My holiday baking is best summed up by my attempt at fulfilling a boyfriend’s request for a gingerbread house. It cracked, it sagged, and it finally gave up and collapsed — much like the relationship. I tried my best, but ultimately, neither the baked goods nor the romance could be saved.
The truth is, I want to be someone who bakes for the holidays, but I feel stymied. How can I bake when life is chaos? How can I bake when vanilla beans are so expensive? And how can I bake when no one will like what I’ve made anyway?
So, instead, I’m that person who guiltily contributes a box of Trader Joe’s best and hopes to sneak by unnoticed. Each year, I resolve that this season will be different, but this year I decided to make it happen. For inspiration, I gathered wisdom from several baking wizards.
Cookie shirkers of the world, unite: Together, we can face unafraid the plans that we’ve made. Here are three common obstacles and how to get beyond them.
Obstacle No. 1: Disorganization
However full your calendar, it probably overflows during the holidays. Baking can feel like an unwelcome extra bit of insanity, but it doesn’t have to. Sarah Jampel, recipe developer and test kitchen manager for King Arthur Baking, says that pre-measuring dry ingredients for your recipes cuts prep time significantly: “Just be sure to label the containers with contents and amounts so you don’t mix them up.”
A one-bowl sheet-pan cookie so easy a child taught me how to make it
She also advises printing recipes and noting bake temperatures, times and pan sizes (or other required equipment, like cutters, sifters, mixers and thermometers) at the top of the page. “You’ll avoid accidentally baking your cookies at too high of a temperature, you’ll make sure you have all of the equipment you need, and you can make a list of [baking order], starting with the lower temperature bakes and working your way up,” she said.
Working ahead also can relieve holiday gridlock. “You can even start holiday baking [early] and freeze things,” said Dorothy Kern, who blogs at Crazy for Crust. If you have storage space, you can make most cookie doughs and refrigerate or even freeze them. If you want to actually bake ahead and freeze, brownies and bar cookies are particularly good choices, Kern said.
Sugar and chocolate are pricey enough, but add in specialty ingredients and it could break your budget. That’s why Dan Pelosi, food and lifestyle creator of GrossyPelosi, encourages the inexperienced to start with simple, well-tested recipes. “My Peanut Butter Blossoms use normal pantry ingredients, even for non-bakers,” he said. “The hardest part is peeling the wrappers off the chocolate Kisses, and they are always the most popular cookies on the table.”
If you must have a pricey ingredient, Pelosi tries friends and family first, then encourages buying just the minimum. “Go to a bulk store and see if you can buy just the exact amount you need,” he said. If you belong to a neighborhood Buy Nothing group or have friends to ask (the women in my local She Runs This Town are so helpful), see if someone has what you need and wouldn’t mind offering up a bit — obviously, in exchange for some cookies.
Paul Arguin and Chris Taylor, authors of the new “Fabulous Modern Cookies,” support a well-placed swap of like for like, saving money and frazzle. “For example, macadamia nuts are delicious, but also very pricey. Substituting another type of nut, like cashews, is smart,” Arguin said. “Will the cookie taste exactly the same? No, but if you’re saving $10 per pound, it might be good enough.”
While essential ingredients, such as almond paste, are absolutes, Jampel pointed out that some ingredients can be skipped completely, if not subbed. “Check out the recipe’s reviews for successful substitutions,” she added.
Obstacle No. 3: Fear of failure
Ultimately, people like cookies and they’re not going to blast you for your efforts (forgetting a dear friend who called the chocolate chip cookies I made for his birthday “a little dry”). “We see baking as a form of love,” Taylor said. “If you are baking with love, it doesn’t matter if your cookies end up a little misshapen or darker at the edges.”
They also mentioned that cookies are much easier to make the second time around, once you’ve done a trial batch. “If you have the time, budget and patience, you can remake anything you’re not happy with.”
But if you’re still feeling less than confident, Kern has the solution: Employ sweet camouflage. “Slap on some frosting and a generous amount of colorful sprinkles and no one will notice,” she said.
“Release expectations of perfection,” Pelosi said. “Let a mess happen. People can taste the energy that goes into what you are baking, so make sure it’s delicious.”
If the mood stays light and sweet, the cookies will be the same.
Lots of families have recipes passed down through generations, cooking tips and flavor-boosting techniques that are basically sacred. So Redditor u/OoopsieWhoopsie asked, “What Are Some Of Your ‘Secret’ Family Cooking Tips?” Here’s what people said, and I’m personally looking forward to trying some of these in my own kitchen.
1.
