Dear Friends and Fellow Bakers,

Welcome to the August 2024 Issue of Betterbaking.com! I trust this finds you well, happy-ish and enjoying summer. The fruit bounty is rolling in non-stop and there’s a heady harvest of locally grown produce along with all-season, from-all-around-the-world-all-the-time options. How to choose? Loyalty to what’s in season around the corner at a nearby farm means buy local but loyalty to taste (and price) means buy the best. Choices, choices. Most of the time, local produce wins in all ways.

This is the time of year I also stock up on jamming fruit. Nothing is as sweet as late field strawberries. What I do and am happy to share with you as one of my best tips is to freeze pre-measured sugar and berries that are ready to pop into the jam pot later on. I’ve given up making forty jars of jam at a time and instead, every few months I make a few fresh jars for me and mine (friends and family).I actually prefer making a small batch of preserves in December or February not just for the fragrance but the summery oasis it offers and the calm I feel standing over a jam pot. It’s one of those things (like caramel) you dare not rush.

Remembering Julia, one of my favorite Leo’s

August is, or August 15^th to be precise is also Julia Child’s birthday. Is there anyone who doesn’t remember or know of Julia Child and all she did to make generations later into ‘foodies’? She left an indelible mark and her cookbooks still sell well. There was also a charming movie called Julia and Julia, about pioneer food blogger Julie Powell  who did a Julia Child recipe-a-day for a year.

Personally, I remember Julia Child quite fondly and was lucky to meet her a couple of times. The first time I ‘met’ Julia was as a new food writer and in a tizzy about a food feature and after debating about the wisdom of it, I phoned her directly for help. How I got her landline number is another story and one that suits that last century when people had landlines and we had wire-spine telephone books.

I was working on an absolutely useless, silly assignment on capers aka “The Caper Caper” for the Detroit Free Press. I couldn’t find anything either interesting or unique on capers (no Google, just print cookbooks and the library not that it would have helped so lame a subject). Desperate (and audacious) I called, introduced myself and asked her for any insights and or a quote.

Frankly, there’s not too much unexplored territory when it comes to capers which to save you a time are the unfurled buds of the caper berry shrub that have been pickled in salt. Yes, I know: meh. Nora Ephron wrote in her book Heartburn, that there’s nothing that calls for capers that wouldn’t be better without them. For the most part I agree although I have to say, once in a while a few capers hidden in something such as a sandwich, Pasta Puttenesca and Caesar Salad as capers offer a certain savory perk, currently known as ‘umami’. Umami is just about the same thing, i.e. a weird note of salt and tang or je ne said quoi of flavor. IMHO I think no one really knew up until now how to best describe something that seems to have no origin or identifiable food tag so someone invented that catch-all word: umami (aka: I don’t know what this is actually).

I digress. Where was I? Oh yes, phoning Julia Child. In all fairness, I was in a post-partum fog post-birth-of-my-third-son and cold-calling Julia Child on a Saturday night seemed both brilliant and normal as many things did to me in that exceptional time did.  Incredibly she was so generous and was immediately responsive. Without skipping a beat (after the, ‘who are you exactly?”) she provided supplied me with some cool caper factoids, a few great quotes and a recipe (a pizza as I recall, that took capers on top).

When I oozed out my thanks she simply said, ‘Oh my dear, we are all colleagues. We are here to help each other’.  She actually said: “each other” – as if it is truly a democracy of food writers instead of the food fight it really is. Not long after that there was more from Julia, a bonus as it were. Julia’s assistant, Stephanie Hersh phoned me one day, not long after I published a piece on bread machine baking for the now-defunct Fine Cooking. I saw the area code from Cambridge, Massachusetts light up and wondered who it could be. Ms. Hersh said she was calling on behalf of Julia Child to congratulate me and pass on Ms.Child’s good words.

‘Before Ms. Goldman, I never even considered a bread machine but now, and thanks to her. Ms. Child would like to share on that now she can see the fine attributes of this appliance for bread making. Ms. Child wants you to know that you (me!) as a baking expert, had done the good thing for home bakers at home and at large, in legitimizing bread machines’ See what I mean: how could anyone not miss Julia?

