Baking the Best of It (Fiona and Roxie)

AKA The Butter Tier. We talk you through classic English scones and unravel the history and technique behind clotted cream, strange and wonderful beast that she is. Plus, lavender & lime shortbread!

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Chef John's Clotted Cream:

https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-names-cream-clotted-cream.html

Mary Berry's Scones:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/tea_time_scones_77839 

https://britishfoodhistory.com/2019/10/11/clotted-cream/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clotted_cream

The story of the baguette involves Napoleonic military garb, microbes, (alleged) knife fights on underground construction sites, and ultimately a very tasty bread. Come get your crouquissant on with us.

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Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker%27s_yeast

https://wearegoodinbread.com/all-about-the-french-baguette/#:~:text=By%20a%20law%20enacted%20in,have%20sourdough%20starter%20in%20them.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/baguette-bread

https://www.chezjim.com/books/baguette/#nap

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baguette#cite_note-chev-7

The Bánh Mì is a perfect sandwich, a glorious harmony of crunch, acid, fat, freshness, and, of course: the shattery-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside bread. You may know that France's colonization (derogatory, always derogatory) of Vietnam contributed to the existence of the Bánh Mì, but the exact details of how are quite specific and, we think, fascinating. Fiona takes Roxie through the history before we detail how we made our own Bánh Mì bread and sandwiches!

The first cheesecake is closer in time to the construction of the Pyramids of Giza than it is to the creation of the Basque Cheesecake in the 1980s. To make fresh cheese desserts is to be human. We cover cheesecake past, present, and future and make a Basque Cheesecake! 

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Sources: 

The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Oxford University Press, 2015

https://devourtours.com/blog/san-sebastian-cheesecake/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/what-is-basque-burnt-cheesecake-where-to-eat-san-sebastian

https://smittenkitchen.com/2024/06/easy-basque-cheesecake/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPZxQ4WvgyI

https://greekreporter.com/2023/09/27/cheesecake-ancient-greece/

If you've been listening for a while, you've probably gathered that we are pie afficionados. So we've finally done The Pie Episode! We also developed a new pie recipe based on Potatoes and Molasses from Over the Garden Wall (yes). This pie episode is truly exhaustive enough that we go above and beyond to make a pie nobody asked for.

The ratio of historical context to baking content in this extra-long episode is approximately 75/25 because we feel that's appropriate! Angel food cake is so much more than a dry ring of fatless sponge found on grocery store shelves across the United States, it's a distillation of the historical role of "housewife" and how it evolved post-Industrial Revolution. Fiona tells Roxie about how domestic labor roles have evolved in Europe and the United States over the last 800 years and how that evolution relates to capitalism, racism, and gender. Plus, Roxie learns to stop worrying and love angel food cake.

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Sources:

More Work for Mother by Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Basic Books, 1983

The Farmer's Wife by Helen Rebanks, Harper Horizon, 2023

The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Oxford University Press, 2015

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/work-requirements-are-rooted-in-the-history-of-slavery/

Part 3 of our introductory miniseries on our perfect tea party: Welcome to the Sugar Tier! The stars of this tier are a strawberry and lemon Battenberg cake and a rhubarb & custard mini tartlet. Lots of history in this one, as well as some diversions into our hot takes on fondant, decoration, and pie crust.

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Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battenberg_cake

http://foodhistorjottings.blogspot.com/2011/08/battenburg-cake-truth.html

https://www.seriouseats.com/know-your-sweets-battenberg-cake

https://labsalliebe.com/en/toot-colorful-persian-marzipan/#:~:text=The%20origin%20of%20Toot%20dates,is%20noted%20to%20as%20Haremskonfekt.

Welcome to Season 2!! We're in the last slog of winter, and what could be better to take us through it than savory pie? But first, we test you by presenting the somewhat challenging history of savory pies. Birds do not get enough credit for their role in the history of savory pies. Maybe you're thinking we mean, like, chicken. As an ingredient. While that's true, it's just the tip of the birds-and-savory-pies-iceberg

Support us on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/bakingthebestofit

Follow us on instagram: @bakingbestpod / bluesky: @bakingthebestofit.bsky.social

Sources:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2011/11/17/142460593/for-the-origins-of-pie-look-to-the-humble-magpie#:~:text=Hourly%20News-,For%20The%20Origins%20Of%20Pie%2C%20Look%20To%20The%20Humble%20Magpie,assembled%20ingredients%20for%20their%20pies.

https://www.madisoniannews.com/community/cultural-history-pie

https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/03/history-of-pie-how-savory-meat-pies-evolved-into-americas-favorite-dessert.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humble_pie

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/d0orqm/why_did_savory_pie_culture_shepherds_pie_chicken/

Roxie takes Fiona through some Halloween treat history before they bake a Charlotte Royale together! Come for the brain cake, stay for the hot takes about Halloween baking and style over substance. Happy Halloween!

Happy Holidays and Happy Season 1 Finale! We've officially brought our gingerbread house success rate up from 0% to 50%. In this episode, we share the history of gingerbread with each other and build a festive little house. We hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable winter holiday season, and we'll be back in 2025 for season 2! We've got a bonus episode coming on our patreon all about the Christmassy bakes in our families, and we'll have more bonus content and recipes coming in the new year.

Support us on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/bakingthebestofit

Follow us on instagram: @bakingbestpod

Welcome to Baking the Best of It! Episode one out Friday, June 21

We're lifelong bakers and best friends who love sharing our recipes, baking experiments, and knowledge. 

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Our first full episode and part 1 of our series on tea party baking! Some tea history to set the stage before we get into tier 1 of our 3-tiered tea party menu: our favorite sandwich bread and our twist on classic tea sandwiches.

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Sources for this episode:

This episode might be a little bit about pie. Our intentions here were to cover autumnal apple bakes and recipes that are not apple pie, and we did do that! But because we're so passionate about pie, piessonate, we also talk quite a bit about pie. Plus, a little something called Concord Grape Corner. Cozy up with a mug of tea or mulled cider and enjoy!

A good starter pie crust recipe:

https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/pie-crust-102-all-butter-really-flaky-pie-dough/

Sources:

Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, edited by Darra Goldstein, Oxford University Press, 2015

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Spy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Delicious

The most important part of this episode is the discussion of UK tax code. We get into confusing cookie taxonomy, chocolate tempering, the bizarre hardtac of the Roman centurions, and bake three fabulous and very different cookies!

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Sources:

The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Oxford University Press, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQiii4pg4s8 

https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/03/almond-biscotti/ 

https://levainbakery.com/pages/our-story 

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-best-way-to-temper-chocolate

The food in fantasy fiction is so important, and Brian Jacques was among the most memorable fantasy authors to write great feasts. These books are beloved by Roxie, and Fiona is a newcomer to them, so we compare our perspectives and discuss the series as a whole and the food in particular. We bake one of Redwall Abbey's beloved nut breads and enjoy it with a cheese, apple, and sage terrine!