The procedure:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the vanilla and the beaten egg in a small bowl and set aside.

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Whisk so that all the dry ingredients are thoroughly combined.

Using your fingertips or a pastry cutter, work the cold butter into the dry mixture until you get pea-sized crumbs of flour-coated butter. You don’t want to overwork the dough as this will contribute to tough, flat scones. Optionally, if you have a food processor, you can cut the butter in by pulsing the mixture a few times, one second each time.

Pour the cream and egg into the dry mixture all at once, and using a spatula, give it a few quick folds until the dough is evenly moistened and there aren’t any visible puddles of cream or egg. Add the mulberries and fold them in gently.

Pour your dough out onto your baking sheet and pat it gently into a circle that is 3/4″ in height. Using a sharp knife or bench scraper, score the dough into 8 pieces. Separate them slightly if you wish.

Mix the honey with a splash of warm water and mix to combine. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of the scones and sprinkle with the raw sugar.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 18 – 22 minutes, or until the tops and bottoms of the scones are a nice golden brown.

Enjoy them hot from the oven with some clotted cream or jam. As with all scones and biscuity things, these are best the day are made. However, you can freeze the unbaked scones and just bake one whenever the craving hits; just pop the frozen scone directly into a preheated oven and bake for 5 – 8 minutes longer.

The procedure:
Make the streusel: In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond meal, all-purpose flour, granulated sugar and salt. Cut the butter into the dry mixture (or use your hands to rub the butter in) until the dough looks crumbly and sticks together when you compress a bit between your fingers. Try not to overwork the dough as the heat from your hands will melt the butter. Just aim for a crumb consistency. Place in the the refrigerator until ready for use.

Make the cake:
Preheat oven to 350F with a rack in the center rack. Line a tube pan or bundt pan with parchment paper and coat with oil or butter, then dust with flour. Set aside while you prepare the cake batter.

If you haven’t already, take your 6 tablespoons of butter and melt it over low heat (do not let the butter brown or boil, we just want to get it to a liquid state).

Special instructions if you’re using raw honey: Add the raw honey to the liquid butter, allowing it to become liquid from the butter’s residual heat. Yes, I know this renders it “unraw”, but we’re baking a cake here, for goodness sake!

Set aside the butter mixture to cool while you work on the rest of the cake.

In a large bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, and granulated sugar.

In a medium bowl, mix together the 2 eggs, persimmon puree, oil, vanilla and almond extracts, and honey (if you haven’t already added it to the butter mixture). While stirring the liquid ingredients, slowly pour in the butter, incorporating it well.

Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour in the liquid mixture. Stir with a spatula until there are no visible lumps of flour. Add the chopped walnuts and raisins, and stir a couple of more times to evenly distribute them.

Pour the batter into the cake pan and smooth it out, trying to get an even distribution. The batter is a relatively thick one, due to the viscosity of the persimmon puree and honey. Take the streusel mixture and scatter it over the top of the batter. Place the cake into the oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack, then slice and enjoy! If there are leftovers, wrap them well in plastic wrap to prevent the cake from drying out. If the cake is well-wrapped, it will keep at room temperature for 2-3 days. Past that, I’d keep it in the refrigerator or freezer for future snackage.

The procedure:

Preheat the oven to 375F. Prepare your loaf pan either by oiling/buttering it or lining with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except for the beer until well combined. Pour in the beer and mix, trying not to overmix (similar to when you are making muffins, you don’t want to develop too much gluten which could result in tough bread). Mix until just combined. The batter will be thick.

Pour into the prepared loaf pan and if using the glaze, brush the top of the bread with the glaze and place in the oven. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. The crust will be golden brown. If you feel like the crust is browning too quickly, you can place a piece of tin foil over the top as a tent.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before turning out on a rack to cool completely. Slice and enjoy!

This recipe is super versatile as well; you could add any number of herbs (I used dill in my case), cheeses, nuts or dried fruits. Get creative!

The procedure:
Mix together the ingredients for the sponge in a large bowl, whipping it if you can to aerate the mixture. Set it aside while you prepare the flour mixture.

