Howdy, y’all! I hope you’re staying hydrated in this heat. Remember that summer (read: Pride Month) is a marathon, not a sprint!
I’m especially thrilled for this week’s guest. I met Ben Mims many years ago, when I was a wayward 20-something starting my career in media. We initially bonded over of our shared Southern roots, and thus our passion for Southern baked goods, but I didn’t realize at the time that I was hamming it up with a baking icon.
Ben is a celebrated food writer and an award-winning cookbook author, sure, but he’s also a hoot and a half. His most recent release, “Crumbs,” is one of the smartest and most worn books on my shelf. It also so happens to be about my favorite subject … cookies! I learned so much more about the world of cookies from the recipes, but it’s his prose that really hits home for me. “There’s a world of information and intrigue that lives within the two bites of a sweet snack we all turn to for the simplest pleasure,” he writes. That is how you do it. His take on baking feels fresh and new, but always with that down-home touch that invites you in from the jump.
I’m continually impressed by the care and knowledge he imparts on everything he produces, and I’m so honored he agreed to answer some questions for us so we can get to know him a bit better (and we’ve included links to New York Times Cooking spins on his favorite recipes). After you, Mr. Mims! VAUGHN VREELAND
What’s the last thing you baked?
A Greek phyllo and custard pie called galaktoboureko, as part of recipe testing for a new book I’m writing about desserts from around the world.
What’s your favorite project bake?
My grandmother’s Southern coconut layer cake. You have to drain, break open and shred the inside of two mature coconuts to make it. The coconut water soaks the cake, and the fine shreds are layered with the cake and meringue icing, then used to crust the whole thing in a blanket of cold, fresh coconut (none of that toasted stuff, please). I spread out the work over three days, so I don’t regret the decision to make it. Consequently, I only make it once every few years. But it really is worth the effort.
What is your ideal summertime bake?
Something I call a “yeasted breakfast cake” that I developed when I was at The L.A. Times. It’s based off a recipe in Ken Haedrich’s “Simple Desserts” book called “butter yeast cake,” which itself is based on a French galette or “sugar cake.” It’s basically a sweet, soft, yeasted bread dough covered in sugar. When you bake it with a ton of sliced plums, peaches or cherries on top, it’s like an unfussy fruit-brioche kind of thing that keeps really well and is perfect with coffee on a sunny morning. I’ll make it on repeat all summer with whatever stone fruit I find at the market in a given week, but you can really make it all year long with any in-season fruit you like.
What’s your go-to bake for a bake sale or potluck?
I think of bake sales as back-to-school affairs (i.e. warm-weather functions), so I always enjoy a cold lemon square, the more tart the better. For a potluck (which I define as having plastic flatware and paper dishes available), a hot fruit cobbler (peach, preferably) with a scoop of custard ice cream is heaven.
What’s an underrated baking ingredient or tool?
An immersion blender. Since I’ve owned one, I don’t think I’ve used my food processor or upright blender but for a couple times. An immersion blender does everything the food processor/blender does without all the annoying parts to wash (I grade the usefulness of everything in my kitchen by that metric since I don’t have a dishwasher and have to do it by hand). Whether it’s a batter, a fruit purée or a pastry cream, I just put everything in a quart container, blend with immersion blender and I’m set.
What’s your favorite last-minute bake for unannounced guests or casual get-togethers?
There’s a Swedish chocolate cake called kladdkaka that is basically a thin, fudgy brownie. Because it’s baked in a round pan and cut into wedges, it looks chic enough for company. And like a brownie, all you need is butter, sugar, eggs, flour and cocoa powder (all of which I always have on hand), and it bakes up in only 10 minutes. The point of the cake is to have a cooked outside shell with a barely cooked inside so by the time it cools down, it’s perfect all the way through. You can serve it with ice cream, whipped cream, sour cream, crème fraîche, whatever you got.
I’ve never actually had unannounced guests in my life (I’m too much of a planner for that or I act like I’m not home), but the cake has come in use as a backup when I’ve messed up a planned dessert or needed to bring something to a friend’s house for a dinner party and I forgot until a couple hours before.
What’s one tip or piece of equipment that you pass on to your friends who love to bake to help them level up their baking skills?
