Baking the Best of It

Emphasis on Rome because Roxie went down too many wormholes on academia.edu. Plus, a very good cake.   Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bakingthebestofit Follow us on instagram: @bakingbestpod / bluesky: @bakingthebestofit.bsky.social Sources

An exploration of Japanese Milk Bread and the game-changing magic of tangzhong paste! Is a roux crucial to delicate, pillowy treats? We think so! Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bakingthebestofit Follow us on instagram: @bakingbestpod / bluesky: @bakingthebestofit.bsky.social Sources

Happy Mardi Gras! Roxie and Fiona both have New Orleans on the brain these days, with Fiona just having returned from a trip and Roxie planning a forthcoming one. So you'll understand we had to dive deep into some history of the city and the Mardi Gras classic bake, King Cake. Take a big bite into this episode and let us know if you find the baby! Don't choke!!   Support us on Patreon: https://www...

Recipe blogs have become a bit of a meme, known for lengthy personal anecdotes before recipes. But what's their place in internet history, especially from the perspective of our current place in the evolution of Online. Plus, we use this as an opportunity to bake something a little basic, and we love it.

A more casual end-of-the-year wrap up plus a silly winter holiday baked goods quiz! Looking forward to baking and podcasting in the new year and sending everyone warm and safe winter wishes. Thank you for listening and supporting us!!

For each Halloween season we must select a theme, and this year Roxie's decided it's pumpkins! We don't really get to the baking of it all until over halfway through, but the history for this one was too fun not to dive into. A twisting and turning tale of the history of the jack-o-lantern followed by all of our favorite pumpkin bakes that aren't pumpkin pie.    Support us on Patreon: https://www....

It's Fiona's birthday so she chose this episode's topic and selected the deceptively easy-to-make baklava, one of our shared favorite desserts.   Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bakingthebestofit Follow us on instagram: @bakingbestpod / bluesky: @bakingthebestofit.bsky.social Sources

Are you sick of sourdough after 2020-2021? Too bad, we're not!! Of course we have to explore sourdough, a topic that occupies its own world in baking all to itself. Lots of excitement around microbes in this one, and of course clarification on the pre-industrial history of bread-baking.   Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bakingthebestofit Follow us on instagram: @bakingbestpod / blue...

We're celebrating Roxie's birthday by baking a cake that literally came to her in a dream. Because the cake is complete with tempered chocolate decorations, we thought this would be a great introductory episode to some of the history and a lot of the science of chocolate in baking! Plus, a discussion of recipe development: how do we approach it? Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bakin...

For all the inexplicable Star Wars jokes in this episode, not a single mention of Weird Al's version of American Pie. We're sorry and we hope you enjoy this episode anyway! We discuss the history of cakes and cake mixes in the U.S., and bake a goofy little cake from the turn of the century! Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bakingthebestofit Follow us on instagram: @bakingbestpod / bl...

The unexpectedly complex history of the iconic and delicious bagel and our very expected experience of making our own and learning quite a lot firsthand! Leave us a review of the show and let us know your favorite kind of bagel and your bagel order! Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bakingthebestofit Follow us on instagram: @bakingbestpod / bluesky: @bakingthebestofit.bsky.social Sour...

Announcement about our release schedule, addressing our recent absence, and a bonus in which we discuss 1973's Jesus Christ Superstar. Our patreon will have lots of this kind of content: more casual and off-the-cuff conversations about baking and non-baking topics! Thank you for listening, we're looking forward to sharing more with you both on the main feed and with bonus content.

Malinda Russell was the first Black American to publish a cookbook and is a fascinating historical figure, despite the little information we have about her. We also discuss the task of adapting 150-year-old recipes and bake two of Malinda's: one successfully and one slightly foolishly.   Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bakingthebestofit Follow us on instagram: @bakingbestpod / blues...

This week we examine the somewhat divisive topic of frosting, particularly on cakes. Frosted cakes are a relatively modern convention. Despite their short history, many types of buttercream have evolved. Plus, we make two types of frosting: German buttercream and Ermine flour frosting. We want to hear from you where you stand on the frosting divide: is it your favorite part of a cake or is it just...

Why is brioche so good and how did it get like that? We dive into the science and history behind adding butter, eggs, and milk to bread to create tender, pillowy bready magic. Also, in case we're the first ones to tell you: no, Marie Antoinette never said that.   Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bakingthebestofit Follow us on instagram: @bakingbestpod / bluesky: @bakingthebestofit.bs...

Welcome to Season 2!! We're in the last slog of winter, and what could be better to take us through it than savory pie? But first, we test you by presenting the somewhat challenging history of savory pies. Birds do not get enough credit for their role in the history of savory pies. Maybe you're thinking we mean, like, chicken. As an ingredient. While that's true, it's just the tip of the birds-and...

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 Christmas...

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!

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.

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!

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 histor...

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: https:/...

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...

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. Patreon / Instagram / Twitter Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker%27s_yeast   https://wearegoodinbread.com/all-about-the-french-baguette/#:~:text=By%20a%20law%20enacted%20in,have%20sourdou...

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!    Patreon / Instagram / Twitter Sources:  The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Oxford University Press, 2015 https://devour...