Recipe for pie crust made with butter (and why yours shrinks, cracks, or turns tough)
An all-butter pie crust recipe for single or double crusts, plus fixes for shrinking, cracking, tough dough, and soggy bottoms, and a Thanksgiving make-ahead plan.
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Salted vs unsalted butter: when it matters, and how to swap one for the other
Salted vs unsalted butter: how much salt is in a stick, the exact swap (about 1/4 teaspoon per stick), and the few bakes where unsalted really matters.
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Good apples for apple crisp: 8 that bake up right (and 3 to skip)
You pulled the apple crisp out of the oven and something’s off. Either the filling slumped into applesauce soup under the topping, or the slices are still crunchy and raw-tasting while the crumble is already dark brown. Nine times out of ten it’s the apple, not you. This guide covers the good apples for apple…
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A recipe for cornbread using buttermilk (and why yours comes out dry and crumbly)
Our recipe for cornbread using buttermilk: crisp edges, a moist crumb, and the three fixes for dry, crumbly cornbread.
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How to Blind Bake a Pie Crust (and Which Pies Actually Need It)
Your pumpkin pie came out with a perfect filling and a pale, gummy bottom crust. Or your crust shrank halfway down the pan before the filling ever went in. Both problems have the same fix: learn when and how to blind bake a pie crust. That means baking the shell empty, held in place with…
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Pumpkin dump cake recipes: the classic, 6 easy twists, and the fix for dry spots
You want a pumpkin dessert for a crowd that doesn’t need a pie crust, a mixer, or an afternoon. Pumpkin dump cake is it: a creamy pumpkin-pie layer on the bottom and a buttery, crisp cake-mix crumble on top, all baked in one 9×13 pan. The catch is that most pumpkin dump cake recipes skip…
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Mascarpone substitute: what to use, and how to keep it from splitting
The best mascarpone substitute is cream cheese plus heavy cream. Here’s the ratio for tiramisu, cheesecake, pasta, and dairy-free cooking, plus the mixing order that stops it splitting.
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Substitute for vegetable oil in baking (and what each swap does to the crumb)
Every swap works – they just don’t all give you the same cake. The ratio for each one, what it does to the crumb, and the half rule that keeps applesauce from turning it gummy.
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Butter substitute in baking: pick by what you’re making, not off a list
Butter doesn’t do one job in baking, it does three. Here’s which swap works for cookies, biscuits, or muffins, plus every ratio and the salt fix.
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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread (and How to Stop the Chips Sinking to the Bottom)
The chocolate ends up in the bottom inch because pumpkin batter is wet and loose. Here’s the 30-second flour fix, the loaf itself, and how to tell if your can of pumpkin is too wet.