Mix together the ingredients for the flour mixture, whisking it together to make sure the ingredients are incorporated fully and spoon over the sponge. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for one to four hours; or, until you see the sponge bubbling up through the flour mixture. Since it’s wintertime where I live, I waited about four hours before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.

After you can observe the sponge bubbling up through the flour mixture, add the oil and mix the dough together, either with a stand mixer or by hand. I did this by hand as the amount of dough was so small. Mix until the dough is smooth and homogenous looking; as the hydration of the dough is higher than your standard sandwich loaf, it will feel tacky and sticky. This is fine. Continue kneading the dough until you achieve good gluten structure and the dough passes the windowpane test. This took me about ten minutes by hand.

Place the dough in a lightly-oiled bowl and let it rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. After this first rise, take the dough out and degas it, you can do a couple of stretch-and-folds to give it better structure, then place it back into the bowl and let it rise again for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes have elapsed, take the dough and degas it gently and shape it (you can do a small boule or shape it sandwich style if planning to bake in a loaf pan). Place the dough in your chosen baking receptacle and let it rise a third time until doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Half an hour before you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 F.

When ready to bake, place the loaf into the oven, steam (if not baking in a pullman tin) and lower the temperature to 375 F and bake for 25 minutes. Check to see if the bread is done by inserting a thermometer into the center of the loaf and making sure it reads at least 190 F. Invert the bread onto a cooling rack and let it cool for at least 4 hours before slicing to enjoy.

Making the filling:

Steam kuri squash until flesh yields easily when poked with a fork. Let cool slightly, then scoop out the flesh and roughly mash (no need to make it very smooth, you’ll be working the flesh during the sweetening phase).

In a medium saucepan, combine the kuri squash flesh, raw sugar and salt, and over medium heat, stir until sugar is dissolved. Keep cooking the sweetened squash puree (this process helps to dry out the paste, you don’t want soupy squash as a filling for the buns) until it stops looking shiny and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Turn off the heat and let cool completely.

For the bao dough:

Whisk together the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, yeast, and salt. Add the agave nectar and vegetable oil and water, stir to combine until you get a rough dough.

Turn dough out onto counter and knead until you have a smooth, supple dough. I didn’t use my stand mixer as the amount of dough was small (and sometimes you just want to experience the pleasure of working with bread dough!). Knead until it passes the windowpane test, with a 5 minute rest halfway to allow the dough hydrate and the gluten to relax slightly.

Place in a medium, oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and proof until doubled in size. In my cold house, it took about 1.5 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Once the dough has doubled, turn it out onto the counter and give it a few kneading strokes, and let it rest for 5 minutes for the gluten to relax. Divide the dough into 5 pieces.

Divide the filling into 5 mounds in preparation for stuffing the bao.

Flatten each piece, and using a small rolling pin, roll out into a 5″ diameter circle, taking care to make the edges thinner than the center (so that when you gather the dough around the filling you don’t end up with a super thick bottom and a super thin top). Place 1 mound of sweetened squash filling in the center and draw up the edges of the dough around the filling; pinching the dough at the top to seal.

Place seam side down on baking sheet, and cover with a kitchen towel while you complete the rest of the bao. After filling all 5 bao, let proof for 20 minutes.

I mixed together a simple slurry of almond milk, cornstarch and a pinch of sugar for a matte-style wash. If you desire a shiny-type of wash, simply beat one egg with some water. Brush the tops of the proofed bao with your wash of choice and sprinkle with some sesame seeds for garnish.

Bake bao for 25 minutes (if they start to brown too fast, you can tent with a piece of foil to avoid overbrowning).

Let cool completely on racks for at least 8 hours (this allows the dough to finish cooking completely, if you were to eat them right away, you might find the dough directly underneath the filling to be slightly raw. After 8 hours, the dough will have finished cooking and the flavor will be better. This is generally true of most breads.)

Enjoy! My favorite way to eat these is to reheat them for 20 seconds in the microwave, then pop into the toaster for a little bit to get them slightly toasty on the outside. The outside becomes slightly crispy and the inside bread stays light and fluffy. Delicious!

