Making your own sourdough starter—what bakers call a levain—isn’t complicated. It just takes a week of daily feedings to capture wild yeast from the air and build a culture strong enough to leaven bread and pizza dough. This streamlined method uses less flour than traditional approaches and gets you baking sooner. Once your levain is…
The key to perfect candied orange peel is removing as much white pith as possible and blanching the peels three times to eliminate bitterness. You can use either a quartering method for substantial strips or a vegetable peeler for delicate ribbons. The result is tender, sweet, jewel-like strips of candied citrus with a sparkling sugar…
This cheesecake combines the best of three classic desserts – the richness of cheesecake, the warm spices of pumpkin pie, and the nutty crunch of pecan pie. The crust is made with graham crackers and chopped pecans, giving you a buttery, crunchy base. The filling is creamy, smooth, and loaded with pumpkin and warm spices…
Brown sugar candied pecans with cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg. The egg white creates a coating that holds the sugar mixture and helps it caramelize in the oven. The result is sweet, crunchy, not sticky, with warm spice notes. These work on cheese boards, salads, as a snack, or as a gift. They’re better…
This is beet vinaigrette—sweet, earthy, and vibrant magenta. Raw beets blended with honey, apple cider vinegar, garlic, and onion until smooth. It’s what you drizzle on salads when you want color and flavor. The beets give this vinaigrette its distinctive deep pink color and earthy sweetness. The honey balances the sharpness of the vinegar. The…
This is chimichurri, the Argentinian steak sauce. Bright, herbaceous, garlicky, with a sharp vinegar bite. It’s what you put on grilled meat at an Argentine asado—their version of barbecue. Chimichurri is simple: fresh herbs, garlic, vinegar, olive oil, red pepper flakes. No cooking, no emulsifying, no technique beyond pulsing everything in a food processor. The…
This is guacamole the way the Culinary Institute of America teaches it. Not smooth like baby food. Not overmixed into green mush. Chunky, with contrast—some pieces creamy, some pieces with texture. You can see what’s in it. The technique is simple: mash avocados, but don’t obliterate them. Add aromatics. Add citrus. Season properly. The orange…
The secret to good broccoli cheddar soup is making a real roux. No cornstarch shortcuts, no cream cheese trying to fake thickness. Just butter, flour, and actual sharp cheddar. Cook the broccoli until it’s tender but not mush, and keep the soup at 160°F after adding the cheese so it doesn’t break. That’s it.
Dry brining is just salt and time. No brine bucket, no mess, no complicated ingredients. Season your meat with salt ahead of time, let it sit in the fridge, and cook it. You get juicier, more flavorful, better-textured meat every time. Chefs have been salting meat ahead of time for centuries. It’s how you get…
These are the muffins you make when you want cinnamon flavor that actually tastes like cinnamon. Not a hint. Not a whisper. Full cinnamon. The batter is swirled—part plain, part cinnamon-heavy—so every bite has contrast. Chocolate chips for sweetness. Cinnamon sugar on top for crunch. They freeze perfectly, reheat in 20 seconds, and disappear faster…