← All Of It with Alison Stewart
All Of It with Alison Stewart
Salty and Cheesy Snackable Bakes (Food for Thought)
00:31:05
We talk with Jessie Sheehan about her favorite savory snackable bakes!
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- [00:00]
Jesse Sheehan
Our state has changed a lot in the last 140 years. We know because MultiCare has been here guided by a single making our communities healthier. That comes from making courageous decisions, partnering with local communities to grow programs and services, and expanding healthcare access to those who need it most. Together, we're building a healthier future. Learn more@mycare.org if your small business is.
- [00:36]
Alison Stewart
Booming and ready to expand, you might.
- [00:38]
Jesse Sheehan
Say something like, it's happening.
- [00:42]
Alison Stewart
Crushed it.
- [00:43]
Jesse Sheehan
But if you need someone who can actually help protect your growing business, just say, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. And just like that, your State Farm agent can help you get the coverage you need for your new space for your small business insurance needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Listener support WNYC Studios.
- [01:20]
Alison Stewart
This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Every Thursday we bring you a conversation about cooking, recipes, flavors, restaurants, food policy. We call it Food for Thought. And this week we are venturing into savory territory. Jesse Shein is the recipe developer and a cookbook author. Her latest book is Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes. I'm gonna say that again. Salty, Cheesy, herby, Crispy snackable Bakes. I just like saying it. She will be at the Archa Stratus Books and Food in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at 6pm tonight in conversation with the Smitten Kitchens Deb Perlman. She will be signing books and yes, there will be treats. But right now she is with us in studio. Nice to talk to you.
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Jesse Sheehan
Nice to talk to.
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Alison Stewart
So how do you define savory?
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Jesse Sheehan
Okay, so basically this is a book where you're not gonna find a lot of sugar. And when I say that, I get a little worried. Cause I don't want people to think this is some kind of healthy book. No sugar. It's just that the flavors that are gonna pop are gonna be your cheesy flavors, your meaty flavors, your veggie flavors, your salt, your herbs, all of that. Everything has a teeny bit of sugar. Cause it was super interesting. When developing these recipes, I realized a teeny bit of sugar is nice for moisture, for color. So you don't wanna leave it out altogether. But it's in t. So you're saying.
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Alison Stewart
It'S not necessarily low calorie or zero sugar or anything.
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Jesse Sheehan
100% not.
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Alison Stewart
All right. What made you? Well, we like, you know, calorie treats. We like sometimes we like little sweetness. What made you decide to go to the savory?
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Jesse Sheehan
So basically my last book, the book before this one was called Snackable Bakes. And it was an easy peasy, sweet baking book. And my whole jam is this easy peasy thing, which basically means recipes are assembled in 20 minutes or less with ingredients that are already in your pantry with a bowl, a whisk, and a spatula. No fancy equipment, no running to the grocery store because you don't have blank or blank. Just easy peasy. And it was really fun to do that with sweet recipes, and it seemed like a great challenge. And I kind of call this the savory sibling of my last book. It was really fun to try to do the same kind of thing in terms of making the baking lift really easy and not fussy, but also with a twist, which is that it's for savory people.
- [03:29]
Alison Stewart
Hey, listeners, we want to hear from you. Do you have any savory baking questions for for Jesse? Our phone lines are open, 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. You can also text to us at that number while people make their way to their phones. Let's go through a few of your, you know, your tried and trues. You heard about cooks always having certain tried and true things they do in the kitchen. One that's important to you is to grease a pan. You use cooking spray, not butter, not Crisco.
- [04:03]
Jesse Sheehan
I do. It's something that I learned when I worked in a professional bakery. And sometimes those things I feel like you learn early in your career, maybe from a mentor, maybe from your favorite baking instructor, they just stick with you. And that was something we always did in a professional kitchen. It is so clean. It's so easy. The only thing I would say is always spray over your sink, because sometimes people grab their pan and then they're spraying over the floor and then they've sprayed their floor and then they're tripping. So I don't want any baking spray accidents happening. So spray your pan over the sink and it just, it makes for a clean, easy situation. People get a little upset sometimes when I say that because they're not crazy about cooking spray. And so I always say 100%. Use butter, use oil, use whatever floats your boat. I'm just a cooking spray gal.