“My family owns a catering business, which was started by my grandparents who came to the states from Portugal. One thing I’ve learned that greatly improve my meals is to add butter to your noodles when making saucy pasta like spaghetti in tomato sauce.”
2.
“My grandma would save butter wrappers in the fridge and use the leftover butter on them for greasing dishes when she baked. Now I can’t help but stockpile the wrappers. It really comes in so handy.”
3.
“Mustard powder in mac ‘n’ cheese. It’s so necessary, otherwise mac tastes bland even when you use sharp cheddar.. I also put in a bit of cayenne pepper.”
4.
“Put a little fish sauce into any stew or sauce that needs an umami boost. It’s basically anchovies in liquid form.”
5.
“A tablespoon of ground coffee in brownies really kicks up the chocolate flavor a notch. The higher quality the coffee beans, the better.”
6.
“Sprinkle sea salt on cookies right before or right after baking. The extra salt brings out the flavors more and helps balance out the sweetness.”
7.
“I’m from a Midwestern Scandinavian family, and I have learned that cream of mushroom soup is kind of a universal solution for improving any dish.”
8.
“My pumpkin pies are very well-regarded in my friend circle, but the secret is the crust: It’s just crushed up Trader Joe’s Triple Ginger cookies and melted butter.”
9.
“Very gently fold whipped egg whites into pancake batter with a whisk. It makes the pancakes so much better, fluffier, and more decadent.”
10.
“In my family we mix a heaping scoop of mayonnaise into cake batter, whether it’s scratch or from a box.”
11.
“I use almond extract in pretty much all of my baked goods. Often, if a recipe calls for vanilla extract, I will either sub almond for all of it or use half and half.”
12.
“There is no better chocolate chip cookie recipes than the recipe on the back of the Tollhouse chocolate chip bag. Follow it to the letter. Everyone thinks I have the best of the best chocolate chip cookies.”
13.
“Add pickle juice to tuna or chicken salad. This adds just the right amount of tartness.”
14.
“Add a packet of vanilla pudding when you’re making cake. You can actually substitute any flavor of pudding. It makes the cake so much more moist.”
15.
“I use vanilla or plain full fat yogurt in my bathing mixture for French toast in place of milk. It turns out perfectly every time.”
16.
“If you’re making bread bowls, don’t hollow them out. Rather, pack down the inner bread layer to create a thicker bottom. This will prevent leaks and sogginess when you serve your soup or whatever you’re making.”
17.
“When I’m cooking anything that requires breadcrumbs, I use crushed up chicken flavored Stove Top stuffing. I also use them as mini croutons in my salads.”
18.
“In my family, a decent aged balsamic vinegar adds depth to almost anything you’re making. I use aged balsamic in literally everything from chili to spaghetti. It’s a fantastic addition, and you only need a tiny bit to make the flavors pop.”
19.
“Add a pinch of nutmeg to anything with dairy in it (for example, cream sauces). You can’t taste the nutmeg but it makes the dairy richer and taste better.”
20.
“When I make burgers I mix a packet of Lipton onion soup mix and a couple dashes of nutmeg in with the ground beef. I let it sit for at least an hour or two in the fridge before I start grilling. It gives the meat a nice little oomph over just a plain salt/pepper seasoning.”
21.
“Whenever I’m making a cheese sauce, I add a piece of processed cheese like Kraft singles. It basically turns it into Velveeta. It’s revolutionized my homemade mac ‘n’ cheese game.”
22.
“My wife was stunned to learn that after 25 years together, she only just found out that I put lemon juice in my pancake batter. It’s the ultimate melt-in-your-mouth pancake trick.”
23.
“Bacon always comes out better if you cook it in an oven, but the key is putting the bacon into the oven before turning the oven on. Preheating the oven ahead of time will make the bacon stick to the baking sheet, so putting it in as the oven preheats will mean that the fat renders out more easily (and therefore doesn’t stick).”
24.
“My best tip for homemade mashed potato is adding some cream cheese into the mix. Sometimes I’ll add veggie or chive cream cheese for a bit of extra flavor. So good!”
What’s a family recipe trick that makes a serious difference in your cooking? Tell us in the comments!
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What if, instead of always chasing after a better meatball, you found your forever one? What if you had a pound cake that made your forget all the other pound cakes? After creating one of the most popular food blogs in the world and publishing two best-selling cookbooks and thousands of recipes, Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman now wants to help you settle down.
For “Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files,” Perelman once again offers the kind of real world, real family cooking that makes her such a trusted muse to millions of fellow home cooks. It’s a book that understands that feeding yourself and others is an act of love (but some nights, also, an act of juggling). Perelman joined us recently for a spirited conversation about what makes a dish a “keeper” and the deep joy of a fish spatula.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You have published thousands of recipes. I’ve tried to cook my way through most of them myself. To now call a book “Keepers,” there’s an implication of a stopping point in a recipe. There’s an implication of a curated capsule collection. What does a “keeper” mean to you, Deb?
