This recipe starts with my absolute favorite gluten-free shortbread dough and takes it to another level, by adding some unexpected flavors and rolling it into a spiral shape. What you end up with is something pleasing to the eye as well as the palate. Don't let the roll of the dough scare you. If you struggle a bit with that, you'll find the chilling process ends up forgiving any clumsiness you might have experienced. The full recipe is below. Give it a try, you won't regret it. Happy Bendy Baking ..read more

If you're not familiar with this classic Pennsylvania Dutch pie, you need to be. I grew up in the outskirts of Amish country and was lucky enough to have had the Amish farmers visit our house with fresh produce, eggs and baked goods usually made by the women in the family. History: I've read varying accounts of when and how this unique pie came into existence, but I have no doubt it centered around early American immigrants from Germanic-speaking areas of Europe who settled in and around the areas west and north of Philadelphia. Some accounts suggest the pie started as a crustless molass ..read more

I'm happy to say that The Bendy Baker has been acknowledge in the top 100 established and up-and-coming baking blogs by https://food.feedspot.com/baking-blogs. It's really great to be mentioned alongside names the likes of King Arthur Baking Blog, Sally's Baking Addition, Gluten-Free Goddess (no relation), Butternut Bakery, and others. Thank you for your support! Happy Bendy Baking ..read more

I really do love pies. I love fruit pies, custards, shoofly, savory, meat, vegetable, quiches, nut pies (they don't like me though), squash, sweet potato.... cranb... well, you get the picture. I make a basic and versatile gluten-free pastry recipe. I also make a pressed cookie, a baked shortbread and graham cracker crusts. I reluctantly admit, though, I probably have an all-time favorite. Please don't tell my other pies. I don't want them to be jealous: it's a simple custard pie. Custards have a reputation for being notoriously finicky. Recipes call for baking them enough that they are ..read more

The short answer is, 'yes'. We've come a long way from the early days to today. A Brief Pie History of Pies: Pie making can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. Early Egyptian pies were flat and more like what we know as galettes. Greeks very likely produced the first pie pastry, which was used more for preserving meats than offering tasty pastry treats. It's the Romans who took the Greek concept of pastry and developed it from utilitarian to culinary enjoyment and pastry use spread along with Roman conquests and colonizations. Early pies were meat and poultry based. It was ..read more

I love olive oil and use it in many ways in cooking and baking. It's high in healthy antioxidants, monounsaturated fatty acids and is produced in a wide range of flavor intensities ranging from very mild to fairly strong profiles. Although some bakers recommend it as an all-purpose substitute for butter, or non-dairy baking sticks, I use it in more of a targeted way to produce specific tastes and textures, sometimes on its own but often combined with other fats such as butter. Using olive oil in cakes, muffins and cupcakes brings a heightened level of moisture to the bake. This olive oil ca ..read more

I've been hunting for a blondie recipe that has that perfectly chewy texture reminiscent of a great brownie, but can be enjoyed by people who have allergies to chocolate, carob and cocoa. This does the trick, in spades. It's designed to use almost any kind of traditional butter or non-dairy butter (sticks) alternative that creams and browns well. The ingredients are simple as is the preparation. Just don't be tempted to short-cut the creaming process, which is more effort than letting a hand-mixer to the heavy lifting. Trust me, though, it's worth the hand-work. As far as playing with add ..read more

If you've ever seen this direction in a recipe and wondered how to pull this off, you're not alone. This broader challenge isn't unique to Bendy (aka substitute ingredient) baking by any stretch, yet it's worth spending time talking about. For some recipes, "eyeballing" the distribution of batter or icing works totally well and even I can pull it off admirably. But for other recipes, such as a naked layer cakes where you can see all the layers of cake and fillings/icings, precision comes into focus. Let's focus on a few different approaches out there for even cake layers out there but come ..read more

Okay, this post is broader than just butter and includes other types of dairy commonly used in baking. I say often that my drive to learn to be a better baker was driven by my lengthy list of food allergies and sensitivities, combined with my love of really good baked goods. Although I have broad sensitivity to fresh dairy, I'm very lucky that the churning process that produces butter lessens the impact on me. The aging processes in cheeses have a similar result and impact. I say this, not because I am an "over-sharing information" type person, but to reinforce the significant value of und ..read more

Although I tend to think a lot about substitutions driven by my own food allergies and sensitivities, I also have learned a great deal in my Bendy Baking journey about balancing flavors in nearly everything I cook and bake. Acids are an extremely important component in the taste experience. Balancing acids You might not think much about them, but I bet you notice when there is too little or too much in something you've tasted - not enough and things taste too sweet or too flat, too much and you'll pucker. Although I'm lucky I don't have any significant limitations in this category, I unders ..read more