- [04:50]
Alison Stewart
Well, when it says that you need to grease and flour a pan, do you spray then, too?
- [04:56]
Jesse Sheehan
Yes, I do, but I try. My thing is mostly spray and parchment paper. Although sometimes you do. Like in a bundt pan, you do need to flour as well. And I will usually use you know what also is a fun one? If it's a sweet recipe, like in a bundt cake, it will say, like, oh, grease and flour. You know what's really fun? Sugar. So you grease the bundt pan, and then you coat it in granulated sugar. It not only gives this beautiful sparkle and crunch, but literally, the cake falls out of the bundt pan.
- [05:27]
Alison Stewart
Note to self about bundt pans.
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Jesse Sheehan
All right.
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Alison Stewart
You also wrote that you rotate the pan halfway through in the oven.
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Jesse Sheehan
Yes.
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Alison Stewart
Why?
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Jesse Sheehan
That is another thing that I learned working in a professional bakery. Every oven is different, and many, many, including my own, have hot spots, which is just a spot in the oven that's hotter than another spot. So if I don't rotate, for instance, half of my bake will be nice and toasty, half of it will be blonde and not toasty or burnt, blonde, et cetera. So I always like to rotate to make sure that I get an even bake.
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Alison Stewart
This one seems critical. You put some of your baked goods in the freezer before baking.
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Caller
Yes.
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Alison Stewart
Why is that important?
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Jesse Sheehan
Sometimes you have to do that. For instance, I have this very delicious blue cheese thumbprint cookie in the book that has, like, a little place where, you know, you press with your thumb in the center of the cookie, and then you fill it with some fig jam. It's delicious, like, beautiful for like, a charcuterie plate or just like a little savory snack with a glass of wine or seltzer. And if I don't freeze those cookies before I bake them, they spread to. So it's just a good reminder that if you're having a cookie that's spreading a little too much or a biscuit that's spreading too much, if you freeze it first, that can be really super helpful.
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Alison Stewart
You weigh liquid ingredients, not measure. You wrote, I'm grams or go home.
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Jesse Sheehan
So in my previous books, I've always been a milliliters and cups person when it came. I love that we're talking about this, the milliliters and cups person when it came to liquid ingredients. And there's a big movement in baking, maybe the movement is even over because everybody's doing. But we all are pushing people to weigh their ingredients. It's so, so important just in terms of the fact that a cup of flour that one person weighs can be very. That one person measures with a cup can be very different than somebody else. And I'm realizing that with liquid ingredients, you should be using grams as well. Why all of a sudden, just because it's a liquid ingredient? Am I like pouring it into a measuring cup or using something kind of weird and I don't even totally understand called milliliters. So I've moved on to grams and.
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Alison Stewart
Finally share your tip for melting and slightly cooling butter.
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Jesse Sheehan
Ooh, thank you for bringing that one up. So this is a good one. Often in a recipe you will see the recipe calling for melted butter, but it's like it wants you to have melted butter but also wants you to have cool butter. Well, that seems like annoying. Like you melted the butter and now you gotta sit around and wait for it to cool. So what I say is melt your butter till you still see chunks of butter, just a few of them, and then whisk that off the heat by hand and that will naturally cool the butter down. And then you will have melted and cooled butter. And in my cookbook, and in the last one as well. Well, I am a huge fan of melted butter because I like to take shortcuts when I bake. And I don't wanna wait for like, I don't wanna cream softened butter. I wanna make a cake or a cookie with melted butter.
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Alison Stewart
We've got some questions coming in via text. This one says, what should we do when something is accidentally over salted?