An electric scale. I’ve had friends tell me I’m being too aggressive when I harp about scales. They’re cheaper than most cutting boards or pots and pans and help out in baking in so many ways. Not only will you know exactly how much flour to use (so you can stop having dry cakes and cookies), but you can just add ingredients into one bowl and not dirty any measuring cups and spoons or other bowls (remember how I hate washing dishes?). Every time someone complains with “but I like doing things the old-fashioned way with cups” or “they’re too expensive,” I just say “OK, have fun continuing to willfully make busted cakes.”
What advice do you have for new bakers, and which recipe do you recommend for someone just starting to bake?
Stop being afraid to fail. Failing at certain things in life carries a lot of risk (losing sports championships, forgetting to pick your little brother up from school, etc.), but baking is the one place where you can fail and it’s not just OK, but you’re better for it. Now, this doesn’t apply to when you’re making a dessert for company for the first time or need something guaranteed to work out — that’s a time to use things you’ve made before or really simple things like brownies.
But if you’re someone who really enjoys baking in your leisure time, then make a strudel, make pâte-à-choux dough, make a soufflé — make all the “scary” or “difficult” things. No matter how many books you read or videos you watch, nothing will improve your skills like making something in real life and failing repeatedly. You’ll rip the strudel dough, you’ll add one too many eggs to the pâte-à-choux dough and you’ll underbeat the egg whites for the soufflé and it won’t rise. But you’ll see what happens when you do those things and learn how to not do them again. That’s how you develop a “touch” and sense for when something is right instead of relying only on a recipe. Once you’re freed from that mental prison, life is limitless.
What’s your favorite thing in your kitchen?
An old electric Oster waffle iron. It took me many years and several hundred dollars to find the waffle iron that makes the proper thickness and size of waffle I like, so now I treat it like a Fabergé egg. At least once a month, I make myself a waffle on a Sunday morning, and it sets my life back on track.
What’s a song or album you bake to?
Because I usually bake in the morning — it’s cooler in the kitchen and allows more time for my bakes to cool or set in time for a dinner or party later that night — it’s usually the morning shows on LAist (my local NPR affiliate). But if I have music playing in the background, it’s likely to be the entire discographies, from first to most recent, of Björk, Madonna or Lana Del Rey. I can’t skip around; I need to hear the evolution.
Who are your baking icons? A baking cookbook you love?
I always drift toward simple, old-school desserts and baking, so I’ve spent a lot of time with books by Maida Heatter, Flo Braker, Joan Nathan and Nick Malgieri. I also love old British desserts, so most of my baking inspiration comes from books by Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson or Margaret Costa. And because I’m Southern, I turn a lot to Edna Lewis or John Egerton. As for specific baking books, there’s three: The cliché one is “Chez Panisse Desserts” by Lindsey Remolif Shere, but it really is the best for simple stuff that works as the ideal canvas for California fruit. “Four-Star Desserts” by Emily Luchetti still surprises and inspires me each time I turn to it. But “Classic Home Desserts” by Richard Sax is the one you’ll have to pry from my cold, dead hands. It has more information than it needed to, and the way he frames every recipe, you want to make it immediately.
And some quick-fire questions to finish:
Cookies or brownies? Brownies, with walnuts. But I’m weird and prefer to buy brownies rather than make them. The “Chocolate Chaga” ones from Erewhon? I’m telling you. Hate me all you want, but they’re so [expletive] good!
Chocolate or caramel? Caramel, with a splash of rum.
Like, love, leave: Eggs, sugar, butter. I literally eat all three every single day. OK, “like” butter, “love” eggs (I went without them for a few months years ago during an ill-conceived vegan phase, and I was so miserable, I vowed never to abandon them again) and “leave” sugar, which is crazy to say as someone who writes books about sweet stuff. But if I have to, I can survive off the sweetness from fresh fruit (though now I really can’t ever leave California).
Share your photos!
The Monthly Bake: Cosmic blondies
Your cosmic blondies are sending me into orbit! I’m realizing I need to step up my sprinkle game in a major way. I’m currently obsessed with the ’90s nostalgia of Jess’s, and I’m positively over the moon about all the Pride variations you’re sharing with me (looking at you, Marie). I know I said orange and blue won’t play well together, but I’ll allow it for the Knicks. Keep tagging me on Instagram @vaughn, or send the pictures by email to baketime@nytimes.com. (By submitting photos to us via email, you agree to our reader submission terms here.)
