Baking Mixes

This starter is your basic white flour and water starter. You can let it ferment more and longer and simply rely on airborne yeasts or add the small pinch of dried yeast to speed things up. Purists forego the pinch of added dry yeast but newbies and flexible bakers don't mind it a whit. Besides, over time, the sourdough will grow and evolve, amassing yet more wild yeast and morph into a very respectable, healthy, mature starter that is natural enough. Spring water is better than chemical treated tap for less yeast interference.

This is one of the easier ways to make yourself a legend in your own lunch time. Rolled wedges of dough and savory ingredients come out of the oven as cheesy, golden "croissants" that taste even better than they look. These can rise a bit (for a chewier snack) or not (for a crispier texture). Make them up, freeze, and bake as needed –they freeze great for school lunches of after school pizza pockets (well, pizza pockets at the next level). Variations include smoked turkey and Swiss cheese, feta and spinach, smoked ham and sharp cheddar. Double the dough and increase the ingredients slightly to make oversized versions to be served as a meal. Use BetterBaking.Com Classic Pizza Dough as the foundation dough.

These are extraordinary waffles (now inducted in my new cookbook, When Bakers Cook, 2013) Make the batter an hour ahead or preferably overnight to have waffles the next morning. These bake up deep golden, buttery and with crisp exteriors featuring a  soft, almost pudding-like interior. Great with maple syrup or topped with whipped cream, or ice-cream and fresh strawberries. Waffles are special so make sure you invest in a waffle maker that lasts a lifetime and is only as pretty as it is high-performing. The BB Test kitchen relies on our All Clad Waffle maker, www.All-Clad.com

This handy scratch mix tastes terrific and delivers a wallop of breakfast nutrition.  Pack up some extra mix in a pretty jar and you have a instant housewarming gift - don't forget to include the recipe.  Although the recipe calls for some seemingly exotic ingredients (malt powder) the final result is a perfectly balanced pancake and waffle mix that a Vermont Bed and Breakfast would be proud to serve. Incidentally, malt seems to be the secret ingredient of the commercial pancake and waffle makers.

If you want a dough that is a joy to work with, this one egg pastry is a must. The recipe yields a large batch of easy-to-work with pie dough - flaky but trouble free rolling and handling. Lemon juice tenderizes the dough a tad, and the inclusion of an egg adds a bit more body, flavor, and assists with browning but is optional.. I actually prefer all butter for its incomparable taste but the part vegetable shortening, part butter approach makes for a flakier texture. Do opt for the no trans fats Crisco -it works as well as regular and is better nutritionally. This is a perfect pastry for almost any filling, from apple pie, to pumpkin pie to quiche. It handles like a dream. Makes enough dough for 2 9 inch double pie crusts plus one 8-9 inch single crust pies. Use half the recipe right away and freeze the other half.

This is the low maintenance, perfect yield dough for a homemade, thick crust. cheese and pepperoni pizza. Alternatively, a smear of garlic, drizzle of olive oil, some pepper and fresh herbs make this a super flatbread for dipping.