Cooking Notes:

• I know that squash comes in various shapes and sizes, and my kuri squash, after halving and deseeded, was about 500g. After steaming and making it into sweetened puree, the yield was about 250g. Basically, you’re aiming for about 50g of sweetened filling per bao. If your squash is abnormally large or small, you can scale up/down the dough component. Or you can just eat the extra filling as is, it’s delicious that way too!
• Any type of squash, pumpkin, sweet potato/yam or even beans can be sweetened in this way; it’s really a universal technique that you can apply to many vegetables/legumes to make sweetened paste for bun/bao fillings, dumplings, etc.
• This dough is pretty versatile, besides using it as a baked bao dough, this dough makes steamed bao quite nicely too. Give it a try!

The procedure:

In a large bowl, add the boiling water to the all-purpose flour and mix until you have a rough dough. It will be dry at this point, so don’t worry about obtaining a smooth dough.

Add the cold water to the rough dough and knead until smooth. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for 20 minutes to let it relax.

After 20 minutes have elapsed, remove the dough from the plastic wrap and knead it again, on a lightly oiled surface so that it is smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a long roll approximately 20 inches long, then cut into 20 pieces, each 1 inch wide.

Place the sesame oil in a small bowl and have it ready on the side.

To shape the pancakes: For each piece of dough, and using the palm of your hand, flatten it until into a round, approximately 4 inches in diameter. Dip your fingers in the bowl of sesame oil and lightly oil the top surface of each pancake. Place two pancakes together, with the oiled sides touching, and roll them out until they are 6 inches in diameter. It helps to try to pair pancakes that are similarly sized. Repeat 9 more times to form 10 pairs of pancakes.

Preheat a griddle or skillet over medium-high heat, then lower to low heat and and dry-fry the pancakes for approximately 30 seconds, or until small, golden bubbles appear on the bottom. Try to keep rotating the pancakes with your fingers to fry them evenly. After 30 seconds have elapsed, flip the pancake over and repeat the same procedure, rotating the pancake and checking the bottom for the tell-tale golden bubbles.

Remove the pancake from the pan and gingerly separate the pancakes from each other. I am warning you, they will be hot, so be careful! Place the separated pancakes on a plate and cover with a kitchen towel to keep them warm and moist.

The Procedure:

Prepare the roux mixture: In a saucepan, heat the 1.5 cups of oil until hot. Add the 3 cups of all-purpose flour and stir to mix well. Cook the mixture over low heat for 10 minutes until the mixture is fragrant and lightly golden. Make sure you’re standing at the pan at all times as this can go from golden brown to burnt very quickly!

Set aside the roux mixture to cool.

Meanwhile, let’s continue on with the rest of the recipe, shall we?

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

Place the flour into a mixing bowl and add the boiling water and cold water all at once and mix well. Knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic.

Using a silicone mat (or a lightly oiled surface), roll out the dough until it measures a 16″ x 16″ square.

Evenly sprinkle the surface of the dough with the roux mixture, salt and 1 tablespoon flour. Roll up the square tightly ina jelly roll fashion and cut the roll into 20 even pieces (you may have to roll it back and forth a bit to stretch it out to a workable length). For each piece that you cut, pinch the ends together to make sure none of the filling spills out.

Here’s where you shape the pieces and obtain the “flakiness” that characterizes these flatbreads. It may be a bit tricky as I’m not the best at explaining how to shape the flatbreads, so I’ve provided a sort-of step-by-step tutorial to help:

For each piece, place it on the board, such that the pinched edges are on the sides. Take a small rolling pin or dowel, and holding it horizontally, place it on the lower 1/3 of the flatbread.

Roll away from, so that the flatbread is about 4 inches square.

Fold the lower third of the square up to the center.

Then fold the top third down over that (if you’ve ever made croissants or any other laminated dough, this will start to sound familiar).

Now rotate the dough piece 90 degrees so that it’s vertical.

Again, holding the rolling pin horizontally, place the rolling pin now at the vertical center of the dough piece and just press down (don’t roll).

Lift your rolling pin and fold the top half of the dough over.

