baking

Better than a barrel of monkeys

Good monkey bread is a pile of warm pastry, with carmelized edges that are perfectly sweet and crunchy. Most people use a Bundt pan, because monkey bread climbs up the side of a pan as it bakes. But with many metal pans, you won't get perfectly carmelized edges--instead, you can wind up with tough bits of bread that just aren't as good. The Monkey Bread Baker, however, is designed specially for baking monkey bread. Rather than making another metal pan, the designer of the Monkey Bread Baker used glazed clay to make for more even heating, while keeping … Read more

Alphabet Cake Pan spells delicious

Looking at the Alphabet Cake Pan, the first thing I think is that I would be able to bake two (or three, or four...) different cakes in one pan--at the same time. I have often wrestled with the age-old question, which type of cake should I make? Ultimately, as I wait for the whichever cake I chose, I realize I should have made both. Now, with the Alphabet Cake Pan, I can.

The pan measures 14 inches long by 8.5 inches wide and comes with 12 hollow blocks. An imprinted grid on the bottom of the pan serves as … Read more

Bake cookies like a pro

I bake up a storm for the holidays. While I don't give out too many presents, I do make up a plate of cookies for just about everyone I know. That translates into quite a few cookies. One of the best tools for making cookies in quantities is a cookie press.

One such press is the Wilton Cookie Press Pro Ultra 2. Rather that trying to roll and cut dozens of cookies, you can just load your cookie dough into the press and shoot out as many cookies as you want.

The Wilton Cookie Press Pro Ultra 2 is … Read more

Add a fall touch to your baking

I start my fall baking fall with Halloween treats and then I'm onto Thanksgiving festivities. While it's easy to find Halloween cookie cutters and Christmas cake pans, though, it's surprisingly difficult to find baking gear with a simple fall theme. The Acorn Cakelet Pan is one of the best I've found; whatever batter you bake in it turns into an acorn-shaped treat, complete with details like stems.

Williams-Sonoma offers this high-quality pan, specially made for the company by Nordic Ware. It's cast aluminum with a nonstick finish--an absolute necessity if you want to get your … Read more

Bushels of flavor: Baked apples in moments

When I was little my grandmother would make baked apples as a special treat on cold nights, she'd load up apples with cinnamon and sugar and let them cook for what seemed like hours. I still crave a tasty baked apple every now and then, but I don't spend as much time in my kitchen as my grandmother spent in hers. The Apple Baker Set from Harriet Carter, however, lets me make baked apples in just a matter of minutes. The tasty treats this set, as it turns out, are healthier than quite a few other cold weather … Read more

Throw away your measuring spoons

For the chef who likes to keep their kitchen clean as they're cooking, traditional measuring spoons are a pain in the neck. Especially if you use them when you're baking, having to repeatedly wash your set of measuring spoons in between half teaspoons of baking soda, cinnamon, cumin, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper gets really annoying. I have the kind of measuring spoon with a slider that can be set to different increments, so I have to wash mine every time it's used while I'm cooking.

What's an elegant solution to this kind of water-wasting … Read more

Crimp edges with no stress

I cook and bake on a regular basis, but I tend to avoid making perogies, dumplings, and other dough-based meals because of the effort it takes to seal a whole pile of perogies. The first one always looks great, but by the third I have filling leaking out all over the counter. I like that sort of dish, though, so I've been on the lookout for a tool that can make the crimping process easier.

Sara's World Famous Perogy Maker is that tool. Not only does it handle crimping and sealing the edges of filled dough, it also … Read more

Halloween gadgets to give you the culinary creeps

When I think of Halloween, I remember the candy-laden pillowcases that I used to bring home late at night. My sister and I used to run through our front door peeling off our face masks and plastic costumes, and we would spend the better part of an hour comparing our piles of loot. I had a monster sweet tooth when I was a kid, but I'd rarely eat all of my candy. As I got older, I almost stopped eating the candy entirely, and only continued celebrating Halloween for the sake of dressing in costume and spending time with … Read more

Mesh-bottom pie pan lets off some steam

There is no shortage of options when it comes to determining the best way to bake any number of oven-based recipes. Take, for example, the noble pizza: there are pizza stones, pizza bricks, grilled pizzas, and even those perforated pizza pans, which are said to distribute heat more evenly. The mesh-bottom pie pan from BrylaneHome takes a cue from these pizza-cooking options.

The Crispy Crust Pie Pan promises to end soggy bottom pies by incorporating a mesh screen as the base of the pie pan. If it works anything like the similar perforated-pizza sheet, it should keep pies from getting … Read more