I think of it like, you’re waving the fork a little bit and you’re like, “This is the one. This is the apple cake I want to make. This is the pound cake. This is the spaghetti and meatballs.”
“A lot of us just want to find the recipe, and then just keep making that recipe again and again.”
I was trying to chase that feeling with these recipes because it comes up a lot. I think a lot of us, we’re not really interested in the forever hunt for the perfect spaghetti and meatballs. We really just want to find the recipe and then just keep making that recipe again and again. That was the energy that drove me to write this book. I wanted to collect as many recipes where I felt we had this, “That’s a keeper” moment as possible.
You were out there in this space in 2006, with no culinary training. You really are an internet veteran. What advice would you give to somebody who wants to do what you do now?
I think you should do it. Hopefully, looking at me, you should see that anyone can do it. If you have something to say, something to offer, and there’s something you want to do that you don’t see out there, I think you should go out there and do it. You should not feel that you have to do it a certain way. I don’t think anyone is going to be excited to see another thing that’s exactly like the last thing. So go and do it the way that feels fresh to you. Because I think there’s always space for that. There’s always more room.
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Let’s talk about the things that are in this book that distinguish it from your prior books. It has this particular voice and energy. You’re raising older kids now. What was the driving force when you were putting together the recipes for this one?
I was definitely thinking about longevity. I always would say, “Here’s the cool thing, let me tell you about something fun.” But we were home a lot in the last couple of years and it really got me thinking, “Do I have a chicken parm recipe that I want my kids to make? Why do I not use most chicken parm recipes? And what do I wish they were?” I knew more than any other book that my kids were 100 percent going to be reading this, and asking to make things from it. It’s not a kid cooking cookbook, it is not a pandemic cookbook. But I definitely was thinking, “What is a really good collection of a hundred recipes that we should want to have and hopefully use again and again?” I understand that not every recipe is going to be a forever recipe for every person, but I think if you’ve found a few in there, it’s a pretty good value.
We live now in a culture where there’s such an emphasis on novelty and what recipe has just gone viral. But I think it can give you a feeling of food FOMO in our lives, where I’ve got to be chasing that next thing The idea of settling on something and putting a ring on it can be hard. How do you overcome that?
It’s a little bit terrifying. What, I’m never going to want to change this? I’m never going to learn something new? I might. I might, ten years from now, say, “Actually if you do this step, I think that’s really cool.” But I think that I’ve gotten much better at understanding where that keeper moment is. “This is the one. I know it. This is it.” I’m better at getting there and I’m better at recognizing it when it’s there and just knowing, I’m just going to stop right here. I don’t want to change this. This to me is the right balance of effort, of ease of shopping, of number of steps, number of bowls. Maybe I could add something by adding another pan to saute a topping, but I don’t want to, because I won’t make it as often. I’m not going to make it on a Thursday. I’m going to remember I have to take out a second skillet right when I’m tired of cooking and I don’t want to do that.
One of the things that’s been a great advantage for me is that I just had all of these years of practicing putting these recipes out and hearing where people lose interest. And hearing where we just don’t even feel like making it anymore, and trying to stop before we get there to keep it within what we’re willing to do.
A good gut check for me is that I am like, “I don’t feel like making this tonight. This feels like a lot of work. I hate that last step.” It’s a little thing, but we all do it. Even at the grocery store, just the thought of one extra step or just that one bit pushes you over the edge to making tuna melts instead. Which is, by the way, a very wonderful thing that you should make if you’re craving them. But it can be just the smallest thing that pushes you off the edge, and you leave that recipe and you don’t come back.
You’re going to get people reading this book who are coming as beginners. What would you say from start to finish, appetizer to dessert, would be your dream dishes for a beginner who’s just getting comfortable in the kitchen?
I want you to make the green salad. I feel like the green salad is such a thing. Wait, I don’t need a recipe for a green salad? That’s why it’s taken me 16 years to write a recipe for a green salad. I realize I’ve learned so many things along the way. And you’re only going to have to read it once. You’re going to know it after that. Just these little tips about the easiest way to wash lettuce. The easiest way to dry lettuce. The easiest way to dress salad in advance. The best way to handle heavier ingredients in salads. So I want you to start with that because I feel like once you have that, you’ll tuck it away forever and you’ll be able to apply it to any salad. It’ll hopefully stay with you.
