granola bar. I was too impatient to wait for the loaf to cool down before trying it, so the apricots were still wonderfully gooey. You know it’s good bread when you don’t want to add anything to it, just cut off a slice and enjoy.
I can’t help but smile while reflecting on all of the baking I’ve done this year. I feel very lucky to live in an area that is so ripe with food inspiration and I look forward to seeing where it all takes me. Thanks for following, and I hope you have a safe and happy New Year.