This week we’re all about the lemons and their dessert best friend: poppy seeds!!!
new on bbs
Poppy Seed Layer Cake
I first published this in 2019 but later took it down for over a year until I could tackle it again - it’s back now and, if I may say so, better than ever. Think of a really tender cake positively packed with poppy seeds. The buttercream is swiss meringue with poppy seeds and a bit of lemon too. Lemon curd between the layers is optional (you could just use more buttercream - just don’t tell me).
updated
Blueberry Scones
Tender, flaky made with almond flour, fresh blueberries, lemon zest and a super blueberry glaze.
Lemon Poppy Bundt Cake
Tender and fluffy lemon bundt cake with poppy seeds - there’s an option to add a cream cheese swirl in the center!
reader review
“A lovely, soft, pillowy milk bread speckled with poppyseeds and zest (I only had oranges on hand, subbed for lemon). The dough rose beautifully and the sprinkled sugar within/on top added a nice textural contrast. This is not a very sweet bread, but I enjoyed the flavors.” - Katie
(on Poppy Seed Pull-Apart Bread )
weekly reads & notes
“As the climate crisis intensifies, so too does the clamor for real-world solutions. Increasingly, experts are turning to Native knowledge keepers and recognizing the power of traditional ecological knowledge, including practices such as agroforestry, fire stewardship, regenerative agriculture, and holistic wildlife management.” - The Land Back Movement Isn’t Just Focused on Ancestral Grounds — It’s Fighting to Preserve and Restore Foodways Too, Eater.
“(Many) have been reduced to a living on flatbread cooked over fires, with very limited supplies of salt, fresh vegetables, oil and fruit.
“We can’t take it any more,” said Ahmad, a resident of Gaza City, where entire blocks have been reduced to rubble and streets are pitted with craters. “We do not have flour, we don’t even know where to go in this cold weather. We demand a ceasefire. We want to live.” Gaza aid deliveries paused amid ‘incredible level of desperation’, The Guardian.
“Poppy seeds represent wealth, prosperity, and a bright future in Eastern Europe. For example, the Polish serve the poppy seed-stuffed cake, Makowiec, at Christmas, to bring good luck. While the Hungarian mákos guba, a sweet dish similar to bread pudding, is made with a generous amount of poppy seeds, vanilla, and milk. It is enjoyed at the end of the year in hopes of bringing luck and fortune to the new year. In fact, the Hungarian word for poppy is "mák" can also mean "luck." “ - The Reason Poppy Seeds are Beloved Across Eastern Europe, Tasting Table.
Becky Krystal, food editor at the Washington Post had a must-read article detailing five reasons baking recipes fail (Read it here: Washington Post.) and it got me thinking about the most common issues I tend to see from readers & followers:
Measuring correctly (especially flour): Whenever someone says that a cake recipe’s batter was more like a scone’s, their cookies didn’t spread, or their bread was dry, the first thing I ask about is how they measured the flour. Scales are, as I’m sure you’ve heard, best for accuracy. For my recipes I measure a cup of flour at 125-130g but if I were to take a measuring cup, dip it into the flour container and level it, I guarantee I’d have something more like 150-160g. That extra 20g can make a huge difference in your baked goods. If you don’t have a scale, spoon the flour into the cup by shaking it over it until full, then level it. This will get you much closer to 130g.
Oven temperature: my oven lies, all the time, every day. I keep two additional thermometers in there to give me a more accurate reading of the temperature. It dings to say it’s preheated to 375 F when it’s really at 300F, ten minutes later the internal temperature will say 350F and it won’t go up for an hour. Once in awhile I set it to 375 because 375 usually means 350 but it’ll actually go up to 375… and that’s when my baked goods get, ahem, overly golden brown. Many ovens are finicky like that so if you find that your cookies are browning too quickly then your oven might be too hot, if your brownies are always underdone after 45 minutes, then it’s probably running cool. Get another thermometer so you can accurately know the temperature.
Temperature of the ingredients: did your cookies overly spread? The butter might’ve been melty-soft instead of room temperature-soft. Did your cake batter split while baking? The eggs were probably cold when added to the creamed butter and sugar and couldn’t emulsify. When an ingredient has the words ‘room temperature’ next to it, it’s an important piece of the recipe.
Pan material: Kyrstal talks about this too and I was delighted to see it because it really needs to be said more. Those ceramic pie/cake dishes you bought because of their pretty pattern are actually terrible heat conductors. They take longer to heat and longer to cool down. The same for glass dishes. The best pan material is metal, it efficiently heats and cools quickly.
Not paying attention to visual cues: A recipe writer will give you timings for how long they expect a meringue to need to whip, a cake to bake, or a dough to rise, but you need to pay less attention to the time given and more to what’s going on in front of you. Does the meringue hold stiff peaks? Did the cake tester come out clean? Is the dough almost double in size? Does it bounce back when pressed? The temperature of your ingredients, of the kitchen, and the oven will all affect the recipe. And if you’re using a hand mixer or if your stand mixer is weaker/slower, creaming and whipping will also take longer.
Speaking of flour measuring, I can’t seem to find it but I saw a reddit post a few days back where someone had measured the flour at 130g for a recipe which used cups only. The baker was very upset that their cookies came out flat as pancakes and said something along the lines of, “this is why we never use a scale!”. I can imagine the frustration they felt! The thing is, recipes that were developed by someone who scooped the cup in (in the way I just told you not to, lol) probably are more accurate to be measured around 145-150g. I think this is the case for a lot of older (american) recipes and maybe those on the back of packages, because they’re assuming that’s how a home baker will measure. But ugh, now how do we know what’s the right answer for the recipe in front of us? First, if a recipe has given you both grams and cups then go by the grams if you have a scale, and if you’re using the cups, measure carefully (the way I mention above by sprinkling and leveling). If a recipe hasn’t given grams at all and hasn’t asked you to measure carefully, I still won’t go so far as scooping and packing it in but I’d have a ‘heavier hand’ when measuring. Second, use visual cues! Is the dough sticker or wetter than it should be? You might need a tablespoon or two more flour to even it out =)
OK, I’m off my soapbox. I hope you have a wonderful last week of Feb!
for members
Bakery Style ‘Extra Lemony’ Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Super soft packed with poppies lemon muffins made bakery style with *three* ways to amp up the lemon.