November 2017 A Note from Marcy

What's your Pie Personality? Figure it out soon - Thanksgiving is on the way!
Happy November from BetterBaking.com.

Dear Bakers and Friends,

I trust November finds you all well. Like April, June and September, November has but a scant thirty days to enchant you. Given that it’s a short and chilly month that regrettably features the much reviled daylight’s saving clock change, that’s a far harder chore than its warmer siblings of the 30-days-hath quartet. Sure, we loved September (who doesn’t?) and we fell in love with October’s Indian summer-honey days but poor eleventh month November? Meh.

November does its best with pretty frosts cast upon dimly-lit, reluctant dawns that inspire the poets but the basic fact is, the beginning of November is not even the holidays; it’s a seasonal diaspora with little to recommend it unless you like days that end at 3 pm. November cues winter: the leaves are gone, rotting pumpkins sit on the curb and the trees don’t even have their pretty snowy gowns yet. It’s also nippy in a particular damp way reminding you of what you haven’t yet got done: the winter tires aren’t installed, you haven’t swooped out the warmer quilt and those leaves that still need raking. (When do they come to collect the leaves in the recycled bags? Which day? Did I miss it again?)

But November does have something special going for it. Despite the muted ambience and tension of first snow to fall, it has that burgeoning feeling of holidays-on-the-way. There’s a quiet pulsing energy of our kitchens as they rev up for soup and bread making and a marathon of hunkering down. Binge watch Outlander or This Is Us, feast on special issue holiday food magazines and go wild in your local bulk food stores, sniffing out new flours, spices and nuts. Oh sure, it’s darker but that’s what (soy-based, essential-oil fragranced) candles and Vitamin D are for. Sure it’s cooler, but that’s why cashmere, flannel and fleece were invented. And yeah – it’s damp – which is why we make soup, muffins, bread, and big, fat casseroles of mac and cheese. November also offers you permission to stay still and be cozy, and read the inspiring The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Marie Kondo), The Pho Cookbook (extraordinary book by author Andrea Nygyen) or nestle into The Hygge Life, by Gislason and Eddy, two books that will make you clean, pare down and then roll yourself in a blanket with toddy after your efforts. What is ‘hygge’ by the way? It’s the Nordic tradition of cosiness through recipes, entertaining, decorating, simple rituals and family traditions. In short, every day at Betterbaking.com, is dedicated to the hygge life!

This month Betterbaking.com has been especially busy. I’ve been beyond inspired to bake and cook up a storm (and also dance: three tango classes per week is the best tonic for food testing). Like November, I also feel (for no apparent reason) like I’m in a beginning phase of things. Don’t you love beginnings? I’ll take a wonky beginning over a Hallmark ending every time – because beginnings are so full of that same November potential, i.e. anything can happen; anything is possible. Something new and unexpected is always around the corner. So learn to expect it; be prepared to greet it. Happy, new and enchanting is possible at every step of the way. Open a bag flour and you’ve decanted a bag of fairy dust just waiting to make mischief with yeast or baking powder. When you touch any ingredient, who knows what impossible enchantment awaits? Halloween 2017 might be a memory now (a mere eight hours later) but the magic is just beginning. If you need more incentive, check out the multitude of food holidays featured in November, everything from National Donut Day, National Quacamole Day, National Clean Out Your Fridge Day and more: https://foodimentary.com/november-holidays/

On this fresh day of a new month, I invite you to come bake and cook with me. Pretend we’re neighbours with a day off just do what we love. Stop saying you’re tired and pretending to be prematurely old. Maybe resist heading to Facebook after work or your errands only to stare mindlessly into sound and video bytes of other people’s lives. Instead, I challenge you to live your own, vital life: bake, taste, eat, share, talk and connect ion real time. Sound good? Meet you in the kitchen.

Warm wishes to all of you from me, on this brisk November morning in Montreal where the fallen maple leaves have turned to gold, glisten with rain and sun and are scattered in harvest abundance somehow reminding me of caramel and butter and all the good things I have yet to bake.

Happy Hygge and Happy Thanksgiving,

Marcy Goldman
Author, Master Baker

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Gooey Pumpkin Cake New!!!

Gooey cakes are a wonderful self-layering cake concept that usually take cake mix and a few other pantry ingredients. The original gooey cake is called St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake. Gooey cakes, no matter what flavor they are, all such cakes bake up into a gooey, delicious cake that no one can resist. Often times you see recipes calling for cake mix. There’s no need to resort to commercial cake mix when scratch cake, from start to finish, is easy enough. This is a quick cake that is utterly luscious and rife with holiday flair. You can make it in a 9 by 13 inch pan or a 10 inch spring-form or large quiche pan for a prettier, more festive presentation.

Banana Buttermilk Streusel Muffins
Gourmet banana muffins that are addictive - a quintessential banana muffin.

These muffins are extraordinary no matter how you bake them but making them using Melitta coffee filter papers put them over the top (or get those new bigger muffin baking cups). Taste? Smooth bananas, with caramel, pecans, brown sugar and vanilla –a pure bouquet of autumnal sweetness.

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Over 3200 Downloads!
Just one bite of my legendary cheesecake will make you appreciate why it’s been downloaded over 3200 times (and it’s also in my cookbook The Baker’s Four Seasons). It is an elegant showstopper for Thanksgiving or any autumn occasion featuring a special cheesecake batter, chunks of butterscotch and hunks of fresh pumpkin bread for a visual and textural event.

Double White Cheddar Mac â€˜n Cheese New!!! White Cheddar Harvest Macaroni

Why not white cheddar? This blue-ribbon winner of a recipe is comfort food in its finest hour and white cheddar plus some other unexpected ingredients make it totally delectable. It also features some chef’s tricks that keep this dish creamy and smooth for a meal-worthy casserole. A great Thanksgiving side or post-holiday main – comfort food at its best.

Macaroni & Cheese Muffins with Soda Cracker Crumb Topping

Baked in muffin cups, this creamy, irresistibly cheesy Mac and Cheese bakes up into a perfect snack food, that is great for kids or dining for one. I make about a dozen Mac and Cheese muffins with this recipe and put the rest in a small casserole (that serves 1-2 people) Mac and Cheese which I freeze and heat up another time. Swop panko crumbs instead of soda cracker crumbs – either way, you’ll have a crisp, buttery top.

Swirled Cinnamon Brown Sugar Pumpkin Bread
Yum, and then some. A lofty, pretty yeasted bread with treats tucked into the center.For those who resist new things, don’t tell them it's pumpkin bread. Just say it is a special cinnamon bread. This is not a tea loaf or typical pumpkin quick bread - this is heavenly. This remains one of the most downloaded recipes on BB.

Pumpkin Bread for Turkey Sandwiches

Need some vitamin A? It’s all here in a fragrant, lofty bread that is just a tinge sweet and has a light kiss of spice. But it’s really a great toasting bread foremost, and just the thing for leftover turkeys when thinking sandwich time! Use canned pumpkin or your own roasted, pureed pumpkin.

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Previous Monthly Essays from A Note From Marcy:

Essays to tickle your funny bone, wake up your inner baker, twinge on your heartstrings, or make you smile and say, ‘I’ve know the feeling; I know the place”. If you missed an essay, or a season in baking or inner sensibility, we invite you to stroll through our archived Notes From Marcy.