So, consider this August 2024 issue  my salute to Julia Child on the occasion of her August 15h birthday. It’s also a nod to the 2024 Paris Olympics as you will note with the fabulous recipe for 2024 Paris Olympics Strawberry Cheesecake Tollhouse Cookies.

I have also been working hard on my Bread, Love cookbook. It’s going well but I must share with you that the Sourdough chapter is not large enough to merit being in its own book and so, fellow bakers,  Sourdough Bread Love will be the (closely followed) sequel. I thought I could mush it all together but Sourdough really is its own separate territory.

Other Kitchen Notes

In other news, I am delighted to offer you a free bonus feature on My Favorite Vanilla Perfumes. After my family, health, baking, and tango, I have a great passion for fragrances and vanilla, unsurprisingly is one of my favorites.

https://betterbaking.com/vanilla-perfumes-the-state-of-the-art

Finally we are knee deep (in a funky swamp known as the Seine) in the Paris Olympics which looks to me, (and this is saying it from a city that did host the Olympics as well) like the best ever.  In honour of the global village and spirit of well-being, and pastry chef colleagues across the pond, I present 2024 Paris Olympics Strawberry Cheesecake White Chocolate Tollhouse Cookies. Inspired by Levain (in New York) and Delambree (in Paris) I’ve created a tour de force gourmet cookie that is a gold-medal winner in its own right. It needs the best butter you can find and Nielsen Massey Vanillas  who let me know that bakeries all over Europe use their vanilla so changes are, Delamabree Bakery is using vanilla’s finest.

Betterbaking.com Two for One Special?

Btw – in September I am doing the two-for-one BB special (subscribe for one year, get two years of baking/all recipe access). If you’d like to partake early – let me know (email me) and I will advise you on how this can be arranged. Officially the special will be in September but just in case you’re hungry now….

Keep cool my friends, bake early in the day, stay thirsty and stay interesting or at least: curious.

From the woman that believes a little sugar melts big distances, happy baking from my kitchen to yours,

Marcy Goldman
Master Baker, Author, Publisher
www.Betterbaking.com
Est. 1997
Canada

Recipes August 2024

2024 Paris Olympic Cookies aka Strawberry Cheesecake White Chocolate Chip Tollhouse Cookies
https://betterbaking.com/recipe-items/strawberry-cheesecake-tollhouse-cookies/

Sour Cream Peach Muffins with Bakery Butter Crumb Topping
https://betterbaking.com/recipe-items/sour-cream-peach-muffins-with-bakery-butter-crumb-topping/
Is it my imagination or are peaches and apricots becoming better each season? This fruit duo in a tender sour cream muffin with a halo of crumb topping is the ultra-summery muffin. Feel free to swap nectarines for the peaches.

!!! Free Recipes !!!!
https://betterbaking.com/recipe-items/portuguese-rolls-or-papo-seco/
Portuguese Rolls and Bonus recipe: Piri Piri
Nothing beats an easy, crusty roll as a side roll or sandwich foundation and these authentic Portuguese rolls do the trick. They’re very popular here in Montreal where they’re served at Portuguese places specializing in Peri Peri chicken, a spicy roasted chicken that’s served in slices atop these rolls.They’re also perfect BLT buns! These also freeze well do a double batch is doing yourself a favour for those days you want a quick sandwich. I had another version of these in my cookbook A Passion for Baking and on this site but this recipe is a bit more streamlined and I think offers better results! Also there's a Bonus recipe if you scroll down!! Check out the Piri Piri Chicken to go with the rolls.

 Blackberry Rye Scones
https://betterbaking.com/recipe-items/blackberry-rye-scones-baking-marcy-goldman-bespoke-recipes/

I create a lot of recipes with blackberries because I love them and they bake up perfectly and along with blueberries (which you can swap in here) they are full of anti-oxidants. In this recipe, which is gently rustic with some rye flour, the berries burst forth from the scone throne and are absolutely delectable. Why I don’t bake more often with whole grains I don’t know