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Jesse Sheehan
Ooh, that is a hard one. If it is over salted and after you have baked it, you might be in a little bit of trouble. One thing I could say is let's say it's some kind of loaf cake that would taste delicious with cream cheese. You could just make sure to serve it with something that's gonna kind of cut that saltiness. If you are earlier in the stage and you have not yet baked. Gosh. You could try playing around with adding. Maybe you have some kind of add in in there. Let's say it's raisins. Or let's say it's some cheese. You could try adding a little bit more of something that's that has a strong fl that might counter that saltiness. But that is a hard one.
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Alison Stewart
This one's got a little adding to your point about spraying. It says when I use baking spray, I spray over the inside of the open door of the dishwasher. Everything is contained and the door is clean when you run the dishwasher.
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Jesse Sheehan
I love that. And I have heard that. And thank you. Thank you for texting us that because that is so true and it's such a great little tip.
- [09:31]
Alison Stewart
My guest is Jesse Sheehan, author of Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes. We wanna hear from you. Do you have any savory bake questions for Jesse? Maybe you want to give us a tip, give us a call. 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. You can also text to us at that number. Also, our social media is available at Olivet wnyc. So what's a snackable bake?
- [10:00]
Jesse Sheehan
Let's start with snackable. Such a good question. Yes, yes, yes. So a snackable bake is essentially a easy peasy bake that has all of those sort of tenants or attributes that I mentioned earlier. I think of a snackable bake as something that can be assembled quickly, something that you already have the ingredients for, something that you can grab a bowl, a whisk and a spatula. You whip that, you whip it up and you're ready to go. I also like the idea it doesn't always happen, but that literally you have the craving for the thing and within an hour you're actually eating the thing. There's a whole movement with cookies which I totally stand behind. But a lot of people are waiting like 72 hours to eat a chocolate chip cookie. And yes, yes, yes, that chocolate chip cookie will be amazing after that three day wait. But that's just not me. I am a very impatient person and I am also a hater of dirty dishes. So part of my whole snackable bake, just a bowl, just a whisk, no fancy equipment, and the speed is because of my own kind of quirky personality traits.
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Alison Stewart
What's an easy cookie to make that you don't have to wait 72 hours for?
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Jesse Sheehan
So for instance, in this particular book, I have a whole host of savory cookies. Like I have this oat. I think they're traditionally called like oat cakes. And it's like a oat cookie that still has a teeny, tiny bit of sweetness, but the kind of sweetness you wanna put a piece of cheese on and have again with that glass of wine or that glass of seltzer. That's a cookie that you don't need to rest at all. And even in my prior book in Snackable Bakes, my easy peasy sweet baking book, I have a trick for, and this is I add a tiny bit of shortening to my cookie batter. I do it for my peanut butter cookie. I do it for my sugar cookie in that book. And the shortening will, what shortening does is it stops your cookie from spreading.
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Alison Stewart
Oh, interesting.
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Jesse Sheehan
Often why we're waiting that 72 hours is not only because the cookie flavor improves, but we want the cookies to look a certain way. We want them to be like cute and round and thick and chewy and you can get all of those things with shortening. So that's one of my tricks for avoiding the 72 hour wait.
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Alison Stewart
What are your guardrails or your goals in coming up with easy recipes?
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Jesse Sheehan
Such a good question. So I would say I want them. I really do want them to be assembled quickly. I get anxious when there's a recipe that's gonna require somebody to like sort of what we're talking about. But even sit the batter for 20 minutes or rest for. Have it rest for an hour. I do. For instance, I do have a bread chapter in the book, but it's a no need chapter and it does require like a three hour wait. And I do have a warning, literally at the front of the chapter, like be warned if you do not. If you are an impatient person, you might want to avoid this entire chapter.