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Assuming you eat meat, I want to give you something really simple to make. And I’m thinking of the fettuccine with white ragu. It’s so few ingredients, but it smells unbelievable when you’re making it. It doesn’t seem like something that’s going to turn into what it does. You’re literally taking ground pork and a little bit of garlic and just a little bit of seasoning and it turns into this entire sauce. It’s a really cool technique. And it’s really nice to know that if I have a box of fettuccine and a pound of ground pork and just a couple other things, I could make this incredible, cozy, comforting dish that will steal the show, but also be humble in it’s own way. Not being too, “Look at me.” It’s definitely not a “Look at me” dish.
And what about a dessert?
Ooh, what should we make? I don’t want you to get too mad at me if it’s difficult. I love the Linzer tart so much. Sorry, it’s a raspberry crostada. It looks like a Linzer tart. It’s not hard to make the recipe. It’s fully followable by anybody. But I think it’s such a classic thing that’s so nice to have in your repertoire. It’s like a nice jam tart. I like it because it goes well with tea and cake. It goes well as dessert, not too sweet, but it also is just a really nice thing to have on the counter. And it’s very classic. So it’s a nice thing to tuck into your repertoire. When I was thinking of desserts, of course, immediately I thought of the Rice Krispies bars, which are one of your absolute all time bangers, Deb. When people talk to you about the recipes of yours that have changed the game for them, what are the ones that people say, “Oh my God, Deb, this is the killer”?
I definitely hear that about the Rice Krispies treats. They were in my first book too. I love it because it’s just more butter, more salt, and you brown it, but it shows up. I always make them around this time of year for parties because it’s such a nice candy replacement too.
“I want everybody to make the French toast forever.”
I am secretly hoping that the cover dish will have that effect on people too, because I was just playing around with ingredients I liked. Then I was like, but what if I just did this? All of a sudden I had this absolute luxury of a vibrant green pasta sauce that became the easiest thing to make. It’s the kind of thing that you’re going to make once and I don’t think you’re going to need to look at the recipe after that because it’s so few ingredients and you’re just going to have it down. What else? I want everybody to make the French toast forever. It’s just a baguette French toast. But a couple things just make it so much easier and so much better. I have not made another French toast recipe since I started making it this way a few years ago.
One of the things I really love about Smitten Kitchen is that so often what I have relied on it for has been just one ingredient. One thing. The crispy egg. The roasted sweet potato. There are certain things that just get one thing down and you can do it right. For people who are starting to cook or just tired of cooking, do you have one thing, or one way to make a thing, that you figure out and you’re good to go?
I love the braised winter squash wedges in the book so much because you are just taking fat pieces of winter squash and you are cutting into big wedges. Or you could maybe have somebody cut into wedges for you, depending on where you get it, because it’s nice to use an oversized one. And then we’re just going to roast it. It starts out so simply. We just roast it, we flip it over, we roast it again, then we add a little bit of liquid to the pans. Some broth, some apple cider vinegar and some garlic cloves. What happens, it drinks it up a little bit. You’ve got this otherworldly flavor. You’ve got a little puddle of pan sauce in there. I literally spoon it over plain yogurt, that’s the sauce. We add some arugula and it’s just this fork and knife squash centerpiece of a meal. But you’ve started with the most basic ingredients, stuff you probably have around.
I want us to make that. That’s what we should be eating for lunch in November. This is what we should be eating for lunch today. Go cut open a jack o’lantern.
See my thing is when you talk about techniques and things that slow you down, it’s cutting a squash. I love squash, but cutting a squash?
Well, It’s scary. Always cut against a flat surface. Even when I’m cutting a pumpkin, I will cut a little bevel on the bottom, just cut a little edge off, and now it is solid on the board. And when you cut down, it’s not going to waffle. Don’t try to cut into a soccer ball. Cut a little edge off the bottom, get it solid on the surface and then you can really push down on the knife if you need to.
In the book, when you talk about the tatin and how tatin was your nemesis for a long time. Even now, do you have other things that are just intimidating or too much work? You have taken on some really big culinary challenges for a home cook who makes family dinners.
I love to do a mix because I think it’s fun when you’re feeling that craving for a bigger project. I think it’s really fun. “I’ve always wanted to make a Russian honey cake” or “I’ve always wanted to make a classic lasagna bolognese with the noodles, everything.” But I have never gotten croissants right at home. I’ve gotten them okay. I’ve never gotten them a fraction as good as the ones I can buy near here. You can follow a recipe, you can do it exactly right. You can do the right waiting times. But there’s a bit of artistry. There’s a bit of finesse at the end where you really need to get them on this final rise till they’re kind of steamed under a dome. It’s very hard to do in a home kitchen and it’s rarely going to taste as good.
