Baking the Best of It

A home baking podcast hosted by two best friends and lifelong bakers!

Gingerbread: From Armenian Monks to Houses 12/22/2024

Gingerbread: From Armenian Monks to Houses Happy Holidays and Happy Season 1 Finale! We've officially brought our gingerbread house success rate up from 0% to 50%. In this episode, we share the history of gingerbread with each other and build a festive little house. We hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable winter holiday season, and we'll be back in 2025 for season 2! We've got a bonus episode coming on our patreon all about the Christmassy bakes in our families, and we'll have more bonus content and recipes coming in the new year. Support us on Patreon: Follow us on instagram: @bakingbestpod /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/34571135

Baking Brian Jacques' Redwall 12/07/2024

Baking Brian Jacques' Redwall The food in fantasy fiction is so important, and Brian Jacques was among the most memorable fantasy authors to write great feasts. These books are beloved by Roxie, and Fiona is a newcomer to them, so we compare our perspectives and discuss the series as a whole and the food in particular. We bake one of Redwall Abbey's beloved nut breads and enjoy it with a cheese, apple, and sage terrine! /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/34324745

Pietatoes and Molasses 11/16/2024

Pietatoes and Molasses If you've been listening for a while, you've probably gathered that we are pie afficionados. So we've finally done The Pie Episode! We also developed a new pie recipe based on Potatoes and Molasses from Over the Garden Wall (yes). This pie episode is truly exhaustive enough that we go above and beyond to make a pie nobody asked for. /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/33955152

Halloween Food History & Brain Cake 10/31/2024

Halloween Food History & Brain Cake Roxie takes Fiona through some Halloween treat history before they bake a Charlotte Royale together! Come for the brain cake, stay for the hot takes about Halloween baking and style over substance. Happy Halloween! /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/33698322

How Did The Bánh Mì Come To Be? 10/18/2024

How Did The Bánh Mì Come To Be? The Bánh Mì is a perfect sandwich, a glorious harmony of crunch, acid, fat, freshness, and, of course: the shattery-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside bread. You may know that France's colonization (derogatory, always derogatory) of Vietnam contributed to the existence of the Bánh Mì, but the exact details of how are quite specific and, we think, fascinating. Fiona takes Roxie through the history before we detail how we made our own Bánh Mì bread and sandwiches! /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/33518682

An Apple Episode That Is Definitely Not About Pie 10/04/2024

An Apple Episode That Is Definitely Not About Pie This episode might be a little bit about pie. Our intentions here were to cover autumnal apple bakes and recipes that are not apple pie, and we did do that! But because we're so passionate about pie, piessonate, we also talk quite a bit about pie. Plus, a little something called Concord Grape Corner. Cozy up with a mug of tea or mulled cider and enjoy! A good starter pie crust recipe: Sources: Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, edited by Darra Goldstein, Oxford University Press, 2015 /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/33336607

More Work for Cake 09/20/2024

More Work for Cake The ratio of historical context to baking content in this extra-long episode is approximately 75/25 because we feel that's appropriate! Angel food cake is so much more than a dry ring of fatless sponge found on grocery store shelves across the United States, it's a distillation of the historical role of "housewife" and how it evolved post-Industrial Revolution. Fiona tells Roxie about how domestic labor roles have evolved in Europe and the United States over the last 800 years and how that evolution relates to capitalism, racism, and gender. Plus, Roxie learns to stop worrying and love angel food cake. Sources: More Work for Mother by Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Basic Books, 1983 The Farmer's Wife by Helen Rebanks, Harper Horizon, 2023 The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Oxford University Press, 2015 https://nonprofitquarterly.org/work-requirements-are-rooted-in-the-history-of-slavery/ /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/33147717

Getting Silly with Long Breads 08/30/2024

Getting Silly with Long Breads The story of the baguette involves Napoleonic military garb, microbes, (alleged) knife fights on underground construction sites, and ultimately a very tasty bread. Come get your crouquissant on with us. Sources: /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/32804032

Cheesecake is Forever 08/16/2024

Cheesecake is Forever The first cheesecake is closer in time to the construction of the Pyramids of Giza than it is to the creation of the Basque Cheesecake in the 1980s. To make fresh cheese desserts is to be human. We cover cheesecake past, present, and future and make a Basque Cheesecake! Sources: The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Oxford University Press, 2015 /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/32616467

The Cookie One 08/02/2024

The Cookie One The most important part of this episode is the discussion of UK tax code. We get into confusing cookie taxonomy, chocolate tempering, the bizarre hardtac of the Roman centurions, and bake three fabulous and very different cookies! Sources: The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Oxford University Press, 2015 /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/32417882

Tea Party Tier 3: Battenberg Cake & Rhubarb-Custard Tartlets 07/19/2024

Tea Party Tier 3: Battenberg Cake & Rhubarb-Custard Tartlets Part 3 of our introductory miniseries on our perfect tea party: Welcome to the Sugar Tier! The stars of this tier are a strawberry and lemon Battenberg cake and a rhubarb & custard mini tartlet. Lots of history in this one, as well as some diversions into our hot takes on fondant, decoration, and pie crust. Sources: /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/32221257

Tea Party Tier 2: Scones & Shortbread 07/05/2024

Tea Party Tier 2: Scones & Shortbread AKA The Butter Tier. We talk you through classic English scones and unravel the history and technique behind clotted cream, strange and wonderful beast that she is. Plus, lavender & lime shortbread! Chef John's Clotted Cream: Mary Berry's Scones: /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/32018742

Tea Party Tier 1: Bread & Finger Sandwiches 06/21/2024

Tea Party Tier 1: Bread & Finger Sandwiches Our first full episode and part 1 of our series on tea party baking! Some tea history to set the stage before we get into tier 1 of our 3-tiered tea party menu: our favorite sandwich bread and our twist on classic tea sandwiches. Sources for this episode: The Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson, Edited by Tom Jaine, Oxford University Press Inc, 2006 For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History by Sarah Rose, Penguin Books, 2011 /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/31844127

Introduction: Meet Your Bakers 06/14/2024

Introduction: Meet Your Bakers Welcome to Baking the Best of It! Episode one out Friday, June 21 We're lifelong bakers and best friends who love sharing our recipes, baking experiments, and knowledge. /episode/index/show/d3b24ff4-68ae-4956-8f82-e0497b44f49a/id/31742002

Baking the Best of It

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