Dip the piece of the dough, smooth side down, into the sesame seeds, pressing lightly, so as to get the surface fully covered in seeds. Place the dough, sesame seeds side down, on your board and roll out into a 6″ x 3″ rectangle.

Transfer to baking sheet with the sesame side down and repeat with the other 19 pieces.

Bake the breads on the cookie sheet, sesame seed side down for 5 minutes, then flip the breads over and bake them for another 5 minutes or until they are a nice golden brown. They should puff up slightly.

The Procedure:

On the night prior to baking, in a large bowl, mix together the ingredients for the poolish. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit overnight.

The next morning, combine 2 cups (240g) of the flour, the yeast, sugar, and the onion soup mix. Mix in all of the previous night’s poolish, milk, egg, and butter, adding more flour if required to make a dough that is smooth, moist, tacky, but not sticky. This is an enriched straight-ish dough, so we’re not looking for a high-hydration artisan type of dough here.

Knead the dough (either by hand or by stand mixer) until proper gluten development is achieved (I always test using the windowpane method.) Place the dough into a greased bowl, mist lightly with oil, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise until doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes. This is the first fermentation.

After the first fermentation, remove the dough from the bowl and shape it into a braid (the recipe on The Fresh Loaf has a good illustrated tutorial), or whatever shape you like. Cover the loaf with a towel or plastic wrap and allow it to double in size again, approximately 45 minutes. While you are waiting for the second fermentation, preheat the oven (and baking stone, if you have one) to 450F (230C).

Just before baking, mix together the ingredients for the egg wash and brush the top of the loaf lightly with the wash. Place the loaf into the hot oven, reducing the temperature to 375F (190C) after 5 minutes. Bake for another 30 minutes, rotating the loaf halfway through the baking time. If the bread starts to look to dark due to the glaze, tent the loaf with a piece of aluminum foil to prevent further browning.

The loaf is done when dark-golden brown and the inside temperature registers at least 190F (85C). Please please please always test the inside temperature of your breads as the last thing you want to do is cut open a beautiful-looking loaf to find a gooey, underbaked mass inside! Let it rest for at least an hour (the bread continues to cook as it’s cooling!) before slicing.

Preheated oven to 400 degrees F. 1/4 cup almond milk and 1 teaspoon white vinegar mixed to make “buttermilk” and set it aside for 5 minutes. Whisked 60 g coarse-ground whole wheat flour and 30 g whole wheat pastry flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon raw sugar and a pinch of caraway seeds. Made a well in the center of the dry mixture and poured in all buttermilk at once, mixed quickly with a fork until it just came together, then mounded it in a mini 6.5″ cast iron skillet, scored it into quarters with a serrated knife, into the oven for 25 minutes (tapped on the bottom to make sure it was done).

The procedure:

Mix the flours together with your hands, make a well in the center. Pour warm water slowly into the flour mixture while mixing with one hand until a rough dough is achieved. Keep kneading (adding water as necessary) until you get a smooth, soft ball of dough.

Lightly oil a piece of plastic wrap, wrap the dough in it and allow to rest for at least 30 mins.

Divide the dough into three walnut-sized balls. Dip each ball into some flour to keep it from sticking to the mat when you’re rolling them out. Roll out each phulka into a 6″ circle.

Heat a griddle over medium-high heat (too hot or too cool of a skillet will result in a dry phulka). Test to see if it’s hot enough by flicking a few drops of water on it; if it sizzles, it’s ready. Turn on another burner on medium heat (for finishing the phulka). Throw a phulka on the griddle, watch until it turns color (should turn a paler color); about 45 secs to 1 minute. Flip the phulka over and cook for another 30 seconds.

Using the tongs, carefully pick up the phulka and place it over the open flame, allowing it to puff up (should take about 5 seconds) and char in some spots. Flip over for another 5 seconds, then wrap in a kitchen towel to prevent it from drying out while making the other ones.

These should really be eaten immediately as they tend to dry out due to the lack of fat or oil. However, if you find yourself with extra, keep them in the kitchen towel and place in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator. I find that steaming them the next day refreshes them to a more pliable state.