I’m always tweaking. I mean, the idea of a New Yorker making bagels at home is crazy. I have so many bagel shops. I can point to a couple right now. I’m so close to bagel shops, but I love tweaking it at home and I’m working on trying to find the easiest way for those of us who do not have bagel shops within a block away to make it at home from as few extra steps, as little extra stress as possible. Because I think it’s a fun trick to have up your sleeve.
Deb, I have gone on the pretzel journey with you over and over. I want to master it.
Your keeper recipe. You’re like, if I know this is going to work a hundred percent of the time, I will just tuck this one away. And then every time it’s a Super Bowl party or the World Series and I want to make soft pretzels, I’ll just make these. If you knew it was going to be reliable and you knew it would work every time and you knew somebody had tested it to the hilt, you would just use that recipe. You would stop with the others.
I would. I’m still seeking.
It’s my dream. I want the one. I want the one in people and I want the one in recipes.
Because I love whenever you peek into your kitchen or your pantry. What is your ride or die kitchen tool?
I love the small offset spatula. I use it to put peanut butter and jelly on kids’ sandwiches. I use it to spread cream cheese. I use it to level my flour when I’m scooping it out of a canister. I also really, I want everybody to stop right now and go buy yourself a flexible fish spatula. I don’t know that I’ve ever used it for fish. I use it for everything else.
The 3 Billion People Who Can’t Afford a Healthy Diet
While they aren’t often the focus of news media, hunger and undernourishment are problems plaguing millions of people every day.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 3 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, an additional 112 million more people than in 2019. The increase was partly because of rising food prices, with the average cost of a healthy diet rising by 3.3{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889} from 2019 levels.
As of August 2022, the FAO food price index was up 40.6{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889} from average 2020 levels. Unless income levels increased by a similar magnitude, the healthy diet crisis is likely to have worsened, especially in low-income countries experiencing rampant food inflation.
Using data from the FAO, the above infographic maps the share of people unable to afford a healthy diet in 138 different countries as of 2020 (latest available data).
The Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet
According to the FAO, a healthy diet is one that meets daily energy needs as well as requirements within the food and dietary guidelines created by the country.
The (un)affordability is measured by comparing the cost of a healthy diet to income levels in the country. If the cost exceeds 52{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889} of an average household’s income, the diet is deemed unaffordable.
Here’s a look at the share of populations unable to afford a healthy diet, and the cost of such a diet around the world:
Country
Percent of population unable to afford a healthy diet
In 52 countries, more than half of the population cannot afford a healthy diet. The majority of these are in Africa, with the rest located across Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.
By contrast, in four countries—Azerbaijan, Iceland, Switzerland, and the UAE—everyone is able to afford a healthy diet. The picture is similar for most European and developed high-income countries, where more than 95{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889} of the population can afford a healthy diet.
When the percentages are translated into numbers, Asia contains the most number of people unable to afford a healthy diet at 1.89 billion, of which 973 million people are in India alone. Another 1 billion people are in Africa, with around 151 million people in the Americas and Oceania.
While hunger is a worldwide concern, it is particularly acute in African countries, which cover all of the top 20 spots in the above table.
Africa’s Deepening Food Crisis
In many countries across sub-Saharan Africa, more than 90{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889} of the population cannot afford a healthy diet.
Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly susceptible to extreme climate events and the resulting volatility in food prices. Roughly one-third of the world’s droughts occur in the region, and some sub-Saharan countries are also heavily reliant on imports for food.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has deepened the crisis, with many African countries importing over 50{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889} of their wheat from the two countries in conflict. The rising food prices from this supply chain disruption have resulted in double-digit food inflation in many African nations, which means that more people are likely to be unable to afford healthy diets.
The Horn of Africa region at the Eastern tip of Africa is particularly in turmoil. All the countries in the region are reliant on wheat from Russia and Ukraine, with Eritrea (100{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889}) and Somalia (>90{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889}) high up in the import dependency chart. Additionally, the region is facing its worst drought in 40 years alongside ongoing political conflicts. As a result, 22 million people are at risk of starvation.
Population Growth and Food Insecurity
In November of 2022, the global population is projected to surpass 8 billion people, and many of the fastest growing countries are also food-insecure.
By 2050, the global population is likely to increase by 35{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889}, and to meet the growing demand for food, crop production will need to double. Given that agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, this increase in crop production will also need to be environmentally sustainable.
As the impacts of climate change intensify and food demand increases, reducing food waste, building climate-resilient agricultural infrastructure, and improving agricultural productivity will all play a key role in reducing the levels of food insecurity sustainably.
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