Desserts

I have loved to bake ever since I was a little girl. In fact, one of my clearest childhood memories is baking my grandmother’s famous spiced pumpkin bread with my mom in the ’70s-style kitchen of our old house. We brought that bread to every neighborhood potluck and holiday party. Now the recipe lives on my blog, and I think my grandmother would be thrilled to know that it’s become one of the most popular pumpkin bread recipes on the Internet!

Much as I love making desserts, I know that many people think of themselves as people who “don’t bake.” Even if they happily don an apron to make dinner every night, when it comes to dessert, they head straight for the nearest bakery. They might think, “Baking is too fussy; I’m not the measuring type,” or perhaps they aren’t comfortable with the blind faith that baking requires. In cooking, you can taste and watch the food as you go. But in baking, you create a batter or dough and then rely on a mysterious chemical reaction to happen in the oven, crossing your fingers that everything turns out right.