- [12:51]
Alison Stewart
My guest is Jessie Sheehan. She is the author of Salty Herby Crispy Snackable Bakes. After the break, we're going to go to Recipes in the Book and take more of your calls. Our numbers, 212-43396. Right after the break, you are listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Our segment for our Food for Thought Thursday is a cookbook from Jesse Sheehan. The name of it is Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes. Okay. The cookbook is eight chapters. Seven of them are devoted to different categories. Muffins and biscuits, sliceables, brunchable lunchables, breads, savory cookies, easy crackers and snacks. All right, sliceables versus breads. What's the difference?
- [13:46]
Jesse Sheehan
Okay, so for this book, I kind of made this up. I'm not gonna lie. In this book I call kind of a sliceable. It's like a loaf cake or a tea loaf, different words for it. But something that's kind of baked in one of those, you know, 8 by 4 inch loaf pans. And then the breads are more like, you know, there's like a snacking cake phenomenon which is like usually in an 8 by 8 by 2 inch squ pan, it's a single layer cake. I wanted to do those, but call them breads because they're savory. So for instance, I have like an everything bagel and cream cheese snacking bread. So it's basically, it's about how it's assembled. It's basically assembled in an 8 by 8 by 2 inch pan.
- [14:23]
Alison Stewart
All right, let's get a text in here. I make crackers out of my sourdough discard almost every week. They're quick, easy taste, almost cheesy from the yeast, and they take less than an hour. Do you have any other savory or sweet ideas for sourdough discard?
- [14:38]
Jesse Sheehan
Ooh, yes, yes, yes, yes. I won't lie. It feels very off brand to talk about sourdough because it's not easy peasy. But I'm gonna do it anyway. But anyway, what I would say is, have you tried sourdough pancakes? I mean, sourdough discard pancakes, which can be both sweet, depending on how you flavor them, and savory with delicious umami and all kinds of yummy ways. I think you can sort of throw in anything you want.
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Alison Stewart
That sounds great. Any advice for gluten free baking?
- [15:08]
Jesse Sheehan
Yes, yes, yes. Although there are not a ton of gluten free baking recipes in my new book. What I have kind of learned from my gluten free friends and followers, et cetera, is that if you find a brand of a swap flour, whether it's cup for cup or whether it's a King Arthur has a fantastic brand. If you find a good gluten free flour that works for you, that feels good in some of the recipes you've tried it in, you can probably use it in a lot of different recipes. For instance, in my book, I can't even think of a reason why a gluten free flour wouldn't work as a swap in almost any of the recipes.
- [15:44]
Alison Stewart
Let's take a call. This is Fritz calling in. Hi Fritz.
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Caller
Hi, how are you doing?
- [15:50]
Alison Stewart
Doing great.
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Caller
So my wife and I have a shop out in Manituck, New York on Long island. And I heard you're your guest talk about putting sugar on the pan with the fat of choice to help it crispin and release every time. And my, my wife does a chocolate, a baby chocolate bun, a really small one in like muffins, like a bunt pan that's like a muffin pan. And she found that it, she had problems with it sticking and breaking. So a friend of hers gave her a trick. Use the fat and cocoa powder. Does the sugar work better than the cocoa powder? Because she just got new pan and then she had a problem like three weeks to a month after she got the new pan.
- [16:42]
Jesse Sheehan
That is a great question. And I do love cocoa powder definitely instead of flour when it's a chocolate cake because you want the cake obviously to retain its chocolatey color. I would I would suggest she give the sugar a try. I'm not sure if it's gonna work better than the cocoa powder, differently than the cocoa powder, but my experience with the sugar has been super, super successful. You can't wait for too long. There's always that magic moment with buns. If you wait too long, that sugar is gonna kind of caramelize, and then you're not gonna be able to flip it out at all. But, like, maybe. Maybe even with those babies, it's only five minutes, but five to 10 minutes. Try flipping after it's been coated in that sugar and see what you think. And I do think it will be beautiful with chocolate. You know, that little sparkle. I think it could be really pretty.
