Bake Without Judgment, and Buy a Scale
(Bake Time)
I’ve been lucky enough to know Yewande Komolafe for the past seven years (to know her is to love her, truly), and in that time she’s become one of the most influential bakers in my life. I’m obsessed with the energy in her recipes, especially the baking ones. She marries bright, bold flavors and artful technique like no one else I know.
Her Lane cake is now a holiday staple in my house. When I tried her kouign amann, I started tearing up. I like to keep her simple shortbread dough in my freezer at all times because I know I can transform it for just about any occasion: Why make one type of cookie when you can make six?
Q:What’s your favorite project bake?
A: My malt chocolate and marshmallow sandwiches, for my kids to share with their class on birthdays to celebrate. I make a double batch of the cookies, ganache and the marshmallow filling. I pipe a tower of marshmallow on one side of each cookie, spoon ganache over the top and finish with a plentiful shower of turbinado sugar and lots of sprinkles! It’s delightful for the kids, and a double batch can make enough for their classroom, including teachers and caregivers.
Q: What’s your go-to bake for a bake sale or a potluck?
A: Any cake without a glaze, because I like something that’s large format, sliceable and shareable. Plain cakes made with a few stellar ingredients are always delicious! Samantha Seneviratne’s olive oil cake is a great example of this.
Q: What’s an underrated baking ingredient?
A: Salt. Sugar is necessary, but so is salt. Baking is all about using ratios and understanding how ingredients complement each other. Salt balances the sweet ingredients. Knowing this frees you up to experiment within the ratios given in any recipe. The New York Times Cooking app has the option for recipes in grams, ounces and volume, which allows for precise ways to incorporate salt into sweets.
Q: What’s your favorite last-minute bake for unannounced guests or casual get-togethers?
A: You can’t go wrong with cookies, and Genevieve Ko’s chewy brown butter cookies are great to have on hand. Cookie dough stores beautifully when refrigerated. You can also form my butter shortbread dough into logs, freeze them, and slice and bake, an option to help in a pinch. If you like glazes, you can also make those ahead of time and store them refrigerated or frozen.
Q: What’s one tip or piece of equipment that you pass on to your friends who love to bake to help them level up their skills?
A: A scale (mine is made by Escali). So important, so necessary, so vital. I weigh everything because it helps me understand ingredients in an objective way.
Q: What advice do you have for new bakers, and what recipe do you recommend for someone just starting to bake?
A: Breathe through every step! Take it easy and be kind to yourself. Learning how to do anything just takes time and practice. Move forward without judgment and take things one step at a time.
Yossy Arefi’s chewy Earl Grey cookies and vanilla Bundt cake can get you started. Yossy’s writing is descriptive and convincing -- she always piques my interest and excites my curiosity. A “thin, crackly glaze adds texture and intensifies the vanilla factor” -- what? When? I’m sooo there, and you should be, too.
Q: What’s a song you bake to?
A: Bikôkô’s album “Aura Aura.”
Q: Who are your baking icons? A baking cookbook you love?
A: Adejoké Bakare. I love the way she thinks about desserts. And I love “The Last Course” by Claudia Fleming and Melissa Clark. I received this book as a gift from Chrysta Poulos, the pastry chef I worked for in Atlanta, Georgia.
Q: And some quick-fire questions to finish: Cookies or brownies?
A: Shortbread.
Cake or pie?
A: Cake.
Chocolate or caramel?
A: Chocolate.
Like, love, leave -- eggs, sugar, butter?
A: Love all!
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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