Breads & Baking

This is a fantastic sourdough bread that is not overly complex to prepare and bake.

Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 55 minutes

Rich honey and sugar form the base for these Swiss spiced biscuits, studded with almonds and candied citrus peel. A hint of Kirsch and a delicate powdered sugar glaze complete these chewy, flavorful treats.

Cook time: 23 minutes

This traditional Lebkuchen recipe yields a chewy gingerbread with a rich, spiced flavor. After a crucial overnight rest, the dough is rolled thin, baked, and then allowed to "ripen" for several days before decorating, making it perfect for building a festive gingerbread house.

Prep time: 1440 minutes Cook time: 15 minutes

This recipe offers a quick and easy way to make dairy-free, cheesy crackers using a food processor. Simply combine flour, oil, nutritional yeast, and water to form a dough, then cut into thin shapes and bake until golden and crunchy.

Cook time: 18 minutes

This recipe provides a simple method for making delicious artisan bread with minimal effort, primarily requiring time for a long, slow rise. It involves mixing basic ingredients, letting the dough rest for many hours, then baking it in a preheated dutch oven to achieve a sweet interior and a perfect, crispy crust. The resulting versatile loaf is ideal for any meal, from breakfast to dinner.

Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 45 minutes

This recipe is adapted from Donna Hay's recipe from her cookbook "Seasons". Here I put less sugar and substituted freshly ground whole spelt flour for the flour and brown sugar instead of caster sugar.

It was hard to decide which cake to make, this passion fruit cake or a fig upside down cake. We found both fruits at the Farmers Market today and bought both. I guess today it is one cake and maybe later in the week the other. Why not? Life should be enjoyed in many sweet ways. I love this cake. And the good thing is when you don't want to eat so much cake all by yourself you can give away slices of it and people will love you for it!

Prep time: 7 minutes Cook time: 50 minutes

These are perfect for a light and healthy summer dessert. They can be made using any kind of fresh fruit (go to the farmer's market to see what is in season!) and if you'd prefer a warm version of this, feel free to stew the fruit until soft. Apples, pears, nectarines, or peaches would be delicious for this and you could even add a bit of cinnamon for a bit more flavor. The lime tofu cream can be changed to a plain cream by decreasing the lime or lemon juice down to 1-2 tablespoons.

The Lemon Pastry Shell recipe comes from the Patricia Wells at Home in Provence cookbook and the tofu cream is adapted from a German tofu cookbook.

Cook time: 15 minutes

Using healthier alternatives to white flour makes it hard to create the traditional soft chewy chocolate chip cookies, but with this recipe I was finally able to achieve it.

 

Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 12 minutes

This is the first time ever that I successfully baked meringues. The trick is to bake them for a long time in low heat. I usually bake everything on 400 F. No wonder the meringues looked good from the outside but fell right into themselves when I took them out of the oven. This time around they were in the oven for 40 minutes on 300 F and were perfect!

Prep time: 2 minutes Cook time: 40 minutes

The secret of this basic bread dough is that flour is added to the liquids, rather than the other way round, which is what most regular bread recipes call for. Adding flour into the liquid allows the gluten and fibers to absorb more water, and as a result you get a more pliable dough and a moister, less crumbly bread. In other words, your bread tastes better! We learned this technique through Patricia Wells' excellent book At Home in Provence. In our house we use freshly ground spelt flour, but any good quality bread flour will work. Be creative and try to add other grains than wheat or spelt. Just keep wheat or spelt to 50% or more to provide gluten which makes your bread springy.

Prep time: 21 minutes Cook time: 40 minutes