- [17:28]
Alison Stewart
Does it matter what kind of sugar you use?
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Jesse Sheehan
Oh, definitely granulated. This is not a moment for, like, your brown sugar. Okay. Yeah. Thank you.
- [17:34]
Alison Stewart
Anybody have a question? We got an expert in the house. Jesse Sheehan is a recipe tester and cookbook author, and she's here in the studio to talk about her savory, snackable bakes. But you can ask her a question. She'd an answer right there. 212-433-969-2212. I was saying during the break that I love the pics you have of popovers. My sister makes popovers. They're not that hard.
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Jesse Sheehan
Well, that's.
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Alison Stewart
But they look, like, amazing.
- [18:04]
Jesse Sheehan
That's what I love about some of the recipes in this book and that I sort of knew but also rediscovered when I wrote the savory baking book. Something like a popover could not be easier. Now, some people will ask you to make a popover batter in a food processor or in a blender. I just tell you to whisk it in a bowl. So I'm even simplifying the process even a tiny bit more. I still get incredible rise in those popovers, despite the fact I'm not whizzing everything up in a fancy, special piece of equipment. I also had mentioned to you during the break that I think gougere, these little sort of cheesy French puffs are also a wonderful kind of. Alice and I were joking about, like, the bang for your buck or just how impressive they look. And a gougere, also in the book is another easy peasy situation. It requires you make a shoe dough, which scares people. It's the same dough you'll see in a profiterole or in a. I lost my train of thought. It's the same dough. Oh, I know what I was gonna say. It's the same dough you'll see in a profiterole or an eclair. And it does require that you cook a little bit of flour on the stovetop. It sounds scary. It's not. And the gougere puff up. And they're delicious and yummy. And you can freeze them and then reheat them or freeze them before you bake them. So they're a great party trick.
- [19:19]
Alison Stewart
I want to ask about the popovers, though, because you had. They're called olive oil and black pepper popovers. Can you say that five times fast? Does the olive oil or the black pepper do anything to the consistency? Is it the same. Is it the same baking recipe as a regular popover?
- [19:36]
Jesse Sheehan
100%. The beauty of popovers is you can. Usually they call for melted butter, but you can 100% substitute olive oil or oil. Let's say if you didn't want to use butter for some reason and the black pepper is really just to give it that savory vibe. I didn't want to say this in the book because I'm pushing everybody to be a savory baker. But you could leave out that black pepper sub butter for the olive oil, maybe throw in, you know, I don't know. Serve it. Serve it with something sweet like jam, and you would have a sweet popover.
- [20:06]
Alison Stewart
What's your good go to lunch recipe in here?
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Jesse Sheehan
Ooh, great question. I love my galettes because I make my galettes with a melted butter pie dough. So it takes all of the finickiness and scariness out of making pie dough out of the picture. Cause there's no cold butter, there's no cutting butter. It's literally a melted butter pie dough that you mix up in a bowl. You kind of either can press it into a pie plate or roll it, you know, roll it out with a rolling pin. I have a really delicious one for a pepperoni pizza galette with yummy ricotta and mozzarella and pepperonis. There's another one almost out of season now, but a tomato za' atar galette with all these beautiful tomatoes and za' atar spices. And so I love a galette for lunch. There's also a couple of quiches. There's a spoon bread, there's some bread pudding, whole bunch of things.
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Alison Stewart
Let's take a couple calls. We've got Nate online, too, calling from the Lower east side. Hi, Nate. Thanks for calling. Oh, of it.
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Caller
Hello. Hello. Thank you for taking my call. I'm so glad that you mentioned pizza just a moment ago, because I Always have trouble getting the pizza dough from the. Well, let me, let me say I cheat. I use store bought pizza dough but when I stretch it out and try to put it onto the stone, it tends to stick. If I use flour, how can I get the pizza dough onto a pizza stone in the oven and and not have a mess in the end?
