How To Be A Bigger, Bolder Baker

As the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, there’s nothing quite like a delicious, warm dessert at the end of the day. Yet actually baking one can feel elusive and even intimidating.

But Gemma Stafford, chef and author of the new cookbook “Bigger Bolder Baking,” says it doesn’t have to be. As a professional chef for 15 years, she’s learned to scale back her recipes.

“What I try and do is just … take away the fluffy stuff that you just don’t need and just focus on the steps and the things that are going to bring you success,” she said.

There are tips to adopt into your routine that will improve your baking, like using room temperature butter and eggs, fresh flour and only adding one egg at a time to your batter.

But what you really need in the kitchen is confidence, Stafford said.

“The best thing that you can do is to be confident in the kitchen and go in with the mindset that you’ve got this,” she said. “A lot of times that’s half the battle.”

And now that our attention is beginning to turn away from fresh and fruity summer desserts, Stafford shared three of her favorite cool weather dessert recipes.

Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding

Stafford grew up eating a lot of bread and butter puddings in Ireland, she said, but this recipe elevates the classic dessert.

Stafford uses bittersweet chocolate and lots of cream to make the dessert. Her recipe calls for white sandwich bread, but if you want to make it even more decadent, substitute challah or brioche. It’s best served warm with vanilla ice cream.

“It just really hits the spot when you want something that’s really decadent and a stick-to-your-ribs kind of dessert,” she said.

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Winter Apple Eve’s Pudding

Stafford tries to keep her recipes to less than 10 ingredients and steps. In her pudding recipe, cream the butter and sugar together, add the eggs and flour and pour over the apples. Bake for an hour then serve with ice cream.

“In Ireland I grew up with a lot of … comfort foods because it was so cold,” she said. “It’s really a simple dessert, but it’s just something that transports me back in time … especially now heading into this time of year in September, into the fall. It’s just a really, really lovely recipe.”

5-Star Chocolate Chip Cookies

It was important to come up with a stellar chocolate chip cookie for her first cookbook, Stafford said. But it’s not a fussy recipe, it comes down to simple tricks, she said. For one, she uses a bittersweet chocolate bar, not chocolate chips.

“Chocolate chips can be a little bit of a lower grade than a nice big bar of bittersweet chocolate,” she said. “So what I do is I get a really nice big bar and I chop it up into little bits and what that does is also give you big chunks and little chunks, and it changes the texture.”

And be sure to chill the dough for 30 minutes before baking to avoid a flat cookie.

“Those little tips … really help you to make like an absolutely lovely, bakery style, gooey in the middle crispy on the outside kind of chocolate chip cookie,” she said.

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