Show the holiday love to your favorite baker
W hether you plan on baking for the holidays, or you have someone on your holiday shopping list who loves to bake – classes, pans, rolling pins and more can make for a happy baker.
In fact, Jane Butel, Southwestern cookbook author and award-winning cooking instructor, recommends getting started on your baking projects as soon as you can. Freeze doughs until you’re ready to use them.
For example, make six kinds of cookie dough — drop cookies or dough that needs rolling out — and place the varieties in the freezer until you’re ready to use it. Those first steps save personal time and oven time, Butel explains.
It’s also a good time to take a class, says Pat Wheeler, manager of The Specialty Shop on San Mateo NE. The shop carries a huge variety of Fat Daddio cake pans and more than 500 cookie cutters for your holiday baking projects — or for your favorite baker.
The Specialty Shop regularly holds classes for adults and children on making candy, truffles, decorating cakes, cupcakes, cake pops and more. The shop also rents out cake pans of unusual shapes and sizes.
“The economy has made it very obvious to people that purchasing baked goods can be expensive,” Wheeler says.
And, she adds, “They make great gifts.”
Cooking shows on television have also demonstrated to viewers that baking is something doable at home.
Cutters and pans
Gingerbread men and Christmas stocking cutters range from mini-sized to seven inches. The shop carries rows and rows of picks and rings for decorating cakes. Bins are filled with food coloring gels for icing, and candy-making supplies for goodies such as turtles, chocolates and molds made with Merckens candy discs. You’ll also find Satin Ice Rolled Fondant — used on television by the Cake Boss aka Buddy Valastro.
And boxes and bags for packaging of all sizes for your creations are available, as well.
“We purchase quality commercial products and we repackage them for kitchen bakers and small businesses,” Wheeler says.
She boasts that the shop carries the best selection of cupcake liners in town.
Butel says one of her kitchen must-haves is the Silpat, a silicone baking mat. It’s sold at Now We’re Cooking in Northeast Albuquerque.
“It’s not pretty,” says Nancy Herring, owner of Now We’re Cooking.
But, she adds, it keeps the baker from having to grease and/or flour the pan before baking. It fits onto a quarter-sheet tray and costs $26.95. Herring says you can use it for more than just baking cookies — it’s also ideal for making peanut brittle or baked chicken.
Another of Butel’s favorite kitchen tools is a rolling pin, many of which she collects. At Now We’re Cooking, a wooden tortilla rolling pin costs $5.95, and others come in silicone and other materials.
The weight of the rolling pin each baker needs, “depends on how your mom taught you how to roll (dough),” Herring explains.
At Williams-Sonoma, a marble rolling pin is $89.95. Lisa Rankin, assistant general manager for the ABQ Uptown store, says marble “is the best rolling pin because it stays cool.” And that’s necessary for making a flaky pie crust. The store also carries a silicone baker’s rolling pin with measurements printed on it for $29.95. Another option is the Joseph Adjustable rolling pin, $19.95, which helps the baker keep the dough an even thickness.
Now We’re Cooking carries lots of fancy measuring spoons with decorative handles with floral and other motifs.
Baking is a precise art, and Herring says, unlike everyday cooking, “you can’t fake it in baking with measuring.”
One measuring cup by OXO
features an angled viewer so that it’s easy to read from the top of the cup when the liquid has reached the right mark.
Mixers and shapes
If baking to give as gifts, bake your cupcakes in patterned, colorful liners. Paper Bakeware makes it possible to bake your famous bread in liners that are ready to give as gifts. Packages of several paper pans cost $6.95 to $10.95.
For the one in your life who really loves to bake, a Kitchen Aid mixer makes baking a snap. At Now We’re Cooking, they cost about $350 to $400, depending on the model. They’re also sold at Williams-Sonoma and a number of other retailers.
Herring says cake bakers will appreciate a Nordic-ware pan — they come in a variety of shapes and sizes, such as Christmas trees, cars, dinosaurs, even a stadium.
Herring says that using the shape pans helps bakers who don’t have much time to decorate.
Williams-Sonoma’s Rankin says the Gold Touch bakeware is a favorite in Cook’s magazine. It’s durable, and releases and cleans up easily, Rankin explains.
A standard-sized loaf pan is $19.95. The Gold Touch line includes mini loaf pans, pizza pans and other pans.
Fluted and traditional pie plates by Emile Henry, $45, are imported from France.
“They are not only a beautiful presentation but can go from the freezer to the oven,” Rankin says.
A small loaf pan, also by Emile Henry, filled with your famous recipe bread would make a lovely gift; $20 for a small, $35 for traditional size.
Serving it up
If you don’t have time to bake but want to serve up something delicious and pretty, Michael Rothweiler, owner of Nothing Bundt Cakes, offers 10 flavors to choose from: pumpkin spice, red velvet, chocolate and carrot, to name a few.
The bundts come in four sizes, and you can call 24 hours ahead, or drop in. All the cakes are topped with white butter cream cheese icing.
Nothing Bundt Cakes is a Las Vegas, Nev.-based franchise that opened more than a year ago, and the Academy and Wyoming location is the only one in New Mexico, Rothweiler says.
You’ll also find a unique selection of cake servers, platters and stands.