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Jesse Sheehan
Gosh, that is a hard one because you just. I don't necessarily. I'm not totally familiar with for instance the product that you're buying. And first of all, that is not cheating. I believe in taking little shortcuts that people. If a shortcut will help you bake or cook more frequently. I am 100% on board. So never say cheat. But I think it's a hard one to answer only cause I don't really know what that pizza dough that you're working with is like. I mean often you do need to rest dough that you know is a yeasted dough and sometimes if you try to shape it too early, it'll spring back on itself. I'm not sure if that's a problem you're having, but it's a teeny bit of a hard one for me to answer just cause I don't know the product.
- [22:15]
Alison Stewart
Good luck. Let's talk to Timothy calling from Brooklyn. Hi Timothy, thanks for calling all of it. You're on with Jesse.
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Caller
Hi Jesse, thanks for taking my call.
- [22:24]
Jesse Sheehan
Of course.
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Caller
So sometimes when I'm experimenting with a bake and experimenting with flavors, I lose the consistency and I end up with a cakey cookie. What are some things I can do to combat a cakey cookie when it's unwanted?
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Jesse Sheehan
Ah, so almost like you're putting so many things inside of it, it kind of turns cakey. Like too many add ins that kind of sitch.
- [22:44]
Caller
Well, I know baking is a science and I'm guilty of getting kind of freeform and I just.
- [22:52]
Jesse Sheehan
There's recipes I have to say that I cannot abide. I'm okay with buying your pizza dough at a pizza place, but. No, no, I'm only kidding. Yes. I mean I hate to say it because I like feel like the school teacher who's always like saying do your homework but you really. Baking is a science to some degree. Obviously there is wiggle room, but if you are playing around with the ratio of for instance your flour to your leavening to maybe the wet ingredient or the fat, you will run into cakiness. The way I avoid cakiness in general when it comes to cookies is I use melted butter. And I really do find that that leads to a chewier cookie. So one thing you could experiment with is just seeing what happens when you melt the butter and add that to your cookie dough rather than the softened butter. That's like one of my little tricks. The other trick, depending on the sugar you're using in your cookie, and I'm assuming we're talking about sweet cookies here, but if you're using sugar in your cookie, you know, brown sugar leads to a lot of moisture and it leads to a lot of chewiness. So I'm always like very brow brown sugar and melted butter forward.
- [23:58]
Alison Stewart
Our guest is Jesse Sheehan. She's the author of Salty Cheesy, Herby, Crispy, Snackable Bakes. That's the name of her new cookbook. If you have a baking question, you can call in and talk to Jesse. 2124-3396-9221-2433 wnyc. What is a recipe in here that a newbie baker can go for?
- [24:17]
Jesse Sheehan
Oh, my gosh, there's so many good ones. But that first chapter, which is like biscuits and scones and muffins, is a great and I am obsessed with my cheesy old bay butter swim biscuits. This recipe, I think will knock your socks off. Let me tell you what's happening here. You are literally taking your 8 by 8 by 2 inch square baking pan. You are putting butter in it. You are melting the butter while the oven preheats. Then you are taking it out. You're whipping up a super easy peasy biscuit dough. It's actually a cream biscuit dough. And then you are, there might be milk, might be making a mistake there. Milk or cream. And you are taking that biscuit dough, you are putting it on top of that melted butter, and you've got some cheese in there and some old bay seasoning. Popping that in the oven 22 to 25 minutes later. Oh my gosh, the batter has absorbed the butter. You're in for this kind of cheesy, layered, rich, delicious biscuit that is great. Like alongside. For instance, this summer I had it with lobster. Great alongside. Some seafood. Great in an egg sandwich. Great on the Thanksgiving Day table. I would say if you can give.
- [25:32]
Alison Stewart
People what the flavor of old bay is.
