Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie
Making this focaccia was a mistake. A HUGE mistake. See, Bryan is trying out a gluten-free diet, so anything I bake I try to get rid of before he gets home. So I made this focaccia, and all my regular baking recipients weren’t answering [...]

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie
Versions four and five of my fresh fruit muffins went from complicated to simple, but got better as a result.
For the fourth attempt at tweaking this recipe, I increased the maple syrup to 1/4 cup and decreased the amount of milk by the same [...]

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie
Challah (a traditional Jewish bread, usually braided) was one of the first breads I learned to make in baking school. We liked making it, because it could be mixed, left to rise and then baked in the five hours we were in class. Some [...]

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie
What to do when the baking gods give you a cake that looks like this?
You make trifles. You take the lovely, lemon butter cake that showed such promise as a batter but then bombed in the oven and cut it into cubes. You take [...]

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie
Right from the start, me and this tart didn’t get along. It all started when I went to the market to get some plums. You see, the original recipe calls for plums, not nectarines, and for several days running, the market had piles and [...]

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie
For my next attempt at the fresh fruit muffins, I looked for ways to add flavor and texture to the muffin.
I decided to stick with blueberries for the fruit component. To add more flavor, I added a tablespoon of maple syrup to the batter. [...]

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie
Here’s another cake where I liked the batter better than I did the baked version. The recipe starts off by combining butter, sugar and lemon zest and beating the heck out of them. Eggs, lemon juice, yogurt and dry ingredients are then added. At [...]

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie
For the first rendition of Mackie’s recipe, I decided to modify the amount of leavening called for and bake the muffins at a higher temperature (400 degrees versus 375 degrees). I cut the original recipe in half and used 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking [...]

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie
I’ve been searching for the perfect fruit muffin recipe for some time. I’m looking for a master recipe where I can change the fruit according to what’s in season. That’s the same idea behind Mackie’s recipe.
The muffin batter is simply flour, sugar, salt, leavening, [...]

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie
I don’t really know what to say about this cake. It took three (three!) sticks of butter, 2 cups of cocoa powder and more than 3 cups of sugar. It baked for almost two hours and weighed more than any decent cake should. It [...]