Trust me, I know here is nothing more frustrating for a keen baker than discovering that you are out of molasses when you have a hankering for a ginger cookie! Here is a list of the basic, and some more specialized, ingredients that I like to keep on hand.
Make sure your baking soda and baking powder are fresh. Neither is expensive, so purchase in smaller amounts and replace often. (That’s the only important thing I have to say about either.)
When it comes to chocolate, you get what you pay for. It is definitely one ingredient that I like to splurge on as it really reflects in the finished product. At Butter we use semisweet dark chocolate chips that are at least 60% cacao. These have a smooth finish and work well both in chip form and melted. Grocery stores are improving their chocolate offerings as customers become more knowledgeable and demanding, but if you find your local store still comes up short, you can always purchase good-quality chocolate in blocks or bars and then cut them into chunks for cookies or melting. Cocoa is available in a natural finish or Dutch-process. Of the two, Dutch-process has a lower acidity, milder flavor and a darker color. I use only Dutch-process Bensdorp cocoa at the bakery and for the recipes in this book.
All the coconut used in the recipes is unsweetened, except for Butter’s Coconut Cake, and the Hey There, Doll Face! bars. For these I like to use sweetened fancy long shred coconut for the tastiest results.
Condensed milk is a wonderful old-school ingredient and the base for many a yummy treat. It is sold in cans and, unopened, keeps seemingly forever, so you should have a few cans tucked in the pantry for emergency Hey There, Doll Face! bar attacks.
I always have a large bag of unbleached all-purpose flour and a smaller bag of pastry flour in the cupboard. The significant difference between them is how fine they are milled and their levels of protein and the resulting gluten. Too much gluten can make a cake tough. Pastry flour, being finely milled and having a low protein content, will produce less gluten and therefore a cake with a finer and more tender crumb than one made with all-purpose flour. All the recipes in this book call for one or the other, with the exception of Butter’s Coconut Cake, which uses a small amount of coconut flour. Coconut flour can be found in most grocery stores—Bob’s Red Mill is a popular brand—and I like the extra depth this flour gives to the cake.
When buying maple syrup, only one word is important, and that word is pure. I know it can be costly, but there is no substitute.
Molasses has a good shelf life and is very reasonably priced, so be sure to pick some up on your next grocery shop, or you won’t be able to make Shoo Fly Pie! I buy fancy molasses over blackstrap or cooking molasses as it is less bitter and I just love the word fancy.
There are two camps when it comes to peanut butter: the natural camp and the not-so-natural camp. I am a proud member of the not-so-natural, and by this I mean I prefer a peanut butter like Skippy or Squirrel over one with a thick layer of oil floating on top. I think they are just as delicious, easier to work with and make much less of a mess when sticking a spoon in the jar to scoop up a little afternoon snack!
I consider pistachio paste a staple because I can honestly tell you that, since opening Butter, it is the one ingredient that I now feel I can’t live without. I am a lover of all things pistachio, including the color of the millwork at the bakery. It has proven to be the most versatile of ingredients, and once you have iced your first pistachio chocolate cake, you will know what I am talking about. If your local gourmet shop doesn’t carry pistachio paste, purchase it online through one of the many reputable baking supply companies.
I use kosher salt in all my home baking. There is nothing wrong with using table salt, but I prefer kosher salt because it has no additives and a cleaner flavor. It is also not as finely ground as table salt, which means that a single teaspoon of kosher salt contains less salt than a teaspoon of table salt. All the recipes in this book were tested using kosher salt, so if you use table salt instead, use a little less. Maldon Sea Salt Flakes are one of my favorite things to sprinkle on top of chocolate—I love the salty-sweet combination. They are fantastic sprinkled on brownies still warm from the oven or on chocolate-almond bark.
Even though I buy spices in small amounts, I am amazed at how quickly I amass a collection of spices that I may use only once in a while. I try to do a good cleaning at least once a year and throw out any spices that haven’t been used recently. That may seem wasteful given the cost of some, but if they are old and not properly sealed, they won’t add much to the baking anyway. A spice cupboard with a small amount of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger is an excellent start. I am also a huge fan of pumpkin pie spice, which is a combination of the four.
No baking cupboard is complete without granulated sugar, dark brown sugar and icing (or confectioners’) sugar. Make sure to store your brown sugar in an airtight container so it doesn’t dry out and become hard. When it comes to brown sugar, demerara is my first choice, as I love the rich robust flavor it imparts. I also like to have coarse sugar on hand, for sprinkling on scones, pies and certain cookies.
Nothing compares to the taste of pure vanilla, whether in pod or liquid extract form. It is a pricey staple, but it makes a world of difference to the end product. All of the recipes in this book call for vanilla extract, but if you want to take it up a notch, you should consider adding the seeds of a vanilla pod. These will not only intensify the vanilla flavor of your butter cream, marshmallow or shortbread, but all the lovely little black seeds will add a visual clue of the vanilla flavor to come. Vanilla beans should be soft and pliable when you cut them down the center and then you can use the back of the knife to scrape out the seeds. At Butter we place the deseeded pods in a jug of pure vanilla extract to further enhance its flavor. Or you could tuck them into your sugar canister to infuse the sugar with the taste of vanilla. Be sure to keep vanilla beans tightly sealed and stored in the refrigerator.
I guess I should have lots to say regarding butter, given the name of my bakery, but in all honesty I don’t think there is much to discuss. In my world, there is no substitution for butter, in baking or cooking or just spreading on a cracker. The only debate is over salted or unsalted. The general consensus is that unsalted butter is the better choice as it allows you to control the salt content in your baking. Also, since salt acts as a preservative, the salted butter in the supermarket cooler may not be as fresh as the unsalted variety. I use unsalted butter when baking, but if I have only salted on hand, then salted it is. I don’t get too bent out of shape over it, and neither should you. If you do use salted butter in any of these recipes, just omit or reduce the amount of salt called for, depending on your taste.
Always use large, fresh eggs in your baking. Bring them to room temperature first, as this will give them maximum volume when they are whipped and ensure more even distribution when they are blended into a batter. If you are in a rush, you can bring the eggs to room temperature faster by placing them in a bowl of warm water for about 15 minutes.
We use a lot of fruit at Butter to make our Saturday pie offerings. People want pie all year round and in Canada, the Great White North, fresh fruit isn’t available all year round unless it has been flown in from some remote land (okay, California, but you get my point). Frozen fruit is a fantastic alternative and can often impart an even better flavor than fresh fruit that was picked when unripe and then flown around the world. In particular, we find we go through a lot of raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and peaches (and also rhubarb) at the bakery. And just a quick note on lemons: When a recipe calls for lemon juice or lemon zest, use a real lemon—there is no substitute for freshly squeezed lemon juice or the intense flavor and depth of pure lemon zest. I find the best way to zest a lemon is with a Microplane grater.
I have only three things to say about milk, buttermilk, sour cream or heavy cream: full fat, full fat and full fat. Buttermilk is naturally lower in fat than many other milks, but there are even lower-fat options out there—don’t buy them unless you are on a diet and need something to coat chicken breasts with! Please don’t scrimp thinking you will save calories; you will really just be sacrificing flavor.
When buying nuts, buy only the freshest you can find, buy only what you need and store them in the refrigerator, tightly sealed. Nuts spoil quickly and trust me when I say that spoiled nuts are nasty. I am confident you will always be able to quickly work your way through a little stash of walnuts, pecans and almonds. It is also a good thing to note that nut pieces are cheaper than whole nuts, so keep that in mind when a recipe calls for chopped nuts.
