In recent years, an interesting movement has been happening for some people who experience gluten sensitivity: They avoid wheat, except in the case of sourdough bread. 

You picked up a bag of bread flour to make fluffy Japanese Milk Bread or Do-Nothing Sourdough Bread. But now you may be wondering: What do I do with the rest of the bag? Can I use bread flour to bake anything else?

Yesterday, my 14-year-old son made his first quesadilla, starting with a homemade tortilla. A couple of weeks before that, his 12-year-old brother carefully piped frosting onto a giant layer cake bound for his grandfather’s 80th birthday. I texted my coworkers: It’s happening. My kids are becoming bakers. 

When your pie recipe calls for prebaking the crust — what do you do?  

A good pumpkin pie is delicate, featuring a just-set filling that’s smooth, creamy, and even a little jiggly. And it’s that exact quality that makes these pies so tricky to transport.

What do jobs, school, sports practices, and commuting have in common? They all prevent us from baking as much or as often as we’d like. But when we do get the chance, we want a slam-dunk recipe — or 15. Here’s a list of our favorite fall recipes we’ll be making this month: from cinnamon-stuffed muffins to spooky fudge brownies to a swirled milk bread studded with maple and walnuts. 

You used all the right ingredients, your oven is perfectly calibrated, and you baked your cookies for the exact amount of time the recipe directed. But their texture is all wrong. What happened? 

Few baking disappointments sting more than pulling a tray of cookies from the oven and realizing the bottoms are darker, tougher, and drier than you intended. The tops may look just right, but underneath, they’ve taken on too much heat.

Have you seen yet? We dropped our ranked list of the 49 best fall recipes! 

Planning your Thanksgiving pie menu can be a daunting task. Do you go with a traditional apple pie, or add some sourdough starter to your pie crust for a little something different? Choose a classic pumpkin pie, or opt for a cheesecake version? Whichever route you choose, we have a Thanksgiving pie recipe for that. 

Let’s be very clear: A good pie doesn’t need fancy adornment. Part of pie’s charm is that it’s humble, even a little rustic. But that doesn’t mean it can’t dress up for a party. As we creep toward celebration season, with lots of pies at the centerpiece, I think it’s fun to play around with pie designs. A pie that tastes good and also looks great? Call that a win-win.

The most important thing to establish about high-altitude baking is that it’s more of an art than a science. Or, to put it slightly differently, it’s an art informed by science. There are several reasons for this — “high-altitude” can mean many things, anywhere from 3,000 feet above sea level to 6,000 feet, or even higher. What works for a baker in one location won’t work the same for another baker elsewhere. And an adjustment that performs well in one recipe won’t necessarily do the same in a different one.

It’s hard to find great gluten-free bread at the supermarket. The options are often dry, crumbly, and sometimes weirdly small in stature — not what you’re looking for!

Every baker eventually confronts a recipe that calls for a pan they don’t own. Substituting a different pan might be fine — or it could wreak havoc, particularly when it comes to baking cake. As a pastry chef, I wish I could tell you there was one scientific formula for converting every recipe to a different pan size. Alas, I firmly believe it’s as much an art as a science, and depends just as much on the cake itself as the pan.