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Jesse Sheehan
Oh, sure. Old bay is. Gosh it to me, it just says seafood. Like if you've ever had like shrimp that you're eating out of the shell, like just like kind of picking them up and grabbing them and putting them in your mouth, that kind of pinky flavoring that you see on that shrimp that is Old bay.
- [25:53]
Alison Stewart
It's got, like, a little paprika ness.
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Jesse Sheehan
To it as well. Exactly, exactly, exactly.
- [25:57]
Alison Stewart
All right, we are four days into autumn. We're gonna talk about a good fall recipe that's in this book. It's your savory pumpkin loaf. The producer of this segment, Kate Hines, made it for us. Tell us. I'll give you my review after.
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Jesse Sheehan
Okay, tell us what? You tell us. Okay. So I got to taste the loaf.
- [26:14]
Alison Stewart
You tasted it like you tasted the loaf?
- [26:18]
Jesse Sheehan
Kate brought me to the loaf the second I arrived in the studio. I thought it was delicious. Here's what I love about it. Now. I don't want this to scare people. It has a savory vibe. It has savory spices in it. It is not a sweet pumpkin loaf. However, it has all of the moisture and the kind of that pumpkin flavor going for it. It's just heightened with all of these different spices. And then it has these salty pepitas on top, which are pumpkin green pumpkin seeds. I think it's delicious. And I actually have a loaf at home, and I was nibbling on it yesterday and kind of giving myself a little pat on the back, like, oh, nice work, J. That is what I think. And I thought Kate did a fantastic job.
- [27:04]
Alison Stewart
The entire AOI team was freaked out by the concept of a savory pumpkin loaf, but they were won over.
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Jesse Sheehan
Oh, good.
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Alison Stewart
The entire team won over.
- [27:13]
Jesse Sheehan
Were you won over, Allison?
- [27:14]
Alison Stewart
I was. And it's funny, because they asked me if I wanted to put a little cream cheese, and I was like, no, I will have it as is. I put my salad in the refrigerator, and I'll have that after the show. I had beautiful pumpkin loaf on.
- [27:23]
Jesse Sheehan
I love that. And I also, again, to thinking Thanksgiving, I think that is also a nice thing to be on the table, because sometimes people will have a pumpkin loaf on, which is great, but they're sweet. But this is, like, perfect for kind of maybe mixing up a little gravy and turkey. Yeah.
- [27:37]
Alison Stewart
A little cayenne in this.
- [27:38]
Jesse Sheehan
Yes, totally, totally.
- [27:41]
Alison Stewart
This recipe says. When a recipe calls for eggs, butter, milk, et cetera, how do you know what kind of ingredient it's talking about? For example, if the recipe says eggs, what size eggs? If it says butter, unsalted or salted.
- [27:54]
Jesse Sheehan
Great questions. Eggs are usually. If the recipe writer is worth their weight in gold, they should. But if they do not, that's sort of the industry standard. We're going with large. You don't really want extra large. And even though I love it when I have fresh Eggs from a chicken. Those can be hard, harder to bake with because they're smaller. So I would say you're always going for a large egg butter. Again, if it didn't give you a salted or unsalted, that worries me and I'm a little, like, sad for you, but I would say it's always unsalted. But butter, that's has been a teeny bit of a controversy lately where more bakers are admitting that they actually bake always with salted butter because they like it more. I tend to do unsalted because when I'm developing recipes for people, I want to pick one thing that I know they're going to use unless I want salted butter in the recipe. And then, of course, I would make sure I said that.
- [28:47]
Alison Stewart
Let's talk to Helen from Ellen, excuse me, from Hopewell, New Jersey, who has an answer for our pizza guy.
- [28:52]
Jesse Sheehan
Oh, amazing.
- [28:52]
Alison Stewart
Hi. Hi, Ellen.
- [28:54]
Caller
Hi there. So we make pizza a lot at my house. We use a stone. You have to have a pizza paddle or a peel. It's like a wooden, big wooden thing. Put a piece of parchment paper on it and build your pizza right on the paddle and then slide the pizza parchment paper and all right onto the stone and it won't stick. And there's no mess. We used to use cornmeal, which made a big mess in the oven. Parchment paper is perfect. Works every time. And we buy our pizza dough.
- [29:21]
Jesse Sheehan
Thank you. That is so helpful.
- [29:23]
Alison Stewart
Thank you. Appreciate that. I know your recipes are easy peasy. That's your love language and everything, but what's a recipe in here that's a little more ambitious?
- [29:32]
Jesse Sheehan
Oh, that's a good question. I would say the hand pies can be a little more ambitious, not because they're hard, but because they require that other step of, like, you're making the dough, but it's not like the galette, where you just roll it out and plop some things on it. And plop is a technical term, but you are actually making the dough. It's still the melted butter pie dough, but then you're separ separating it into smaller pieces, rolling or pressing each of those out, then putting a filling in them. Still easy. And I was thrilled that a follower last night wrote to me on Instagram and said, like, I made the spinach hand pies and I love them. And I was so happy.
- [30:08]
Alison Stewart
All right, let's try to get one more call in here. Robin, real quick, what's your question?
- [30:12]
Caller
Hi. I thank you so much for taking the call. I Love to bake. I'm a good baker, but I'm finding that for a lot of people I need to make it more accessible from a keto or paleo perspective. I hate fake sugar and I'm very happy to try different flours. How can I incorporate them into the recipes in your book?
- [30:33]
Jesse Sheehan
The different flours. How can you incorporate different flours if you have had. I think I forget exactly what the percentage is, but I think you're always safe. Maybe substituting 25%, it might be as much as 30. You do have to be careful, obviously, with different flours because they can change the structure of your baked goods so dramatically. But I think there's a ratio of maybe 25 to 30 where you're probably gonna be okay. And again, the recipes are so easy and flexible, I can't imagine you running into trouble. But if you do, please find me on social media and tell me and I'm gonna help you even more.
- [31:10]
Alison Stewart
Secrets to Working with Philo Dough. That's a text that came in.
- [31:13]
Jesse Sheehan
Ooh, I am just gonna have to take a pass on that question. I am not a Philo Milo dope gal.
- [31:19]
Alison Stewart
And the most buttery, delicious chocolate chip cookie I ever tasted had a thin, shiny cover on top like some German cookies. How to please.
- [31:26]
Jesse Sheehan
Ooh, not sure I know what that is. Was it sort of almost like somebody had sprinkled sugar on the cookie?
- [31:32]
Alison Stewart
It looked like they did.
- [31:34]
Jesse Sheehan
They baked it. That I am not. Again, sorry to come up short here.
- [31:39]
Alison Stewart
You're talking about Savory bakes.
- [31:40]
Jesse Sheehan
That's what you're talking about. Hello.
- [31:42]
Alison Stewart
The name of the book is Salty Cheesy Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes. It is by Jesse Sheehan. She is going to be appearing tonight.
- [31:51]
Jesse Sheehan
At Archestratus in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at 6pm.
- [31:55]
Alison Stewart
In conversation with the Smitten Kitchens, Deb Perlman. She will be signing books and yes, there will be treats. What treats?
- [32:02]
Jesse Sheehan
Ooh, we're gonna have a dip of Deb's and we're gonna use some of my crackers from the book to dip in her dip.
- [32:09]
Alison Stewart
Way to go. Thank you so much for coming in and taking all of our listeners calls. We really appreciate it.
- [32:14]
Jesse Sheehan
Thank you, Alison. Since WNYC's first broadcast in 1924, we've been dedicated to creating the kind of content we know the world needs. Since then, New York Public Radio's rigorous journalism has gone on to win a Peabody Award and a Dupont Columbia Award, among others. In addition to this award winning reporting, your sponsorship also supports inspiring storytelling and extraordinary music that is free and accessible to all. To get in touch and find out more, visit sponsorship.wnyc.org.